Worth The Fight (Hard To Love Book 1) (4 page)

“Does it cause you any pain now? Like when you hold or grab anything?” I feel proud that I’m managing to keep this completely professional, especially when I’m eye level with his worship worthy abs.

“No pain. I just want to get back to fighting, I have a fight coming up and I need to be better than fit for it. You, apparently, are the only one who can clear me for that.” I can hear the venom in his tone and I know that it must be difficult for a guy like him to have someone else in control of his career, especially after the last coach he had.

I grab the wraps he left sitting next to his towel and get him ready to train. He watches me for a few seconds in silence but I know he's dying to talk. I can see his Adam’s apple bobbing up and down in his throat as he tries to stay quiet. Soon enough he breaks his silence.

“Are we on?” I look up at him again and nod. I'm thankful that I'm looking at him when a smile finally crosses his face. That simple act completely changes him, his eyes sparkle and I notice a dimple in his right cheek.
Note to self, don’t make the hot guy smile.

“I will let you spar with me after I work out your fitness level. I'm not going to let you go full throttle until I know it’s completely healed, and I can’t judge that after ten minutes and a couple of prods. I understand your frustration but damaging it further isn’t going to help anyone. I'm here to do a job, one that I'm bloody good at, and that job is to make you a champion. Let me do what I came here to do and we will get on just fine.” If I'm not mistaken a look of respect crosses his features but it disappears so quickly that I can’t be sure it was ever there.

“Let’s get this party started then.” That’s all he says before he walks over to the ring, leans down and enters between the ropes. I watch him bounce on his feet and I'm impressed. For a guy that I’ve been assured hasn’t fought for the last few months, he hasn’t lost any of his grace. That’s usually the first thing to go when fighters get hurt, they start to look a bit wobbly when they get back into the ring, like a toddler trying to take their first steps. Not Zeke though, he looks like he hasn’t missed a day of training, he’s light on his feet and fully in control. It’s one of the things that I admired about his fighting when I had studied him on the flight over. He moves likes he's a featherweight fighter, but he's built like a heavyweight. That makes for an explosive combination in the ring and I can’t wait to see what he can actually do.

I pick up the focus pads and put them on after climbing into the ring. Zeke’s eyes are trained on me as I slowly circle him.

“I want you to hit the pads when I present them. The only rule is that you’re not allowed to use your right hand. Feet, legs or your left hand … all allowed, but if you use your right hand at all, I will tie it behind your back.” Zeke raises his eyebrows at me and I can’t help the flush that spreads through my body as I imagine Zeke tied up. That is the last thing I should be thinking about now, I'm risking a hard on of epic proportions with no way to hide it. To keep Zeke’s attention away from my crotch, I quickly raise a pad up so my arm is out above my shoulder, within seconds Zeke spins and hits it with his foot. His range of motion is impressive and leads to more thoughts I shouldn’t be having.

After making him chase pads until he's sweating I pick up a kick pad to find out how much power he really has.

“I want you to kick this as hard as you can.” His eyes light up as he looks at the pad. His chest is heaving up and down, sweat dripping down his hard muscles to the waistband of his shorts. I try not to focus on his body but it’s like showing a kid an ice cream and telling them they can’t have it. I open my stance as I stand behind the mat, making sure I'm fully braced and protected. If I'm not steady I might end up on my arse. I focus my eyes back to Zeke’s body as he moves around in front of me, trying to keep my thoughts on his movements, working out how he's going to attack. I can see the buildup and I know it’s coming but Eddie appears behind Zeke and shouts my name at the wrong moment. I take my eye off Zeke for a fraction of a second and that’s all it takes. I feel his foot connect with the soft material that’s meant to protect me and I feel my feet leave the ground already aware that my landing isn’t going to be graceful. I land on my back and air is pushed from my chest, leaving me lying on the floor gasping for breath.

“Shit!” I hear Zeke shouting before the pad is pulled from my arms and he leans over me on his knees. If I wasn’t in so much pain right now I would take the time to enjoy this moment and the picturesque view of a sexy man above me.
Okay apparently I'm not as hurt as I thought.

“Are you okay? I'm sorry, I thought you were ready.” I try to laugh but I'm still struggling to fill my lungs with oxygen.

