I laughed. “Cute. But it’smyturn to teachyoua lesson.”
With a lunge I blocked his reach and twisted him just enough to unbalance him once more. He scrambled to regain his balance but didn’t flinch or snap; he just shifted, his eyes locked on mine and his grin widening.
He wasn’tintimidated. On the contrary, he wasenjoyingthis, which made the thrill coursing through my veins even worse.
We locked in again, moving like a blur, pushing, pivoting and brushing against each other. It wasn't sparring anymore; it was more like a dance, each of us testing limits and measuring reactions.
Each step, each touch and each locked gaze was charged with meaning.
“Yo, Oz! Don’t let her turn you into a mat ornament.”
We froze mid-move, our muscles still coiled. Kai chuckled softly and completely unshaken. “Right,” he said, grin still in place, “that was … fun.”
I wiped sweat from my brow, forcing a neutral expression. “Right.”
The noise of the gym crept back in, but the tension didn’t fade, and somewhere between us, the spark refused to die.
Chapter 5
Kai
Iftherewasonething I’d learned in the few weeks since moving in, it was that Tennessee suburbia had a way of keeping a bloke busy.
Between my uncle’s seemingly endless ‘house projects’ and the neighborhood’s talent for guilt-tripping, I’d somehow become the unofficial handyman of the entire bloody street.
It started with a fence.
The thing had been leaning at a dangerous angle, just one stiff breeze away from giving up on life altogether. Judging by the exhausted circles under its owner's eyes, she might have been close to keeling over too.
Her name was Mel — single mom, two kids, one golden retriever and a voice that carried across the whole cul-de-sac. She waved me down as I was returning from the gym. She had sported a desperate half-smile peoplegot when they've reached the end of their tether but still want to pretend everything is fine.
Mel didn't actually ask for help — she just gestured at the sagging fence and sighed as though she'd rehearsed it in front of a mirror. Naturally, I offered to help before I could stop myself.
So this was how I ended up spending my Saturday afternoon hammering in fence posts in the sun, sweating through my shirt while her dog tried to steal my gloves and her toddler offered me a plastic dinosaurfor luck.
Halfway through straightening the last section when something moved in my peripheral vision.
Tori.
She was walking down her driveway with a gym bag slung over one shoulder, ignoring the old, rusty Mercury.
Was this rust bucket even capable of driving? Did it break down and that’s why she walked everywhere?
Her hair was pulled back in a messy braid, the bright red strands twisting with the darker ones, creating a stunning pattern.
Her expression was unreadable, except for the faint curve of her mouth, which was somewhere between amusement and mild disgust.
“You planning on rebuilding the whole neighborhood, or just hers?” she called, stopping near the fence.
I leaned on the hammer handle, pretending to think about it. “Didn’t like the way it leaned.”
“So you’re fixing it out of spite?”
“Guess so.”
“Right.” Her tone was flat, but her eyes flicked over the mess of tools and wood. “You realize you could’ve just said no, right?”
“To Mel? She offered to pay me in lasagna. I panicked.”
