by April Hunt
Losing his temper hadn’t been one of his finest moments. She’d had a gallon of margaritas to blame for her loose tongue, but what the fuck did he have? Nothing.
“I’m telling you, I was equal parts nervous and turned on…but mostly fucking nervous,” Logan was telling Vince when Trey stepped into the common room.
He grabbed a water bottle from the fridge and downed it in one drag before grabbing a second. “What’s making you nervous? Finally getting that prostate checked?”
Vince guffawed. “Yeah, you wouldn’t be so glib if you saw what your girl’s been doing for the last eight hours.”
“Six,” Logan corrected. “Two hours before that they were taking turns neutering some poor fucking paper target in the target range.”
Trey polished off his water and tossed it into the recycling bin. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about, and if you want to actually tell me, then you need to make it quick because I need a shower, food, and sleep—not necessarily in that order.”
“It’s not something that can be told, man. You have to see it to get the full effect.”
“You’ve got five minutes.”
It took them that long to reach the training room, and then Trey’s feet stuck to the ground. When he’d seen Elle earlier, she’d been wearing nothing but his shirt and bedsheets. Now, stretchy black yoga pants and a short racer-back tank top revealed a tantalizing amount of golden skin.
Charlie held the heavy bag steady, instructing Elle through a series of kicks and punches. Five minutes ago, he’d been ready to fall facedown on his mattress. Now he couldn’t sleep if his life depended on it.
“They’ve been at this all day.” Logan seemed nearly gleeful as he leaned against the doorjamb. “After the shooting range, it was hand-to-hand, and let me tell you, that was fucking life-changing, man. Now it’s boxing. I suggested a solid hour on grab-and-escapes, but I had a five-pound weight tossed at my head.”
Trey snorted. “Your fault for poking the lion. Charlie’s been in rare form lately.”
“It wasn’t Charlie that hoisted the weight like a fucking shot put.”
Trey diverted his attention to Logan. “You’re shitting me. Elle?”
“Those two hanging out should make us all fucking nervous. That’s all I’m going to say.”
Logan was right, but Trey still couldn’t help being impressed. He turned his sights back on Elle, not caring that he was the butt of a joke, while Vince and Logan turned and left.
Charlie taught Elle with the same high-energy, no-nonsense attitude she approached her day-to-day life with, and Elle listened, using her quick reflexes to duck and weave. On occasion, she’d ask for a repeat, until he would be hard-pressed to identify the difference between student and teacher.
Breathing heavily, Charlie lifted her hands behind the sparring bag. “All right! All right! I’m crying bloody uncle before my hands go completely numb. Don’t take this the wrong way, but I thought you lived a life of folding cloth napkins and studying seating charts.”
Both women lay sprawled face-up on the mat, yet to notice Trey by the entrance.
Elle let out a breathy laugh. “No offense taken—and that actually had been my life for a good long while. But then I started placing sworn enemies at the same table solely for entertainment purposes. You could probably imagine the reaction that got out of my father.”
Charlie grumbled, “Bloody arse…and so’s that ex of yours. I know it’s none of my business, but I hope you got a good jab at his juniors for screwing around on you.”
“You want the honest truth, Charlie? By that point in time, I didn’t even care about the cheating. What bothered me most was that they seriously believed I’d just turn a blind eye and accept it as one of those things.”
“They?”
“Yep.” Elle nodded. “My father knew, and as a matter of fact, he claimed that my mother had done as much for him when she was alive—ignoring the cheating.”
Charlie chanted a long string of curses before getting to her feet and grabbing a nearby towel. “Then I guess that’s my answer for why you have the right hook of a terminator. You could’ve become a medal contender if you hadn’t gone into nursing.”
Elle laughed. “I probably could’ve.”
Charlie caught sight of him, but turned her attention back to a heavily panting Elle. “I’m going to go for a run before heading to my room. Are you going to be able to find your way back?”
