Ahead of the Darkness (15 page)

“You put him up to this?”

“Well, no. It was ... a mutual idea. You were out cold when he brought you home last night, and I scolded him for having you on the bike like he did.” I knew I’d missed something.

“Aye. I’m just appeasing the old bag.” My mouth dropped open and my eyes widened, but Anne chuckled.

“Yes, appeasing the old bat. Now, go on. The boy doesn’t have all day.” She pushed me further out the door with a laugh, and closed it behind me.
Well, I never.

“And what about what I want? I don’t want to drive, Drew.”

“Nae. Ye’re afraid to drive.”

“And I don’t
want
to drive.” No point arguing the fact. I was petrified.

Drew’s face softened as he got up off the car and headed towards me. I crossed my arms in defiance. I’d stay in that spot all day if I had to.

“Mia ...”

“No.” I turned my head to look away from his pleading face.

He reached his hand up, tilting my chin towards him.
Always with the hands
... I just frowned harder.

“Please get in the car.” Damn him and his soft soothing voice. I didn’t trust mine to not betray the wavering I had started to feel, so I tried to shake my head no, with Drew’s hand still holding my chin.

“Mia, just get in the car.”

“No!” I was airborne in a heartbeat. He scooped me up and over his shoulder.

“
Tu salaud
!” He laughed and slapped my bum.

“I’m a bastard ye’ll thank one day.” Clearly his French was better than I’d thought. He opened the passenger door and ducked down to place me in.

“Not likely,” I scoffed, refolding my arms while Drew belted me in like I was a petulant child.

“I’ll go through some basics, okay? Ye can sit in the front seat and fool around with the gears until ye get more comfortable. No driving, I promise.” He threw my duffel into the back seat. “Then you can work out yer frustration at the gym.”

“Fine.” I couldn’t see a way out, and damn it, Anne was in on it too.

Drew drove us to an old shipping dock on the outskirts of town. He got out to jimmy the lock, opened the gate and let us in. Drew had his own hidden talents, so it would seem. I looked at him curiously as he drove us through. This time, I got out to cover our tracks, making it look like it was still locked, but allowing us quicker access to leave later. I shrugged at Drew’s raised an eyebrow as I got back in the car. I didn’t want Drew getting caught because he was being an arse trying to teach me how to drive.

We got out of the car and switched sides. My palms were already sweating, and I hadn’t even touched anything. He pointed out ... things and thankfully Anne’s car was all automatic, but I hadn’t really been paying attention, something about buttons. I turned the blinkers on and off, adjusted the mirrors, moved the stick from drive to park, and changed indicators. It was all a bit naff, and I was ridiculously bored.

“Okay, now you can drive forward.”

“WHAT?” That got my attention.

“Well, yer sitting there bored, so I figured ye not freaking.”

“I’m freaking now. You promised no driving.”

“Well, moving the car forward does nae really count.”

“Semantics.”

“Just put it in drive, put yer foot on the gas a wee bit, and move her forward a mile.”

“Nope!” I got out of the car and slammed the door, shutting out Drew’s laughter.

“Yer no fun. Tomorrow. Come on, let’s get to the gym before Jules bitches about me showing up late.”

