Chapter 11
ELEVEN
Nina
Six stitches. The cut wasn’t overly deep but because of where it was on my chin, it wouldn’t stop bleeding.
Vinny picked me up and took me to the hospital.
I apologised for giving him the cold shoulder this past week and I hoped he would’ve told me more about Mason and the situation at The Earl Marks, but he didn’t.
I respect him for staying loyal to his boss, but it’s hard to believe nothing happened when nobody will tell me what’s going on.
Mason didn’t stop calling while we were in the hospital, and I still haven’t called him back. Feeling guilty and more in control than I was in the gym earlier, I pick up my phone and dial his number. I don’t owe him an explanation, but I’m certain I’d want to know if the shoe was on the other foot.
It rings out the first time, so I try him again.
“What?” he snaps on the second ring.
Great, he’s in a mood… I try to squash down my inner bitch. I need to keep it civil.
“Hey, I’m sorry I didn’t call before now. I thought I’d let you know that I’m home and everything is okay.”
“I know, Vinny called.”
“Oh, okay.” I pause, waiting for him to speak. “Is your leg okay?”
He huffs out a laugh and I cringe. He’s so pissed off. “No, no, it isn’t actually.”
“I’m sorry, Mase, it was an accident. I shouldn’t have been so careless.” I really did let my emotions get the better of me.
“What were you thinking? You could have hurt yourself far worse than a scraped chin.”
The way he belittles me makes me roll my eyes. How do you tell someone they make you want to throw punches without sounding like a bitch?
Keep it civil, Nina.
“Surely you knew I’d be annoyed when you ambushed me at work? It was my first day, Mason.”
“Ambushed you? I was the one who was ambushed!”
I roll my eyes again. “Don’t be so dramatic.”
“You haven’t seen my leg.”
My phone chimes, so I switch it to speaker to look. “What the hell is that?” I stare at the screen.
“My damn leg!”
I screw up my face, trying to work out what way the phone goes.
“Oh, wow.” Ouch, that does look nasty. His entire thigh is a reddish purple, the bruise still coming out.
“Yes, wow. I’ll see you when I pick Ellis up on Wednesday.”
“Mason.” He hangs up.
I look at the picture, his gym shorts are pulled up to his groin and it looks so damn painful. Guilt eats at me.
Nina
I’m sorry Mase. Really really sorry. It was an accident.
I sit and wait until three little dots bounce across the screen.
Mason
Just forget about it.
Do you have ice?
You should ice it.
Nothing. For the longest time I don’t get a thing back from him and I end up going to bed, completely knackered after a busy and chaotic first day.
My chin throbs as I lie back in my bed, and I wonder if it will scar. Why am I such an idiot? I should have left him to it, he wasn’t hurting me. I managed to cause a scene and injure us both.
My phone chimes with a text and I reach for it quickly to silence it, not wanting to wake Ellis.
I have ice.
Is it painful?
What a stupid question. Of course, it’s painful.
Is water wet?
I smile wide, feeling my dimple pop. If he is cracking jokes, then he forgives me.
I really am sorry.
I know you are.
Do you offer rehabilitation services at the gym?
I think Henry is trained in rehab. I can ask???
I don’t want Henry.
My stomach dips.
I’ve heard he is very good with his hands. They call them healing hands.
Are you not good with your hands?
Is he flirting with me?
What is it you do exactly?
Linger, pretend I know what the hell I’m doing. It’s been a day!
I PT.
So you could help me.
No.
Why?
Because I’d end up a puddle on the floor, or there would be a literal puddle on the floor if watching him today is anything to go by.
I don’t want to mix my homelife with work.
I don’t expect the words he sends back, and they gut me.
I’m not your home anymore. So that’s not a problem.
My smile drops and the force of it falling snaps me out of my bubble.
Holding in the side button, I shut off my phone and slide it onto my bedside table.
It probably wasn’t meant as a jab, but it sure feels like a punch to the gut.
In just a few short minutes he had me eating out the palm of his hand, waiting on the edge for the next text.
My heart seems to want something that’s obtainable, and for me to give in to that need for him, I’d have to knock through the walls I’ve built solidly around it.
The trouble is, I’m learning that Mason has built his just as high.
If there is anything I love more than my son, and maybe dancing—although I’m so off dancing right now—it’s the buzz that lives in the four walls of the gym. It vibrates within me and follows me around like a hand to the back, propelling me to keep going.
I love it here. Although my studio was more sacred to me after months of building it up alone, L&M is everything I need right now. To think I worked somewhere as stuffy as The Earl Marks, blows my mind. It just wasn’t me.
