Breathless Promises (Alluring Promises Series Book 3) (35 page)

Clark

Heading out for a quick run, I tried to ignore Z’s chatter. Since he wouldn’t stop asking questions, I had to keep paying attention. I’d have rather continued to think about Aub in my arms last night.

Then I smiled remembering this morning. Her nervousness, when she asked me to go with her to her company’s party, made me chuckle. I had overheard her talking the other night to Vanessa about the party. Vanessa was the one who suggested taking a date, although the guys she suggested were assholes.
Why wouldn’t she think to ask me first?

“So Tina’s out again?” Z asked as we rounded the corner to hit the trail. Hearing Tina’s name pulled me out of my thoughts and back to Z’s chattering.

“Yep,” I gave a clipped response.

“So, what about Aubrey?” He asked trying to sound nonchalant and failed miserably.

“What about her?” I pushed back.

“Well, just curious if you were trying to hook up with her again.”

“I don’t think I can. I want to…don’t get me wrong. Man, I want to…” I stopped mid-sentence knowing I might go off saying shit I’d regret later. “She’s been through enough. I…”

“I get it,” Z interrupted me. “But, you know, she’s a pretty strong woman. Maybe neither of you would regret it.” It sounded too much like my discussion with Matt. I stopped running and stared at Z. He finally stopped running and turned to walk back to me. “What?”

There were no secrets in our little group, were there? I was ticked off, but I wasn’t sure if it was at Z. Or Matt. Maybe it was just that everyone was discussing my love life. And Aub’s.

“What did Matt tell you?” He shrugged as he stopped right in front of me. The sun was starting to make its way higher into the sky so it was shining behind him pretty bright. I pulled my arm up and blocked the sun out with my hand. Squinting, I asked, “He told you what I said the other night, didn’t he?”

“Just about how you cared enough about her to walk away from taking advantage of her. It’s a good thing, Clark. We’ve never seen you turn down a woman before.”

I stood there still breathing heavy from our warm-up. “That’s the thing though, Z. I didn’t stop it. She did. I felt like an ass afterward.”

“You could have gone right back and tried again. That’s what you usually do; try harder. But you didn’t. Maybe Matt’s right. Maybe there’s something about Aubrey that makes you consider long-term.”

“A: I don’t want anything long-term with anyone; B: I’m pretty sure this is just some stupid superhero complex and I like saving her. That’s what it is. Damsel in distress type of shit.”

He slapped my back and smiled at me. “But you’ll never know until you talk to her,” he almost sang as he started his jog back to the gym.

Asshole.

We arrived back at the gym without discussing Aub anymore. Despite the other crap we talked about, my mind kept wandering back to the situation. Even though I wasn’t sure what the
situation
actually was.

“Hey, you’re wearing the headgear today, right?” Z asked and handed me the red one, laughing.

“Yeah,” I sighed and grabbed it from him. I put the contraption over my head even though it made me feel like an idiot.

“Hopefully, you’ve learned to keep your comments to yourself.”

“Sure,” I replied and smirked. “I can keep my comments to myself just like Daryl can keep his hands off your wife’s ass.”

I chuckled as I watched Z’s expression turn murderous and he checked to see where the girls were. “Well, looks like he actually prefers brunettes,” Z chimed as he looked back at me.

Glancing over, my blood boiled seeing Daryl holding Aub’s hand in his before slipping on a boxing glove. He was more touchy-feely than he needed to be; especially since I’ve watched him lace gloves up a lot quicker.

“Come on, try to pretend I’m Daryl and get out your jealousy in the ring.” He hit my arm and pushed me toward the ring.

I stood there for a moment longer watching Aub’s gorgeous brown eyes glance up at Daryl. Her flirtatious smile made my stomach churn. It made me want run over and interrupt their little conversation.

“Hey!” Z called again making me snap my head to his. He motioned for me to get my ass in the ring. Reluctantly, I ducked my head under the rope to get in there.