“Did you get the reg number of the lorry that just hit me?” Zeke’s deep laughter flows over me and the hairs on my body stand on end. It’s official, I need to make sure I never make Zeke smile or laugh. The affects on me are too much and I will never be able to hide the attraction I can feel building.

“I think there’s something wrong with you, I don’t understand what you’re saying.” This time I manage to laugh. When I first arrived I noticed that people had a problem understanding some of the things I said, and most of the time now I remember to use words they understand.

“Don’t worry about it, it takes more than a kick to scramble my brain.” I get another smile from Zeke before he stands up and bends over to help me up. I grab his offered hand and he pulls me up until I'm standing. There is a current flowing from his skin to mine, and when our eyes connect I can’t seem to look away. I realize that our hands are still connected and we pull apart quickly when Eddie shouts at me, asking if I'm okay. I nod my head and smile at him before walking over to see what he wants. I focus on him and try not to think about the heat that has
spread all over my body since touching Zeke’s hand.

Chapter Four

Zeke

I groan as the hot water from the shower beats against my aching muscles. When I first started training with Bryce this morning, I wasn’t convinced that it was going to do anything for me, but even I have to admit that my body
is telling me that I’ve been worked hard
. I lean my head to the side and feel a very satisfying crack. I’ve missed this, the deep down ache you feel after you’ve worked your body so hard. It’s like a drug for me and when I couldn’t have it I wasn’t the nicest person to be around.

I look up when I hear the shower next to me start and see Bryce running his hands through his hair, and while he's distracted, I take the chance to look him over. His body is as built as some of the guys that I fight against, his muscles tight and well defined. His abs look like they’ve been cut from steel and I feel myself envious of his amazing eight pack. I’ve tried since I started fighting to get that elusive eight pack, but I’ve never managed it. I try to convince myself that’s why I'm still looking at his body, I'm admiring his dedication to fitness and that it has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that I can’t look away from him. My dick is unfortunately enjoying what it sees and I can feel myself start to harden. I turn away quickly in embarrassment even though there are half walls that separate the showers to hide me. I think about Asha, about her lush body, what it feels like when it’s wrapped around my dick and that fantastic mouth that would bring any man to his knees. With those thoughts running through my head I reach down and rub along my now very obvious hard on, but I feel better now that I can tell myself that it’s all for Asha. I need to make myself believe this, if I can’t then I will have to think about why my body is reacting to the very naked man next to me. I would need to think about why when he's near me my mind goes fuzzy and I find myself thinking about things I shouldn’t. Some of those thoughts being how amazing his lips look when he's focusing on my posture, or how his muscles flex when he moves. No I won’t think about that, I’ll think about Asha. Try to convince myself she’s the sole reason I'm so hard right now.

“How’s your hand?” I look down to my right hand that’s stroking my cock and let go quickly. I glance over at Bryce to see if he noticed what I was doing but he's washing his hair, so there is no way he could have seen anything. The timing of the question was just coincidental and actually very innocent, it’s just my mind that’s making it something it wasn’t.

“Yeah, it feels great.” I bite my lip as I answer him, enjoying my private joke.

“That’s good. I think tomorrow we can increase your sparring time. I know you were pissed when I said you couldn’t use that hand, but I swear there’s a reason to my madness. You’ll see soon enough.” He puts his head under the water to rinse the shampoo from his hair and bubbles run down his chest. I swear to God I try not to let my eyes follow them, but fail miserably. My mind drifts back to when he told me I wasn’t allowed to use my hand, I thought he was insane. I would’ve told him exactly that, but I was intrigued with the blush that had covered his cheeks when he had talked about tying my hands behind my back. When those words came out his mouth, visions had flashed through my head of Bryce tying me down, and when I raised my eyebrow at Bryce it almost looked like he’d had similar thoughts.

“Yeah, I have to admit I thought you might have lost your mind a little there, but if I'm honest, I don’t think my hand could have done much.” He laughs at my comment, and I can’t help but stare at his lips, wondering if they are as soft as they look. I grab my body wash from the shelf in the shower and pour a good amount into my hands before scrubbing my body. I’ve already washed my body, but I need a distraction from the direction my mind is going.

