Chapter 2
Brock
I was humming the song about who wore short shorts as I wandered into the gym at Malice MMA. Since my injury was high on my thigh, I wore shorts with a five-inch inseam and felt a little more exposed than I was used to. Until Dani walked into the room, and her eyes caught on where my quad muscles were enjoying their moment in the sun. She was my best friend’s little sister, not to mention a badass fighter. I shouldn’t care whether she was looking at me with heat in her eyes or just doing a professional assessment. I did, though. I really fucking did. Like the dumbass I was, I flexed my quads, hoping to give her a little show, forgetting that the whole reason I was here was because I’d hurt the fucking quad muscle. Now, I was holding back a grimace of pain.
Top-notch flirting skills, Officer Rossi.
I tried to subtly shift my weight to my other leg, but I’d been limping on my right side so long that my left hip said, Hahaha, nope and buckled.
Fantastic.
Luckily it was a gym, so the floor was covered in mats, and I wouldn’t have to worry about a bruised ass to match my bruised ego. Unluckily, the only witness to my spectacular failure was the girl I’d had a thing for since the beginning of time.
“Holy shit, are you okay?” Dani dropped to her knees next to me, and I looked up into her concerned face. She looked nothing like her brother. It would be creepy to have a thing for her if she did. If she wasn’t six feet tall, she was close to it. Every inch of her was covered in lean muscle and smooth skin. She had a big mandala tattoo on the front of her thigh and a few more that I had never gotten a good look at. Though, I’d love to go on a sexy treasure hunt, exploring every inch of her skin, memorizing every spot of ink.
Unlike every athlete I knew, she wore her hair long. Like, down to her waist long. Right now, her dirty blonde strands were pulled off her face by one tight braid on either side of her head. She had one of those cute, pert noses that, despite the fact that I knew she’d had it broken in more than one fight, still looked perfect. There were a few scars here and there from one fight or another. The thing that hit me first every time I saw her was her eyes. They always looked like they saw things I usually kept to myself. Right now, they were pinning me to my spot on the floor, waiting for an answer.
“Yeah, I’m okay, just, uh, slipped on the mat.”
“Leg’s not in great shape, huh?” She saw right through my excuse like I hadn’t even said anything. “Can I check it?”
I nodded, and both of her hands landed on my upper thigh and started to prod the muscle.
This is going to be a problem.
“Any sensitive spots?”
Did she really just ask that? Yeah, I had a sensitive spot that wanted her to touch it. If she kept rubbing my thigh like that, the sensitive spot was going to grow a little longer, and touch her first. “Nope.” I ground the answer out between my teeth. I needed to physically crush my own molars to avoid popping a boner in front of my best friend’s little sister.
“Why are you tensing up then?” She left one hand on my leg as she asked the question.
I should probably play it cool. Nothing could ever happen between us. There was a bro code that said I couldn’t touch my buddy’s sister. Still, I opened my mouth and put my foot in it. “Because a pretty girl has her hand an inch from my dick, Dani. Now, are we training or not?”
She snatched her hand back and turned an interesting shade of raspberry red. “Sorry.” She reached out a hand and helped me to my feet. Once she was convinced that I was steady, she laid into me. “How the fuck did you get a doctor to sign off on you going back to work when your leg is in that condition?” Her hands were planted on her slim hips.
I plastered on what I hoped was a charming smile. “They only had to sign off that the stitches were healed not that I’m a hundred percent better. That is what the fitness test is for. I slipped. My leg is fine. Let’s just train.”
She blinked at me with those all-seeing eyes, and I took a step towards her. “Look, Dani, I need your help on this, okay?”
She crossed her arms over her chest. “You won’t pass a fitness test with a leg like that.”
“I won’t need to; the leg will heal by then. In the meantime, we can work on cardio, upper body, whatever I can do. Please, Dani? I can’t sit around on desk duty anymore; I’m so bored.”
She looked away and huffed out a long breath. I had known this woman most of my life. Granted, there had been long stretches of time when I hadn’t seen her. I had graduated high school two years before her and moved to Vancouver to do my bachelor’s degree. Once I’d joined the RCMP, I’d been stationed in a little town in Northern Ontario for a few years. I’d been back in Kamloops for a year or so, running into her here and there. Now that she was training me, the little flame I’d always carried for her threatened to turn into a forest fire.
Even if I had been in town, nothing would have happened between us. I’d come home to visit quite a few times when I was in University, and I remembered Josh freaking out when a buddy of ours had wanted to ask Dani out. Physically, she was tougher than either Josh or I was. But, being a big brother, he would always see the version of Dani who had been bullied in school. He’d always want to protect her from the world and everyone in it. Apparently, that included the potential for heartbreak.
I knew her well enough to know that she’d help me rehab my leg. “I just want to get a head start on this. I won’t do anything to make my leg worse.”
She searched my face for a moment. “This is a colossally stupid thing to do; you know that, right?”
I shrugged. “With the wrong trainer, it would be. But I happen to know the best one in town.”
She smirked. “Suck up. Fine, but we do this my way, got it?”
I stood up straight and gave her a mock salute. It hurt like hell, but I didn’t tell her that.