“I’ll manage. I don’t think I can move just yet, anyway, but thank you, Charlie. For everything.”
Charlie waved off the thanks. As she approached Trey, her eyes narrowed. “Don’t do anything I may have to punch you for, Hanson. Behave.”
“I always behave,” Trey retorted.
She threw him a glare before disappearing out of the training room. Trey contemplated leaving, but after hours apart from Elle already, he couldn’t stay the fuck away. He casually strode over to where she still lay face-up on the mat, admiring the way her chest lifted and fell with each breath.
“You look a half inch from death.” He smirked through the lie because the truth was that even sweaty and tired, she still looked fucking incredible.
Her eyes fluttered open. “I feel it. Were you watching?”
“Maybe.”
“For how long?”
“Long enough to know you have a lot of pent-up aggression—and a lot of reason for it.” And even though some of the things she’d said in her margarita-induced speech still chafed, he was starting to see that it had less to do with him and more to do with the assholes she’d had in her life.
Elle gave him a little shrug and sat upright. “Shay used to drag me to a self-defense dojo because she said the same thing, but there wasn’t exactly one nearby in Thailand.”
Trey knew it was a bad idea before he suggested it, but his mouth moved anyway. “I can show you a few floor escapes…if you’re not too tired.”
She looked torn, nibbling her bottom lip. “I’m not tired after sleeping the day away, but are you sure you have time?”
“Always got time for you, sweetness.”
He gently pushed her shoulders back down to the mat, lifted her hips, and inserted himself between her bent legs. While his cock twitched out his pleasure at their new closeness, his head told him this was a fucking stupid idea.
He propped his hands on either side of her shoulders and hovered inches over her body.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid idea.
* * *
Trey’s body heat diffused through the small amount of space between them and soaked straight through Elle’s skin. Floor escapes required a physical intimacy that she’d forgotten about until the firmness of his growing erection rubbed against her mound.
Elle cleared her throat, suddenly overwhelmed by a flood of nerves. “Maybe we should try this when I’m not so…” Horny. “Sweaty.”
“Doesn’t bother me.” His green eyes went darker as his attention dropped to her mouth. “First thing to remember when someone has you pinned to the ground is that you don’t necessarily need to be stronger to break away. You just need to know the proper mechanics.”
Trey lowered his body until a piece of paper couldn’t have been inserted between them.
“When I drop down closer to your chest, lock your arms against my shoulders and then shrimp your way out by planting your right foot and rolling left.”
They worked through the beginning moves again and again. When she finally ignored the instinct to pull him closer—the exact opposite of what she was supposed to be doing—the escape became one fluid movement. Soon after, they added the next step, and the next, and then Elle readied herself to put on the final touch.
“Good.” Trey nodded once she’d succeeded in pushing free. “Now you kick out to either the groin, midsection, or chin. I’d go for the—”
A vicious cramp attacked Elle’s thigh muscle. She gasped, reflexively extending her knee to seek relief when a thud and a string of curse
s slowly pulled her out of her pain-induced fog.
“Oh my God.” She stared in horror as blood seeped through the fingers Trey had cupping his nose. “You’re bleeding?”
“That’s what usually happens when you get blasted in the nose with a sneaker,” he said, his voice muffled. “Goddamn.”
She grabbed a nearby towel and wet it with a bottle of water before crawling back and wiping away the bloody carnage. “I am so sorry. I had a massive cramp and it hurt so freaking bad, my muscles kind of did their own thing. Shit. I hope I didn’t break your nose.”
“Wouldn’t be the first time it’s been broken.” Trey laughed at her sickened expression. He gently removed the towel she held in place, but kept hold of her hand, and sniffed. “Elle, it’s fine. See. Still works. Now imagine the damage you could do if you have your mind actually focused on it.”
“I still should’ve been careful.”
