Page 34 of 4th Degree

Another burst of laughter, one I match, and he lifts his hand up to shield his face—not that my attack does anything. The more I try to splash him, the more he laughs, and I can’t get enough of it.

Giving up on the sink, I lean down to scoop some of the water from the bucket into my hand. I’m too frantic to get much in my palm, but I manage to hit Dominic in the face with enough water that his laughter cuts off with a surprised grunt.

A grin stretches across my lips at the victory, and I lean down to do it again. My second attack gets his arms where he’s blocking his face, and my third gets his shirt wet. But by then, I distantly realize that Dom has grabbed the water bottle from the counter.

In a split second, he twists off the top, aims the opening in my direction, and squeezes both sides of the plastic bottle.

I yelp as I’m blasted by the water. It catches me straight in the face, drenching my face, my hair, my shirt.

“I cannot believe you just did that!” I shriek, unable to catch my breath as I laugh harder. Then, in my desperation to retaliate, I lean down and grip the sides of the bucket, fully intending to end the war by dumping the entire thing on him.

But before I can get it off the ground, arms are wrapping around me, and a deep laugh is rumbling against my back.

“Don’t even think about it.” Dominic chuckles. “You already have enough to clean up.”

“You started it!” I exclaim, wriggling in his arms. “You should be the one to clean it up.”

“Sorry, that’s not our deal,” he says, his lips close to my ear. I can feel the heat of his body—though with him wrapped this tightly around me, the heat could be coming from either of us.

I stop trying to escape. With my back to his chest, I can’t see Dominic’s expression, can’t get a read on what he’s thinking. I can only feel every pound of my heart as I wait for what he says next, because his grip around me isn’t loosening one bit.

“Come on, Skylar, this hold should be easy to get out of,” he teases, his voice a low rumble against my back. My suppressed shiver surfaces at the sound.

I hate the idea of getting out of the hold, but the competitor in me refuses to back down. I grip Dominic’s hands, then push all my weight down on where they’re clasped around my waist. The second I feel his grip loosen, I spin around so my back is no longer to him.

Which just means I’m still close enough to reach him, but now we’re facing each other.

I catch a split second of pride on his face that I broke his grip with the correct technique. But then he realizes how close we are, and the smile fades.

Only a few inches separate us. I have to look up to meet his gaze, but I can still count every droplet of water dripping from his jaw. The jaw that’s now clenched. His eyes blaze, never looking away from me, and I can see his chest heaving with his breaths.

I can’t bring myself to move, speak, anything. I can only wait with bated breath to see what he’s going to do.

Even though I know what I’m dying for him to do.

I expect him to either pounce or step away. He surprises me by doing neither.

Lifting a hand to my face, he gently brushes a water droplet off the bow of my lips.

I suck in a breath at the touch. It only takes a second, but my lips feel on fire where he touched them.

Before I can bring my hand to my lips to soothe the tingling he left behind, I watch as awareness comes back to his gaze. Whatever haze he sunk into that led to that touch, he seems shocked by it now.

He wrenches his attention from me and reaches for a towel to clean up the counter. For a long moment, I can only stare at him, but when he eventually mutters a brisk, “Sorry,” I also snap back to reality, grabbing the mop and cleaning the floor where water had spilled.

I have no idea what to say or how to act right now, but Dominic doesn't seem to have the same problem. Putting us firmly back in the space of boss and worker, he shows me how to detach the faucet and fill the bucket at my feet the rest of the way.

“Let me know if you need anything else,” he says in a stilted voice. And he doesn't wait for me to respond before he's disappearing into his office.

I stare after him as I digest what the fuck just happened.

But I can hardly stand here mulling over something I'm sure I can't find the answer to in my head, so I return to my work. I mop the mats the way Jax showed me, making sure to be thorough but quick. I'm so focused on covering every inch of the mat that I don't allow myself to think about anything else. When I'm done, I put the floor fans on a timer to start drying them and head back to the front of the gym to collect my things.

“I'm all done out here,” I call into the office. “Anything else you need me to do?”

Dominic comes out of the office with the same stone expression he was wearing going in.

“You swept and mopped?” I nod. “And you wiped down the heavy bags?” Another nod. “Then that's it.” He hesitates, then adds, “Thanks for…everything.”

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