Redemption: A British Stepbrother Romance (50 page)

“I
definitely
don’t like where this is going,” Duke mumbled.

“I’m just learning how to fight,” I insisted. “That’s all it is.”

“Okay, dear,” Gayle said, before winking at me. “If you say so. But if you ever want to learn to fight with a little more privacy then just let us know. We’ll close the gym early.”

“We fucking well won’t,” Duke yelled.

I got the distinct impression that despite owning the gym, Duke only got to make decisions when those decisions happened to coincide with what Gayle wanted anyway.

I asked Duke a few more questions about my technique just so I didn’t walk out of there with them still arguing about my relationship with Riker. If they’d noticed it, how many other people had as well? We could be the gossip of the gym for all I knew.

Not that I cared. This would all be over in a few weeks. Then I’d start preparing for my job, and this weird experience would be firmly in my past.

The lessons with Riker had messed with my head and made me into a confused mess, but I couldn’t deny feeling a hell of a lot better. In addition to feeling fitter, I could now walk around with more confidence, especially at night.

I wasn’t naive enough to think I could take on any attacker, especially if they were armed, but I did pack a punch—and a kick—that would surprise people given my size.

I started to understand why Riker kept in such good shape. The confidence was like a drug. In just a few weeks, I’d gone from dreading the lessons, to looking forward to them.

Unfortunately, that had as much to do with the trainer as the training.

“
H
ow do
you keep going for hours and never tire?” Nora asked, as she wearily pushed herself to her feet after thirty push ups.

“You’re not the first woman to ask me that.”

“Riker Clyne, was that a joke?”

“I’ve been known to make them occasionally.”

We only had a week left of training, and I was dreading the end. I’d gone from finding the sessions an inconvenience to them being the highlight of the day.

Nora had come on in such leaps and bounds that it was now worth me joining in with her when she was doing push ups, burpees, and skipping. Nora went the extra mile when we were competing. She definitely had a competitive streak in her, but she was still a little way from being able to outpace me. I admired her for trying though.

I’d never known anyone to look so glamorous when covered in sweat. Beads of salty water dripped down her neck, and ran down the crevice between her breasts before disappearing out of sight. I shouldn’t have been looking anyway, but the view was mesmerizing and I didn’t think she’d noticed.

“What crap are you watching on television tonight?” I asked, as she patted herself down with a towel at the end of the session.

Our main topic of conversation was always what we were doing in the evening. Every time, I thought it might be an opportunity to spend time with her outside of the gym, but she never showed any interest in spending time with me after class. Nora seemed to be quite happy with nights alone in front of the television.

“What makes you think I’m just watching TV?” Nora replied. “I could have a hot date.”

That’s what I’m afraid of
.

“Do you?” I asked, trying to sound like an inquiring friend, and not a jealous admirer.

“Well, no, but you didn’t know that.”

How did this woman not have a constant stream of men lining up to take her out? She was everyone’s type. Pretty, cute, kind, funny, and determined. I couldn’t imagine what straight guy wouldn’t want her.

Maybe that was the problem. So many men chased after her that she found the whole thing rather boring and rejected everyone, waiting for the perfect guy to come along and sweep her off her feet.

The more I thought back to our first meeting, the more I realized it was a miracle I got anywhere with her at all. I should just count myself lucky to have gotten that one wild fling with her, but damn it, I wanted more.

“So you
are
going to stay in and watch trashy TV shows?” I asked.

I wasn’t ready to say goodnight yet, but I couldn’t ask her out on a date. The training sessions weren’t uncomfortable anymore, but they damn sure would be if I asked her out and she said no.

Asking women out on dates was not really part of my repertoire. I never asked them out, we just sort of ended up having sex and that was it. Like the first time with Nora. My only relationship of note had even started out that way. Simple and uncomplicated. Nothing would be simple with Nora. Even teaching her to fight had ended up getting complicated.

“I’m not sure what I’m going to watch,” Nora replied. “Think I’ll just load up Netflix and stick something mindless on that I’ve seen a hundred times before. Then I’ll sit there all night shoving chips into my mouth.”

