19
I spent the weekend trying to avoid thinking about Lorenzo and the conversation we’d had. One minute he was hot, the next he was damn near arctic. I couldn’t keep up.At first when he had given me the opportunity to voice my concerns it had felt like a tiny baby step towards some kind of real connection. But then he flipped the switch, accusing me of wanting multiple men, which I did not. Not exclusively anyway. And then he changed his tone again and had asked me to stay. I had no idea what to do. The man needed to learn how to set his intentions clearly. I supposed we were both as bad as each other though. I clearly had no idea what I wanted either, and too much had happened that evening for me to form a single, coherent thought.On Sunday morning I realised that I hadn’t heard from Toby at all since our date. I would be seeing him in the evening for our usual session, and an uncomfortable feeling sat with me. Had he not had a good time? Was it now going to be awkward during our session? This was why you don’t try to date guys who you have to see again. Or date at all actually. I really liked that gym. I didn’t want to have to find a new one.I grabbed my phone and hovered my thumb over his number. I couldn’t bring myself to call though. Damn, I had the biggest balls in the world sometimes, I could take down guys twice my size, yet calling a guy that I kinda liked scared me. Fuck it, I would see him later. Which gave me the entire day to pull myself together and hype myself up to ask him what went wrong.
When it was finally time to go to the gym and see Toby, I had pulled myself into a reasonably better frame of mind.“Why didn’t you call?” I blurted as I walked up behind him in the gym. Okay, maybe I was still a bit nervous.
He spun around to face me, wide eyed and startled by my outburst.“Erm, hi to you too.” He frowned. “What do you mean?”“You didn’t call.” I twisted my braided hair between my fingers, feeling stupid for the way I was acting.Pull it together woman.“No, you didn’t call.”He walked away and began to stretch. I followed him and sat on a mat next to where he stood, grabbing the toes of my trainers and feeling a small crack in my back as I stretched out my aching muscles. Fighting in inappropriate footwear was not good for my body.“What? Since when do girls call first?” I asked.He had a point though, maybe my idea of dating was entirely outdated and based off of television shows. Why should he have called first? There was nothing to say he should.“When you left you said you’d call later.” Oh, shit. “At first, I was worried about you when I hadn’t heard from you. But you’re always telling me that you’re a big strong girl who can handle herself, so I ended up presuming that you’d just not had a good time and that you were ghosting me.” He shrugged. “Not the case?” He looked hopeful.“Shit, no.” I bit my lip as I remembered our parting conversation. “I’m so sorry, things got a bit…” I fumbled for an appropriate word. I’d found out that the guy who had been messing with my reputation was a new Brother, and then I had gone and angry fucked my ‘boss’, how do you put that into a word? How do I explain that to a man who thinks I’m sweet but feisty accountant, Mallory Clarke, not deadly Brother, Mallory Fields.“Stressful.” Sure, that would have to do. “I had a good time, Toby.” I smiled up at him.He sighed heavily and smiled right back at me. “Maybe I’ll let you make it up to me then.” His gentle smile morphed into a wicked grin. “But for now, Vixen, I plan on torturing you for an hour, maybe two.”The words had me swallowing hard, and he pushed his hair away from his face, securing it with an elastic. The way his loose tank-top lifted as he moved and teased me with a glimpse of his toned. tattooed stomach had me close to drooling. I was glad I hadn’t completely fucked it up between us, and I had a feeling that Toby could actually tolerate some of my less desirable traits, like disappearing without explanation. The guy was the full package. I just needed to find out if he could handle the dark parts of my life.
Not yet though.
