Chapter 7
Bonnie turned the passenger van right, her heart giving a little kick when The Pit came into view. Zane was about to hold a class for the women in the bus.
It would require talking to him. And watching him. Standing close enough to breathe in his earthy masculine scent.
It would be fine. So they’d kissed then barely communicated for almost a week. It didn’t mean this had to be awkward. They were adults and adults kissed sometimes.
Not all adults. But they had. And it was a good kiss. Filled-far-too-many-dreams kind of good.
She wasn’t sure why she hadn’t contacted him. Maybe because their emails back and forth about this self-defense session had been so formal. And maybe because she’d been hoping to run into him in the apartment building but hadn’t.
She pulled the van over in front of the gym and turned to look at the women. “Ready?”
A few women smiled, the others nodded. Sarah just fussed over Chett, who sat beside her. They’d offered for him to remain at the shelter with a couple of the other kids, but Sarah had wanted to bring him, so Bonnie assured her they’d make it work.
She climbed out and opened the back door. Sarah and Chett were last out.
“Bonnie, Mama packed me huckleberry taffy in my lunch box.”
Bonnie’s eyes widened. “No way!”
“And I have new Legos!”
“Oh my gosh, you are just the luckiest five-year-old I have ever met.”
He beamed at her, and even Sarah’s lips twitched. “Come on, Chetty.”
Once the van was locked up, Bonnie caught up with Sarah and lowered her voice so Chett couldn’t hear. “I’ve been meaning to check in. How have you been?”
Sarah nodded. “Good, actually. I’ve been talking to Tanya, and it’s really helping calm my nerves.”
Bonnie smiled softly. Tanya was one of the counselors, probably the best at the shelter. “That’s great.”
She moved to the front of the group and pushed the door open, leading the way to the desk. Familiar nerves crawled through Bonnie’s belly, but it wasn’t Zane who greeted them, it was Stetson.
He smiled from behind the counter, his shaggy blond hair falling into his eyes. “Hey! You made it.”
“We did and we’re ready to go.”
“Fantastic. Follow me. You can put your stuff down at the back while we wait for Zane.” They trooped through the gym, and the women were just setting their water bottles down when the creak of a door opening somewhere else sounded.
Bonnie glanced at the hall, and her mouth dried. Desert-level dry. Because not only did Zane step out of the hall looking ridiculously hot in his tight white shirt, his hair was also wet and falling into his eyes.
Holy Jesus, the man was a walking romance novel cover.
Pull yourself together, Bonnie. And absolutely no drooling.
She cleared her throat and straightened as he crossed over to her. “Hey.”
“Hi, Bonnie.” He didn’t look at her, just turned to the women. “This is my group?”
Oh. Well. She hadn’t expected a good-morning kiss or a butt slap, but a simple smile with some eye contact would have been nice. “Yeah. They’re ready for you.”
“Let’s start then.”
Not one glance her way. So while she’d been dreaming about the guy and his lips, he obviously had not been doing the same.
She turned to the women. “If I could get everyone’s attention.” She waited until the room quieted. “This is Zane Merrick. He’s a former Army Ranger and UFC fighter. He knows what he’s doing and I think we’ll all learn a lot from him.”
Zane stepped forward. “Thanks for coming. You’re going to have to be patient with me because I haven’t run a class like this before, but hopefully everyone gets something out of this.”
Bonnie moved to Chett’s side as he sat on the floor and worked on his Legos, but her gaze remained on Zane.
His deep, gravelly voice slid over her skin as he spent the first twenty minutes talking about situational awareness and verbal assertiveness. He explained how empowering it can be to know how to protect oneself. And everyone listened. Even Chett stopped playing to focus on Zane.
When it came to the warm-up, Bonnie joined in. They did jumping jacks and a few dynamic stretches.
The first skill was the palm heel strike, which, according to Zane, was safer than a fisted punch because there was less risk to the hand. Because there were an even number of women, Bonnie sat out of that activity.
Which was fine. It allowed her to work on her don’t-stare-at-Zane strategies. They all sucked. She stared at him far too often.
After twenty minutes, Zane demonstrated the knee strike.
The women did great. And not only that, they seemed to be having fun. More fun than at the yoga session she’d organized a few days ago. But then, Bonnie would choose this over yoga too.
When Zane called the group back together again, Bonnie was so deep in her own head that she missed her name being called.
“Bonnie?”
Her gaze shot up to Zane. “Yes?”
“I asked if you’d like to help demonstrate a wrist grab escape?”
“With you?” Shit, why was her voice so high-pitched?
“Yes. With me.”
She nodded, probably far too vigorously. “Yes. Sure. Of course.” She crossed over to the front of the group.
“You’re okay with me being the attacker?” he asked, his eyes finally on her. “That way the women can see how to get out of the hold of someone bigger than them.”
Zane touching her. Yeah, she could do that without turning to a puddle on the floor. “Absolutely fine.”
“Okay, I’m going to grab your right wrist with my left hand.” He reached out and wrapped his fingers around her wrist. His touch was warm, fingers overlapping.
“If someone grabs you like this,” Zane said to the group, “it’s important to stay calm.”
Calm? While he was touching her? Ha. That was like asking her to remain calm in the middle of a hurricane.
