“It’s fine.” Lily clasped her hands before her and turned a more genuine smile toward their employer. “I’m sure I can figure my way around the place.”
But if she toured the place on her own, he’d miss the scorn that would sharpen that pretty face of hers once she discovered this wasn’t the kind of prissy gym she was used to outside of South Side. “Follow me.” He slung his hand towel around his neck, clapped Sebastián on the shoulder and beckoned Lily to follow with two crooks of his fingers.
She didn’t look too pleased at his change of mind, but she fell into step beside him. At least she could take instructions.
“Obviously, this is where we keep the free weights and weight racks. Back in the hallway where you were is Neal’s office and the playroom for the kids. Members pay an extra fee for dropping off their kids, but it’s not that much.”
Lily nodded. “Good to know.”
He pointed through a wide opening in the wall. “Through there is, as you know, the main room. Cardio equipment is closest to the front with weight-training machines toward the back.” He led her into the main room and gestured towardthe lobby and the front desk. “You’ve met Rachel. She takes care of sign-in, membership and customer service issues. She’s here until four, then the personal trainers rotate desk duty in the evening until we close at ten. She also does a spin class on Wednesday evenings.”
He led her to an open doorway adjacent to the desk. “This room is what we call the Snack Bar. We try not to stock the vending machines with junk, so you’ll see electrolyte drinks, water and protein bars.” Next, he led her to the back of the main room where there were two metal doors. “Back here’s where the locker rooms are. There’re shower stalls, changing rooms and toilets. The women’s locker room has an additional space for nursing mothers. Rachel’s idea.”
They returned to the free weights room. “And if you go through this big opening, you’ll find a hallway leading to the fitness classroom on the left and the training room on the right.”
Lily peeked first into the fitness classroom, then stepped through open double doors into the training room. The training area used to be a basketball court but had since been repurposed into the dedicated space for MMA. In it were three Octagons, and the rest of the room had the sort of equipment one would expect fighters to use: heavy bags, punching bags, agility ladders and more. Where there wasn’t an Octagon, there were smooth black mats. The place was Neal’s pride and joy and had taken years to make into what it was today.
Lily peered over her shoulder with a challenge in her eyes. “Do you fight in those?”
Once upon a time he had. Kieran leaned against the metal door and crossed his arms over his chest. “Nah, my fighting days are over.”Mostly.“I coach the men’s team and help out around the gym where I’m needed. Becks coaches the women’s team.”
Either she was staring because she wanted to know more, or she liked what she saw. Probably both. He was self-aware enough to know most women found him attractive, and most of the time he didn’t do anything with that knowledge. Having a teenager in the house was enough of a deterrent.But maybe, he stretched up, scratching the back of his neck, and Lily’s gaze dropped to his revealed V-cut,he didn’t mind getting eye-fucked by Lily Parker. It’d make things at South Side MMA more interesting.
Lily’s forget-me-not blue eyes snapped away from their unrestrained perusal, and a pretty flush crept up from behind her collar. “So,” she began on an inhale and smoothed invisible wrinkles from her polo. “Where will my office be?”
Well,thatwas an excellent question. He couldn’t help the upward turn of one side of his mouth.
Not amused, she planted her hands on her hips.
But what if he put his hands there instead and drew her closer? Kieran straightened, slipped his hands into his gym short pockets and ambled back toward the free weights room. “Unless you want to share with Neal, the whole gym is your office.”
Lily caught up with him, the flush from earlier spreading across her high cheekbones. “I’m sorry.” Her sharp tone said she was anything but. “Did I do something to offend you?”
“Oh, don’t mind me, Princess.” He aimed a smirk down at her, though it didn’t have far to go. She was only a few inches shorter. “I’m just your surly neighborhood MMA coach.”
Her long brown hair, gathered in a high ponytail, flicked with the force of her head tilt. There was a trace of bemusement in those narrowed eyes. “Was that a superhero joke?”
They walked past where Sebastián had set Kieran’s gym bag, out of the way along the wall, and he snatched it up. “Are you laughing?”
Her eyebrows furrowed. Damn, if that didn’t make her look almost cute. “No?”
He snorted. “Well, there you go.”
They were back in the main room. There were still a few hours before he needed to return for training, and any moment now Maeve would drop Saoirse off. If he didn’t want Maeve asking a million questions, he’d need to get Lily back to whatever job she needed to be doing—sans him dancing in whatever god-awful video she had in mind. “Listen, this has beenfun, but I have real work to do once my shift starts. So how ’bout we make a deal. You do your job, and I’ll do mine. Any time in between I’ll leave to your—” he paused to give the full, glorious length of her body a thorough appraisal “—creative imagination.”
Despite the flush of her cheeks warming her glacial eyes, she stepped closer and thrust one finger against his chest. The force almost made him backstep. “With pleasure, Mr. Sullivan.”
Lily gave him a dismissive glance, then spun on her heel and walked away. Her ponytail swung over her tight little ass, daring him to follow.
Fuck.
ChapterThree
Men were shape-shifters.
That was the only explanation for how Kieran and Sebastián could chill in the breakroom one moment, with their arms narrow and their chests soft, and the next moment in the ring they were solid walls of rippling muscle.
It wasn’t an issue per se. After all, Sebastián was happy to flex for her camera or smile into the lens while curling arm reps. Kieran was another story. When he caught Lily setting up her ring light, he found something else to do and somewhere else to be. And that wouldn’t be a problem, but South Side MMA’s Hit It page wasn’t meant to be a love letter to Sebastián.
