Total pages in book: 93
Estimated words: 91058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 91058 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 455(@200wpm)___ 364(@250wpm)___ 304(@300wpm)
Each night is the night he might not show up, and each night he walks through the gym doors and comes to find me, it feels better than the last, like all the hope that’s been building to a breaking point inside me all day hasn’t been in vain.
I’m flat on my back, resting after a set of crunches when I see his shoes in my periphery. I turn and tilt my head. He has his hands on his hips. Today, TODAY, is a backward hat day.
“Are you going to lie there the rest of the night or are we getting in the ring?”
I hold up my hand, and he steps forward to take it. I feel his grip down in my toes. His hand is powerful and tight. He hoists me up so easily and then I’m on my feet in front of him, head tipped back. Our hands are still linked for one…two seconds… He lets go, and I smile before shoving him playfully on the shoulder.
“Let’s go.”
Maybe I didn’t sleep well last night or maybe I didn’t have enough caffeine today, but my concentration in the ring is shot. Hudson and I are working through drills, but it feels like I’m getting my ass handed to me more than usual.
Hudson notices too. “Where are you tonight, Elwood?”
I shake my head and try to focus. I throw a punch, and he easily deflects it. Another weak throw and he has me twisted around then down on my hands and knees.
I groan and stand up again, angry at myself for not being more focused, angry for letting this thing with Hudson burrow into my every waking thought…suddenly just plain angry. I growl and swing back around. Hudson isn’t expecting it, but he still dips out of the way of my arm. My momentum’s too much and I end up taking myself out. I land on the mat, flat on my back—a complete and utter fool.
I stare up at the ceiling. My heart might beat out of my chest. My breaths come hard and fast. My blood pulses through me. Everything feels raw, like in hitting the mat, I accidentally dislodged the tight tether I’ve kept on my emotions.
I’m not even aware that the truth is on the tip of my tongue demanding air, but suddenly my lips are parting like I have to say it. I have to get it off my chest. And if there’s anyone I want to tell, anyone who might make this feeling go away, it’s Hudson.
“Jasper told me I was boring in bed.”
Hudson was already approaching me to check if I was okay. Now he crouches down at my side. “He what?”
I’m still catching my breath so my sharp inhales cut off my words. “He said…I’m boring in bed. The day we broke up.”
Saying it out loud sounds so hilariously depressing, but the fact is, as a woman in the corporate world who’s already been labeled things like studious, severe, intense, and Type A her whole life, I feel like my feminine prowess has always been in question. I didn’t even quite realize what an insecurity it was for me until Jasper laid it out there and made it crystal clear. I’m a buttoned-up lawyer with nothing to offer.
Asinine or not, I’ve let Jasper’s words replay in my head a thousand times a day, and I feel vulnerable now that the statement hangs out in the open again, between Hudson and me.
I hate this feeling, like suddenly I want to shake off my own skin. I have to do something, so I laugh, hoping to downplay it or, better yet, act like I never said anything at all.
Hudson says my name, trying to get my attention, but I can’t look at him. He reaches out and nudges my side with his fist. Still, I don’t turn my head.
“Scarlett.”
I squeeze my eyes closed.
“Forget it,” I say lightly. “God, it’s stupid.”
He leans in, lowering himself close to me. For an eternity, he just stays there, not saying a word. When he talks, his voice skates across my skin like a tempting caress, sending goose bumps down my spine. “Scarlett Elwood, you could fucking lie there frozen and you’d still be the sweetest thing I’ve ever felt. If he was bored, it’s because of his own damn issues.”
His words are so gentle and heartfelt I can barely receive them. I just nod before rolling away and pushing up onto my knees.
We walk to the locker rooms, we shower and change, and we walk out of the building together, but we don’t ever address the conversation we had on the mat.
He’s gifting me the out, and I take it.
Chapter Seventeen
Hudson
“I went home and I slept on it. I think we should kill him.”
At the sound of my voice, Scarlett abruptly stops typing and looks up at me with wide eyes.