“You know, you’re not that bad.”
Vincent looked at her for a moment, a serious look on his face, and she didn’t know what to think. Was he really trying to help her?
“Don’t tell anyone that. I have a reputation to uphold.”
Chapter 5
Vincent was trying to cheer her up, though, he didn’t know why he had offered to spend more time with her. The mention of Balthazar had made him get colder, but it was hard to fault her for something that she had no control over. She had told him about it because he had told her he had to, but now he was wishing that she hadn’t said anything. It made it all the more complicated, and now Vincent wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do or feel. He just knew that now he was going to be working with her every morning. Training her.
He groaned out loud and sat back in his chair. He really hadn’t been thinking it through. Before he could wallow too hard, Nathan called, asking him about some work that he had sent him to take care of. It wasn’t something that Vincent could handle over the phone, so he agreed to meet him there in a while.
Vincent tried to appear nonchalant later when he spotted Mallory in the hallway. She had a different look to her eyes and Vincent didn’t know what to think about it. About her. Whatever it was that was simmering between them was about to get even more interesting, he just knew it.
He was going to see her bright and early in the morning, to train her, even though she was the best student there. It was ironic because she didn’t need all the support, so why was he offering it to her? How many others had he trained exclusively in the morning?
No one. That was the answer and it bothered Vincent, because he was still trying to make himself believe that it was all just a normal day of business. It wasn’t. He needed to stop lying to himself. Whatever it was going on between them wasn’t going to end well, but he wasn’t going to do anything to stop it, either.
***
The next morning, he was immediately regretting his words. She showed up bright and early. What she was wearing was the problem. It wasn’t like it was anything different than any other woman wore, but Mallory wasn’t any normal woman. She had curves in all the right places and not a drop of jiggle anywhere that there wasn’t supposed to be any. Strong, supple, it was a magnetic perfection that was now draped in tight spandex material that hid nothing from his eyes.
He cursed under his breath and started her with some warm-ups. He had to do something to get his mind off of her and stop himself from staring, but the maneuver didn’t work. All it did was make it so that parts of her were bouncing around, taking up all the attention that he had left.
Vincent was a man that prided himself on control. He had plenty of it and usually, nothing caught him off guard. As soon as Mallory had walked into his academy, though, Vincent had known that something was going to change. There was no way to look at her and not think something was going to happen, that he wanted something to happen.
Now, he was facing it head on in yoga pants. It was going to be harder than ever to deny the feelings that he had for her. Or worse yet, the way she made his body feel when she was nearby. It was practically painful.
After he was blessed with bouncing and stretching, they were able to start sparring. He’d been watching Mallory, like all of his students, and knew her weaknesses. It wasn’t long before he was using them to his advantage. He had her on her back twice in the first few minutes, and she was scowling at him from the ground.
Vincent offered her a hand up, but she wasn’t going for it. She slapped his hand away and said that she was fine. She didn’t need his help.
“Where is your mind?”
Mallory blushed suddenly with his words and he was confused as to why. He hadn’t said anything that was even close to an innuendo. Why was she acting like he had just said something naughty? Unless… her mind was somewhere dark.
“Not in it, sorry.”
“You having trouble getting your intended out of your mind?”
His voice was a little rougher than he had intended, as were the feelings that came to him because of the thought as well. Why did he hate the idea of it so much? That was what was going to happen, supposed to happen. That was set up long before he knew she existed, so why did it bother him so damn much?
“No, that’s not it at all.”
“Then what is it?”
“Less talking and more moving, remember?”
He grinned and started toward her, knocking her feet out from under her and sending her sprawling to the floor, again.
Mallory wasn’t used to losing so badly, but she was not sure that she was so worried about him winning. He was bigger, stronger, it wasn’t the end of the world to lose to him.
“I wasn’t ready.”
“I can tell. Maybe you should get ready. We are in the middle of a fight.”
He was coming at her again and this time, one of her feet caught him in the face. He hadn’t seen it coming and his face moved to the side, blood came out of his mouth. Vincent moved back and waited for more blows. His face was hurting, but it was the shock of it all that made him unsure of what to do next.
“I’m so sorry. I thought that you were…”
