Page 6 of Secret Twins for My Ex's SEAL Best Friend

He reached out and made a patting motion in my general direction, still not standing. “Next time, just let me know that you’re ready so that I can block. But good job. Next!”

He waved me on, and I looked back at Kassandra, who held her hands up as if to saywhat the fuck was that? I turned away from her as I hid my smile, walking back to the eclectic group of girls.

As I sipped my water bottle, I watched as Robert excused himself, letting Heather take over while he recuperated from the blow.

He sidled up next to me, silently looking me in my eyes as I smirked over the lip of my drink.

An easy smile spread across his face, and he wiped at his chin with a stiff hand, his eyes trailing toward the women and then back at me. “So, you remembered, huh?”

“Yeah. I remembered.”

“Are you going to keep coming to the classes?”

I shrugged and asked, “Will you be here a lot?”

He smiled sardonically, a hint of malice in it. “Yeah, I’m here pretty often.”

“Then, so will I, so I can hit you.”

He put his hands on his hips and spread his stance wide, swaying back and forth. I tried not to look at his sweaty skin, but keeping my gaze toward the glint in his eye wasn’t any better.

“I might put you with Heather instead,” he said.

I shook my head and returned to drinking my water. “No dice, then,” I said, before gulping it down.

“Maybe you need a diary or a therapist.”

“Or maybe every few months, I’ll enroll in your class and ask for you specifically.”

“Violent outbursts can be a sign of emotional immaturity,” he snapped. His eyes flicked up and down my body for just a fraction of a second.

Anger burned through me.Is this jerk calling me immature as he checks me out?

“Is that what you told Jeremy? That I was emotionally immature?” I turned to face him, squaring my shoulders.

I thought of my knee smashing into his groin again, and I couldn’t hold back a smile at the memory.

“I told Jeremy that you were too young. I’m just now finding out about your maturity issues. Listen, you can finish the class out, but after that, you need to either calm down or not come back. Jeremy dumped you a year ago.” He squinted his eyes and tossed out, “Get over it,” before returning to the group, clapping loudly to get everyone’s attention.

The women stopped what they were doing and stood up straighter, and I cringed, disgusted by the power he wielded in this setting. He took so much enjoyment from playing the puppet master in mine and Jeremy’s relationship, and looking at him now, he still liked control.

I shook my head and walked out, making sure to slam the door so that it shook the auditorium.

two

Robert

I sipped on my beer, lost in thought. I hardly heard Jeremy as he snapped me back into the present by saying, “So, how was class today?”

“Huh?”

“Self-defense class? I assume that’s why you’re so sweaty, anyway, unless you have a thyroid problem I don’t know about.”

“Oh, right.” I looked down at the mozzarella stick in my hand and dropped it, wiping my greasy fingertips off on a napkin.

This was not the kind of food I usually ate, but most of the times I ended up at a dive bar with Jeremy.

I always offered to go somewhere more upscale, and I would pay, of course, but the propositions seemed to offend him, so I had stopped. That meant a lot of greasy food and beer.

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