Page 43 of Until You're Mine
“Right now, Brooklyn’s here at the gym, and you’re not ranked high enough for the nonstop touring yet, so you think you can make it work. But in about a month she’ll be hours away. She’ll go back to San Francisco, and you’ve seen how hard it is for her to maintain her current long-distance relationship. Do you want that to be you? Do you want her to go back to her life up north without a support system because you thought it was more important to enjoy yourself for the next month? A month you can’t afford, at that?”
Every sentence contained more shit. As much as I wanted to be a selfish bastard and just take what time I could with her before it ran out, I couldn’t. It’d leave her life in a mess, and if I didn’t win this fight I’d not only be a nobody again, but one without a career or source of income. She sure as hell wouldn’t want me then.
“Do you know how many fighters want a chance to fight Conrad? Fighters who deserve it just as much as you do, so if you don’t want this opportunity, I can find someone who does. At the end of this summer, Brooklyn will leave, and that’ll be that. And if you lose the fight with Conrad, that’ll be it for you, too.” He couldn’t have punched me any harder if he’d done it with his fists instead of his words.
“I get it.” Didn’t mean I liked it. Apparently I wasn’t as selfish as I thought, either.
“Good. Then let’s get you ready for your fight. We’ve got some catching up to do and not a lot of time to do it.”
Liam lifted the mitts, and I went to swinging as hard as I could, putting every ounce of frustration coursing through me into each strike.
…
For the rest of the week, I could tell Liam was going out of his way to prove his point about not having time to see Brooklyn. My arms ached so badly that waving to her as I passed her desk hurt. But I also had enough experience training for a fight that I knew he wasn’t completely off base. If it weren’t for the fact that she worked at the place where I trained, I might’ve managed a couple of texts and maybe fit in a meal or two, but a lot of times I fell asleep on the couch while eating my boring carb-free dinner alone.
Without her occasional calming and revving appearances in my life, everything felt off. I’d own up to my part, but she also played a part in the distance that’d formed between us this week. She kept responses to my questions short, and she was forever mumbling about numbers and files, and…
Just look at her over there behind her desk, all smart and sexy and drinking her second sugar-loaded soda of the day.
The throat clearing brought me back to the torturous training that’d become my life. Liam raised an eyebrow, and I wanted to tell him looking was free, but I doubted he’d take that very well, and it’d been days since he’d gotten a hit in thanks to me getting distracted by the spunky blonde behind the desk.
We were wrapping up our drills when I noticed a guy push through the front door of the gym. Tall and skinny, preppy as hell, and obviously in the wrong place.You missed Abercrombie and Fitch by about ten miles, dude.
The air changed, my gut telling me I wasn’t going to like what came next.
Brooklyn’s head popped up, and while I’d normally do just about anything to see her smile, this one sent a burning fist to my gut. She jumped out of her chair, ran to Preppy Boy, and shrieked something about him being early.
Then she hugged him, and he lowered his lips to hers. A hand slammed into my chest, and I didn’t realize Liam had stopped my progress—or that I’d been progressing toward the embracing couple—until I caught his expression.
I held up my hands. “My bad.”
“If it helps, I don’t like the look of him, either.”
That had to be the coolest fucking thing the guy had ever said to me.
“Keep it in check or make yourself scarce.” Liam pushed out of the cage, and I followed after him, a few paces behind to make sure I was in control—not easy considering Preppy Boy had his hands onmygirl.
It made the overwhelmed, slightly terrified look on his face as Brooklyn introduced him around all the more satisfying.
At least until she skipped over my introduction.Nice try, babe.
“Shane Knox,” I said, nodding at the guy, because I didn’t trust myself to shake his hand without crushing it.
Brooklyn tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, talking more in my direction than at me. “Right. I was just about to get to you. Trey, Shane Knox is one of the newer fighters on the team. Shane, Trey.”Don’t say it, don’t say it.“My boyfriend.”
She fucking said it. She still wasn’t meeting my gaze, either. “Anyway, do you want to go grab an early dinner, or—”
“Aren’t you going to give him the grand tour?” I asked.
That finally did it. Her eyes met mine, fire burning in the blue, and her smile turned sharp and slicing. It made me want to push her against the nearest wall and kiss her until she submitted. Knowing her, it’d take a long time, and that’d make it all the more satisfying. “I’m sure he doesn’t want—”
“A tour sounds good,” Clueless Boyfriend said. Really?Thiswas the guy stopping us from relieving our overwhelming sexual tension? Some dude who couldn’t weigh more than a buck sixty dripping wet and would look more at home in one of those douche-y teen TV shows than a gym.
After shooting daggers my way, Brooklyn took his hand and gave him the quick tour—no stop in the locker room, where she could show him the place I pushed her against the wall while wearing nothing but a towel.
I clenched and released my fists. Just to keep calm—I’d learned how to control the urge to swing and channel it into the proper venue.
This situation was definitely giving me a run for my money, though, all my pent-up irritation crawling under my skin, begging for a release. They’d nearly finished the tour when I decided to let my inner asshole off the leash and wreak a little more havoc. “You forgot to show him the cage. We’ve gotta see what he’s made of.”
