He glared at me but then held up his hand and started counting on his fingers.
“One: I’m your coach; it’s inappropriate for a coach to have relations with his trainee. Two: The ‘no fucking’ rule still stands. Three: Sexual relationships are a distraction, and you need to focus on training if you’re going to survive Leviathans. Four: You’re too young for me?—”
“What? Too young? I’m twenty-one. I know you call me a kid and whatever, but I’m an adult.”
He gave me a stern look and pursed his lips.
“I’m seventeen years older than you, Finn. That’s too much.”
I pouted. “I don’t think so. You don’t look that old. Plus, age is just a number.”
“The answer is no.”
“What about number five?”
“What?”
“I told you to give me five reasons; that was only four.”
“You’re not ready to hear the fifth reason.”
“That feels like a copout.”
I could tell he was running out of patience with me, but I didn’t care. It didn’t make any sense to me why we couldn’t explore this. We could be into each other and still train for Leviathans. And who cared if he was older? I was a full-fledged adult. I could make my own decisions. I didn’t need him to make them for me. He was being overly cagey for no reason.
“The answer isno,Finn,” he finally snapped. His tone was harsh enough that I knew he wasn’t leaving me any room to argue. “You either accept that our relationship stays strictly professional, or I’mdonehelping you. What’s it going to be?”
For the first time since I came here, I considered giving up Leviathans. If he wasn’t my coach, would he be more willing to explore this thing between us? Though, the second the thought entered my head, I knew I couldn’t do it. I remembered the day Blake had taken Turtle and me to see the beach. The way the water had called to some deep-seated part of mysoul.
I couldn’t give up Leviathans, no matter how badly I wanted Riddick to give me a chance.
My entire body felt like it was deflating with the reality of the situation.
I glanced up at him, feeling totally crushed, and my heart broke even further at the soft look on his face.
He was looking at me like he knew he’d just hurt me and he actually cared.
“Come on, shark bait. Don’t look at me like that. You can do so much better than me. I’m just some washed-up old-timer. I’m sure you’re going to have tons of young, cute chicks just begging for a chance to date you after you tame Leviathans… or dudes, if that’s what you want.”
That brightened me up.
Not the part about people begging for a chance to date. If I was being honest, that was already kind of the case. I’d never had a hard time pulling. I was cute as fuck, and I knew it.
What made my stomach rush with butterflies was how he’d saidwhenI tamed Leviathans.
“You really think I can do it?” I asked, suddenly feeling happy and hopeful again.
He stared at me for a long moment, then gave me one slow nod.
“If you give me your all, then yes. I think you can do it,” he said, though his expression was back to that cold, unreadable mask he always wore.
I nodded, clenching my fists in determination.
“Alright. Deal. I won’t let you down, Riddick!” I promised, grinning at him so big that I knew my dimples were on full display.
“I know you won’t, kid,” he grunted, then got back to work loading up the bench press.
Riddick stayed true to his word, and he stopped with the sexy mind games. Over the last few weeks, he refused to touch me, like, at all. He always kept a foot of space between us. It just made things worse, though. Not touching me just turned my massive crush on him into this throbbing, yearning ball of need.
