One-Two Punch (17 page)

The city of Boulder stretched out before them in miniature, the reservoir looking like the smallest puddle.

“Nice,” Ky breathed.

Harry glanced over at him. “I know, right? I love this hike.”

Ky nodded. “I felt like I was in the back of beyond but then—wham! Here’s the city.”

Grinning, Harry drawled, “The back of beyond has groomed trails?”

Ky gave him a good-natured shove. “I’m a boy from Chi-Town. It’s the back of beyond to me,” he defended himself.

Finding a seat on a not-too-uncomfortable rock, Harry took a drink from his water bottle. “Next time, we’ll really go into the wilderness. Camp for a couple nights, scout for mountain lions and bears—and then run away if we see any.”

“Sounds…interesting,” Ky responded, flinching a little at the mention of big, hairy animals with teeth and claws. “Does Barbie camp?”

Harry laughed. “We’d just tell her we were going for ice cream. That’d get her in the truck.”

“Yeah and then she’d kick both our asses once we got to the campsite.” Ky grinned at the thought and Harry felt like he’d been kicked in the stomach.
The kid is lethal when
he smiles
, Harry thought, trying to catch his breath.

That morning’s conversation with Beth replayed over and over again in his mind, alternately exciting him and scaring him half to death. Should he bring it up to Ky?

How the hell did he start a discussion like that? Beth had, but she tended to just open her mouth, let the words roll out and damn the consequences. Harry couldn’t do that.

What if it scared Ky off, pushed him to leave? Harry’s stomach clenched at the thought.

“Is it okay?” When Ky spoke, Harry jumped, worried that he had actually said his thoughts out loud. “Me staying with you, I mean?” Ky didn’t turn around as he asked, his voice carefully casual.

“What? Of course it is,” Harry reassured him, surprised. “I love having you—
we
love having you. If you tried to leave, I think that Beth would tie you to the bed.” As soon as the words passed his lips, Harry winced. He definitely had sex on the brain.

The thought of Beth tying a compliant Ky to the bed made him swallow hard.

“I know I should be…well, planning my future or something, but—” Ky broke off with a shake of his head.

“Is that what started this?” Harry pushed himself off his rock and stepped toward Ky’s stiffly erect figure. “The whole career-counseling session at breakfast?”

Shrugging, Ky remained silent.

“That wasn’t a hint,” Harry assured him. “If I wanted you out, I would tell you to get out. And you know that Beth wouldn’t hesitate to kick you to the curb if she didn’t want you there. I just brought up the whole working at the gym thing because…well, the gym is what got me out of the black hole I fell in after leaving the Army. Not sleeping, not eating, just limping around on my fucked-up knee, pissed at the world and watching too much late-night TV.”

Ky gave a humorless huff of laughter. “Been there. Only it’s not my knee that’s fucked up—it’s my brain.”

Walking over to stand behind Ky’s rigid back, Harry wrapped a hand over the shorn skull in front of him. “Your brain’s fine,” he said quietly. “It’s what happened over there—that’s what’s fucked up.” He wrapped his other arm around Ky and pulled him into a loose embrace against his chest. Harry rested his chin on the back of his hand, still spread over Ky’s head.

They were both silent for so long that small animals nearby began to move, rustling in the underbrush. A pair of trail runners panted by, looking at the two men curiously, which shook Harry and Ky out of their stillness. They both turned to watch the runners’

progress, winding up the switchbacks of the narrow trail.

“Jesus, doesn’t that remind you of basic training?” Ky asked, stepping a few feet away from Harry.

Nodding, Harry grimaced at the memory. “Hell yeah. We ran so much that I had nightmares about running—nothing chasing me, just endless running.”

“And it was always a hundred and ten degrees.”

“In the shade,” Harry added, deadpan, and then grinned at Ky. “We get to go downhill now. At a walk.”

“Halleluiah,” muttered Ky and they headed back down the trail.

Beth sighed, bored. It had been a long, dragging day at work, especially when she thought about Harry and Ky enjoying their free day. The air seemed to press down on her, stifling, as she shoved away thoughts about her conversation with Harry that morning. When five o’clock finally arrived, she jumped up and almost ran out of the office, not able to sit still for another second. She couldn’t even concentrate enough to sketch on the bus ride home.

