“Phew.” Danger averted.
Twenty-five burpees in, Liam waltzed into the room.
Same broad shoulders, slim hips, and sexy smile. So why did he look different?
“Hello, Avery.”
Just her name from his lips made her blush. Damn, what was she, sixteen?
“Hello, Liam.”
His sexy smile grew bigger.
Brenda cleared her throat.
“Hello, Brenda,” Liam said with a laugh.
“Three minutes of plank, and then I want one hundred push-ups from you. I need your arms tired for today’s lesson.”
Liam saluted the open door.
Avery went back to her burpees, counting them down. By the time she was on her squats, Liam had finished his plank and started the push-ups.
He really should do those without the shirt. Women everywhere would applaud, and what red-blooded American man didn’t want that?
“Are you staring?” he asked without looking up.
“I most certainly am.”
“Do you like the view?”
“Are you searching for a compliment?”
“No, no.”
Twenty-seven. Twenty-eight. “Liar.” It was sweet turning the tables on the man.
She struggled through the last minute of plank while he eased down the final count of push-ups.
“You two are awfully quiet today,” Brenda said as she left her office.
“That’s because I’m dying here.” And had nothing to do with the fact that if she said anything to Liam, it would be to demand he take off his shirt so she could at least see what he was denying her. Dreams of him had plagued her all week. If the man didn’t give in to her lust soon, she wasn’t going to make it.
“Speak for yourself,” Liam teased.
“Oh, don’t be cocky. I saw you slowing down on the last ten.”
“I have another twenty in me.”
“Let’s see them,” Brenda told him.
Avery pointed his way. “Backfired,” she said, laughing.
Liam didn’t pause. He pushed right into position and started counting backward from twenty. When he got to ten, Avery decided to make it harder. Without asking, she planted her butt on his back and crossed her legs.
“Playing dirty.”
“That’s how I roll, Holt.”
Even Brenda smirked. “Let’s see what you got,” she said.
Avery toppled a couple of times and then grabbed hold of his shoulder with one hand and his ass cheek with the other.
He kept going.
When he reached ten, she wasn’t sure who was more worked up.
She patted his butt, like she had the right, and jumped off his back.
“That was entertaining,” Brenda said. “Let’s get to work.”
Enough, enough, enough.
Their relationship had changed, somehow become intimate without intimacy. Liam wasn’t sure that was possible, but that was his explanation when his concentration went to zilch.
Brenda had Avery practicing getting out of bear hugs, knife to the throat, attacks from behind. Only Liam wasn’t feeling it. All he could sense was the way Avery’s skin felt against his, how her breathing made her chest rise and fall against his arm as he held her. He wasn’t completely geared up in protective padding as he had been in the past. So she stopped short of actually striking him but had to use her weight, strength, and speed to untangle from any hold he had on her. All her wiggling, kicking, and twisting had him sweating and his body rock hard.
Avery noticed.
Oh, she noticed and let her gaze drift down to his pelvis several times.
Her smirk only made it worse. Or better if they were alone and naked.
Only they weren’t.
“One more drill and we’re done for the day. Avery, I want you on your back.”
Like a puppet, she rolled onto the mat and smiled up at Liam.
“Liam, you’ve met at a bar, taken her home. Plan on going at it . . . but what she doesn’t know is your kink is strangling women.”
Liam looked at Brenda like she was nuts. “I don’t like this game.”
“It’s not a game. Avery tends to freeze when she’s on her back.”
Liam had noticed but never pointed it out.
Brenda knelt down. “I want you to sense the second his body language changes, get out of his hold and up on your feet. And you.” She pointed to him. “A blow to the groin will make you recoil but not disable you. You’ve been doing drugs, you naughty man. So you come back and try and take her down.”
She stood and took a few steps back. “Drills, Avery. Don’t hurt the man.”
A month ago, Liam would have laughed at the thought that she could. Now he knew better.
Avery crooked her finger in Liam’s direction and shifted her knees, giving him room to settle between her thighs.
Oh, yeah . . . that wasn’t helping his erection, which had subsided slightly during Brenda’s instructions.
“What’s the matter, Holt?”
He narrowed his eyes at her. “You’re enjoying this a little too much.”
