Page 7 of Honey Undone (The Hornets Nest #5)

SARAH

“ I don’t think you’ll need another surgery.” Silas Shore dug his fingers into my quad above my knee and I fought to hide the wince as he did. “Stop pretending that doesn't hurt, I’m being rough on purpose,” he said, not looking up from my knee in his hands.

Silas was handsome, in that ‘wow if I had a thing for an older man’ kind of way. His brown hair was sprinkled with grey here and there and his voice was lower, huskier than most of the other guys around campus.

The Hillcats had lucked out that he was willing to take on more clients.

He was a busy guy, anytime I saw him outside the stadium he was rushing around, never having enough time to talk to anyone.

But when we sat down in his office he became a different person.

Softer, attentive and careful with his clients.

It was clear that his favorite place to be was here.

He was funny too, funnier than he had the right to be.

“Is there pain when you’re playing?” He asked, finally looking up as he pushed back from the table and into his chair. He turned to his computer and plugged something in before giving me his attention again.

“It’s a contact sport, Doc,” I laughed a little, shifting on the edge of the bed as he eyed me knowingly. “A little, but that’s par for the course. I can’t take a hit without pain.”

“I’m more concerned about pain when you’re running,” he scowled, his eyes darting down the small scar that already sliced my skin from the first surgery.

“Not that I can tell, but usually my adrenaline is so high…” I tugged my bottom lip between my teeth .

“Right,” he ran his hand over his face and nodded, clearly trying to come up with a solution.

“We’re going to start doing cardio during our meeting, here at the stadium.

I want to stress test the muscle, I’d rather something go wrong here than out on the field.

The staff is good but—” he turned back to the computer to type some more.

“Not snapped muscles good,” I joked and he sighed. “Sorry, not funny.”

“Remind me of your schedule for the week?” He said with a small stretch of his shoulders to work out the tiny yawn that fell from his lips.

“Wednesday, Friday are games. Practices in between, I work most days until four but I can come by after on Thursday? I can just tell Coach why I’m missing practice… Or Sunday.” I offered.

“Sunday doesn’t work for me, but Thursday will have to. I’ll move some things around and we’ll get you in here,” he said without looking over at me.

“Thursday works,” I said.

“Do you need a note to get out of practice?” He asked me, adjusting in his seat to look at me.

I gave him a head shake and a smile. “Alright.” He stood from his chair and helped me from the bed, my knee a little sore from his inspection of it.

“Careful,” he warned, not letting go of my hand until I showed him that it was fine with a tiny hop.

“Do me a favor?” He asked as I collected my bag, I turned to look at him and waited. “Listen to your body,” he said, “you’ve got a massive career ahead of you and I don’t want you in the news because you ignored the pain.”

“Yes Doc,” I said with a phony salute that made him roll his eyes.

“Get out of my office,” he groaned and I closed the door behind me.

It was warm out so I took advantage and walked across campus to the Athletics gym housed on the third floor of the main building.

I let myself in with my entry card and one quick look around the massive space told me it was pretty quiet inside as I changed into my sneakers.

The bulking sweater I wore hung against my thighs just above where my bike shorts cut off around them.

I took my time and stretched out all my muscles until I was warm enough to start my circuit.

After the abuse on my knee that morning, I knew it was better to do something that took off the stress but my heart called out for a leg day.

Silas echoed in my head and I groaned in annoyance as I slipped my earbuds into my ear and let the music relax my shoulders.

I started to jump around on the mat and dance to the beat.

I turned around and grabbed a few free weights, tricking my body into wanting to do arms and back instead.

The weight felt good in my hands as I curled them close to my chest and tried not to sing the song rushing through my ears.

Working out cleared my head but now every song that played over my earbuds reminded me of Jensen.

When I saw him standing there outside the game the urge to text him about it was feral.

So I turned off my phone and spent the night working on projects that didn’t need my attention.

It was the only way to get him out of my head.

