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I grit my teeth and narrow my eyes at him. “Fine.”
A massive grins spreads across his face. “Fine,” he says in a mocking tone. His smile then transitions from taunting to something else.
Something almost like excitement.
“Amazing!” Rosa reaches out and grasps my arm. “Ah, I’m excited.”
I offer her a weak smile, and everyone else taps my shoulder while sharing their excitement as they file past me into the gym.
Leaving just Luca and I in the locker room.
He huffs out a breath of laughter.
“What,” I practically spit at him.
“That was painful.” He nods seriously. “Painful for you, and to watch.”
I just glare at him, unable to say anything without acting on my thoughts from earlier and pounding him into the ground.
“Tomorrow night will be a shitshow won’t it?” He widens his eyes in mock terror.
I shrug, turning away from him and walking towards the door. “Fine, I won’t come.”
He’s suddenly in front of me, his hand pressing against my chest. I look down at it and will my heart to stay calm.
“Come,” he says softly.
A sigh escapes me, as I raise my eyes to his. I take in the hope shining through them, and briefly glance down at his lips. His fingers tighten slightly on my chest, and my heart ignores me completely as it increases its pace.
A noise outside the locker room door has us stepping away from each other, but our eyes stay locked.
I keep his gaze for a moment longer before I give him a slight nod. He smiles and steps aside, letting me leave the locker room.
As I head to the boxing ring to work with Del, I feel an overwhelming anticipation thinking about tomorrow night. And I can’t tell if it’s positive or negative.
But I push it all aside as we work through some drills. I’m here to train, not make friends. I’m going to watch the fights, not develop a social circle. No expectations, I just need to focus on what’s important. Which is being here, in this gym, and training to be the best fighter I can be.
With every punch to Del’s pads, I tighten up my thoughts and bring my awareness back to where it’s supposed to be.
Cross, lead hook, cross, step back, cross.
When Del adds slips to my drill, I’m thankful for the added physical and mental focus required to let his punches pass by me.
Because I can’t ignore the electric tingle I feel whenever my eyes land on Luca and they sweep over his body. And the stab of annoyance whenever I see him easily block a punch and land a roundhouse kick in one breath.
My training comes first. This is why I’m here.
But fuck.
He’s got a hold on me.
NINETEEN
Of course, Luca lives in a nice apartment building, in a nice neighborhood, close to downtown and to the gym. Figures, since everything else is so perfect and easy for him, why wouldn’t his living situation be perfect as well.
I finally get out of my car after sitting in it for ten minutes and walk to the front door of the building. The fights are starting in a few minutes, and I purposely timed this so I wouldn’t have to be there early and make small talk with everyone. I successfully avoided everyone, especially Luca, this afternoon in the gym to prepare myself for whatever this is going to be tonight.
And I’ve been avoiding him so I can stop fucking up. Luca and I haven’t rolled or sparred since he… well, sucked my dick. And while I am coming to terms with the fact that I did enjoy it - I’m the one that went to find him in a dark parking lot after all - I am delaying the inevitable. We need to work together. It’s unacceptable that I am letting something distract me and keep me from performing to the level I am capable of, and I can’t just continue to ignore this.