“I swear I know what I'm doing, I’ve done this before. We need to condition your body without putting too much strain on your hand straight away. So if you can learn to not use it as your dominant hand, then it will get the rest it needs. A few weeks of that and I promise you will be back to fighting like normal. You did well though, I didn’t have to tie you up at all.” The same flush as before covers his face and I can’t help but wish I could hear what was going through his head. There’s something about those words that cause a reaction from him, and I want to know what it is. He turns away from me and I let my eyes drift, taking in the dips and grooves of his toned back. Shit. I will not stare at his body again, and I certainly won’t get hard while I do it. I turn the water temperature down, trying to get control over my raging hormones. I haven’t felt like this since I was a teenager, and that never really went well. Deciding I need to get laid tonight, I come up with a plan. I don’t know if it’s a good plan but I run with it, maybe the distraction will help whatever is going on here.

“So, what’re your plans for tonight?” I open one eye and look over to Bryce to make sure he knows I'm talking to him. He turns off the water and grabs a towel from the hook before wrapping it around his waist. I follow his lead, wrapping my own towel around me before walking over to my locker.

“I was planning on going home and making a work out plan for you. Now I’ve seen you I can plan better.” Is he kidding me? After six hours in the gym he’s going to go home to work some more. I’m a great believer in hard work, you don’t get to the level I’m at without having dedication and working more hours than the average person, but everyone needs some down time.

“You’re going home to work? Seriously, you don’t have a hot woman you can hook up with for the night? You deserve a reward, you did a good job today.” I can’t help the laughter in my voice as I speak. He looks over to me and gives me the finger which makes me laugh harder. At least he knows I'm trying to fuck with him, I promised Coach I would give him a chance so that’s what I'm doing. Actually if I'm truthful, Bryce seems like a good guy. I had an instant dislike for him but that was purely because of my experience with Ethan. He’d been an idiot and that has made me wary about anyone else. Bryce is completely different though. He seems to know what he's talking about, the stuff he had me doing earlier worked my muscles with the minimum of effort and it’s like I can already feel myself getting stronger. He's not trying to keep me from training, he's adapting it to get me back into the cage quicker.

“I know it’s hard to believe, but I don’t have anyone here to occupy me. I’ve only been here for a few weeks. You’re the first person I’ve really spoken to other than Eddie. Lucky me, eh?” I laugh at his joke, happy that we are chatting like this, but take note of his words. I never really thought about him not knowing anyone, I never thought to ask how long he's been here. When I left home I spent so much time on my own, just sitting watching people walking past me on the street, not seeing me as they talked to friends and family. I spent most of my wishing I had someone to talk to, to share my time with. I hate it when I think someone else is lonely, especially when it’s someone who seems as nice as Bryce.

“What, Mr. Perfect Coach doesn’t have people falling at his feet to be friends?” I turn from my locker just in time to see his towel fall to the floor as he pulls his boxer shorts up. I turn away, but not before I look down and see his naked ass. His fucking perfectly round, naked ass. I feel my dick twitch against my towel and I quickly grab my clothes. The sooner I'm dressed, the sooner I can get out of here. Being around him like this is doing something weird to my body, something I don’t want to explore.

“Fuck you, Zeke. Just because the world wants to kiss your arse, doesn’t mean that we all have them bowing at our feet.” His words would come off harsh if he didn’t have a smirk on his face.

“Yeah, it’s just like that. Anyway, tonight I'm taking you out and introducing you to some people. You can’t spend your whole life working. If you don’t have some fun you’ll become boring and I refuse to have a boring coach.” He stops buttoning his shirt and turns towards me, giving me his full attention. Standing there in tight blue jeans and a white button down, I swear I’ve never seen a guy look sexier. No, not sexier. More attractive, yeah that’s the words I should have used. I shake my head, confused about the way my mind is fucking with me. I need to get laid tonight … or drunk … or both.

“So, I'm your coach?” He raises his eyebrows at me and I smile, realizing that I’ve resigned myself to the fact that he’s here to stay.

“Yes, for now. Let’s not make a big deal out of it, don’t want you getting a big head. So hurry up and get dressed.” I grab my own black shirt and button it up before tucking it into my trousers. I’d planned to go out tonight so I wore some good clothes to training today, and now I'm glad I did. I never invited Ethan out with us, it would have been my worst nightmare. I didn’t want to spend time with him inside the gym, so outside it was a no go, but I'm glad I asked Bryce. If we can get along it would make life a lot easier, and he does seem like a good guy. So I’ll take him out and show him how we like to unwind. I need to show Bryce how much trouble I can get him into, best to start as I mean to go on.