She felt restless, shivery in her skin, and the thought of her usual workout just made her sigh again. She had been hoping for a training session with Harry or, even better, dragging him into his office for some hot desktop sex but he was working with a new member. Beth recognized the client as the chubby man with the very white shoes who had been in for a tour the day that Ky had arrived. Harry was demonstrating a jab in slow motion, his body moving with such liquid fluidity that watching him magnified Beth’s restive feelings to almost unbearable levels.

Turning away, she saw that Ky was working at the uppercut bag, his sweat-dampened shirt outlining the muscled grooves in his shoulders and back. With an impish grin, Beth made her way toward him.

“Hey, Pokey,” she greeted him. Ky glanced at her sideways and then ignored her, attacking the bag with renewed fervor.

“Come on, Ky, can’t you hit harder than that?” she teased. If she couldn’t concentrate on her own workout, she reasoned, she might as well be disruptive to someone else’s—especially if that person was so fun to disrupt.

He didn’t even glance at her but Beth saw his jaw tighten. She bit back a triumphant grin. “Put some effort into it!”

That did it. Resting his gloved fists against the still-bouncing bag, Ky turned toward her with exaggerated patience. “Did you want something?”

“I’m bored.”

Rolling his eyes, Ky turned back to the bag. “So go bother your boyfriend,” he growled, his punch tossing the bag on its chains.

“He’s working,” she told him. “Come on, Ky—teach me something. I don’t want to do my usual workout today.”

“So go to the mall instead.”

“Please, Ky?” she wheedled, giving him her best big-eyed, pleading look, which was totally wasted since he wouldn’t even glance at her. “Please, please, please?”

“God, you’re annoying, Barbie,” he grumped, although he gave up on hitting the bag. “How does Harry stand you?”

She shrugged. “He has the patience of a saint. Come on, Ky—it’ll be fun. It’ll help you decide if you want to be a trainer.”

“Are you going to leave me alone if I say no?” he asked.

Beth, sensing victory, just grinned at him. With a defeated sigh, Ky stripped off his gloves.

“Come on, Barbie,” he commanded, “into the ring.”

Maybe this isn’t such a good idea
, Beth thought nervously as she trailed after Ky. “Um, I haven’t actually sparred with anyone yet,” she told him.

Ky bent over to slip between two of the ropes. As he straightened, he raised a taunting eyebrow at her. “Chicken?”

“Of course not,” Beth denied, although her tentative tone belied her words. “I just don’t really want to be in a situation where…I mean, I wanted to wait until…”

Ky made an impatient, spit-it-out gesture with his hand.

“I don’t want to be hit until I know I won’t cry,” she admitted. “I mean, how embarrassing to be in the ring, bawling like a baby after the first punch?”

“Oh for the love of fuck, Barbie, I’m not going to hit you! Now will you get your ass in the ring?”

“Oh.” She eyed him a little suspiciously before climbing into the ring. “Okay.”

“So what do you know?” Ky asked.

Raising her fists and falling into her stance, she glanced at her ungloved hands and then up at Ky. “Should I—?” she began, but he cut her off.

“No gloves. You won’t get to hit
me
either,” he told her.

With a shrug, Beth began to shadowbox for him. He watched impassively for a few moments.

“Stop.”

She obeyed, her hands dropping to her sides.

“Sit down.”

“Okay,” Beth acquiesced, plopping down.
Ky looks very tall from here
, she thought as she watched him from her seat on the mat, waiting for his next command.

“Now get up.”

She clambered to her feet and looked at him curiously. “Do we fight, fight, fight now?”

“What?” Ky asked, baffled.

“It’s a cheer. You know, stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight—yay?” Her words faltered as he stared at her.

“Of course you were a cheerleader,” he groaned. “Never mind. If you could restrain from
cheering
,” Ky put a world of disgust in that one word, “we could continue.”

“No need to get cheer-hostile,” she muttered under her breath.

“What?” Ky snapped.

“Nothing!” Beth chirped, her most innocent smile in place. “By all means, continue.”

Eyeing her a little suspiciously, he gave a short nod. “It took you about five minutes to get up.”

“I wouldn’t say—” Beth began to defend herself but was cut off by the sharp, slicing movement of one of Ky’s hands.

“Watch,” he ordered and sat down, a casual arm resting on his bent knee. In a blur of motion, Ky was on his feet in a fighter’s stance, moving so quickly that Beth took a startled step backward.

