“Stop smiling so hard and take your ass to sleep. We got shit to do in the morning.”
“Like what?”
“You’ll see. Get your rest.” Something about his voice felt like foreshadowing and I didn’t like it one bit. But between the way his hand never left my chest and how exhausted I already was, I fell asleep easily.
I was awakened to the cover being snatched from my body and Indiri’s voice what felt like an hour later. When I lifted my head and looked at the Alexascreen mounted on the wall a few feet away, it read four in the morning, which had me dropping my head to go back to sleep.
“Uh uhn. None of that, we’re training this morning.”
“Training for what? You better leave me alone. I have three more hours of sleep to get.” I reached for the covers with my eyes closed, but I couldn’t seem to find them. Finally, I opened my eyes and the sight before me had me ready to knock his head off his shoulders with the pillow under my head. This fool stood at the foot of the bed with the entire comforter and top sheet balled up, lodged under his massive arms.
“Get up before you make us late. Unc ain’t gonna take it easy on you just because you’re a woman.”
“He doesn’t have to because I’m not going. Now stop playing.”
“I’m not playing at all. You got about two minutes before I get a cup of ice water.”
At the mention of anything cold, I rose like it was a damn exorcism just in time to see him tossing something onto the bed.
“Throw that on. We’ll be leaving in about five minutes.” He still didn’t put the covers back on the bed but instead put the balled-up storm blue and white material on the small loveseat in the corner of the room.
I was pissed when I was finally dressed but he didn’t care. He was amused, pushing buttons on the blender.
“I cannot believe you.”
He laughed. “You’ll be alright. I put a lil more peanut butter in your smoothie.” He winked, so happy with himself.
When we made it downstairs, I was met with a group of men, three of them older and the other two around his age. Then there was Unc, the oldest of them all, the one who not only scolded us for being late but had me punching a hard ass bag for at least forty minutes at the beginning.
“You’re getting sloppy, Selah. Throw your fist straight ahead.” Unc’s voice elevated hours into training. He wasn’t evenfacing me but instead watching Indiri sparring in the ring with who I now knew was his sparring partner and cousin JJ.
“I’m trying,” I groaned, wondering when the hell I had actually signed up for this. Since we’d gotten here, he had been yelling out things for me to do. I took Pilates classes when I could, but it had nothing on boxer training or any type of training.
When I finally had enough, I took the gloves off and turned to walk toward the ring that seemed to be built into the garage. Inside was him. He was so focused, extremely quick on his feet, shifting and ducking jabs and punches thrown with enough force I heard when they made contact.
“You giving up on me, Selah?” Unc asked, interrupting my observation of Indiri.
I grinned, looking from him to the ring before I shook my head. “No, I’m just taking a break.”
He laughed. “Sure, you are. Watch your hips, Indi. You keep throwing them out, somebody is damn sure gonna hit you in them.”
I was standing next to him near the ring, just watching Indiri move and maneuver. It was like watchingCreedwhen the main character was shirtless, sweaty, and throwing his body. I wondered if I should’ve found this as fine as I did at this moment because it was hot and I should have been mad at him. The way his tunnel vision was visible had me nearly drooling.
I had never been this close to Nathanial’s process. I didn’t even think he had one. This was next level…he was next level.
Chapter
Ten
Indiri
Right when I was done with training, I looked up and spotted Selah talking to Jordyn. Lowkey it was about time they’d met. Now I didn’t have to ignore Jordyn when she asked questions about Selah. She was meeting her for herself.
A brief conversation from Unc later and I was moving toward the two giggling women. I didn’t know what was amusing, but whatever it was had both so engrossed in conversation that neither saw me coming until I was standing right in front of them.
“You’ve really been hiding her from me, Indi.” Jordyn grinned.
“Apparently. It’s really nice to formally meet you, Jordyn.”