My only concern right now is the man-child who has just walked up the steps and into the gym. His eyes scan the room until they find me. I wonder if I will ever tire of looking at him. He is the picture of perfection—in my eyes anyway.
Is that what love truly is?
Loving someone through their scars, the imperfections and quirks that you learn to live with because you can’t go more than a day without seeing them, no matter how imperfect that vision is.
I’ve always seen the good in people, even when they have been bad to the bone.
“I didn’t think you’d be back after what happened.”
He stops beside me and looks out at the busy gym. “If I stop it will only make it worse.” He looks down at me, then focuses on my chin. He tips his head. “Let me see.”
“It’s fine.” I wave him off.
“Let me see,” he demands, taking my face in his hand and tilting my head back.
“Vinny didn’t tell me you had stitches.”
“He didn’t?”
“No,” he grits out, his face stony and pissed off.
“It’s healing well, it’s just—”
His thumb brushes over the broken skin. “Sore! Owww, don’t touch it!”
“I thought you said it was fine,” he tuts.
“It is.” Is he that stupid? “You shouldn’t touch it. I don’t know where your hands have been. It’ll probably get infected now.”
“Drama queen,” he scoffs, hitting me with a panty-melting smile. He seems to be in a good mood. I like it. “Will you PT me?”
I recoil, shaking my head. “What? No!”
He rolls his eyes and strolls off, ending the conversation.
As if Mason fucking Lowell needs a PT. You only have to look at the man’s body to see he knows his way around a gym.
He’s fitter than most of the men in this place.
I’ve not had to train anyone yet, and I sure as hell wouldn’t want Mason as my first client, not when he would ridicule me on what I set for him. Because he would.
“Nina,” Logan calls from the office.
I go to his office and lean against the doorframe. “Yes?”
“Lowell wants PT, asked for you specifically.”
I frown over my shoulder at Mason who is now on the rower. His lip curls up on one side, making it obvious that he knows why Logan called me in here. Smug bastard. “I don’t want to PT him. Find someone else.”
Logan pops a brow, looking up from the sheet of paper in his hand. I never took him for the type of guy who’d end up in an office doing paperwork. “You know, it could be good for you both.”
“What are you, a couple’s councillor now, too?”
“Call it what you want. You have air to clear, so why not do that in a safe environment.”
“Because it’s not a safe environment. I’d probably end up choking him with the rowing machine cord, Logan. Do you have any idea how mad he makes me feel?” I thumb towards Mason who’s going hell to leather on the rower. “It would be completely unprofessional.” And just straight-up torture.
He watches me for a moment, deep in thought.
“What?” God, he probably thinks I’m being an ungrateful cow. He gave me a job and now I’m moaning about it.
“Come with me.” He stands and stalks past me.
I follow him out of the room, and to the door to the left of the office. “Where are we going?” I ask.
“You’ll see.”
He opens the door, and we are met with a flight of stairs that lead to another door.
It’s dark and dingy and I don’t like it.
I take the first step but pause. With a deep frown lining my brow, I turn, instantly locking eyes with Mason.
He’s sitting prone on the rower, watching me with an apprehensive look on his face.
“Crack on, will you, I don’t have all day,” Logan chides at my back.
“You go first.” I step aside.
“Scaredy-cat.” Logan jogs up the steps and I follow, leaving the door open so we can see. “I will get a light put in here. We didn’t go past this level on the refurb.”
“Good idea.”
He’s probably sending me to the stockroom to count water bottles or something. But then, that’s probably safer than training the Adonis downstairs.
“Ready?” He grins down at me, his excitement giving me butterflies.
“No, why are you being weird?” I push his shoulder. “Stop being a creeper.”
I hold the back of his T-shirt, feeling on edge as he wiggles the handle.
Logan swings open the door, temporarily blinding me. Light pores into the small stairway, lighting up his face which is wide with a smile.
He flicks his head towards the room. “Check it out.”
I take the last step then stop short on the threshold, completely and utterly blown away. “Oh.”
“It’s been empty since I got the place.” He urges me forward, then shuts the door behind us. “I haven’t had a chance to clear it. As you can see, I’ve used it mostly for storage.”
The room is huge, the same size as the gym downstairs but filled with boxes and equipment.
The windows are floor to ceiling and look out at London’s skyline.
The floors are a light wood, scuffed and in need of some love, but the room as a whole has so much potential. “It’s…” I walk farther into the room.