man-cave gym to a tall cupboard, opening it by flipping a series of numbers on an old-style combination lock.
Apparently, we were exercising, just not in the way I’d hoped.
“Nice gym.” It smelled a little sweaty down here, but not too bad. I glanced around. The equipment was good quality, even if it wasn’t all state of the art. It was still a hell of a lot better than I could afford. “Needs some cats.”
Shade chuckled. “Noted.” His brown eyes flicked to mine.
It was a relief that some of the tension had broken, but my mind wasn’t really on workouts or cats. Shade’s totally unapologetic erection still taunted me from under his loose pants, making me want to wrap my hand around it and squeeze.
Shade, however, got straight down to the business of working out. He set two bottles of water on a low bench and then rummaged in his cupboard, moving things around. He dropped a pair of padded gloves by his feet and then tossed me a smaller pair that he dragged out from farther in the back.
I held them against my chest. They were heavier than the last boxing gloves I’d used, but the training gear in the Fold wasn’t always the best. Standing there across from Shade, performance anxiety suddenly struck me. I hadn’t gone any friendly rounds in a ring in at least two years. I’d been too busy doing other stuff.
“You don’t have to wear them if you don’t want to,” Shade said. “I will, just in case I accidentally get too rough.”
So the padding was for me, not for his hands. I couldn’t decide if that was sweet or patronizing. Maybe a bit of both. At least he’d seen something in me that had made him believe I could spar, and that we weren’t starting from scratch.
“You think I won’t land a punch?” I challenged.
He grinned. “If you do, you’ll want those.” He thumped his chest. “Hard as a rock.”
I laughed, although there was nothing false about that.
Shade bent to take off his shoes before stepping barefoot onto the large square mat. He pulled on his gloves, securing them in place as he moved toward the center and started loosening up.
I followed his lead, setting my socks and boots aside—and whoa, my head swam when I straightened back up. I blinked silver streaks from my eyes as I tugged on the gloves, using my teeth in the same way Shade had to secure the second wrist strap. When I felt steady enough again, I walked out onto the mat.
“You want headgear?” Shade asked.
“How about nothing above the neck?” I said.
“Didn’t plan on it, starshine.” He started bouncing on the balls of his feet and throwing easy punches at the air to warm himself up. Sadly, his hard-on seemed to have disappeared, and kissing looked like it was off the table—for now.
I watched him out of the corner of my eye as I did some limbering up. He was fast and smooth, undeniably strong and fit. Shade seemed pretty easygoing overall, but there was obviously a born warrior underneath. Or one of those alpha animals. There was an innate dominance about him that he didn’t really show off, but that he didn’t downplay, either. It was just there, a part of him.
And he threw a wicked right hook.
I wouldn’t have wanted to be on the wrong side of him in a fight that wasn’t just for some training fun. There was no doubt about it; he would kick my ass. I was no pushover, as I’d had to prove a time or ten on the Mile when Jax hadn’t been around, and I could get the jump on someone when I tried, but my strong suits were blending in, getting in and out of places undetected, and giving the galactic goons the slippery runaround.
Shade moved into kicks, and even just for warm-up, the strong pivot of his bottom foot and the hard snap of his kicking leg made his roundhouse look lethal to me. Cage fighting had been outlawed, but it still happened on some of the seedier spacedocks, and Shade Ganavan could probably have made a fortune at it—as long as he didn’t mind having a few of his features rearranged.
The man I was falling for was powerful and skilled, and I liked the idea of having a top predator showing me how to better defend myself. Truthfully, I needed the training. I had a few good moves, but when they didn’t work out,