Page 126 of Entering Stronghold

So damn sexy with those sparking dark eyes.

No wonder he’d nearly blurted out his desire to put her over his knee, spank her ass and then tie her up and work her over until she was begging to cum... and then continue to torture her some more. Yeah. Definitely not the kind of thing he needed to announce in his hallway. Or to her, period. Although for just a moment, when he’d pushed up against her and she’d looked up at him with those big dark eyes, all hot and bothered, he’d though for just a moment...

Maybe.

Maybe there was a submissive buried beneath all her tease and sass. But then again, maybe that was just his wishful thinking.

Feeling like an idiot, he went back to his front door and peeked out the peephole. As far as he could see, she wasn’t there. He was both relieved and disappointed. Which meant, as far as he could tell, that he was also an idiot. Grabbing his gym bag, he opened the door and couldn’t help glancing around the empty landing. Just in case.

Nobody was around. No noise from upstairs.

Time to get his ass to the dojo where his friends could give him all the smacks he needed to get his head back on straight.

4

As Rick had predicted, Liam was merciless when he showed up late. He gave Rick enough time to stretch and then threw him immediately into the forms with the others, being twice as picky about Rick’s movement and placement as anyone else’s. Rick didn’t mind; it meant he had to concentrate, to fight any distractions in his thoughts.

Like a certain curvy brunette with soft skin and invitation in her eyes.

“Focus,” Liam snapped out, right next to his ear, and Rick jerked his attention back to the matter at hand.

Caught.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Chris smirking at him, obviously amused both at his distraction and how he’d been called out on it. Normally that was Chris’ position. He usually got bored during the non-weapons forms after a while. Gritting his teeth, Rick bent his knees slightly and slid into the next form, concentrating on his balance and trying to ignore Chris’ superior looks.

There was a larger group of them than normal at the dojo—even Jared had managed to make it in for the evening. The only people they were missing were Andrew and, of course, Olivia, who rarely came since she preferred Krav Maga. Having a larger group was nice because once the class portion was over, Rick had a large choice of sparring partners.

“Jared?”

More than one person turned to stare at his choice. Normally Jared only sparred with Patrick or Liam; he was big, and he had a tendency to hit hard when he was sparring. On top of that, he was devilishly quick for a man his size; often, bigger meant slower, but that wasn’t the case with Jared.

“Looking to get your ass kicked?” Jared asked, a smile slowly spreading across his face.

“Maybe a little bit,” Rick admitted. “But I think I’ll still give you a run for your money.” His form wasn’t always perfect, because he didn’t come in often enough, but he was fast. Fast enough to dodge a lot of what Jared would throw at him, but he almost thought he’d welcome the pain when Jared did connect.

Someone needed to smack his head on straight after his performance this morning with Maria, that was for sure.

“Your funeral,” the big man said cheerfully. Quickly tilting his neck so his ear was almost touching his shoulder and then snapping it back, the loud crack as Jared stretched out his muscles was ominous. Strangely, it just made Rick feel even calmer. Maybe he really did want to get his ass kicked. A kind of atonement for even thinking about trying to start something with his neighbor.

“I’ll referee,” said Liam. He glanced over at the other four. “Who’s refereeing and who’s sparring?”

“I’m gonna ref,” said Patrick. “Justin and Adam are going first.”

“I’ll spar loser,” said Chris with a grin. He pushed his sweat-matted dark hair out of his eyes.

“You can spar me next,” Liam said, amusement showing in his hazel eyes as chuckles went around the room at Chris’ muttered curse. Theirs would be a particularly uneven match. Even more so than Rick and Jared, and no one thought Liam would go easy just because Chris was probably the worst about coming to the dojo on a regular basis.

Facing off against Jared, Rick had just a split second to wonder if he’d made a mistake. There was a lot of tension in Jared’s big frame, and they all knew he’d been having issues with Marissa again. Maybe he should have let Patrick take on Jared and let someone else less wound up have a go at him.

Then again, maybe it was better that they’d be taking out their aggression on each other.

Jared moved silently, without the shouts which usually accompanied a move, and Rick quickly dodged out of the way. He sent his own leg kicking out behind him, hoping for a lucky strike, but Jared was too canny for that. Instead, Rick found his foot caught and he was flipped straight onto his back, nearly knocking the breath out of him. His lungs burned a bit as a muscle in his back twinged. He’d be sore there tomorrow.

“Point. Get it together, Winter,” Liam said, sounding amused. “Whatever bug you’ve got up your ass, you’d better let it go and get your nose to the ground.”

“Or what, you’ll smother me in your girlfriend’s weird old sayings?” Rick asked as he pushed himself back up. Jared and Chris—who was obviously more interested in watching him and Jared than watching Adam and Justin—both laughed. Hilary was known for constantly using out of date phrases, thanks to her dad who was a university professor and had a bit of an obsession with the English language. The habit had started to rub off on Liam, something they all enjoyed giving him a hard time over.

“Or I can tell Hilary you called her weird.”

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