Stryker

by Lexi Buchanan

  “How?” I turned to face Millie but her gaze was still fixed on her ceiling, a grin on her face. “You have to start doing the opposite to what he’d expect you to do.”

  I laughed. “I’m already doing that by going to his family’s gym.”

  “How exactly did that go down with dear Patrick?”

  Groaning, I closed my eyes and really hated remembering. Millie would also notice the blush that I could feel creeping into my face, but what I did left me queasy.

  “You didn’t?” She grabbed my arm. “Oh, Evie. You did?”

  I sighed. “It’s not like I haven’t done it before, and it was over quickly.” And wasn’t that the truth. “It got us into the gym.”

  As soon as I’d finished the blowjob, Patrick had zipped back up and told me he’d leave passes at the door for Millie and I. I’d felt cheap as he’d walked away, leaving me on my knees—like a whore instead of his fiancée.

  Chapter 3 ~ Stryker

  SWEAT DRIPPED INTO MY eyes and my heart pounded with exertion. I gripped the rope in a loose hold while my feet alternated the landing as the rope turned under them. Coach would count when I first picked up the ropes, but he soon miscounted and gave up. The ropes and the bag were my usual choice of cardio and I could go for hours if I watched my pace.

  It also gave me time to think, and remember.

  The redheaded beauty had teased my dreams again. I’d woken hard and aching with my legs tangled in the sheets.

  Her innocent face behind my lashes, my fist around my cock, and I’d spilled all over my chest within seconds.

  Thump. Thump. Thump.

  My feet continued to pound on the floor as the rope slapped against the mat in rhythm and my dick swelled in my briefs at the dream of her. I didn’t know her name and we’d only been in the same room for mere minutes, but I craved something about her.

  I knew I’d go back to Julio’s place. No way would I be able to stay away knowing that she’d be back there. Numerous questions ran through my mind. Was she married? Have a boyfriend? Wanted a boyfriend?

  I laughed which broke my concentration as I stumbled over the rope much to the shock of Coach, and my embarrassment.

  “Fuck,” I hissed under my breath. “I’m done with this,” I added to cover my blunder. “Time for the bag.”

  The eyes of others in the gym were on me, they always were but they were interested in that small falter. Like sharks, they circled at the slightest hint of a weakness. I grimaced, they were wrong…they weren’t sensing a weakness. The isolated location of my workout meant that there wouldn’t be any socializing between the other fighters and me. They loved to keep me this way since there was less chance of me saying something I shouldn’t to one of the others.

  A quick scan around the gym told me that whatever attention I’d caused had been forgotten as the others continued with their own training.

  I reached for the gloves, ignoring a speculative glance from Coach while I tried to get my concentration back. I’d never lost it before so it unnerved me that I’d lost it so easily with thoughts of the woman.

  Shoving my hand into a glove, I tightened the strap and as I pulled on the other glove a hush fell over the gym.

  My eyes met those of Coach before we both looked across the gym. The strap of the glove dropped from my mouth as my gaze fell on those of my redheaded beauty. She blinked, then focused her gaze on me, recognition, and then fire blazed from her gorgeous eyes.

  She quickly turned away to her friend, and acted like she had tuned in to whatever Carter said to them.

  Carter, otherwise known as Carter “The Rocket” Stone, was another fighter at the gym. He seemed friendly enough with the others and always keen to spar or offer advice. I couldn’t help the slice of jealousy that hit me at the attention he showed her and her blonde friend.

  While Carter showed her friend how to use a piece of equipment, my girl slyly glanced back in my direction and a light blush coated her delicate cheekbones when our gazes collided again.

  The heaviness in my chest felt like a fist squeezed my heart while I struggled to stop staring.

  Insane.

  I took one step toward her, and had Coach step into my line of sight. He hid his amusement with a cough behind his hand. He coughed again. “Better look elsewhere, son.” He shook his head. “The one you can’t take your eyes from is Patrick’s fiancée.” He frowned. “Never known you to be attracted to a woman before, though.”