“Chips? So after a good workout, you go home and eat chips?”

“Yeah,” Nora said, shrugging casually. “Best time to do it; I don’t feel guilty when I’ve worked up a sweat.”

“You need good food,” I insisted. “Vegetables, protein, that kind of thing.”

Nora considered it for a few seconds. “I’ll have a salsa dip as well. That has tomatoes in it.”

I sighed, thinking about all the hard work she was about to undo with a diet of potato chips and processed dips. I had plenty of food at my place, but I didn’t want to bring her back there. My apartment was not for the faint-hearted, and besides, dinner at mine would look a lot like a date.

“Why don’t we go eat out?” I asked. “I know a small place that does a great salad. If you load it up with chicken it’s filling enough.”

“Salad?” Nora asked, cringing as if I’d suggested we eat dinner off a toilet seat. “That won’t fill me up. I’m starving.”

“It’s next to a frozen yogurt place. If you’re still hungry we can grab dessert.”

Thank God I hadn’t asked her out on a date, because Nora didn’t look like she even wanted to grab a casual bite to eat. A full on date would have been met with an abrupt decline.

“Let’s go check it out,” Nora said uncertainly. “But this had better be some damn good salad. None of that rabbit food crap.”

“Let’s go get showered and head out. It’s the most popular place in town, so it’s bound to be busy.”

“No one should have to get in line for salad,” Nora quipped, but she smiled and headed over the locker room.

It’s not a date, I told myself. Even if I wanted it to be, Nora clearly didn’t have a date in mind. She’d been reluctant to sacrifice a meal of chips and salsa to spend another hour with me. Nora had put me in my place.

Still, I got to drag the evening on a little longer, and that was definitely better than spending an evening alone. That’s all this was. A bit of company for the evening.

Nothing more.

“
I
t can’t possibly be worth
the wait,” Nora moaned, after we’d been standing in line for ten minutes.

The salad bar had damn good food, but the owner was a pretentious ass. He saw a long line as the best recommendation a business could get, so he deliberately kept the place understaffed and worked as slowly as he could get away with.

“I am getting quite hungry,” I admitted. “Even your ‘meal’ of chips and salsa is sounding tempting right now.”

“Look,” Nora said, pointing to a restaurant across the street. “There’s a Chinese place which has tables free. Let’s go eat there.”

“Do you have any idea how bad that food is for you?”

“We both burned off hundreds of calories during that workout. One bad meal isn’t going to do you any harm. You sound like a woman sometimes.”

“Do I look like a woman?” I asked, tensing my muscles slightly for added effect. “I’m not worried about the calories. It’s all the MSG in there. Besides, it’s not full. That probably means it’s no good.”

“No, it just means everyone in this city is a snob and would rather nibble on plant leaves.” Nora bit her lip and suppressed a smile, as the people in front of us in the line turned back to glare at us. “Come on,” she said taking hold of my hand and trying to drag me out of the line. “Let’s live a little.”

We’d had plenty of body contact during training, but I still hadn’t gotten used to the warm sensation I felt when her skin touched mine. I touched her legs, arms, back, and belly during training, but holding her hand felt more intimate, even if she was only doing it to avoid eating a salad. My resistance instantly disappeared, and she was able to pull me from the line with little effort.

Chinese food did sound tempting right about now, and the restaurant was a sit-down place, which meant we’d get to spend more time together.

Like a date.

Just to make matters even more uncomfortable, we ended up being sat at a quiet table in the corner with plenty of privacy, and even a cheap candle on the table.

But it wasn’t a date. I wasn’t the dating type. I was the type to fuck women against the counter in the staff room of a dingy bar.

Nora wouldn’t think of this as a date either. To her, she was just grabbing some food after a strenuous workout. We ordered some drinks like regular friends would do when they weren’t on a date.

“So,” Nora said, as she took a sip of her orange juice. “Are we on a date?”

Words got stuck in my throat, so I took a sip of drink and tried to look as casual about the whole thing as she did. I failed. “A date?”