I set the weights down after my set leaving them on the mat to move onto the next round. The beauty of an empty gym was that I could wait to clean up after myself until after I was completely finished.

I rotated around a few of the standing machines, working out my shoulders and back until the muscles were begging for a rest. Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement as I wandered back to the mat. I turned to look over my shoulder and shook my head in disbelief.

Jensen was running at a grueling pace on the treadmill against the back wall, his head down and his focus tight.

The tattoos he regularly showed off during ball games extended well past his shoulders and over his chest. The swirling ink shone with sweat as his stomach clenched with each step.

His dark hair was damp and his chest was heaving and glistening under the bright white gym lights.

He had been here for a while and my stupid ass had completely missed the show.

I tripped over the weights I left on the ground, barely catching myself before stumbling across the mat. My skin turned bright red as I turned away from him and back to the long mirror. I sank to the ground, “workout over,” I grumbled in shame and kept my head down.

I knelt over on the mat, stretching out my shoulders. I crawled my fingers across the fabric and sank down on my knees until I could feel the stretch in my lower back. I shifted my head to the side peeking over to where he ran .

I reached out and pulled my bag closer, digging out my phone and texted him.

What are you doing?

Part of me didn’t expect a response, usually when I was in the gym I left my phone off but I couldn’t resist knowing.

All of the information that I was able to dig up on Jensen pointed to him being a fuckboy.

Cosy had said he was quiet and polite but everyone was able to behave in someone else's house. With family, in front of strangers. That wasn’t the Jensen I saw at the ball game and it certainly wasn’t the one I was drooling over.

The naked jogging session was going to take over as the wet dream of the week.

I woke twice last week in a pile of sweat dreaming about his ass in baseball pants and his ass out of baseball pants.

I was starting to think Kaia was right and I needed to get laid.

I hated when she was right, she’d never let me live it down when she found out I was dreaming about being rough housed by Jensen.

Fuck .

I took another peek to see if he had seen my text and when I looked over he was staring down at his phone with a smile on his face.

His pace had slowed to a lazy jog and all his muscles were tight from the exertion.

I pressed deeper into the mat in a pathetic attempt to quell the tingling buzz between hips and the rampant butterflies in my stomach.

My phone vibrated and I moved embarrassedly fast to flip it over.

Cardio. Alone.

Alone?

I responded with questionable speed. I needed to relax before I invited him to come fuck me in the middle of the gym like some frat boy without self control. I tapped the mat with my finger, at least he hadn’t seen me yet.

Alone. The cardio I want to be doing is across the gym stretching out her shoulders and staring.

Fuck, fuck, fuck .

I looked over at him and he was staring at me with a smug smile on his face.

Pieces of his hair stuck to his forehead and he leaned back making the already impressive expanse of his shoulders broader.

I turned my head away quickly, typing up ‘please tell me that every inch of you is that impressive.’ Before deleting it with a frustrated groan, changing it to something more dismissive in a pathetic attempt to seem less desperate.

I plead the fifth.

Not sure that works in this instance. Is it at least a good show?

I could say no, I could string him along and destroy his ego with one foul blow. But I was caught, red handed. Ass up in the air, face down stretching on a mat in tight shorts. I looked like I was asking to be mounted. There was no chance I was getting away with teasing him.

Very entertaining

The sound of him stumbling echoed over the music in my headphones.

I giggled and pressed my head into the mat just to keep myself from looking at him again.

I needed him to go the hell away so I could concentrate.

I was ready to count the beads of sweat on the mat just to clear my head. My phone buzzed again.

You’re running yourself into debt here, Adeline. Texts, flirting… free shows. Soon enough I’m coming to collect.

He recovered quickly. I would give him that.

Is that a threat?

Depends on how rough you want me to be.

My cheeks turned a new shade of red and I rolled over on my back to stare at the ceiling. I waited like that until I could breath again and when I sat up on my elbows the treadmill had been vacated and Jensen was gone.