Total pages in book: 181
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 181613 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 908(@200wpm)___ 726(@250wpm)___ 605(@300wpm)
“No. This isn’t about Levi.”
He smiles. “Who then?”
I sigh out loud. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
“Fine, don’t tell me. But at least let me train you.”
“Train me? And what makes you believe you’re qualified?”
“I know what I’m doing. Trust the process,” he replies.
“And what if I get hurt in the ‘process’?” I make quotation marks with my fingers.
“Then I’ll patch you up myself.” He winks. “I have a first-aid certificate.”
No wonder he was the first to jump into the water to save Mavis. Not that it helped, but at least he tried.
Apollo puts the bar right in front of me now and then takes the weights off that he used. “We’ll start slow. Give you some time to adjust to the weight.”
Why does it sound like I’m supposed to get used to the weight of something else entirely?
“Go on. Lift.”
I roll my eyes again. “Fine.”
I grab the bar handles and lift them with both arms, while he begins to circle me, and I can practically feel his eyes ogling my ass.
“Excellent form, Freckles.”
“Thanks, Muscles.”
He raises a brow. “Muscles?”
“Since we’re calling each other by different names, I thought it’d fit.”
“I like it. Better than ’Roid.” He smiles, which is in fact the opposite of what I wanted to achieve. Dammit.
He moves in and adds another set of weight plates. I try to pick it up, but man, is it heavy.
He eyes me up and down. “You look like you’re about five feet, five inches. How much do you weigh?”
“Excuse me?” I frown. “You don’t ask a woman that, especially not a chubbier one.”
“Chubby? C’mon. Juicy is more like it.” He winks.
I blush and tuck a strand of my hair behind my ear to hide it.
“So what is it … one fifty?”
I snort. “I wish.”
“One sixty?”
“Dude …”
He tilts his head, and the veins in his neck nearly pop. “So one sixty-five then?”
“What? How would you even know?”
The smirk slowly growing on his face gives the ruse away.
Shit. I should not have said that.
He grabs a smaller set of dumbbells and puts on the weight plates, then looks me up and down again with those sharp, bright gray eyes, and then adds a few more plates.
The exact amount of weight he guessed correctly.
“Why are you doing this?”
He grabs the dumbbell and lifts it with just one hand, a lopsided smile forming on his chiseled face as he glances at me while he easily plays with the bar right where his waist is. “Just so I know how it will feel when I carry you to my bed.”
My whole body begins to heat, and I’m sure my face looks like a tomato.
“Easy.”
Oh my God.
“What is?”
Levi’s voice makes all the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, and I drop the kettlebell on the floor. “Oh fuck!”
“Patience, Freckles,” Apollo says.
Why do I have the feeling he just meant something that has nothing to do with lifting this weight?
But Levi’s presence slowly drowns out my ability to speak.
I haven’t seen him since he threatened me in that classroom.
Since he tried to finger fuck me in a corner.
Goddammit, why can’t I get the image out of my mind?
“Apollo, weren’t we supposed to train today?”
“Oh shit.” Apollo swiftly drops the bar and rubs the back of his neck. “Forgot.”
Levi’s nostrils flare. “Figured.” He throws his towel over his shoulder and then throws me the most maddening of all glances without saying a single word.
And for some reason, I can’t decide whether to throw this kettlebell at his face or yell at him for being a prick.
We used to be friends.
Used to.
Because all I can think of right now is what items in my vicinity I can use as a weapon in case he tries to attack me. In case he wants to kill me just like he killed my sister.
My throat clamps up.
“What are you doing with her?” Levi asks.
“I’m training her,” he responds.
“Why?”
Apollo cracks his knuckles. “You think I answer to you?”
“We don’t need your permission,” I growl.
“I wasn’t talking to you,” Levi growls.
My heart has never gone frigid so swiftly as it did the moment I saw his darkened eyes settle on mine.
“Don’t you have somewhere else to be?”
“Excuse me?” I bite back.
Since when did he become such a goddamn bully?
Apollo laughs.
“Settle down, Loverboy. She doesn’t need your permission to talk,” Apollo replies. “Let’s keep things civil. At least at school, so we stay out of Rivera’s sight.”
“Loverboy …” I snort. What a joke. “Good one.”
Apollo glances at me, a filthy smile forming on my lips like he knows something, but suddenly, Levi smacks him in the shoulder. “Don’t.”
They have a stare down without saying a single word to each other, but my God … if looks could kill, about half the dumbbells in this gym would’ve been thrown around right about now. None of us would survive.