I ignored the tomorrow remark, and the thought I was making Drew late. I didn’t want to feel guilty.

~~~~~~

I
emerged from the change rooms with a smile on my face. I couldn’t wait to burn on the treadmill again.

“It’s been a while, aye?” I lost the smile when I saw Drew leaning against the door waiting for me. I shrugged.

“It’s only been a week. I was preoccupied.” Which was true. I preoccupied myself with the library on purpose, but he didn’t need to know that.

“Well, ye know what this means.” I looked at him, perplexed. “It’s my turn. Ye promised we’d do it my way the next time.”

“I don’t remember promising any such thing.”

“Aye, ye did, but it was more than a week ago now, so I can understand ye forgetting.” I frowned. “Come on then, let’s get ye warmed up.” He took my hand and led us over to the mats.

He seemed to find any excuse he could to touch me, correcting my stretches with the excuse I was missing key muscles.

“No, stand up. Like this.”

I grumbled and stood up as he came around behind me, putting his hands around my middle and twisting me to the left. “This way,” he whispered in my ear. ”Ye stretch all these muscles at the same time.” He ran his fingers up along my ribcage and over to my other shoulder blade, demonstrating his point. “Ye feel it?”

“Ah, yeah.” I tried to concentrate on keeping my breathing steady and not give away exactly what I was feeling. My temperature was already climbing, and I was feeling a little lightheaded.

“Aye, good.” He moved me in the other direction, like I was his own personal ragdoll. I would have protested if I was sure my mouth would function properly. Instead, I just reminded myself to breathe in, one, two, three, and out, two, three. That was hard enough.

“Aye, good. Now yer legs.” But before he could contort me I’d bent over at the waist, putting my palms flat on the floor, brushing my arse against Drew. Ah, Baiser!

I instantly righted myself and swayed a little on my feet as the blood rushed to my head. Drew put his hands on my hips to steady me. He was still so close behind, I could feel his breath on the back of my neck and I struggled with suppressing a shiver. He cleared his throat and moved out from behind me, taking his touchy-feely hands with him.

“Aye, that works.” He sounded gruff.

We continued to stretch our legs in an awkward silence, and I couldn’t understand why we were both being so weird. I was definitely not myself. I didn’t remember ever being so flustered when Drew had touched me before. Okay, so it had been a week since we’d spent any real time together, other than at the beach yesterday. His hands had been all over me for the most part but then, there was more of a reason, I guess ...

“Now what?”

“We train. I do weights and then run. Ye can work on the punching bag, aye?”

“Why?”

“This way, when ye get tired or sore, ye run and get the adrenaline bumping, instead of the other way around. Ye run till ye collapse, and dinnae get to strengthen ye muscles.”

“Fine, we do it your way.” He knew he was right, damn it.

We spent the next twenty-five minutes working out, Drew lifting weights while I kicked and punched the bag, possibly pretending Drew’s face was on it. But I was slightly distracted as I watched the way Drew’s muscles moved with the effort, not really paying attention to what I was doing. Drew pulled me up for “doing it all wrong”.

“Put yer legs like this.” His hands were back on my hips, rotating me where he wanted and I wondered why I was having a hard time concentrating. All I could feel and focus on was the warmth radiating from Drew’s body and the way he moved mine. “When ye punch, take the strength from yer shoulders and twist at the waist. Like this.” He curled my fingers around my thumb. “Aye. Now punch the bag.” I rolled my eyes, but did as I was told.

I punched the bag with my right fist, but before impact, Drew’s hands went to my shoulder and hip, pushing my right shoulder to follow through with my arm, and my left hip pulled back so my spine swivelled. The impact hit my knuckles and reverberated all the way up my arm and dissipated at my shoulder.

“Did ye feel the difference? Ye use yer weight as impact, instead of putting strain on yer wrist.”

“Okay, smarty pants.”

“Show me yer leg work?”

“Why? What’s wrong with my legs?” He eyes scanned my legs and his lips curled up at the sides.

“Naught.”

“Damn straight!” I nodded once sharply, making him laugh.

“Just kick the bleeding bag, Mia.” I narrowed my eyes at him.

“Fine.”

I parted my legs a little more and swung my right leg as high as I could, hitting the bag with the top of my shoe. The height was impressive, but the impact wasn’t. The bag hardly moved when my foot came in contact with it, and I fought to hide the sharp slap of pain to my foot. I turned around to look at Drew expectantly, waiting on
bated breath
to hear what I’d done wrong.

“Well?”

“How’s ye foot?”
Damn it.

“Just fine.”

“Aye, I’m sure.”

“Fine.
Help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi. You’re my only hope
.” I giggled at my stupidity, and Drew looked at me like I’d just lost the plot.

“