He looked at her again. “Keep your feet shoulder width apart, knees soft and no panic. The thumb side of the attacker’s grip is the weakest point. You want to rotate your wrist so your thumb points toward the attacker’s thumb. Do it quickly, then step back to add body weight to the movement.”
Bonnie twisted her arm and stepped back. Zane immediately released her.
He nodded. “Good. Again, but faster.”
The second his fingers wrapped around her, she twisted her wrist and stepped back.
“Good.” He faced the women. “Then you get your ass the hell out of there. Pair up.”
Bonnie bit her bottom lip as she watched everyone get back into pairs. She could still feel the imprint of Zane’s fingers on her wrist. Her skin felt hot and tingly, and it was taking everything in her not to run her finger right over where he’d touched her.
Don’t look at her. Don’t fucking look at her.
The words had been on repeat in Zane’s head since Bonnie stepped through the door.
But listening to those words was killing him.
She wore this skintight white top and leggings that showed every damn curve.
But it was her eyes that stole his fucking sanity.
That beautiful hazel that had a million emotions running through them.
He needed to stop. Stop thinking about her. Craving her. Dreaming about that damn kiss.
He couldn’t kiss her again. Not right now. Not while Monty was planning something from his cell, and certainly not when that fucking reporter had threatened to write his story.
His phone rang, and he pulled it from his pocket to see Ethan’s name.
Finally.
He moved over to Stetson. “I just need to take a call. Are you good here?”
“Yeah, I’m good. I’m actually enjoying this.”
He squeezed the kid’s shoulder before moving down into the small kitchen off the hall. “Ethan, you got a number and address for me?”
“I do. Texting them to you now.”
His phone vibrated but Zane didn’t lower the cell from his ear.
“I haven’t been able to find any dirt on the reporter though,” Ethan continued. “The guy’s the cleanest I’ve seen.”
“It’s fine. I’ll just have to go in the old-fashioned way.” Find the guy and scare the shit out of him.
“Don’t do anything that could get you into trouble.”
“Thanks for the information, Ethan.”
“Zane—”
“You don’t need to worry about me. We’ll talk again soon.” He hung up and opened the text to run his gaze over the cell number and address. “Got you, asshole.”
“That doesn’t sound good.”
He swung around to see Bonnie just inside the kitchen. Shit. He hadn’t heard her come in. “Is everything okay?”
“I was going to ask you the same question. Are you avoiding me?”
Hell yes, he was. “Why would I do that?”
“It might have something to do with our kiss.”
It had everything to do with their kiss. “It was a mistake.”
She pulled back like he’d hit her. Then blinked as if physically trying to recover. “It didn’t feel like a mistake.”
No. It hadn’t. It had felt raw and explosive, like a sucker punch to the ribs stealing the air from his lungs. “I should get back out there.”
He moved to step around her, but she grabbed his arm. “Wait. Tell me why. Why do you think it was a…mistake?”
Even her fingers wrapped around his arm somehow both steadied and unraveled him at the same time. “Because now isn’t a great time.”
Her brows flickered. “For you or me?”
“For either of us. You’ve got enough going on. You don’t need my shit too.”
“You’ve got something going on?”
He’d had stuff going on for a long time. “Bonnie…I need to get back to the class.”
“Okay, but before you go, I just want to say…thank you.”
“For what?”
“The other night, before the kiss. With Carlos. You stood up to him for me. You brought me in here. You made that day suck a little less. Thank you.”
“I wasn’t going to stand back and let the asshole touch you like that. I’m not that guy.”
One side of her mouth lifted. “If you say things like that, you’re gonna make me catch feelings, Merrick.”
Why did it feel too late for him? “You should stay away from me.”
“I’m not sure if I can.”
He exhaled like he’d been holding his breath for too long, but before he could respond, she squeezed his arm and left the kitchen.
How was it possible that she was gone, and he could still feel her fingers on his arm?
Shit, he was screwed.
He opened the fridge and grabbed a bottle of water, then downed half before heading back out.
Stetson had started a cooldown. Good. They were almost finished.
As he walked around the room, he heard it. A laugh. Soft and lyrical. He turned his head, and it was a fucking mistake.
Bonnie. She was crouched next to the boy playing with Legos. Her head was back, and if he’d thought she was beautiful standing in that kitchen frowning at him, that was nothing compared to the sight of her now. Her lips were curved, her eyes scrunched—like her world lit up.
For a single fleeting second, he wondered if it would be so selfish to kiss her again. To say to hell with caution and just chase what he wanted.
But then two people passed the gym outside. Guys who looked about his age. They didn’t stop or point, but the way they looked at her…like they hated her when they probably didn’t even know her.
When she saw them, the corners of her lips froze, and something passed through her eyes. Something dark and heavy. Something that made her shoulders sag.
He was a step away from walking out there and asking the jerks what the hell they wanted, but they were already walking away.
Bonnie’s smile didn’t return.
And that right there was why he couldn’t start anything with her. Because she was already trying to regain this town’s trust. Trying to convince them she wasn’t the villain they thought she was.
So what would happen if the town learned his history? If he became the villain, and she was tied to him?
She’d go down with him.