Chapter 1
Friday evening, Jameson’s Gym
It had been one helluva day already, and it hadn’t even reached six yet. He’d secretly called dibs on the last remaining treadmill, needing to run out some kinks.
Problem was, so hadshe—Pink Yoga Pants.
Gavin Donnigan locked gazes with her before eyeing the distance to the machine, then saw her doing the same. A gentleman would let her go first… While an enthralled man would stand back and watch her work those magnificent glutes, those toned hamstrings and calves.
But Gavin was no gentleman, at least, not in the gym. His domain. His jungle. His—
“Dude, you’re blocking the Nautilus.”
“Oh, sorry.” He moved out of the no-neck’s path, now no longer able to see the treadmill. When he stepped around another idiot standing in the way, he saw her smirk at him as she stepped on the machine. She kept his gaze as she slowly warmed up, making a huge production out of stretching her arms up over her head, then grinning from ear to ear.
He frowned.
She gave him a mock salute—the sexy witch—then proceeded to ignore the holy hell out of him as she tuned out the rest of the world and ran. Not jogged,ran. That made half a dozen times she’d blown him off with that same smug expression. Then she’d pretend he didn’t exist.
He’d like to throw her over his knee and spank the ever-loving—
“Gavin. Today, Bro. We have work to do before class.”
He groaned, needing the stress relief from a good run. “But Landon, I need to work out first.”
“Fine.” The dick wrapped a thick arm around Gavin’s neck and hauled him away in a headlock. “You want a workout? Let’s see if you can get out of this. Then I’ll throw you on the mat a few times and watch you flail as I beat your ass.”
Gavin sputtered, trying to breathe as his behemoth brother dragged him down the hallway toward the self-defense classroom.
Not cool to headlock a gym trainer in front of his many clients. Gavin tried not to wheeze as he fought Landon’s steel-hard muscles for breath. He glanced over and saw his pink-clad nemesis laughing at him. Crap. The damage had been done. He heard snickers, mockery, and encouragement forLandon.
Major Donnigan. What an asshole.
The former Marine choking him growled, “Now suck it up, princess, and let’s see your moves. If you can’t do it, you sure as shit can’t teach it.”
* * *
Two hours later, Gavin heard familiar chatter. “Oh my God. Did you see the size of his arms? They’re huge!”
“I swear, I would pay money for him to putmein a wristlock, headlock, body lock…”
“Hey, he can carry me over his shoulder and take me away to do bad things anytime he wants. Bring on the stranger danger, I say.”
“I’d like to get some of thatstrange. Talk about a nice ass…”
Chuckling, then some dirty talk ensued. Gavin would have flushed with embarrassment…if their compliments hadn’t been based on truth. And Landon said working at the gym had little in the way of perks.
Gavin cleared his throat from behind the group of early thirtysomethings still whispering things he knew they wouldn’t want him to hear. Four guilty faces swiveled in his direction, their cheeks red, their eyes wide.
“Ladies? I just wanted to make sure none of you had any questions about tonight’s instruction. We’re getting a little rougher than just escaping wristlocks.” And preventing douche bags from turning women into victims. Landon’s self-defense class had been hugely successful.
The boldest of the four managed a shaky smile. “Uh, um, no, Gavin. No questions.” She swallowed loudly, glanced at his eyes once, then lowered her gaze to his chest. “I found it really helpful.”
The others nodded like bobbleheads. “Awesome class.”
“I feel safer already.”
“I’m so glad you’re the ones teaching us.”
