I try my best to mimic him, and this time I get a genuine smile.
“Very good, Belova,” he says with a wink. He tosses me the gloves. “Now hit the bag.”
I smile at his praise and slide my hands back into the gloves. I practice hitting the bag, amazed at how intense of a workout it is. I can’t make the bag swing around like he can, but I manage to land some solid punches, and it’s definitely a hell of a lot better than that first punch.
By the time I stop, I’m sweating my ass off and grinning like an idiot.
“You like boxing?” he asks, arching an eyebrow at me.
“I like this,” I tell him. “I like doing it with you. There’s a lot more to it than I first thought. You make it look so easy.”
“I have been doing it for a long time.”
“When did you first start?”
“When I was a teenager. I started fighting because I was good at it, and it was an easy way to make some money.”
“Did you and Nikolai both fight?”
Pain flashes across his blue eyes, so raw that I instinctively reach out my hand to rest on his forearm, wanting to comfort him in some way.
He looks at me and gives me a small grin that doesn’t reach his eyes. “So many questions, Belova.” He nods over to where there’s a cooler filled with bottled water. “Go grab some water. Is my turn to punch.”
I do as he says, knowing this isn’t the time or place to insist on answers. Grabbing the water, I walk back over and sit down on the mats close to where he’s at and enjoy the most amazing up-close-and-personal show in the world. He attacks the bag with a controlled fury that’s completely mesmerizing to watch. Every punch hits exactly where he wants it, and his fists are so damn fast that my eyes can barely keep up with them.
It doesn’t take long before he’s covered in sweat, and then I’m no longer watching his punches and instead focused on all that hard, rippling muscle. I feel like I should be slipping dollars into his waistband because he is putting on one hell of a show. His blue eyes are focused on the bag, and just when I’ve convinced myself that nothing else exists for him in this moment, he catches my eye and gives me a sexy wink that has me smiling like an idiot. It doesn’t seem right that one man should be so sexy. It seems unfair to the rest of the male population.
I keep my eyes on him, wondering how much more of this sweet torture I can take before my body explodes or I do something really embarrassing like jump in his arms and demand he take me upstairs. I remind myself that the club is still packed and that Dmitri is the owner and has worked really hard for all this. I don’t want to do anything to ruin this for him.
He gives the bag one more hard punch, and turns to me with a big grin. He walks over, tosses the gloves aside, and offers me his hand. I take it and then laugh when he picks me up, wrapping his arms around me and bringing his mouth to mine. It’s not exactly a chaste kiss, and by time he pulls back, I have to work really hard to remind myself that we’re in a public place.
“And here I was working so hard to practice self-control while you were punching that bag because I didn’t want to embarrass you in your club by jumping in your arms.”
He rests his forehead against mine and gives me a sweet smile. “You could never embarrass me.” He thinks for a second and adds, “Just do not tell anyone that is your car outside.”
I laugh and give his shoulder a soft smack. “I love my car.”
“And I love you, so I will get used to car,” he says, giving me a quick kiss before walking us back to the stairs, oblivious to all the men openly staring at him. It’s nice to know they’re so shocked by Dima’s behavior. I’m glad he never brought women here or openly showed this kind of affection before. It makes me feel loved and special to know that he’s giving me a part of himself that he’s never given to anyone else.
“Time to get cleaned up, Belova,” he says once we’re on the stairs.
I run my hands over his sweaty, muscled back, tracing the lines of his sexy tattoos before giving his neck a lick, filling my mouth with the salty taste of him.
“I don’t know,” I say. “I kind of like you like this.”
His deep laugh echoes along the stairs.
“Maybe we can get little more dirty before we get cleaned up,” he says, giving my ass a sharp smack.
Chapter10
Dmitri
I’m amazed that I seem to be falling more and more in love with Gina with each passing minute. I barely recognize the man she’s turned me into. I’m not the sort of guy who gets all mushy and does public displays of affection, yet here I am picking her up in public, kissing her in front of all the guys I train with, acting for all the world like a lovesick idiot, and loving every damn second of it.
She’d looked so damn cute punching that bag that it had taken all my willpower to not claim her again right there in the club. Everyone has a breaking point, though, and I reach mine when she runs her tongue along my shoulder before giving me a soft bite.
“Damn, Belova,” I say, cupping her ass even harder as I use my other hand to open the door to my apartment. “You are insatiable.”