Avery wiggled her hips. “You know it.”
Brenda huffed. “Stop playing. I don’t have all night.”
He wiped his palms on his sweatpants and lowered himself to the mat. He crawled toward her until the feel of her thighs warmed his hips.
“Lean over like you like me,” Avery prompted.
He was blushing, he knew it.
He bent at the hips and rested on his elbows on the mat until their chests were touching.
Avery rested one hand on his waist. “Comfortable?”
He moaned. The last thing he wanted to do was pretend like he was going to hurt her. Not in this position.
“You’re okay with this?” he asked close to her ear.
Her fingers flexed and then caressed his side. “Uh-huh.”
Liam placed a hand on the side of her face, took a breath, and clamped on.
She bucked her hips, hard, nearly removing him. Then her hand came from nowhere, her leg wrapped around and tossed him to his side. She stopped short of kneeing him in the groin, and he hesitated.
Avery was halfway on the balls of her feet, and Liam rushed her. She pivoted on the floor and sent a kick. “Shin,” she yelled out without taking him to the floor.
“Missed,” Brenda yelled.
Liam moved forward, on his feet now.
Avery kept her angle to where her legs were always between the two of them. She kicked a second time. “Shin.”
When Brenda didn’t say she missed, Liam stopped and dropped to the mat. Something that would happen if her kick had landed its mark.
Like a cat, Avery was on the balls of her feet, and Liam sat.
“Perfect,” Brenda called out. “Now do it again.”
Avery smiled as if she’d just won the lottery, and pumped both fists in the air.
Two more mock going at it strangling assaults and they were being shuffled out of the gym before they could shower.
Avery teased Brenda without mercy. “Someone has a date tonight.”
Only Brenda had a pretty accurate comeback. “I’m not the only one.”
Outside the gym, Liam took Avery’s bag from her hand and swung it over his shoulder along with his. “Pug’s?” he asked. “We’re sweaty, but I don’t think anyone there will notice.”
Avery took his hand in hers and pulled him down the street. “I have a better idea.”
He followed.
“That was epic tonight. I didn’t freeze, not once.”
“Not once.”
“God, I feel good.” She was practically jumping up and down.
This side of Avery didn’t come out often. He loved it. Carefree, no filter. To be fair, she never seemed to have a filter except when clamping down on her emotions. Which was another habit of hers, he’d noticed.
She’d marched them straight to her complex and through the doors.
“Hello, James.”
“Good evening, Ms. Grant.”
In the elevator, Liam could see some of the adrenaline seep out of her pores.
“Drinks at my place don’t require a shower.”
He watched the numbers light up as they moved. “True.”
“I won’t jump you,” she told him.
That was unfortunate.
“Wait, I can’t promise that.”
He was smiling.
The door dinged, and Avery dug into her bag for her key. She led him into her place and switched on the lights.
“Wow.” The view of the city at night was nothing short of spectacular. “I see why you like it.” He dumped their bags by the door and moved deeper inside. The lofty space was a massive open room with a state-of-the-art kitchen that didn’t look like it had been cooked in.
Avery kicked off her shoes and jumped up to sit on her kitchen island.
She spread her knees apart, just a fraction, and leaned back on her hands.
Liam forgot about the view, or the grandeur of her home, and only saw her.
Without invitation, he wiggled between her legs and clamped his hands over hers.
Staring down her pert nose, she grinned.
“See. I’m not jumping you.”
That made one of them.
Holding her hands so she couldn’t get away, which he knew was an absolute joke, Liam lowered his mouth to hers.
The heat between them was instant. Or maybe it had never cooled off. From the moment she jumped on his back during his push-ups to the tiny slaps on his ass during their workout, he hadn’t had a single minute to let his brain catch up with his groin.
He opened his mouth to hers. The taste of her drove him high, but the feel of her . . . it wasn’t expected. There had been women he kissed before that he thought he cared for. Knew he did on some level. And then there was Avery. He’d been cautioning himself every step of the way with her. Letting her lead . . . or maybe he had cut her off.
Not now.
Not this time.
She inched closer to the end of the counter and stroked the back of his leg with her foot. A simple touch, and the slow burn that he’d kept on low flipped to high.