“Yeah,” she said calmly. “You know, one of those things society tells us we have to do three times before having sex.”

“I’ve never been made to wait three dates before having sex,” I replied.

Nora laughed. It was genuine, and not just to lighten the mood or reduce the tension between us. How any man could resist that laugh, I had no idea. It managed to combine carefree joy with maturity, and the way her face lit up was electric.

I smiled as well. I don’t know why. It must be contagious, like yawning.

“The way those women throw themselves at you in class, I can’t say I’m surprised. Are you never tempted to hook up with them? They’re very attractive.”

I shook my head. “No, not really. Most of them are older than me for one thing.”

“You don’t have a cougar fetish then?”

“I’ve had fun with experienced women, but that’s not what I’m looking for right now. What about you? You must have men throwing themselves at you as well.”

“Yeah, but thanks to you, I now know how to fight them off.”

“In that case, I’m glad I taught you something.”

She smiled again, but this time I did catch a hint of trepidation, as if she might be nervous about where this was going. I couldn’t be the only one thinking this had the potential to get complicated.

“Gayle thinks we’re already screwing,” Nora said casually.

“She does?”

Gayle hadn’t said anything to me, and she was usually only too happy to get the latest details on my sex life.

“Yeah, she basically said as much the other day. I denied it, but I don’t know if she believed me. I think I was being honest. I mean, we’ve screwed, but we’re not screwing.”

“I don’t think Duke will take it too well,” I said. “You two are getting a bit like a real father and daughter. I imagine he’ll be an overprotective father.”

“You’re speaking as if we actually are sleeping together.”

“Well, hypothetically. If we were, Duke would be pissed.”

“Let me handle Duke,” Nora said. “If,
hypothetically
, we were to sleep together, I would be able to keep Duke calm.”

Our food arrived which gave us an excuse to talk about something other than sex for a few minutes, although I never stopped thinking about it.

Nora didn’t care about appearances. She made no effort to eat sensibly; the girl was hungry and didn’t seem to care if half of the food ended up on her lap or the floor.

“I can show you how to hold chopsticks if you like?” I offered.

“I can manage,” she replied. “It’s takes a while, but I get there in the end.”

“The manager’s nervous about the mess you’re making. I’ve heard him offering overtime to the staff so they can clean it up.”

Nora stopped with the chopsticks halfway to her mouth. She slowly looked down at the table, her lap, and then the floor.

“Maybe you should show me how to use chopsticks,” she said, holding her hand out to me.

I could use chopsticks myself, but showing someone else was surprisingly difficult. Like trying to tie a tie on someone else, or so I’d been told. I’d only ever worn a tie in court, and that hadn’t done me any good.

I gently moved her fingers into a position mirroring mine, and then watched as she slowly tried to grip the food without dropping it.

“You’ll get used to it,” I said.

“So, hypothetically,” Nora began, watching the end of her chopsticks as she tried to pick up some chicken, “if we were to sleep together again, what would happen to the combat lessons?”

“We’d keep doing them, I hope,” I replied. “But I’d feel less awkward about all the times I accidentally brush against your breasts during the maneuvers.”

Nora almost spit out the piece of chicken that had taken so much effort to get into her mouth. “I thought you were doing that on purpose at one point.”

“Maybe I was.”

“Not just the breasts either. Considering this is our first date—if that’s what it is—you’ve already spent a lot of time with your hand between my legs. And I don’t mean the time we… you know…”

“I’m just trying to teach you a throw technique,” I insisted. “It’s nothing sexual. Honest.”

“So you teach that to all your students?”

“Just the ones I go on dates with.”

We went back to eating in silence, but there was no awkwardness anymore. This was a date, and it seemed pointless to fight it now. When you end up on a date with someone without even trying, that’s perhaps a message that it’s meant to be.

I walked her home, but didn’t try to get invited up. She’d already mentioned the three date rule, and I wasn’t slow to pick up on hints. Nora wouldn’t be putting out on the first date.

“You want to come upstairs?” Nora asked.

“For chips and salsa?”

“No. For sex.”