Laughter rumbled through Sawyer and Flick turned her head to glare at him.
“Actually he can. This is Mac’s gym, he runs it and has the final say on who stays and who goes,” Sawyer said.
Mac held her stare and a twitch of his lips suggested that he found her vaguely amusing. How annoying. The Scot turned his attention back to Kai. “Let’s go, pretty boy. Let’s show your girlie what you’re made of.”
“Right now, he looks like he’s made of wet noodles,” Sawyer jeered. Flick jumped down to the floor and Flick plowed a small fist into his ribs.
“Ow!” Sawyer rubbed his side as Kai and Mac traded blows. After a minute, he spoke again. “What’s going on with you and Pippa?”
“We’re currently not talking. What’s happening with Doug?”
“He’s out on bail. Trying to stay sober and also trying to remember what the hell happened that night,” Sawyer said, his face and tone grim.
Mac’s fist hit Kai’s ribs. “Ouch, that had to hurt,” Sawyer said, smiling.
“This is crazy. Maybe they should stop.”
Sawyer shook his head and grinned. “Not a chance. This is the most fun I’ve had for ages. By the way, how the hell did you persuade Kai to give a self-defense class?”
“He hasn’t told you about Tally?” Flick asked.
“I walked in about five minutes before you arrived,” Sawyer explained.
“It’s a long, long story. A lot has happened since you left.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Sawyer replied. “You and Pippa are fighting and neither of you is willing to tell me why. And you’re sleeping with Kai, who has taken a mysterious teenager under his wing. I leave and this place goes to hell.”
Aaahhhrrroooooooooooo!
Along with the twenty other people in the gym, Flick whipped around when she heard the howl. She stood on her tiptoes to see her dog bounding through the door that led to the training fields behind the building, trailing his leash trailing behind him. Tally ran in behind him, flushed and out of breath. Rufus’s ears were flapping, and drool dripped onto the floor as he bounded across the room. Flick didn’t think he could go that fast. She opened her mouth to yell at him but before she could, he leaped into the fray and the men jumped to get out of his way. Thank God for their training or else Rufus would’ve flattened them. Somehow he managed to, with little grace, wiggle his way through the ropes and he planted himself over a prone Kai, two feet on either side of him, teeth bared at Mac.
“Crap on a cracker,” Mac shouted. “I thought I banned this dog! What is it doing in here?”
Kai reached up and snagged his hand under Rufus’s collar and Flick knew he had him under control. Kai scooted backward, stood up, and after a swift, terse command, had Rufus sitting at his side. Huh. How did he make that happen?
“I hate that dog! It ate my punching bag. It sheds, it drools,” Mac shouted, his face as red as his hair.
Rufus responded by lifting his chin, releasing one bark, and vomiting his choc chip cookie and his evening meal all over Mac’s bare feet. People groaned and scattered.
Kai lifted his eyebrows at her. “Your dog, your job, sweetheart.”
“Yeah, but he was protecting you.” It was a weak excuse but worth the effort.
“Nice try, but not going to happen,” Kai replied, touching his still-bleeding lip. “I’ll show you where we keep the cleaning materials.”
Flick slapped Kai’s hand off her nipple before dipping a q-tip into the peroxide solution and lifting it to the corner of Kai’s mouth. He whimpered and she rolled her eyes at him. “You can take a pounding in the ring but you can’t take a little peroxide?”
Kai was sitting at his kitchen table, his legs stretched out in front of him. He placed his hand on her knee. It stayed there for about two seconds before he moved it upward, and toward ground zero. His fingers brushed her clit through the fabric and Flick shuddered. He pressed the fabric of her gym pants into her and she could feel the heat of his thumb on her bud. Damn, he wanted him. Shealwayswanted him.
“You were saying?” Kai murmured, his tone teasing.
In retaliation Flick pressed the soaked q-tip onto the cut above his eye and he yelped like a girl. “Damn! That hurts like a bitch.”
“Don’t look at me for sympathy. I told you not to challenge Pippa at pool.”
Kai linked his hands behind the back of his head, the muscles in his bare chest rippling, and she shook her head at the events of the evening. While she’d cleaned and disinfected the ring, under Mac’s critical eye, Kai had taken Rufus outside and tied him, securely, to a pole. He’d returned to the gym and immediately started the self-defense classes. Flick still wasn’t sure whether she was amused or irritated that he’d thought he could do it shirtless and still have those women listen to him. After ten minutes she’d handed him a shirt, and when he pulled it on, the concentration levels in the class rose considerably.
“I’m surprised at how many women want to learn self-defense,” Kai said.