  I raised a brow and waited, knowing what was coming.

  “Speculation is that you’re gay,” Coach added, under his breath.

  I’d known that because I’d always rejected the whores who were brought to me. They thought I was gay because of it and would try to piss me off by talking about the whores not having the right equipment. I didn’t give a shit what they thought.

  “Hmm,” Coach mumbled and ambled toward the bag.

  I followed but not before I glanced at her. It was as though I had to know where she was at all times. Carter had her on the cross trainer, and the way her ass moved made my mouth water and my cock rock hard.

  “What’s her name?” The minute the words flew out of my mouth I wished them back when I saw the look on Coach’s face.

  Coach rubbed his brow, and quietly added, “Evangeline, but goes by Evie, and her friend is Millie. All I know is that they’ve been friends since they were kids. They’re more like sisters.” He glanced at them then back to me. “I’m not telling you, I’m begging you to keep your distance from her. I’ve heard that Patrick is a jealous prick, and you don’t want to mess with him, or...never mind…hit the bag.” He nodded toward it.

  I watched Coach shuffle toward the bag, his shoulders slumped forward and he looked uncomfortable, which made me wonder what he’d been about to say when he switched direction to the bag.

  But what the hell, my concentration had been shot to hell with talk of Evie. I now had a name to put with her beautiful face, and I’d give anything to be able to talk to her—to hear my own name on her lips.

  As I steadied the bag in front of me, I cast one glance back at her and smiled to myself when I caught her eyes on me through the mirrored wall in front of where she worked out.

  “Stryker,” Coach growled. “Are you doing this to piss me off, or do you want Patrick involved because I’m telling you that will happen with his spies around here.”

  “Patrick won’t do shit to me. He’s a fucking pussy.”

  “The men who work for him won’t have the same problem.” Coach shook his head. “Get your mind back on training.”

  With one last glance at Evie, I froze. My dick hardened, pulsed, as she bent to pick up a bottle of water from the floor.

  I squeezed my eyes closed to avoid the image of her on her hands and knees as I pounded into her. That didn’t work because all it did was heighten my awareness of my woman.

  Fuck!

  Flexing my hands as much as the gloves allowed, I tried to breathe through my frustration, and hoped like hell the bag in front of me helped get rid of all the pent up need inside of me.

  As my feet started to dance around the bag, I did small jabs with my fists to help loosen up my muscles that had become tense while my eyes had been focused elsewhere.

  Shaking the image of Evie from my mind, for now, I started a fast and furious pace. The feel of the hard bag as my fist connected with it was familiar and sent me into the ‘zone’. Everything was forgotten the more I pounded into the black leather. Eventually, my frustration disappeared and was replaced with loneliness.

  It was my constant companion and, while in the gym, it allowed me to block every sound from my mind and concentrate on my task.

  I needed to stay focused without anyone in my eyesight to cause a distraction.

  Distraction for me would become a choice of life or death.

  Evie

  AFTER MILLIE AND I had placed our food order with the server, I sat lost in my thoughts. They were filled with the fighter from the
other night who I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off at the gym. Stryker…and he had definitely struck not only that punching bag but something inside me. I tried to make a mental note of what I’d learned today but nothing came to mind. We’d been there so I could research my next book, but all I’d learned was how to work the cross trainer…and what fun it was to witness my friend melt into a puddle every time Carter had glanced her way. It had been cute.

  “Instead of dreaming in silence,” Millie nudged my arm, “please dream out loud so I get a thrill out of it as well.”

  I smirked, “I’d have thought you’d have your own dream to get a thrill out of.”

  Millie sighed, a sappy look on her face, which stayed until the server interrupted us with our drinks—water with ice and lemon for me, an orange juice for Millie.

  “Did you notice his body?” Millie practically drooled into her drink. “I mean, he had me panting with just one glance in my direction. I’m sure he watched my ass when I was on the stepper thing.”