“Whoa, looks like Daryl’s got a hot new piece of ass to take home tonight,” Mac, our referee and coach said, making me want to punch the shit out of
him
now for saying that.

“Shut the…” I started just as Z interrupted me.

“Hey now, Aubrey’s a good friend of ours. Don’t talk about her like that.” The tone of Z’s voice was as stern as if he were talking about his sister. I walked over to the side of the ring closest to Aub and Daryl.

“Ohh, looks like someone else has the hots for her, huh, Clark?”

I turned around ready to punch the shit out of him again, but Z shoved my shoulder. “Hey. Take it out on me. Let’s go. Pretend I’m Daryl and fight me,” Z urged and then held up his gloves coaxing me.

I slipped my mouth guard in and glared at him, doing just as he said. We sparred like we’ve never sparred before. I was getting an awesome workout while getting my frustration out, too.

Then I heard Mac say, “Wow, Daryl’s really giving her some one-on-one training.” My eyes flicked over to see Daryl right behind Aub, with his hands resting right at her hip.
My
thumb-holes.

Then I felt a shot of pure pain explode through my cheek as my head continued to spin.

And then…

Everything went black.

“Clark!” I heard my name being called. Blinking my eyes open, Mac and Z hovered above me. Both were staring at me and then I felt a hard slap to my face.

“Ow!” I cried out and scowled at Z. I was pretty sure he took a lot of pleasure in slapping me. The pain I felt before was now doubled and my cheek throbbed. “What the fuck happened?”

Z chuckled and glanced over to where the girls were training. “You, uh, were paying too much attention to Daryl having his hands on Aub.”

I groaned and wearily sat up. Exhaling a deep breath, I looked at the headgear that had been removed from my head that surely didn’t protect me. “Man, I blacked out?” I looked back to Z, laughter shining in his eyes. “Fucker. You knocked me out with head gear on.” Just turning my head caused a blast of pain to shoot through my head.

“I told you to pay attention,” he scolded me as he held out his hand, helping me stand up. I was woozy, but able to gain my balance. I tried my best not to look over to Aub, but wasn’t successful. Standing face to face, it was obvious Aub and Daryl were not discussing boxing or any other type of training for that matter. Leaning in toward one another, she placed a stray hair behind her ear, they gave each other flirtatious smiles, and it was quite obvious they were discussing a more personal matter.

Z’s body suddenly blocked my view. Unfortunately, it didn’t stop the jealous rage I felt rising in me. I attempted, with great pain I might add, to crane my neck so I could see around his dumb ass, but he moved the same way blocking my line of vision.

“Hey baby,” Izzy called from outside the ring behind Z. “Are you two done? I’m pretty much ready to head out, if that’s all right.” Z was still staring me down with a stupid grin on his face. His arms were folded over his chest as if he were positive about something.

“Yep, I think we’re pretty much done here.” His final stare only angered me more as I huffed out my frustration. “Unless you want me to knock you out again because you lack concentration,” he taunted me.
Jerk.

I shook my head as I turned without a word and climbed out of the ring. Ripping off the gloves and unwinding the wraps from my hands, I berated myself more. I felt like a dumbass, but wasn’t sure if it was because Z knocked my ass out or if it was because I was so pre-occupied with Aub. What do I care if she’s flirting with another guy? Why do I care if she goes out on a date with some dickwad? The questions rolled through my mind as I pushed the door to the gym open and let the sunlight claim some of my questions.

It seemed easier to breathe once I was outside of the gym. Away from the whole scene and not watching my roommate get hit on by the biggest scumbag on earth, I could try to see things differently.

Okay, so he’s not
that
bad of a guy.

He’s actually pretty cool.

Just not when he’s hitting on Aub.

The cool air whipped around my head and I inhaled deeply allowing cool, fresh oxygen to freeze all my thoughts of Aub.

“Hey!” I heard that sexy husky voice call out to me. Just the sound of her voice warmed me and made my blood pump.

