Hammered (Blue Bay Crew #3)- Cathryn Fox Page 0,25
add, “I’ll make it up to you. Somehow.”
“Yeah, you will, and I have one condition,” he finally says.
I eye him, having no idea where he’s going with this, “Okay, what?”
“You come to the gym with me.”
My heart sinks into my stomach, and my blood drains to my feet. I mean I know I put a bit of weight on, stress eating when I started seeing those letters, but come on. He angles his head and grips my elbow to pull me back. My body collides with his and a little gasp catches in my throat.
“I train kids. Teach the basics of MMA a couple times a week,” he quickly explains, like he was privy to my self-conscious inner thoughts. I might present confidence to the world, and maybe always pretending to be someone else is easier than figuring out who I really am. What if people don’t like that girl?
“Oh, I didn’t realize that.” A smile touches my mouth as I visualize this big hulk of a man teaching children.
“Something funny?”
“No, it’s just I think that’s really nice. I bet the kids love having a former MMA fighter teaching them.”
“I want to teach you some moves, you know, just in case,” he says lowering his voice as his brother starts hammering a nail into the wood beside us.
“All these years, I managed to stay out of a cage and not even twenty-four hours after meeting you, I’m doing something completely out of character.” I give a humorless laugh. “My brother would be shocked.”
“Your brother never has to know if you don’t want him to.”
“You’re right. If he knew you were the guy who talked me into climbing into a cage after always saying no to him, it might piss him off. Especially considering your history.”
He laughs lightly at that. “I just want to teach you some moves.” Heat crawls into my face as I consider this man’s moves. My God, the things he did to me between the sheets, in the shower. Once again, as if reading my mind, that sexy, all-knowing smirk is back on his handsome face when he says, “I’m talking about in the cage.”
“I know,” I say breathlessly.
“Although I’m not opposed to showing you a few more moves in the bedroom,” he teases, but then a frown tugs at the corners of his mouth. “Your brother never has to know about that, either.”
His heat goes through me, warm sensations awakening the needy spot between my legs. “Last night, that was out of character for me too,” I say. Why on earth am I telling him this? He doesn’t need to know any personal details about me. We’re having an affair while he’s pretending to be my boyfriend, and whether he believes the rumors that I fall for every leading man isn’t important. We’re together for the duration of this movie—for my protection—we’ve made that clear.
“Um, yeah,” I mumble. “I’ll let Mason know you agreed.”
He glances over my shoulder, and his eyes telegraph a message that I can now understand. “No letters today,” I say. “Maybe you already scared him off.”
He nods, “It’s not that I think you’ll need to fight, Haven. I don’t plan to let you out of my sight, but it’s always a good thing for a woman to have a few self-defense lessons. I made Summer and Kylee take them.”
“Summer and Kylee?” I ask, working hard to ignore that ridiculous jolt of jealousy nipping at my gut.
“My sisters-in-law, Sean and Jamie’s wives. You’ll meet them.” My shoulders relax, a strange sense of relief moves through me. I’m sure women throw themselves at Tyler, and the thoughts of him being with another woman while we’re pretending and sleeping together doesn’t sit all that well with me.
He cocks his head. “What?”
“Nothing,” I say quickly.
He steps closer, crowding me, and a few eyes turn our way. I guess maybe this will put the rumors to end that I always sleep with the leading man—Tyler is anything but. Wait, maybe that didn’t come out right. He’s definitely leading man material, he’s just not into acting. Then again, we are acting here. What’s going on here isn’t real.
“Just you and me, Haven. For the duration of this movie. Agreed?”
I swallow at the intensity in his eyes as they move over my face. “Agreed,” I say.
“Good, because I’m not good at sharing. When you’re in my bed at night, you’re mine and mine alone. Got it.”
“Got it,” I croak out and as my entire body damn near liquifies beneath