  “He did.” With a straight face, I teased, “I’m sure I caught him adjusting himself when he turned away.” I raised a brow and then started to laugh at the light blush that coated Millie’s cheekbones.

  My friend was all out there and no embarrassment, until you outright described how someone reacted to her. Like now, she was flustered and had no clue how to handle my words. Instead of leaving her lost, I added, “Carter seemed really sweet, and I think you should try and talk to him more when we go back tomorrow.”

  “I don’t know.” Millie looked worried with a small frown across her brows. “I usually go for the classy suit guys, not someone as rough or hard as Carter.” She sighed. After taking a long drink of her juice, she added, “He has an amazing body. I kept wanting to push his brown hair back from his forehead, which I’m sure he knew by the twinkle in his eyes.”

  “Oh, he twinkled.” I let Millie ignore my comment while I remembered the other man to have a twinkle in his eyes. Even from across the gym I could see how focused on me he’d been. No one had ever looked at me the way that he did. It was as though he wanted to eat me for a snack and nothing or no one else would do.

  His eyes had been so black; his large muscular body had been frozen in place while he’d watched me. His coach had tried to get his attention, but it had taken time. He’d glanced in my direction several times and I’d felt his gaze on me even when I didn’t look. His slightly long dark hair was tousled from his workout and it stuck to his forehead as sweat coated his skin.

  I’d felt a reaction to the man right down to the tip of my toes, and the more he’d stared, the more I’d felt a deep ache between my legs, which left my panties damp with desire for the stranger…or was he a stranger?

  I took a long sip of my drink before I played with the straw, swirling it around the glass. Glancing up at Millie, I told her what I’d been thinking from the minute I met his gaze, “My reaction to having his eyes on me was the same as the night of the fight, and last night in the bar.” I gave a mirthless laugh. “I’m going crazy, right?” I cast a glance at Millie and bit my lip. “Do you think the fighter and the bar guy are one and the same? That would explain my reaction. I don’t want to think I’ve started getting aroused by every Tom, Dick, and Harry.”

  She laughed. “Tom, Dick, and Harry? Now you’re just being weird. He could be the same guy. He’s big and you said the bar guy was big.” She snickered. “No pun intended.”

  Millie grasped my hand. “Look, I think he felt it too. Whatever is going on between the two of you, he couldn’t take his eyes off you.” She sounded worried, glanced around us, then confessed, “I mean his stare even turned me on and it wasn’t directed at me.”

  The server interrupted to place our food on the table and after a quick glance at our joined hands, smirked, and left us alone.

  Rolling her eyes, Millie chuckled, and started to eat while my stomach felt twisted in knots.

  I picked my fork up and started to slowly eat, but my mind was in turmoil.

  I’d always considered myself a one-man woman, so why couldn’t I stop thinking about the fighter who’d looked isolated from the others in the gym. My mind should be on my fiancée, but now, when I thought about him, I felt nervous.

  Since my first few dates with Patrick, I’d known that we were wrong for each other, or at least he was wrong for me. Except the more I tried to back away, the more he pushed forward. Dates had become long term commitments, which had become engagements and plans for the future.

  It had just been easier to go along with what he wanted while I’d secretly been cursing him. That was wrong and I needed to get some balls and stand up for what I wanted for a change, which unfortunately wasn’t Patrick.

  “Get rid of Patrick.”

  Startled at Millie’s words, I paused with my fork halfway to my mouth and stared at her. “What? Are you a mind reader now?”

  She smirked and laughed. “Nope.” Her fork waved through the air, salad flew across the table, which she ignored. “You get that look on your face when you’re thinking about Patprick…the screwed up look as though you’ve just bitten into a lemon.”

  “I don’t—”

  “Yes, you do.”

  I cast my eyes down to look at my plate. I’d hardly eaten anything while I was lost in my thoughts but I knew that she was probably right. “The engagement has been in the national newspapers because of my father. What will it do to his reputation if I break off the engagement? He won’t be happy.” I gave up trying to eat and placed my fork down onto the plate.