“The enemy won’t wait for you to get up before attacking,” he told her.

“What enemy?” Beth asked, confused.

“The enemy about to attack you,” Ky explained with exaggerated patience. “Sit down.”

She sat.

“Are you right-handed?” he asked. Beth nodded. “Okay, put your weight on your right hand and your left foot, swing your right leg through and plant it behind your right hand.”

She struggled to follow his directions, feeling like she was playing Twister with a drill sergeant.

“Behind your hand! Your knee should be right behind your arm,” he barked at her.

Beth shuffled her foot over behind her hand, lost her balance and fell backward.

“Again.”

With a sigh, Beth started over. She had gotten herself into this, she acknowledged.

What had she been thinking, asking Ky to train her?

After a few attempts, though, she was starting to get the hang of it. Beth wasn’t gaining her feet as quickly as Ky had but it was much faster than her initial wobbly try.

“Better,” Ky told her with a short nod. Beth grinned in triumph. For Ky, that was huge praise. “Don’t get cocky—you’re not that good.” Her smile dropped away. “Okay, on your back.”

“Really?” she asked doubtfully. Ky just waited until Beth lay down on the mat. He knelt over her, straddling her body, his knees up close to her armpits.
Okay, when did
this turn into a naughty game of Twister?
Beth wondered, her heartbeat speeding up.

“Everything is about leverage,” he told her. “How do you get leverage?”

Beth shook her head.

“Dominant body position,” Ky explained. “You’re little and weak—”

Offended, Beth interrupted, “Who are you calling weak?” She flexed her arms as well as she could in her current flat-on-her-back position. “I’ll have you know that’s two tickets to the gun show right here.”

Ky gave a crack of laughter, startling Beth into an answering grin.

“You’re nuts,” he told her. “Now pay attention. Which one of us is in the dominant position right now?”

“Um, that would be you,” Beth answered, leaving the “duh” left unsaid.

“Right. So take it.”

Beth tried. She pushed on his shoulders, twisted her hips, but he restrained her easily, holding her pinned on her back. Struggling harder, she felt a twist of panic low in her belly, the instinctual fear of helplessness, of loss of control that comes from being held down by a bigger, stronger male.

“Don’t panic.” Ky must have caught the change in her, her struggles morphing from playful to deadly serious. “Panic takes away your ability to make decisions, to take control.”

Beth forced herself to stop struggling and lay still beneath him, breathing hard. As the panic cleared, she realized that arousal had slipped in, liquefying her lower belly.

Just ignore it
, the logical side of her brain ordered. It was just her body responding to the situation, that was all. Instinct—it was only instinct. A hot man straddling her—of course her body would react.

“Are you ready to listen?” Ky asked and Beth nodded, shoving the disconcerting heat spreading through her to the back of her mind.

“Ready,” she said, setting her jaw firmly.

“Okay, I’m going to pretend to strangle you,” he warned and wrapped his hands lightly around her throat. Beth swallowed as she shoved back another rush of panic and adrenaline-fueled lust.

“Grab my right arm with both hands.” Ky nodded when she obeyed. “Now put your foot over mine—no, not on top, over. Right. Now push straight up with your hips and follow me as I fall.”

As she followed his directions, he toppled to his right, unable to hold himself in place with his right hand or leg. Beth rolled with him and ended up on top, flushed and pleased with herself.

“Yes!” she crowed, both fists held over her head as she straddled
him
now. “I’m on top! You are my bitch!”

“Okay, watch it,” he said dryly.

“You do realize that you’re creating a monster here, don’t you?” Harry’s amused voice made both Beth and Ky look over to where he watched at the side of the ring.

Although he was smiling, his cheeks were flushed and his eyes were hot, making Beth suddenly and intensely aware of the movement of Ky’s rib cage beneath her thighs.

“Enough for today.” Ky’s voice had a raspy edge to it as he turned his gaze back to Beth. His eyes, warmed to molten gold, mesmerized her for a moment, until Ky arched his back beneath her, unbalancing her seat on his chest. “Off, woman!” he commanded.

She climbed to her feet, her legs shaky. Beth purposefully did not think about
why
they were unsteady and offered a hand to Ky.

“Right,” he mocked with a snort of amusement, ignoring her hand and easily rolling to a standing position in the effortless way that Beth now envied.