I swallowed before I turned around; trying to make sure my facial expression didn’t look confused or pissed off. Both of the feelings boiled over in me despite the freezing temperatures. “Yeah?”

Aub continued jogging to me, her ponytail swaying from side to side. Just watching her in yoga pants and her puffy jacket made my mouth water for her. She stopped in front of me, breathing a little heavy from trying to catch up to me. She pushed aside that same stray hair I watched her fix a few moments ago in front of Daryl. “Why’d you leave without me? I was waiting for you and Z to be done.”

“Looked like you were really into your conversation. I didn’t want to bother you.” I felt confident that I had kept my voice cool and even, hopefully not showing any hint of jealousy.
Hopefully.

“Bother me?” She huffed as she shook her head. “I couldn’t wait for you guys to be finished. I was trying to avoid Daryl asking me out.”

“Did he?” My question came out way too quick and as soon as I asked, I wished I hadn’t. Not bothering to hear an answer, I turned to start walking away, but Aub caught my arm.

“Wait. Are you…are you jealous or something?”

I glanced at her eyes and quickly averted my gaze to a passing car. “I didn’t like him having his hands all over you,” I admitted as another car passed and I tried to focus on the other vehicles speeding down the road or anything that would keep me from looking at Aub or seeing her expression.

“How come?” Reluctantly, I turned to look back to her eyes. She seemed like she was just as worried about my answer as I was to give it.

“He was just getting a cheap thrill from you.”

“Well, I…” she began but was interrupted by Daryl.

“Hey Aubrey!” he called out to her as he walked over to where we were standing. “I forgot to get your number before you ran off.” He looked at me briefly throwing out a quick “hey” to me before he whipped out his phone and began tapping the screen.

“Oh, I actually lost my phone the other day,” she told him as she glanced at me, then back to Daryl. She shrugged as he stared at her as if trying to figure out if she were lying or not.

“Again?” I played along. “That’s the third phone you’ve lost since you moved in,” I huffed, teasing her and backing her up at the same time. Aub rolled her eyes and then shrugged again.

“You live with Clark?” Daryl’s face scrunched up and I couldn’t tell what he really meant by that. I wrapped my arm around Aub’s waist and pulled her close to me.

“Yeah. For a while now,” Aub replied as she smiled up at me.

Daryl ignored all of it and gestured with his phone toward her. “Well, I’ll go ahead and take your number for when it hopefully turns up. If you don’t answer, I can always call Clark. Right, Clark?”

“Sure, Daryl. You’re more than welcome to call me to get in touch with Aub. I’ll definitely make sure she gets the message,” I told him while I snickered at his persistence.

Aub’s eyes didn’t leave mine and the corner of her mouth turned up as she rattled off a fake number.

“Great. I’ll be calling you soon,” he told her and then tapped on his phone. Too bad he didn’t realize she wasn’t looking at him at all.

We stood there staring at each other for a moment. Each passing second made me want to say something, but I had no idea what. I was relieved that she obviously wasn’t into Daryl, but I still wasn’t sure what my feelings meant.

“Do you want to tell me what you’re thinking about?” Aub asked as we continued to stand on the sidewalk. My arm was still wrapped around her waist. I had no intention of removing it.

Not wanting to discuss my feelings and also thinking back to when Tina tried to do the same, I tossed out, “A toothpick.”

She smiled bright. Her eyes did the same. “Mint flavored or the plain ones?” Her head quirked to the side and it made me chuckle that she actually went along with my game instead of wanting to try to get inside my head.

“The mint ones. I like those.”

“Hmm. Me too.” She turned, breaking our stare, and nodded in the direction of home. “It’s pretty cold out today and you’re making me stand on the sidewalk talking about mint toothpicks. Personally,” she started as she increased her pace and forced my hand to drop from her waist. “I like peppermints.” I stood there staring at the incredible view of her ass swaying from side to side. Man, I love yoga pants on her.

We arrived back at the apartment without discussing my reaction any further. Or anything else that had to do with “us” for that matter.