Shifting Gears: The Complete Series (Sports Bad Boy Romance) (56 page)

I woke up in the morning rested and fresh
and ready to take on the day. I did my positive self-talk, telling myself how
strong and capable I was and that I should be proud of myself for standing up
to Mitch and sticking to my own guns about not calling Paul. I had my career
path mapped out and someday love would happen with the right guy. I just needed
to sit back and let things take their natural course and stop trying to push it
with these losers. No matter how attractive and sexy and virtually irresistible
said current loser might be.

I had my morning toast, eggs, and protein
drink, and headed out to work. In clean clothes! Victoria was at the desk when
I went in. I stopped and punched my time card into the clock and then went over
to say hello.

“Good morning, Victoria. How are you
doing?”

“I’m good. I’m so glad they got the mess
taken care of and reopened today. I got behind on the billing yesterday; I have
a ton of work to do today.”

“Well, I don’t have anything scheduled
today. I’m going to see what I can do to help Sam and Jeff. Let me know if I
can help you with anything.”

“Thanks, Jessie…Oh wait! Paul Delport came
in a while ago. He was asking for you. I think he went to the locker rooms.”

Shit! “Okay,” I told Victoria with a
smile. “Thanks.”

I looked around the floor and didn’t see
him. Sam and Jeff were each working with a client and there were three or four
other guys working out. I could see behind the glass wall in back that Yolanda
had a few of her private women clients. She had a few ladies that she did
circuit training with, but they didn’t like to do it out where everyone could
watch. I saw the blinds close just as I heard the loud Zumba type music come
on.
 

I didn’t see Paul anywhere on the floor. I
decided that he must still be in the locker room. I wondered what he wanted to
talk to me about. Was he going to expect a relationship because we slept
together? Was he worried that I was going to want one? I didn’t know why he
would do this to me at work. It was no place to talk about our private issues.
He should have called me at home. It didn’t matter anyways. I told myself that
I would just handle it by telling him straight out that our relationship…if
any, had to be strictly professional from there on out.

I went over to talk to Sam and as I got
there, I saw Paul coming out of the locker room. “Hey, Jessie!” Sam said. “Paul
was looking for you.” Oh great, the whole gym knew my business. I looked up at
Paul who was once again shirtless and in his work-out shorts. He was coming
toward us and God help me if from one smoldering look he gave me didn’t already
make me feel like I needed to change my clean panties.

“Yeah, Victoria told me,” I said as he
walked up. “Hey,” I said to him.

“Hey,” he said. “Did Sam tell you that I
needed to talk to you?”

I tried to smile as I said, “Yeah, it
seems everyone knows…”

My voice did that little high-pitched
thing it did when I got nervous or stressed out. Paul raised an eyebrow at me
and said, “Oh, well…anyways, Sam has quite a few clients scheduled for today and
he also needs to make up with the ones he missed yesterday. I was wondering if
you had time to train me.”

That was not at all what I was expecting.
I stared at him a little too long without speaking. He and Sam were both
looking at me like they were afraid I’d had a seizure or something before I
finally said, “Oh yeah, sure. Mark is the only one I have scheduled this week
and he does his own cardio today.” What the hell was I saying? How was touching
his hot, sweaty, sexy, hard, irresistibly delicious…shit! How was touching him
all day going to help me think with my head? I took a deep breath and said,
“What will we be working on?” If it was something on the weights…the
machines…the ropes…I wouldn’t need to touch him…

“I’m fighting Devon Rafter on Friday,” he
said, like I was supposed to have any idea who that was. I guess my face told
the story because he went on to say, “He’s 2nd in Light Heavyweight rankings in
the UFC. His strength is boxing, so I need to work on my ground game. Sam says
that’s where he is the weakest.”

My mind ran quickly over what I knew about
the ground game. We’d be talking about Brazilian jiu-jitsu and all of the
mounts that would bring us closer together than sex…in the back room where the
mats were, basically alone. Shit! We may as well just have sex. I was
definitely going to need a change of panties before the day was over. None of
this was going to fit in with my plan to stay professional and keep my
distance. Damn!

I smiled and in my most professional voice
I said, “Okay, are you ready to get started? He grinned then. It was a genuine,
knock-your-socks-off and then melt-your-panties-off grin. It was going to be a
long day. I felt like I should go take a cold shower even before we started.

“I’m ready,” he said.

He followed me to the back where the heavy
mats were. I was happy to see that Greg was back there with one of the few
personal clients that he still trained. At least with witnesses we would both
keep it professional.

After we both said hello to Greg and his
client, we went back over to the empty mats and I said, “Okay. So ground game,
huh?”

“Yeah, it’s never been my strong suit. I’m
more of a fist to face and foot to flank kind of fighter if you know what I
mean.”

I forced another smile and said, “Yeah,
well, today you’ll have to learn how to get down and dirty. Lay down on your
back. I’ll walk you through each one and then we’ll spar.”

He smirked at that. “You don’t think I can
handle myself?” I asked him.

To his credit, he lost the smirk and said,
“If I didn’t, I wouldn’t have asked you to train me. I’ve seen you with Mark.
You know your stuff.”

“Thanks. Okay. On your back.”

He lay on his back on the mat and I got
down next to him up on my knees. He was smiling at me again. I wished he would
knock that shit off. “Okay, so we’ll start with side mount because that’s what
you’ll use to lead into the deadly mount.” I leaned forward and slid my right
knee to just above his hip. Pushing in on it I said, “Make sure to keep your
knee here. It’s going to keep him from turning and sliding.” He nodded and I
went on, “Use this leg as leverage to force your chest into him. The extra
weight will make it harder for him to move or breathe.”

“So, I’ve seen it with both knees against
the opponent. Is this one better?”