  My father’s career was important to him, to my mother, and to me. Maybe not completely but I’d been trained to think of the campaign and my dad’s career before anything else. He loved his job as a state senator in Washington and he always had. At times, I think he loved it more than he loved his family. He was born to be a politician, after all. But any sign of scandal—like a failed engagement—was a sign of weakness and blood in the water drew sharks. My dad had gained some enemies along the way because he would always fight for the underdog and I knew they would use the scandal as a way to hurt his reelection.

  I sighed. The last thing I wanted to do was disappoint him, which I’d do if I called everything off at such short notice. If I was honest though, Patrick’s father, Declan, was the one I feared the most.

  “You know what I think?” Millie started. “I think you need to visit your father in DC, tell him how unhappy you are and explain that you can’t go through with the wedding. Tell him that you feel everyone has pressured you into it when it’s not what you want. Admit to him that you don’t love Patrick.” She finished the last of her salad and before she’d finished chewing, pointed her fork at me. “You’re daddy’s girl and he’ll understand more than your mother. I know all she wants is a baby in the family. Probably to bring your father into the headlines, again.”

  “I’ll think about it.” I smiled to reassure my friend and sighed when I’d succeeded as Millie buried her nose into the strawberries and cream that had been placed in front of her. I chuckled because we’d just worked out at the gym and she was eating fresh thick cream, and didn’t bat an eye.

  We both had good metabolisms, which was good considering we both loved our food. Apart from doing research at the gym, I wanted to get fit. I wasn’t skinny and I had curves in the right place, but I wanted to be able to jog through the park, run up a flight of stairs, all without wanting to fall over in exhaustion once I’d reached the top.

  Once I was finished at Patrick’s family training gym, I’d look into membership closer to where I lived, where I’d be given a personal trainer to kick my butt.

  “So,” Millie drawled.

  I raised a brow and waited for her to continue.

  “Stryker, huh?”

  “What? You change direction so quickly that you leave me behind half the time.”

  “Sorry. My brain never stops. So, back to Stryker. What do you know about him?”

  “Nothing.
” I shrugged, finishing my drink.

  “I thought you’d researched the fighters before we arrived there.”

  She was right. “I did. The picture on their web site for Stryker is dark and you can’t really make him out. But watching the fight, I would never have recognized him. The only information was his fight statistics. Nothing personal like the other fighters profiles. It’s as though he didn’t exist until he won his first fight. I was curious about him before I saw him today…” her voice trailed off as she thought of the puzzle that presented, “and now, I’m still curious, but I felt a connection with him, even though the way he watched me sent a mixture of fear and desire down my spine.”

  Millie rested her elbows on the table with her chin in her hands, deep in thought. “He really did affect you? I’ll admit to being distracted most of the time with Carter, but, I’m worried about you.”

  When I started to protest, Millie held her hand out to keep me silent. “I’m worried because that fighter looked like he was ready to eat you alive, and you’re, well, too innocent for the likes of him.”

  Surprised, I laughed. “Too innocent? Millie, I’m not a virgin.”

  When I heard a throat being cleared behind me, I turned and met the amused gaze of the man sitting at another table who was obviously eavesdropping on our conversation. He looked to be in his sixties with salt and pepper hair, and while he couldn’t hide the laughter in his eyes, his dinner company looked sour, as though my words caused her to grimace.

  I smiled, which he returned, and I very nearly laughed out loud at the surprise on the woman’s face. “Have a nice day.”

  Turning back to Millie, I grabbed my purse and indicated that we should leave. I left money on the table to cover our bill before I followed Millie outside as she chuckled to herself.

  “Evie strikes again.” She nudged into me before pulling me into her arms for a hug. “Be careful, Evie…and please use the keycard to my apartment whenever you need an escape. I have a nice desk and chair set up in the window now so you can work there.”