Page 42 of Shattered

Spinning out of his hold, I raced to my—our—room. I had precious minutes to shower and shave, cursing myself for not remembering to do it earlier. Tugging off my clothes, I didn’t waste a second.

Twelve minutes later, scrubbed and buffed and still a little damp, I entered my room with a towel secured around my body. Nervous excitement gave way to insecurity when I heard the creak of the old banister as he used it to aid in his ascent. What if I wasn’t any good at sex? I was practically a virgin. Would he teach me what he liked? Or was that an unattainable by-product of my romance book obsession?

“I said naked and ready, Angel.” The gruffness in his voice sent shivers down my spine.

“Strip.”

9OUR BEGINNING

Koen

Boxing? What the hell had I been thinking? All I knew was the kid needed to get the hell out of the room before I scarred him for life. It may have seemed like I was rushing through cleanup when, in actuality, it was my piss-poor attempt to shield teenage eyes from my raging hard-on. When she rubbed her thighs together…holy shit. I was done for. My dick turned to steel and he wanted out to play.

Yanking my phone from my back pocket, I hit the text thread with Keaton.

Me: If you have plans tomorrow, cancel them. We’re teaching the kid to box first thing.

Keaton: Did something happen?

Me: Not exactly. Are you in or not?

Keaton: Lucky for you, we have nothing going on.

Me: Great. Bring Henley. She and Jade can keep each other and Phoebe entertained.

Approaching the front door, I keyed the six digit code into the panel on the wall, engaging the state-of-the-art system.

Keaton: Since when do we allow an audience when we’re training.

Me: Since now.

Keaton: What’s really going on?

Shit. He was gonna make me say it.

Me: I needed Jett to go to bed early and the idea popped in my head.

My phone vibrated with a call. Putting it to my ear, I heard the bastard cackling obnoxiously through the line.

“You’re a dick,” I answered in lieu of hello.

“And you’re thinking with yours.”

“Laugh it up, K. But I’ll have the last laugh when Henley finds out about the time you almost ran over an old woman during a stakeout.”

“That wasn't an old woman,” he grumbled. “It was our suspect dressed up as an old woman.”

“The surveillance video says otherwise.”

“You wouldn’t.”

“Try me and find out.”

“Whatever. So this thing with Jade…it’s the real deal?” There was hesitation in his voice and it pissed me off to no end. He was one of my best friends. We were supposed to have each other's backs.

“Seriously?”

“No, I’m fucking with you.”

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