Ellion stood. “I’m gonna kick your ass,Chan.”
Chandler jumped out of his chair. “Not this time. You’reon.”
They stared each otherdown.
“Wait, guys,” I said. “You can’t do it in here. You’ll knock into the computerequipment.”
Testosterone flew around the room. It was a majoraphrodisiac.
“To the weight room,” Griffin said. He gave me a conspiratorial wink. “We have a big sparring mat inthere.”
“Lead the way.” I couldn’t wait to see themfight.
Ellion walked out the door, and I skipped behind him. What a nice way to offset the boredom of another snow day without taking our clothes off. Which also wouldn’t be the worst thing to do. Maybelater.
Their gym wasacross the hall from Ellion’s lab. Like everything else in the prince’s Alaskan castle, it was huge. Every weight bench imaginable lined one wall, free weights and cardio machines lined another. I skipped over to the mat in the middle of thefloor.
“This is great.” I could barely contain my excitement. It was all in good fun, they wouldn’t actually hurt each other, and I’d get to kiss one of them afterwards. What could gowrong?
Griffin raised his voice while Ellion and Chandler took off their shirts. They were both already wearing athleticpants.
“You know the rules,” he said and turned to me. “They use mixed martial arts. No head kicks. Of course no groin attacks. No attacks when someone’s on the ground. No head butts, no fish-hooking.”
He lost me. “What’s fish-hooking?”
Ellion opened his mouth to explain, but Chandler curled his pointer finger and stuck it in his mouth, pulling against his cheek—as if he’d caught him with a fishhook.
I burst outlaughing.
Ellion looked irritated, and Griffinshrugged.
“That’s fish-hooking,” he said. “It’s pretty standard rules. No biting, no hair pulling, no poking each other in any orifice,ever.”
“You take all the fun out of it, don’t you?” Iasked.
Chandler laughed, and they both put on foam rubber helmets andgloves.
They stepped onto the mat and began to circle eachother.
Griffin stood close to me to explain. “They’re looking foropenings.”
“How would one actually win a fight like this? I mean, they’re not fighting to actually hurt one another,right?”
“Right. There are different scenarios. One can submit. They’ve been known to get pissed and do something against the rules, and I have to disqualify one of them. They could knock one another out, which is a win, but we do this for fun and try to avoid that. Or, if they keep going over and over and can’t come to a clear win-lose situation, I call awinner.”
“How do you decide?” I asked as Ellion darted forward and hit Chandler’s head with hisglove.
Chandler knocked him away before he did anydamage.
“They’re both such good fighters and were trained together. They’ve sparred together all their lives. I usually declare Ellion the winner because it pisses Chandler off so much. Honestly, they usuallytie.”
Chandler was distracted by my sudden laugh, and Ellion was able to sweep his legs out from under him. I promised myself I’d be quiet and not distract them anymore. I didn’t want to get anyonehurt.
My heart was in my throat for several minutes while they exchanged blows. Their abs were rock hard, waiting for the inevitable hit. Sweat gleamed on their backs and stomachs. I tried to pretend I didn’t want to run my hands over those taut, sweatystomachs.
I gave Griffin the side eye. I’d like to see him all hard and sweaty, too. My inner thoughts teased me, as much as I tried to quell them. I wasn’t sure what I’d done in life to deserve being snowed in with three gorgeous guys that I couldn’t easily have, but the next time I had the bright idea to get them half naked and sweaty, I was going to jump headlong into a coldshower.
Griffin leaned close. “Ellion really wants to impress you, I think,” he whispered. “He’s really on his A game. He might legitimately wintoday.”
