Lord Have Mercy (Southern Gentleman 2)

I, on the other hand, hadn’t cheated.

I’d also decided that maybe seeing Flint more than I already did was a horrible idea.

Every time we saw each other, we fought.

And I’d seen him four separate times today. Each of those times we’d traded insults.

Hell, he’d even come into my science lab and asked my students once if I’d had a donut.

They’d told him that I hadn’t, and he’d grinned and left before I could tell him he was a jerk.

“Why are you looking like that?”

I blinked in surprise and stared up at Croft, who was addressing me directly.

“Um, what?” I asked in surprise.

“Why are you staring at Flint like you want to stab him with that piece of pipe?” he asked.

We had a piece of PVC pipe in our hands that was cut into about four feet lengths. We were using it to demonstrate a lift—or at least Flint was. We were following his movements.

“Because I do,” I stated simply.

Croft stared at me like I was crazy.

“Why?”

I wondered why he cared.

“Why are you talking to me?” I asked.

Usually he went out of his way to ignore me, so it was honestly a surprise to find him willingly holding a conversation with me.

“Because I’m worried that you’re going to take out the instructor and I’m going to have to take over this class,” he lied.

How did I know he lied? Because his fingers tapped along his pants leg when he did. I’d watched him for many years. I knew all of his tells.

I turned away from him and found a seat as far across the room from him—and maybe Flint—as possible.

I set my bottle of water down on the ground and tossed my keys down next to it.

Of course, as soon as I did, the alarm on my car started going off, causing me to scramble for my keys and turn around on my knees to aim the key fob at my car.

When I turned back around, it was to find Flint standing there staring at me with his hands on his hips.

His narrow hips that were encased in a pair of shorts. Shorts that weren’t long like all the other men in the gym. They came up above his knees and showed off way more skin than any man I’d ever seen.

Yet, I found that I liked it. I liked it a lot.

Even more, I adored the fact that he was standing there instead of across the room next to the girlfriend from hell.

The girlfriend that was currently aiming daggers my way.

If looks could kill, I’d be a puddle of singed bitch dust.

“Your girlfriend doesn’t like you being this close to me,” I said. “Shoo.”

Placing my keys down gently this time, I moved until I had my leg stretched out in front of me, then went a step farther and moved until I was sitting on the massive red mat that was tucked into the corner next to the bench.

There, I fell backward and lifted my leg up high above my head, then reached for my toes.

I’d always been a fairly limber person. Touching my toes was quite easy. In fact, I was nearly bent in half as I tried to work the stiffness out of my body.

Flint cleared his throat and said, “Lay all the way back on your back and straighten your left leg out on the mat in front of you.”

I did as he asked, and suddenly I found Flint standing over the top of me. But not for long. Seconds later he was going down onto his knees, straddling my left thigh and placing my leg that was in the air on his shoulder. His eyes watched mine as he slowly leaned forward.

I nearly hyperventilated.

Dear sweet baby Jesus. If there was a way to spontaneously combust outside of special effects in the movies, I’d have done it.

Just one look was all it took for me to realize that I was in way over my head with this man.

Fighting with him had been like a prelude to what we would one day become.

I could feel it between us, charging the air.

Then he slid his hands down from my ankle all the way to my knee and held it against his chest.

Then he started to lean forward more.

This is the part where I showed him my flexibility.

Keeping his weight on my left leg—knee straight—he pushed my right one farther and farther forward until it was nearly touching my forehead.

Swear to God, I heard him groan.

I could also feel things that I hadn’t ever felt before. Things like muscles and bone—boners.

“You’re fucking…”

A crash and a bang had both of us snapping out of whatever the fuck we were doing and staring at the large rack of weights that’d just fallen over. And, of course, there was Nivea rolling around on the ground three feet away from the rack while holding onto her knee.