Robby blew air out through his nose, his jaw clenched tighter than his fists, which he dropped to his sides as he glared at Calder with a hostility he hadn’t thought the boy possessed. Sweat glistened off his chest and forehead, Calder’s borrowed joggers hanging low on his hips. “I’m hitting as hard as I can.”
Calder let his eyes roam Robby’s well muscled body. “I find that hard to believe, beautiful. You don’t get a body like yours without working out hard.”
Robby flushed and glanced down at himself as if he’d never seen his body before. “I got this body because a guy named Sven yelled at me every morning for a year and forced me to lift weights and eat things that taste like cardboard. If I wasn’t an actor, I’d probably be a big pile of mush because working out sucks and food tastes good.”
Calder barked out a laugh. “Well, for now, youarean actor and you can hit way harder than you are, so come on, let’s do this.” Calder slapped the pads covering his hands together. “Pick up your fists. Protect your face with your left and jab with your right.”
Robby did as Calder instructed. Despite his lack of enthusiasm, his irritation seemed to grow with each swing until he was snarling whenever he jabbed or crossed, hitting harder, making Calder’s palms sting. Every time Robby dropped the arm guarding his face, Calder thumped a pad against the boy’s cheek hard enough to remind him to pick up his hands.
As time passed, the boy’s fatigue grew evident. His swings became more wild, less accurate. When he missed Calder’s pads entirely and socked him in the jaw, Calder dropped them to the floor and caught his fist with his hand, spinning the boy around and pinning his arm behind his back, careful not to hurt him. “And here I thought you didn’t have a mean bone in your body. That hurt, angel face.”
Robby panted hard as he craned his head back to look up at Calder, blinking sweat out of his moss green eyes as he fluttered long lashes at him. “It was an accident,” he said, voice filled with mock innocence.
“I think you’re lying to me,” Calder purred against his ear.
Robby shrugged, his expression flirty. “Prove it.”
Fuck. Calder knew he needed to keep the boy focused, but it was awfully hard when everything about him screamed for Calder to pin him to the wall and fuck him. He let himself trace the shell of the boy’s ear with his tongue. He tasted like salt and clean sweat. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say you were trying to distract me so you could get out of practice.”
Robby turned his head and let his lips graze Calder’s jaw, ducking out of his grip just as Calder tried to capture his mouth, dancing away with fancy footwork like he was suddenly Mohammed Ali. “Then I guess it’s a good thing we don’t know each other,” he quipped, grabbing his water bottle off the table and taking a big swig.
Calder raised a brow. “Careful, angel. Nobody likes a tease.”
Robby locked eyes with him as he drained the bottle, water escaping the sides of his plush mouth to fall on his chest and slide down the ridges of his abdomen. “You’re the one who decided this would be a better use of our time, not me.”
Calder gave him a half smile. He wasn’t wrong, but it was a job and he had to at least try to earn his paycheck. “We have plenty of time for whatever dirty thoughts are swirling around in that pretty head of yours later . This is important.”
Robby stomped his foot and whined in what Calder could only describe as a hissy fit. He bit down on his lower lip to keep from laughing as the boy said, “Is it? Why? I hired you to protect me. I don’t want to hit anybody, and I don’t want anybody hitting me. I don’t like being hit in the face. I don’t like being hit at all. The whole point of hiring you was so that you will keep people from hitting me.”
The boy was a ball of emotions, the living embodiment of chaotic energy. Loud one minute, quiet the next. Timid one minute, bold the next. Scared all the time but had no filter at all when it came to his thoughts. Calder couldn’t figure out how the world seemed to just pass Robby over. It was like Calder had some supernatural gift to see something the rest of the world couldn’t. Robby was a ghost that seemed to appear only to him. It seemed a shame to squander such a generous gift, but now wasn’t the time.
“Okay, how about this? I’ll teach you some basic self-defense moves and then we’ll call it a day. I’m going to come at you from behind, and I want you to just do your best to try to get away. Okay?”
Robby eyed him warily but eventually nodded before turning away.
Calder allowed himself a moment to appreciate the swell of the boy’s ass and the perfect dimples that sat just above it on the boy’s lower back. Calder wanted to lick his way along Robby’s spine, wanted to dip his tongue in those dimples. Wanted to spread Robby open and taste the very core of him. He shook the thought away, noting the boy’s tension. “Relax, angel. You’re not supposed to see this coming. You need to be able to respond instinctively.”
Robby shot him another sour look over his shoulder. “We’ve been at this for two hours. I’m tired. I’m obviously not a fighter. Why is that a bad thing?”
“Ordinarily, it’s not,” Calder drawled. “But somebody broke into your house with nefarious intentions, and even if you can’t—or won’t—throw a punch, you still need to be able to defend yourself if somebody comes after you again. If you hate fighting that much, I won’t make you, but you have to know some self-defense strategies. At least give me that.”
Robby rolled his eyes. “If they come at me from the front, hand to nose, knee to groin. If they come at me from the back, elbow to the ribs, heel to instep. I’ve seen Miss Congeniality too, you know. I’ve got it.”
Calder sighed. “Please take this serious, angel. I don’t want you getting hurt.”
“Then you should stay close and do your job,” Robby snarked.
Calder shook his head at the sass. “I have every intention of staying close, very close, but I need to know, for my own peace of mind, that you can take care of yourself.”
“I mean, I’ve only been attacked twice and both times I walked away,” Robby pointed out, his tone almost smug.
Calder grinned. “Well, you won’t always have a cheese knife or a sex toy to defend yourself with.”
Robby’s cheeks went pink, and he whipped his head back around so Calder could no longer see his face. He was so easily embarrassed. Calder had never thought he’d find this shy, bashful shit attractive but everything Robby did turned him on. He just always found himself wanting to touch him, inhale his scent, taste his skin. Calder drifted closer, all thoughts of safety gone by the wayside. He slid his hands around Robby’s waist, pulling him back against him.
“Is this your attack?” Robby whispered, breathless.
Calder’s hands slid up, playing with the bars through Robby’s nipples. “Depends. Is it working?”
