Page 74 of Green Flag
He nodded, mouth on my hair. “Next round.”
“Luca!”
But he smirked and I knew then that he was biding his time. The round was just as savage and when I flinched as legs were kicked and thrown out beneath them, Luca squeezed my sides.
“Who won that one?”
“Tyler, AKA Mr Black Shorts,” I said confidently. “He, as you said, dominated.”
“Good girl,” he said and I melted further into his side, unsure if I wanted to use the break to talk or tearhisshorts off. “I didn’t think I’d like this. But it’s actually really entertaining.”
“It is.”
“Though I don’t think I’d like to see you fight.”
His attention remained on the coaches talking to their fighters, and then he quietly said, “No, I don’t think you would.”
“I enjoy watching you train, though.”
In the last few weeks, I’d stolen glances at him in the gym, training with his PT, Marco, and Cesari. Some days, I spent way longer than I had time for, just hoping to run into him.
His chest rolled with a chuckle. “Of course you do. My top comes off pretty swiftly. And I know how much you love my top off.”
A burst of defensive laughter escaped me. “What an assumption!” But I ran the lightest touch against the seam of his shorts, along his toned stomach. I couldn’t help myself. “Can we talk now? Or is the next round about to start?”
“They’ll need to look at his eye a bit more,” he told me. When I paused my caress, he held my hand and guided me to continue. “Look at how it’s swelling up.”
He sounded in complete awe of the gross injury.
“I kissed you.”
All joy left his voice. “You did.”
“In front of everyone.”
“Yes.”
“And?”
“Now you’re mygirlfriend,” he said and shuffled to rest his back against the headboard, taking me with him. “And Arabella will be my grid girl again.”
“Didn’t doubt that would happen.” I hated the thought of it. I’d cherished our time on the track together. “Do you think I’ll be good enough to do it without your mighty guidance?”
“You never needed my guidance,” he said. “Never. You just need to remember to smile.”
I stopped stroking him. Instead, I sat up too.
The next round started, and though his eyes were focused on the hits, he said, “You did it because of Pedro, didn’t you? Actually, don’t answer. Let’s just make it clear that I know. He’s the one you were with when you were a teenager, right?”
A simpler time. When I’d been loved by him so ferociously that it felt like my chest could cave in. Even if it seemed wrong to everyone else.
“Right.”
His Adam’s apple bobbed and his eye twitched. “And, let’s just clarify, you’re twenty-four now.”
“Correct.”
A deep inhale. “And how old was he then?”
