The Fighter and His Tiger (Unexpected Love #1)

18. Thursday Evening Week Six

18. Thursday Evening Week Six

Kasey said that the diner was quiet today and that I wasn't needed at work so that meant I had nothing to occupy my mind with. Except for the scene with Marcus from the cafeteria yesterday, it kept playing on a loop in my head and no matter how much I tried to push the memory away, it kept shoving its way back to the forefront of my mind. For this reason, and this reason only, I was glad that Eli had told me to come to the gym with him after school.

Max had a complete mess of an office, as in hurricane followed by a tsunami with a little earthquake on top, type of mess. Whilst it wasn't my top pick of things I wanted to be doing, it was certainly succeeding at keeping my mind occupied.

We had both been here for about an hour now and I decided to take a break and step out of the bombshell of an office and instead investigate the whereabouts of Eli. It took me all of about 30 seconds to spot him training with Maxon by the punching bags.

His grunts resonated through the empty gym as he followed Max's instructions; punch, kick, punch, kick. Eli didn't have as many tattoos on his back, just some vines which stretched from the dead tree printed across his abs and scripture on his left shoulder blade but it was foreign likely Romanian. He was shirtless, obviously, and his back muscles rippled with every movement he made, I had to make sure drool was running out of my mouth.

Quietly, I made my way towards them and took a seat on the bench which faced the boxing mats. My bag was on the bench already so I pulled my notebook out and began sketching Eli as he moved. It was slightly annoying, him moving back and forth, but I managed. I got so immersed in the sketch as I shaded in the contours and captured the light, completely losing track of time as I allowed myself to get sucked into my drawing.

At the sound of his ragged breathing, I looked up and slammed my notebook closed before he could see which caused him to raise a perfectly scarred eyebrow.

He squirted some water in his mouth from his bottle before asking, "enjoying the show, tigru?"

My cheeks burned but I refused to give him the satisfaction as I glared up at him from my perch, "no, it was actually quite boring."

"Hmm, is that why you've been sat here for 2 hours now?"

2 hours?! Trying to appear unfazed by his shirtless torso glistening with sweat inches from my face, I uncrossed my legs before standing in front of him. Like they always did, his eyes flickered to my boots and I felt a rush go through me as they darkened considerably.

I cleared my throat, "Well. I didn't realise, I was just so caught up in my work that I barely noticed that you had finished." I purposefully tried to make it clear that I wasn't watching him, he didn't need to know that I'd been intently drawing him instead. With that point clearly put across, I span on my heel with the intention of going back to the office to wait for him but he grabbed my wrist and tugged me back to him — he seemed to have made a habit of this.

Caught off guard, my hands flew to rest on his chest to catch myself and I dropped my notebook on the floor. Neither of us noticed though as we stood there, staring at each other. His chest rose and fell under my hands and my heart hammered so loudly in my chest, I was sure he could hear it. His breath caressed my nose as he panted still from his workout and he somehow managed to retain his smell of leather and spice despite the intense gym session.

"Eli," I sighed out. One of his hands wound around my waist in response and tugged me closer still to him. I gasped at the movement and looped my hands around his neck, my chest now rising and falling in time with his. His other hand came up to grip the back of my head and tangled into my curls, he gently tugged my head back so it was now angled fully towards him. My lips parted as my breathing quickened and his darkening eyes tracked the movement of my tongue as I ran it across my lips, wetting them.