Until the time felt right, I’d go back to having my cake and eating it too, as long as I still had cakes to eat. I didn’t really want to think too much about my other cake though.Toby’s plan to torture me had not been a joke. Every muscle in my body was on fire after an hour of him pushing me.“Ten more minutes?” he asked as I practically fell off of the bench I had been laying on.“How about ten more seconds?” I gave him my best puppy-dog eyes and he chuckled. It was a low, sexy sound that made my thighs clench. Toby had always managed to get me hot and bothered, but now, after one date, I was melting for the beautiful beast.“Ten minutes, and I’ll sweeten the deal with the irresistible offer of dinner at my place, cooked by yours truly.”How could I say no to that, the man was offering up a second chance and a home cooked meal. I had no idea if he could cook very well, but the idea of him even trying made me want him even more. But I couldn’t just agree.“Seven, and I’ll make dessert?” I pushed.“Nine, and I’ll be dessert.” He gave me an exaggerated wink.“Eight, and I’ll be dessert.” I tossed back.“Deal.” He grinned. I probably shouldn’t have encouraged him to flirt with me while he was working, but fuck it, we weren’t hurting anyone. And he was still successfully doing his job. Win win.“Tobes, can you come and help me with something in the office real quick?” A guy approached us, he was huge, bigger than Toby, and wearing nothing but a pair of bright yellow shorts and matching trainers.“Can it wait a few, Matt?” Toby asked, looking a little frustrated.“Not really man, I’ve got a guy waiting and I can’t do anything until it’s sorted.” He looked genuinely apologetic, but the way Toby huffed made me wonder if maybe this was a pretty common occurrence.“Fine, you better pay attention this time though.” He turned to me. “I’ll be back, don’t go thinking you’re getting out of our deal.” He ran his tongue over his lower lip, and I felt my face heat even more.I watched him walk away, quietly admiring the way his muscles tightened and flexed as he moved.“Shall I get you a mop?” A familiar voice came from behind me. Pulling me from my little trance, and every inch of my body prickled with irritation.“What the fuck are you doing here,” I snarled, turning to face him.“My job, apparently.” Adonis ran his eyes over my sweat coated body, his gaze narrowing as his eyes found their way back to my face.“Which is?” I kept my voice low. People here didn’t know who I was associated with.“Firstly, retrieving you. And then a quick chat with a man about a dog.”I rolled my eyes at his stupid response. “And that takes two of us?”I stepped back to ensure that I had enough space, and then began a gentle stretch, knowing full well my body would be screaming tomorrow if I didn’t. It would probably be screaming regardless, but habits.“Come on, cara, don’t make me carry you,” he said, ignoring my question.“You wouldn’t dare,” I growled.“If it gets this over and done with then yes, I would.” He gave me a hard stare and I bent forward to touch my toes. Moving slowly to ensure maximum annoyance was felt on his part.“I need to go and change,” I said as I straightened up, raising an arm over my head and grabbing my elbow. He shook his head sharply and I huffed in defeat. Too tired to argue properly. “Fine, but I need to go and get my bag.”He shook his head again and lifted my black duffle bag to my face. “Done.”“Unbelievable.”He threw my bag over his shoulder and walked off. “Hurry up, cara, we’re already late,” he called over his shoulder.“Fucking arsehole,” I hissed under my breath, noticing that every set of eyes in the gym were on the two of us. It was hardly surprising, seeing as he stood out like a sore thumb in his perfectly pressed pitch-black suit. I couldn’t help but wonder how he would look in something more comfortable, he was clearly in good shape, and I doubted that he worked out in formal attire. For some reason, I was now itching to see him dressed down, casual, covered in...I blinked hard, and quickly caught up with him as he strolled past the reception desk and walked towards the front doors. A door marked private on the other side of the lobby swung open, and I turned to meet Toby’s confused frown.“Sorry,” I mouthed. “I’ll call you. Promise.” I held my hand up to mimic a phone and then drew a cross over my heart. He squinted at the back of Adonis’ head and then looked back at me and gave me a quick nod.“You better,” he mouthed back and lifted his brows. I bit my lip and smiled before rushing after Adonis, who was now standing outside, looking even more pissed off than usual.“Is the boss not enough for you, cara?” he asked as I made my way to his car.“Why do you even care?”“You’re screwing with my family. Family means something to me,” he said as he moved to the driver’s side of the car. “And I’d quite like to see you removed from it.”“So you’re going to go running back to Lorenzo and tell him that I was flirting with someone? He already knows, and I’m still here.” I smirked and climbed into his car.“For now.” I heard him mutter as I closed the door. He got in his side and tossed my bag onto the back seat. I leaned over and rooted around for my phone. Once I found it, I got comfy and pulled open my messages. Finding the thread I was looking for, I typed out a message.
MalloryI’m really sorry. Rain check on dinner? Maybe tomorrow?
I pressed send and then opened my news app, scrolling through the top stories. I wasn’t interested in reading them, but I didn’t want to talk to the arsehole sat next to me. So I distracted myself with current affairs. A few minutes later a message popped up.
TobyTomorrow. But it’s your last chance, Vixen. Don’t break my heart ;)
MalloryI’ll call you later.
I sighed, happy that he wasn’t annoyed with me. I tried not to think too deeply into that last part of his message. There was no way his heart was invested in this yet. But a tiny part of me hoped that it might be.“How old are you?” Adonis’ voice cut through my happy bubble.“Twenty-two,” I answered, “Why?”Why was he suddenly taking an interest in me?“Because you’re sat there sighing at your phone like a little lovesick thirteen-year-old. Act your age.”His final three words rang out with so much authority that I froze. Staring at him with my mouth open. I blinked repeatedly and pushed my tongue into my cheek, having no idea how the fuck to respond.I threw my phone back behind me towards my bag and looked out of the window. Men didn’t usually render me speechless, no one did, but there had been something in his tone that had me feeling uneasy. If I didn’t hate the idea of him telling me what to do, I would say he might make a good leader.Luckily, that wasn’t likely to happen.“Stay here,” he commanded, grabbing my attention as he pulled up outside a bar that I recognised but had never been inside of. “I’ll just be a minute.”