“Why? Because I’m such a delicate flower?” Trey slid his hands beneath her thighs and dragged her close. “No harm done other than to my pride. We’re good. No apologies. But I’m pretty damn thankful we weren’t working on crotch shots because then any hopes of future Trey juniors would’ve disappeared instantly.”
Elle’s heart stumbled. It had been a casual comment, had rolled off his lips so effortlessly, yet it stole the breath right from her lungs. Act normal. Act cool. Act like there wasn’t an invisible dagger prepped to slide straight into her heart.
Trey was too perceptive. His eyes narrowed in on her as if trying to figure out what was going through her head. She forced a small smile and let her hands drop to his shoulders.
“No damaging the man-goods. Got it.” She nodded in agreement. “We certainly wouldn’t want to deprive the world of miniature Treys.”
“What was that?” he asked.
“What?”
“You’re sitting in my lap, straddling my waist, and yet I felt you pull away just then. I’m asking why.”
Why the hell couldn’t he be the stereotypical unobservant male?
“Because even if I don’t owe you any apologies for kicking you in the nose, I do owe you one for last night.” Elle prayed he took the topic change without question. When he stayed silent, she continued. “The things I said were rude and inconsiderate, and I’m really sorry.”
“Yeah, well. You had a right to know, and I had more than ample opportunity to tell you. That’s all on me, and I’m sorry for that. But one thing I don’t appreciate is being compared to some jackass who evidently soured you on men. I don’t use women, and I sure as hell don’t sleep with them under false pretenses. Any women who I invite into my bed get a full disclosure on what to expect. And they get one whether they want one or not. It’s how I’m wired.”
“I know. Charlie mentioned that you didn’t get your assignment until after you’d already been in Thailand for a few days…but I should’ve believed you.” Elle swallowed the embarrassment that was no doubt making her face fire-engine red.
“Why? You were right on that plane, too. There’s more that we don’t know about each other than we do. But I’m trying to rectify that, if you’ll let me.”
Elle searched his eyes for some kind of clue as to why Trey Hanson seemed so…different from other guys she’d met. “Even before you knew I was your job, you were insistent on keeping me around. Why?”
Something flickered in Trey’s eyes, some emotion she couldn’t identify. He palmed her cheek and kept her face directed toward him. “It fucking kills me that you think someone wouldn’t want to get to know you unless they were obligated to, sweetness. And I’d love nothing more than to get my hands on the bastard who made you think like that.”
Trey took a slow breath, and his thumb brushed over her bottom lip. “I want to get to know you—because who I am really fucking likes who you are.”
“Who I am is not the woman who’s going to help you fill all those empty rooms.” The words were out of her mouth before she could stop them, and then she waited as each passing second stretched on for what felt like forever.
“That’s the second time you’ve mentioned something about empty rooms; I’m going to take a wild guess and say that Penny or Charlie told you about my house,” Trey said carefully.
“If what you want is to find a woman who’s going to help you fill that house with a lot of little Treys, then that’s what you should do. But I can tell you right now, that woman isn’t me. A fling is all I have to give.”
When he didn’t say a word after the fifth blink of her eyes, Elle shifted in an attempt to stand, but his hands clamped down on her hips and prevented her from moving.
“I’m not going to deny that I’m done with flings,” Trey finally stated. “I told you that once before and I meant it. But just because I don’t have my minister on speed dial doesn’t mean that I’m going to walk away if someone special happens to fall in my lap.”
His palms skated from her hips to her thighs, and his body shifted beneath her. She thought he was about to release his hold, but then he pulled her so snugly onto his lap.
Elle tried not to read into it. She tried—and failed. “I should go,” she murmured nervously.
“Do you really want to?” He stole a quick glance at her mouth.
“No, which is why I really should.”
“You obviously have a hell of a lot more willpower than me.”
“It’s not so much willpower as knowing what I can get away with.” She knew he didn’t get it, and that would definitely be one conversation they’d never have. Elle’s gut told her that delving into any sort of relationship with Trey—with strings or without—would stretch her rules and heart beyond their limits.
