Maelstrom

Chapter 53: Just a Little Sparring

Tuesday morning

I winced. As big as Ivan was, Mateo was bigger, and that kick to his boss's ribs looked like it was going to leave a bruise.

I sat in one of the two comfortable chairs in the bodyguards' apartment, conveniently across the hall from Ivan's; Marshall had turned the massive recliner around for me so that it faced the matted sparring area that took up most of the huge loft's living room. Besides the chairs and the flat-screen they usually faced, the security team's only other non-bedroom furnishings consisted of the small table where Marshall was drinking coffee and reading something on a tablet, and several exercise machines and weight sets lining the walls. If I thought Ivan's apartment was a bit sparse, this place was downright Spartan. It was the next thing to living in a gym, and not a fancy one.

Ivan landed a kick to Mateo's chest that sent the big Cuban-American stumbling backwards; I resisted the urge to cheer. The men had been at this for about fifteen minutes now, and both had worked up quite a sweat. Of course, the 30-minute "warm up" that they'd done on the machines and weights had contributed to that lathered state.

I had also come dressed for a workout, sort of. The smallest T-shirt Ivan had was still swimming on me, and the gym shorts (while not falling off thanks to their drawstring) made me look like I was wearing an older brother's hand-me-downs. There was nothing we could do about shoes – all I had with me were the new boots and my designer strappy stilettos – so I was making do with a pair of roomy white ankle socks. Even my ponytail was thrown together; the pins I'd used in my chignon for the fundraiser were ridiculously inadequate to the task of keeping my hair up during a workout, so I'd improvised with a rubber band from a head of romaine lettuce we'd bought the afternoon before.

I suspected the overall effect was a bit ridiculous, but Ivan gallantly assured me that I made even this get-up look positively erotic. In fact, he was so persuasive on this point that we were a bit late for the scheduled sparring session with Mateo.

I could feel the hint of a blush suffusing my cheeks as I thought of that unplanned pre-warm-up warm-up, and the expression on Mateo's face when he'd opened the door and saw me standing there with Ivan. Even though I'd taken a few minutes to hastily clean up, the way he looked at me when I walked past him into the apartment made me think that he could smell the sex on me, and did not approve.

When Ivan had invited me to come along, I'd had every intention of trying to squeeze a bit of a workout in myself, but the big bodyguard's sporadic glares had made me too uncomfortable to try out most of their toys; I'd strapped my stocking feet onto the rowing machine and stroked silently to the beat of the blaring Latin music filling the apartment for about twenty minutes, my eyes closed for nearly the entire time. I felt about as welcome as Yoko Ono at a Beatles jam session.

Now I watched the mock fight closely, taking the last sip from a water glass that I strongly suspected used to be a mayonnaise jar. Mateo was unexpectedly fast for his size, but Ivan was quicker, and most of his sparring involved evading or blocking the bodyguard's attacks, moving and striking to throw his larger opponent off balance, and only occasionally making a calculated offensive move.

The strategy made sense; I was sure that the point of these sparring matches, other than exercise, was for Mateo to train Ivan to fend off aggressors in the event his security team was ever overwhelmed. I tried to use that understanding to summon up some warm feelings of gratitude toward Mateo for keeping that incredible man opposite him safe. The warmth was slow in coming.

A cell phone rang shrilly from Marshall's table. He stretched out a burly arm to check the caller ID and loudly shouted, "Ivan!"

The Russian mobster bounced out of Mateo's reach and looked to his other bodyguard, who was holding the smartphone up so he could see who was ringing him. He loped over and took the call immediately.