“I’m getting there,” I told him with a
“pay attention” look.

“Okay, sorry.” I reached my arms across
his chest and dropped my chest down onto his, using my legs to push all of my
weight into him. He grunted and I was satisfied that he’d gotten the point, so
I sat up before my body started trying to take over.

“Got that?” I asked.

“Yeah, you’re heavier than you look,” he
said with another grin. I ignored him and moved on.

“Okay, side mount with both knees. Make
sure at least one of them is above his hip like this,” I put my knee back into
the soft flesh just above his hip. “The other one can be pressed against the
upper part of the thighs like this,” Now I had both of my knees pressing
against his naked flesh. This was like torture. Greg wasn’t paying me enough
and neither was Paul. I once again dropped my chest against his and felt
somewhat self-gratified by his jerk and grunt. Sitting back up, I said, “Got
it?”

“Do I get to try it?”

Shit! “Yes, of course,” I said. I still
sounded very professional and relaxed. I was in awe of myself. I lay down on my
back and he got down on his knees next to me. I felt his knee press against the
top of my hip gently. “Don’t treat me like a girl,” I said. He laughed and
pressed it in harder. Then as I had done to him, he dropped his chest down.
Before he hit me, I rolled out from underneath him so he landed on my side. It
was a position I easily escaped from.

“Hey! What the hell?”

“You think this Devon guy is going to sit
still and wait for you to crush his chest? You’re going to have to move faster
than that.”

“I will. I’m worried about…I don’t want
to…”

“You aren’t going to get anything out of
this if you don’t just put the fact that I’m a girl out of your mind.”

He ran his eyes down my body and back up.
I felt the heat coming from his eyes. When they settled back on mine he said,
“It’s not easy.”

I sat up, pushing him back slightly. “Then
you’re going to get your ass kicked,” I said. “Get back down on all fours.”

He was looking at me strangely now, but he
did what I asked. I straddled his back and then lowered myself down so that I
was on top of him. I wasn’t gentle about it. I hooked my feet around him just
as he thought he was going to be as cool as I was and throw me off. I was quite
pleased with myself when it took him a whole hell of a lot of effort to do it.

“Damn, girl! You missed your calling. You
should be an MMA fighter.” I stood up without responding and he said, “Wait, I
get to try that one.” I reluctantly got down on the mat on all fours. I felt
him straddle me and just as I was thinking about rolling away, I felt his
strong legs clamp down on either side of me. He dropped himself down on me…and
not gently in the least. He hooked his feet around me and there was no way in
hell I was going anywhere. Then he put his arms around my neck and leaned his
lips so close to my ear that I felt their vibrations as he said, “How’s that?”

“Great,” I grunted out. “Let me up.” I
felt him adjust his weight so that it wasn’t all down on me, but he didn’t get
up. Instead, he ran the side of his face along the side of mine. Against my
will, I shuddered. “Knock it off,” I told him. “Is this how you train with
Sam?”

He let go of me and stood up. I stood as
well. “What’s up with you today, Jessie?”

“Nothing,” I said, trying to get my
breathing back under control.

“You act like you’re pissed off at me or
something. What did I do?”

“Nothing, Paul. We’re just working here.
You obviously have a big fight coming up and need the help. I don’t want people
to know I trained you and then you got your ass kicked.”

“Oh, so it’s just about what people are
going to think?”

“It’s about you getting your money’s
worth. You’re paying me to teach you technique so stop with the flirty stuff,
be professional and let’s move on.”

“No,” he said.

“No? What do you mean no?”

“Just what I said. I’ll stop flirting,
that’s fine, but I’m not doing this until you tell me what’s wrong with you.”

“Then you lose out on a day of training,”
I said, stooping to pick up my towel. I wiped my face and went over to get a drink
out of my water bottle. He followed me.

“Is this about us having sex yesterday?”

“Shh!” I looked around to make sure no one
else was in there. Greg and his client had left. “No! But let’s not announce
that to the entire gym. There’s nothing—”

“Bullshit.”

“Grr! Why can’t you just let it go?” I
said.

He folded his arms and his biceps flexed.
Damn him! “Why not just tell me what is going on?”

Before I caught myself I heard the words
come out of my mouth, “Is Marie wanted by the police?”

CHAPTER
THREE

He looked at me like I’d grown a spare
head. “What?”

“Is she wanted, for child abuse? Did she
skip out on some charges or something?”

He scratched his chin and said, “I have no
idea what the hell you’re talking about. No, she is not wanted. Why would you
ask me that?”

I had gotten myself into it now. I took
another long pull off my water and walked over and sat down on a stack of mats.
Paul followed me. He just stood there, staring down at me until I finally said,
“Mitch showed up at my apartment yesterday…just a bit after you dropped me
off.”

He dropped down next to me and said, “What
the hell? How did he know…? Shit! He must be following me. Mother fucker! Did
he hurt you?”

I looked at him. The veins in his neck
were all extended and I’d bet a million that his blood pressure was up. “No, he
didn’t hurt me. He told me that he’s a cop. Why didn’t you tell me that?”

“Because it’s beside the point. He thinks
it gives him the right to get away with any shit he wants to pull. He also
thinks it makes him respectable. In my eyes it doesn’t do either.”

“He also said that Marie is wanted for
child abuse. He said that she’s abusing Victor.” He jumped back up to his feet
and began pacing back and forth. His fists were clenched tightly at his sides.

“That lying son of a bitch!”

“Calm down…”

“Fuck that! Do you know what it means that
he found you? He’s following me, Jessie. What if he’d shown up at the apartment
while I was out and Victor was there alone? What if he followed me to where
Marie is at? What did you tell him?”

“I told him I didn’t know anything about a
sister or a nephew; that I’d barely met you.”