Aren’t ye a little short for a Stormtrooper
?”

My eyes widened. “You know
Star Wars
?”

“Aye. I dinnae pick ye as a nerd.”

“
I find your lack of faith disturbing.
Okay, okay, what did I do wrong, oh wise one?” He laughed and moved behind me again.

“Left leg forward. Good. Right leg back. Now, when ye swing, it’s from the waist, not from yer knee. Ye’re likely to pop it that way, and hit the bag with yer shin not yer foot. Yer body will best absorb the impact.”

“Okay. It’s way too early to process all of that. Show me?” I mostly understood what he was on about, but I just wanted the smart arse in action.

I moved out of the way and to the side while Drew stepped in front of the bag, pouncing on the balls of his feet. I muffled my laugh. He looked a little ridiculous, but my amusement was completely cut off when Drew hit the bag. It flew about a metre.

“Bloody hell.” I was in wide-eyed wonder.

“Yer turn.” Ah bugger.

I took a deep breath and replaced Drew in front of the bag. I corrected my stance as per his instructions, and twisted on the spot but Drew was right behind, correct me yet again. I wasn’t sure if he was helping or distracting. His hands travelled slowly along my sides moving my body a fraction to the left and my concentration went right out the window when he leaned in, his breath tickling the nape of my neck.

“Better.” His voice was deep and low.

I flicked his hands off. “Okay. I got it.” My voice a little too breathy. He laughed and stepped back.

I took a deep breath and swung, this time hitting it with my shin and moved the bag a good few feet. It smarted a little, but not nearly as much as it would have if I’d hit it with my foot.

“
The Force is strong with this one
.”

I laughed, despite myself. “Yeah, yeah.”

“To kick higher, ye need to bend to the side. Again.” I rolled my eyes and repositioned myself. My heart stuttered as Drew step in behind me.

“Wha—”

“Go slow.”

“I’ve got a very bad feeling about this.” We both laughed at the corny line.

“Just trust me, aye.” My heart skyrocket as Drew stepped in closer, his breath blowing on my neck, but I nodded anyway.

I took a deep breath, trying not to breathe him in and slowly twisted, raising my leg at the same time. Drew’s hands went to my hips, one hand pushing down, the other pushing up and I stopped breathing as the latter was ridiculously close to my bum. My shin barely made contact with the bag, I’d been standing too far away only just tapping it, but I couldn’t move, Drew’s hands were still holding me in place, like I was some marionette puppet. I turned my head awkwardly to the side to look at Drew over my shoulder. His eyes were glued to his hand on my arse.

“Ah, Drew? Can, can you let me go?”

His eyes snapped to mine, and the heat in them was overwhelming. I froze in place as Drew slowly righted me, bringing my face inches from his.

“Ye’re —” He cleared his throat. “—Ye got it.”

“I ah, used to do ballet ... my leg. I mean, that’s ...” I was completely tongue-tied.

“Oh, aye?”

“When I was fourteen, my, ah, Lisa. She said I’d thank her one day.” That cleared my head: the image of Lisa’s smiling face as I’d rolled my eyes at her. I turned away from Drew’s questioning expression and reached for my water bottle, still lost in the memory.

“I’m over the bag. I’m going to run.” I walked off, needing to clear my head and distance myself from Drew.

I put my headphones in and let the music wash over me, replacing all the thoughts. I was relieved when Drew left me alone to finish his weights but I could feel him watching me, so I kept to a comfortable jog to avoid sweat running down my face. He joined me after about twenty minutes and started pushing the up button on my machine. We childishly continued pushed the buttons on each other’s treadmills, making the other go faster or stop completely. It restored my equilibrium, and I couldn’t help give Drew a small
thank you
smile when we got off.

“The morrow?”

“Maybe.” I left it at that, walking off into the change room.

~~~~~~

S
ure enough, Drew was there, waiting outside the house for me again the next day with a lazy smile on his face. I grumbled, but got in the car.

“Now, put ye foot down gently.” I was shaking in my boots but I slowly put my foot on the accelerator
.
We didn’t move. “Wee bit harder than that, love.” I narrowed my eyes at him and put my foot down harder—too hard. We sped off and I panicked, stomping my foot on the brake.

Drew hollered with laughter as I stared out the front window in shock, still shaking.

“Again.”

It wasn’t every day that Drew would try and torture me in the car. Sometimes we’d mix it up and we’d just happened to meet at Maria’s at the same time for breakfast. Those seemed to be the days Anne needed the car. We sort of fell into an unspoken routine over the next few weeks. Drew still trying to get me to drive more than a few feet and finding new stretches to
show
me but he always kept the innocent-enough touching to a minimum at work.

––––––––

"A
fternoon gorgeous."
What?
I'd just walked into the staffroom, expecting to see Jules but instead I found Drew sitting in the office with the door open.