Page 136 of Fool Me Twice

Hart looked him in the eye, the chocolate brown of them almost completely overtaken by the lusty black. The intensity bored into Cane’s soul.

He leaned forward and kissed Cane. That special kind of kiss they only shared sometimes. The slow, aching, caring kind they’d spent so long staying away from. The kind that still seemed foreign no matter how good it felt.

The kiss that promised them they had a future.

Hart broke it, looking him in the eye again before nodding.

“I do owe you,” he whispered into the space between them. “I owe you for more than you’ll ever know.”

Epilogue

“And remember,” Hart said, wrapping up his speech by pointing toward a large poster on the wall across from where he was standing. It was an image of snowy mountain tops with words written across them. Words he read out loud. “Everyone has the will to win, but not everyone has the will to prepare to win.”

He finished by raising a fist into the air, commanding the attention of the crowd in front of him. A crowd consisting of three young, very confused-looking fighters, sitting in their shorts in the locker room of Cane’s warehouse, waiting for the night’s fights to begin.

All three of them were new. Talented, but hot-headed and rash. Hart wanted them to focus so they’d get better at what they were doing. So they’d stand less chance of getting injured because they were too focused on getting that winning blow in instead of fine-tuning their skill.

“Any questions?” Hart asked, and the closest fighter to him raised a hand. “Yes, Ryker.”

“Can we go now?” Ryker asked.

Hart felt his face fall a little. He felt like he had nailed his motivational speech this time. He’d spent hours looking for the right words, making sure they fit their personalities and youth. He didn’t just make blanket statements—this was personalized.

He looked at the fighters, frowning when he found their eyes wide and panicked as they squirmed on their benches, looking everywhere but at him.

“Not that this wasn’t great,” Ryker said. “Because it totally was. Preparing to win… Wow.”

“Yeah, like, where do you even come up with such…um…” The other fighter, Whisper, looked around for support. “Such…”

“Gems of wisdom,” the third one, Rush, supplied. “Absolute gems.”

All three of them nodded, standing up and gathering their things in a hurry.

“I feel so much more ready now,” Whisper said, arms laden with stuff he tried shoving into his locker.

“I feel like I can take on anyone.” Rush nodded, hip-checking his locker and forcing it closed.

“Totally encouraged and ready,” Ryker said, opting to just leave his stuff everywhere. “Wow…”

They slammed their lockers shut, shuffling around Hart and scurrying out of the room through the door behind Hart’s back.

Hart turned to follow them, finally catching on to the large figure standing in the doorway of the locker room.

“You don’t have to intimidate your men into listening to me.” He scowled at Cane, crossing his arms over his chest and trying not to pout. It was undignified at best, childish at worst.

“I’m not,” Cane said, raising his hands in mock surrender. “They love your speeches.”

“No, they don’t,” Hart said, turning his back on him. “And I worked really hard on this one.”

Cane walked in, crowding into Hart and wrapping his arms around his waist.

“I heard it,” he said softly. “I thought it was fucking inspired.”

Hart frowned.

“Yes, that is exactly what I was going for,” he said sarcastically. “Fucking inspired.”

“You know,” Cane said, using the hold on Hart’s waist to spin him around so they were face to face again. “You’re developing an attitude lately, sweetheart.”

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