“You’re not looking for a relationship,” Trey repeated her earlier excuse. “So what are you going to do? Live the rest of your days in a nunnery? Somehow I don’t see that going all too well.”
As if to demonstrate his point, he traced his hand up her spine. A trail of goose bumps immediately burst from her skin. Her body definitely didn’t give a damn about keeping an emotional distance. It wanted Trey like nothing else and didn’t bother with worrying about the repercussions.
“I didn’t say that sex wasn’t in my future,” she finally admitted. “Just all the expectations that usually go along with it.”
“So it’s going to be one-night stands for you from now on?” He didn’t raise his voice beyond a bare whisper, but the edge in his tone took her by surprise.
“Maybe,” she admitted truthfully. “Or I’d take a page from your book and make sure everyone I take to bed knows the rules.”
“And what are these rules of yours?” His hand cupped her nape, his large fingers twining into the hair that had fallen from her ponytail. Gently holding her in place, Trey demanded her attention.
“No expectations. No relationships. No futures. No messy strings,” she answered softly.
“Sounds clinical, and sex is anything but a medical intervention…at least if you’re doing it right.”
“Then I’ll find someone who only does it wrong.” Boy, was that the wrong thing to say.
Trey’s green eyes darkened like a storm-shrouded jungle. “Like hell you’ll find someone else.”
His mouth fused to hers, his tongue pushing past her lips and coming into direct contact with hers. Elle groaned as they took turns taking the lead in a kiss that quickly stole every ounce of her breath.
“You’re not going to be giving those breathy little moans to anyone but me,” Trey murmured. He took his mouth away and peppered kisses and gentle nips down the length of her neck.
“Boundaries,” she said breathlessly, hoping to God that she could remind him why this was a bad idea because she sure as hell didn’t care right then. “You don’t mix business with pleasure, remember?”
“Fuck my boundaries. There’s no way in hell I can be near you and not touch you. It hasn’t even been twenty-four hours since I had you in the palm of my hand, and I’m so goddamned twitchy I can’t even ho
ld a freaking water bottle.” He took her mouth in another searing kiss before cupping her cheek and holding her gaze steady with his. “You want sex without strings? Fine. But you get it with me.”
Elle forced her shocked mouth closed. Her heart pounded in her ears. She needed to make sure she’d heard him right. “No expectations?”
The muscle in his jaw tightened. When she thought he’d changed his mind, he agreed with a faint nod. “No expectations.”
Could she do it? Could she really be with Trey and stay emotionally unattached?
“If things change for either one of us, we split…no hard feelings, no questions.” If Trey took her at her word, she could maybe escape the arrangement with her heart battered and bruised instead of shredded to pieces.
“I have one question for you, Elle.”
“What’s that?”
“Floor, bed, or shower?”
Elle’s inner vixen, whom Trey always managed to conjure without trying, lifted her mouth into a coy smile. “Which is closest?”
“Floor, but the gym doesn’t have a lock on the door, and if I wasn’t about to share you with some nameless asshole, I’m not about to share the sight of you with the assholes I call my friends.” Trey brushed his thumb across her aching nipple. “But you happened to mention that you were all sweaty, and we have a perfectly close, and lockable, shower room just on the other side of that door.”
Elle slid off his lap and put a little extra sway into her hips as she walked toward the locker room. She stole a glance over her shoulder and caught him staring at her butt.
“You coming or not?” she asked, dropping her voice to a sexy purr.
“You’re going to be the one that’s coming first.”
Trey jumped to his feet. Elle ran, barely into the locker room when his arms swept her off her feet. He kicked the door closed, flicked the lock, and strode to where the mother of all showers took up a corner wall.
Tiled and with more than enough room for two people, multiple shower heads hung in different places, but all pointed in the same direction. Trey turned on the water and tested the temperature before using the band of her yoga pants to pull her flat against his solid body.