****

I grab my glass of bourbon and take a large drink. We’ve been at the club for about an hour now and I'm trying to pace myself. I don’t want to train with a hangover tomorrow, not on my second day back to it. I look over the table towards Bryce. He’s been attracting a lot of female attention but he looks uncomfortable with it and just smiles at them before taking another drink of his water. I had tried to get him to drink something alcoholic, I mean who comes to a club and drinks water? But he refused point blank. I wonder now if he wished he hadn’t accepted my invitation to come out.

I feel a pair of lips brush over my neck and a hand groping my thigh, but I don’t turn around. I'm used to this sort of attention when I go out, I can get any girl I want in this place and they all scramble to get my attention. I don’t know who’s attached to the lips or hands, but I honestly don’t care. I'm not paying attention to the women in here tonight because my interest lies squarely on the guy sitting opposite me. The hand on my thigh moves higher and I reach down to stop it in its tracks.

“Oh, baby. I could make you feel so good, I know you want that.” Normally having some girl talking to me like this would have my dick hard and have me craving the orgasm that had been promised to me but tonight I’m more interested in getting to know Bryce better. I stand and move past the legs of the people sitting next to me and make my way around the table to sit on the bench next to the woman who’s struggling to get the button on Bryce’s jeans open. He's trying to be polite and not make a big deal out of the unwanted attention, but I can see the panic in his eyes as he holds onto her wrists. I tap her on the shoulder and she instantly turns towards me, a small squeal leaving her as she sees who I am. Her arms wrap around my neck and all thought of Bryce leaves her. Unwrapping her arms from me, I lean over and talk in her ear, thankful that the booth we have is in a quieter area of the club and she can hear me clearly.

“You need to back off now. You’re not wanted here, by me or the other guy.” I have no idea what makes me say it, but Bryce’s discomfort is pissing me off. I want him to have a good night, to be relaxed and make friends. The last thing he needs is some drunk woman pawning all over him. I turn and motion for Axl to come over. He smiles as he approaches, his eyes never leaving the girl in front of me. I lean in again to talk to the girl, pointing towards Axl.

“Now this guy here, he's the one for you. I’ve heard the girls talking about him and his magic cock. Not sure what it does, and I don’t want to know, but I hear it makes them go cross-eyed.” I have to hold in the laugh that is dying to break free at the look on the girl’s face. She doesn’t even speak as she stands and grabs Axl behind the head, pulling him down towards her so she can attack his mouth. He accepts the kiss willingly and pulls her towards the dark corner of the booth, he holds out a closed fist to me and I bump mine against his. I let the laugh come out this time as I watch him practically dragging her to the darkness. I turn and see that Bryce also has a smile on his face as he looks at me.

“Thanks. She was a little … forward? Are all American women like that?” I want to tell him that they’re not, but truthfully I haven’t actually met any who aren’t. Maybe I just attract the confident types, the ones who know what they want and are willing to go for it. I don’t really meet the shy, quiet ones, the ones you can take home to mom.

“Kinda. What kind of woman do you go for? We could try and get you a little company for the night.” I watch as he takes a long drink, his cheeks flushing with color as he does so. I wouldn’t have taken him as the quiet type, but one mention of a woman and he gets all shy. I decide to give him a break and try to find a subject that won’t have him feeling awkward.

“Forget it, the only women you get in here are pushy. So tell me a bit about yourself, tell me all about Bryce.” I ask as I lean against the wall behind me and I watch as he visibly relaxes. This is obviously something he's willing to talk about.

“There’s not much to tell really.” I’ve always noticed that the people who say the have nothing to tell usually have the best stories, so I refuse to let him off the hook so easily. I wasn’t as lucky as him, I didn’t get a file with his life story like he got for me. I’m going to use tonight as my opportunity to find out about him.

“Yeah, I'm sure you’re really boring, but what brings you over from England?” He doesn’t speak and simply points towards me. I point to myself, my eyes widening in shock.