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The messenger said nothing as they put on their shoes and jackets and walked out.

Loren could feel Darien staring at her as he followed behind her, out the front door and across the street to his car. He didn’t say anything, and she didn’t say anything to him either. What they both needed was silence and the space to think. With silence and each other’s company, they would make it through this. She knew they could.

14

Loren’s wedge heels clomped on the stairs as she walked into the basement, following the echo of male shouting, laughter, and the thud of what sounded like fists.

In an hour, she would have to head to Mordred and Penelope’s for her Saturday shift. She’d already booked a taxi before realizing Darien was still at home for once. She didn’t plan on canceling her ride and bothering him to drive her, but she did want to say goodbye to him before she left the house.

When she got to the bottom of the stairs, she took a left, heading past the gym and into a separate workout area, a room reserved for different training activities such as power striking—which was exactly what Darien, Travis, Tanner, and Jack were doing now. Jack and Travis were lounging on a bench by a wall of mirrors, watching as Darien struck the punch shield Tanner held before him.

Darien’s precision was deadly. He moved quickly—almost too quickly for her mortal eyes to track, fists lashing out with blinding speed. His feet were bare, and sweat glistened on his back and chest, his gray shorts clinging in places to his muscular thighs. He hadn’t put on any gloves. In fact, his hands weren’t even wrapped.

When Tanner declared that it would be the last hit before they took a break, Darien struck—hard.

Tanner fell back against the wall and nearly went down, catching himself against it with a grunt. The others went silent, waiting, but there was an air of humor in the room that suggested they’d seen this happen many times before.

Shoving away from the wall, eyes blazing, Tanner threw the shield aside and pushed his glasses up onto his head. “You always do that!”

Darien was trying not to laugh. “Gotta keep you on your toes, Atlas.” He clapped Tanner on the back, but the hacker shrugged him off, grumbling under his breath as he went to retrieve the shield from where it had rolled against the mirrors.

“Dare.” Jack’s eyes danced as he jerked his chin at Loren. She drifted into the room, stopping on the edge of the mat. “She just figured out how much of a bully you are.”

“Bullies wouldn’t take bullets for their asshole friends.” He flashed her a smile and pushed the hair out of his face. “Morning, sweetheart.”

“Good morning. I’m sorry for interrupting.”

“You’re never interrupting, and don’t ever apologize.”

She looked around the room. “Don’t you get enough practice at the Pit?” She realized a second too late—as every guy in the room aside from Darien gave a collective “Ooh!”—that the question sounded condescending. Her eyes widened, and she held up her hands in surrender. “I totally didn’t mean—”

“Are you being cheeky with me?” Darien was fighting a smile. And it was that smile that erased all her former feelings of worry.

She straightened her skirt and cleared her throat, the four male gazes weighing on her, Darien’s heavier than the rest—always heavier than the rest. “So what if I am?” She matched Darien’s playful tone.

“Then I would have to teach you a lesson.”

“Okay.” She barely managed to squeak out the word as her attention went to his abs—rock-hard and glistening with drops of sweat. The sight of him sucked the oxygen right out of her lungs. “Umm, I need to leave in an hour, but I wanted to say goodbye before I…” Her words trailed off into silence as Darien advanced on her with a lupine smile. She gulped, twisting her fingers together. It took all her willpower not to back up. “I can’t get sweaty, I have to work soon.”

Darien’s smile stretched into a grin that he tossed over his shoulder at the guys. They were smiling, too—even Tanner. “Did you guys hear that? She can’t get sweaty.” He walked right up to her—so close, she could feel the heat coming off his body. Grabbing her around the small of her back, he pulled her close, his stomach bumping hers. He looked down at her, a strand of his hair falling in his face. “How about a quick lesson on how to throw a punch?”

Her mouth was bone-dry. “I don’t need to throw punches. I have you to throw them for me.”

The subtle spark of rage in his eyes suggested his thoughts had gone to the students who bullied her at school—the ones she refused to let him deal with. She’d put up with bullying her whole life; she was used to it, had even come to expect it. The ones at AA weren’t worth a minute of her time, or his. Besides, she didn’t really want Darien to go to jail for murdering three students. If he found out how much she’d downplayed the bullying, she wasn’t sure how he would react.

Murder was a probable outcome.

“I might not always be around to do the fighting for you,” Darien said, thumb inching under the band of her skirt. His attention was on her mouth, that stare so heated it sent a shiver down her spine. “Besides, I’ve wanted to teach you how to defend yourself for a while now, so this is long overdue.”

Letting go of her skirt, he lowered himself to his knees before her and bowed his head. His hair brushed against her thigh, tickling her skin as he began to undo the strap on her left shoe.

Her heart jumped up her throat, and a wave of intense heat crawled across her body. She was very aware of the others staring as Darien slowly undid the strap and slid her foot out of her shoe.

Looking up at her from under dark eyelashes, that stare of his cranking up the heat in the room, he carefully set her foot down on the mat. It was cold on her bare skin, and it sank a little under her weight. She knew Darien wasn’t the only one who noticed how shallow and ragged her breathing had become, how fast her pulse was racing.

Both of his hands went to her other leg, one cupping her ankle while the other slid up her calf, callouses scraping her skin. There was heat everywhere he touched, a feeling she craved on the parts of her body that were far more sensitive than her legs.

Darien didn’t tear his gaze from hers as he loosened the strap on her shoe, every movement deliberately drawn out. The fact that they weren’t alone had kept her on edge until now, but her body fully yielded to him then. She felt herself get wet from how intense that stare was as he kept looking up at her, how badly she wanted the hand that was wrapped around her ankle to touch her between the legs. He would make her feel so good, and she wanted it now. Even if she ended up late for work, it would be worth it. He was worth it.