He ran a hand through his hair, moving his gaze over my head. He had a far off look on his face for a moment. “I’m surprised as hell too,” he mumbled.
“What?”
He shook his head and stepped closer, bringing our fronts to touch. He ran a finger down the length of my jaw.
I shivered.
“This,” I said, stepping back, out of his reach. “Is why we need separate rooms. You need to focus on the training you will receive here. Aeryn and his team are some of the best in the state. They taught me most of what I know and here you’ll have access to better grappling partners than in LA.”
He deepened his frown. “None of that explains why we need separate rooms.”
I parted my lips to answer but I was still surprised that he pressed this hard for us to share a room. Luke liked his space.
“No distractions,” I said, finally. “These six weeks will transform your fighting. If you let it. I don’t want our personal relationship getting in the way of that,” I said, honestly.
I watched as the muscles in his jaw tightened. I moved closer, taking his hand in mine. “Trust me, Luke.”
He took a long, hard look at me, remaining silent for longer than I cared for. He searched my gaze with his own. Finally, he nodded. “Fine. If I’m here for six weeks and not getting any ass, it better be worth it,” he said.
I tossed my head back and laughed.
“It will be. I promise.”
Chapter 20
Waltz With Him
Syd
“Aeryn,” I called, running to catch up with my former mentor, in the parking lot outside of his dojo. “How’s he doing?”
I’d had to return to Los Angeles for a couple of days to do some work for ParaSquad. I returned to San Diego after two days away, and my first stop was to the dojo.
Aeryn gave me a scathing look before gesturing with his arm toward the parking space that was supposed to be reserved for dojo employees.
Glancing over, I spotted Luke’s black Maserati parked directly in front of the dojo.
“He refuses to park anywhere else.”
I tried to stifle the smirk from my lips. “He’s like that. What about his training?”
Aeryn shook his head. “He’s still not getting it. He wants to muscle his way through every move, and he doesn’t listen. I almost had to stop him from getting into a sparring match with Jay yesterday.”
I slumped my shoulders as I began following Aeryn toward the front door. It’d been like this for the entire two weeks we’d been training down here. Luke kept relying too heavily on his boxing skills. He wanted to stand toe-to-toe with his opponent. Most of the time he could outmatch them in this way, but in my gut, I knew he needed more tools in his arsenal. He refused to listen.
Stepping inside the dojo, I heard the grunts and growls of the two men rolling on the ground in the cage at the far corner of the gym. I instantly made out Luke and one of the other dojo students, grappling.
“At least he’s here on time every morning,” Aeryn said as he followed me over to the thirty foot octagon, set up exactly like that of an NFA cage.
In my peripheral, I could see a few of the other students standing around, outside of the cage, championing either Luke or the other guy. A speaker set up on one of the tables at the back of the dojo, blasted hip hop music. A standard style choice in the dojo to help get the fighters amped up even during training sessions and workouts.
I stood for a moment and watched the grappling inside of the cage.
“No, Luke. You have to counter,” I yelled.
He quickly peered back at me over his shoulder before continuing with the move he’d been trying to make.
However, Tomas, his opponent, was slippery and managed to get out of Luke’s hold.
