Page 59 of Found Through Fire

Sliding one of my hands up her arm and shoulder, I push her wild hair off her shoulder, exposing her graceful neck and give her a small kiss right under her ear, mumbling with my lips against her skin, “I’d love some coffee, baby.” I can feel goosebumps rising on her skin beneath my lips as I speak. She takes another breath, and I feel her slowly relax into me. I take a deep breath, closing my eyes and appreciating her delicate, floral scent. It’s light and comforting and just…Willow.

The comfortable silence is ruined when we both hear a throat clear, taking us out of our intimate moment. Willow and I look over, seeing Grey in the doorway where I was just standing. His fists are clenched at his sides, and he’s giving us an irritated look. Good. He can fuck off. I start to tense up, like my body is on auto pilot, getting ready to shield my girl from whatever bullshit the asshole is about to say to her. But to my surprise, he only grunts out an irritated, “I’m heading out for the day.”

“Did you want some coffee?” Willow asks while taking a step to the side, trying to put some distance between us. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I drop my arms to my sides and take a step back, giving her the physical space that she wants. She’s looking at Grey, waiting for his response, and I notice that he is taking his time, looking at her from head to toe.

I can see the heat in his eyes as he takes in my girl. I can’t say I blame him; she is fuckin’ gorgeous and seems to have no idea. He looks surprised by her appearance, which throws me off since they lived together while she was on the job. I was taking this as her normal morning routine. Grey jerks his head like he is trying to shake off the Willow-induced fog.

“No. I need to get to base,” he says in a rough voice as he quickly turns and starts stomping to the door in retreat. What a little bitch. A few seconds later, we hear him unlock the door and yell, “I’ll be back by seven!” and slams it behind him.

Willow takes a breath and turns to meet my eyes, giving me her full attention again with one of her small, sweet smiles. “So, when do you have to go to the shop?” Before I have the chance to answer, my shy girl breaks our eye contact and turns back to the empty coffee cups and starts filling them. She turns around, handing me one. I take a sip and wince. I usually take my coffee black, but this shit is so strong, it feels like I just got punched in the face.

I watch her as she takes a sip and looks up at me, waiting for my response to her question. I have seen her enjoy a coffee after dinner, and now I’m questioning if she even has a stomach lining left after drinking so much of this shit.

“I don’t have to head out for another hour. What about you?” I put the cup on the counter next to me and lean against it, crossing my arms and legs in front of me. I feel the cool countertop against my skin, and I realize that I forgot that I was only wearing boxers.

“I have an hour, too. I like to have some time in the morning to relax and drink my coffee before I head down for my workout and get ready for work,” she says as she sets her coffee next to her and hops on to the counter, crossing her legs. I’ve noticed that if we aren’t eating, my girl likes to perch herself high up on the counters, probably to try to get some height.

“What kind of workouts do you do?” I ask, genuinely curious. I work out every day in the gym at the clubhouse, but it’s mostly strength training.

“I have a gym here. I guess we didn’t get to that on the tour,” she says as her face turns pink again. She lowers her eyes and takes another sip from her cup. I take that as my cue and walk over to her. When she gets embarrassed or shy, she shuts down, and I don’t have time for that. I’m going to have to teach my little Fox not to hide from me.

Standing in front of her, I take the cup from her hands and place it next to her. She narrows her eyes at me, making me pause for a second, because she looks like she may attack me for it. I choose to continue; if my baby has a problem, she will let me know, in her own cute little way with her sassy mouth. Or she will stab the shit out of me. Just in case she chooses the latter, I do a quick scan of the kitchen and see the knife block on the other side of the kitchen and give a sigh of relief.

Meeting those ice-blue eyes, I gently put my hand on her bare knee, slowly uncrossing her legs and stepping in between them, caging her in again. I’m not sure why, but it is becoming one of my favorite things to do. The only things separating us are her fuckin’ black panties, and my boxers that are stretching more by the second. I plant my hands back on the counter on either side of her thighs, putting my weight on them and leaning in so our noses almost touch.

It’s obvious that Willow’s brain will go a mile a minute if I let her. The only way that I can get my girl to stop overthinking and get out of her own head is to get her complete attention.

With a low rasp in my voice, I ask, “Want to work out together? You can show me the gym, and it will save a trip back to the clubhouse. I can go to the shop after.” She starts to squirm around from my voice and how close I am to her, but she never breaks eye contact.

Her pupils are dilated as she swallows a breath of air and manages to squeak out a small, “Sure.”

“Good. We should go get dressed and meet down here so we can get started,” I say before I lean in, giving her a quick peck on the lips before turning and walking back to my room. I brought extra clothes just in case. Also, I wanted to leave something in her house for some reason.

This possessive side of me is new. I have never wanted to keep a woman, so I figure I would just go with my instincts until she tells me to back off. Which I won’t, but I will have to start hiding the cave-man shit.

I throw on some shorts and decide not to bother with the shirt. I love the way my little Fox tries to hide checking me out. After putting on my shoes, I head back to the kitchen and realize that she is going to make this hell for me. She is pouring water into a bottle and is wearing tight workout shorts and a matching sports bra. I can see all of her curves and the hard muscles of herdefined body. She is the perfect mix of hard and soft; I can’t wait to be able to run my hands over her entire body and commit it to memory. Her hair is up, and like always, she doesn’t have an ounce of makeup on, letting her natural beauty shine.

She sees me standing there, smiles, and walks over to me, handing me one of the bottles. She then leads me out of the house to another building next to her garage, opens the door, and turns on the light, revealing a full gym, with more equipment than the one at the clubhouse. Everything is clean and new; there is even a small sparring ring, and I wonder who she trains in that with.

“Help yourself to anything. I have my routine, and we can work between sets if you want,” she says over her shoulder, walking to the opposite end of the gym, setting her water down, and taking her phone out to set the music up.

“I think I’ll try ‘the Fox’s’ routine today. See if I can keep up,” I say. Mostly, I want to spend more time with her, but I’m in the gym every day, so even if it is less than what I am used to, I can stop by the clubhouse and get another workout in if needed so she doesn’t feel bad.

“You sure? If you start it, you don’t get to stop mid-way,” she says in a confident tone.

“I’m sure I can keep up,” I say with a smirk.

“Okay, let’s go then,” she says as the music blares through the speakers. We then start on the greatest torture that I have ever endured.

CHAPTER 24

WILLOW

Ithink I broke him. We just finished the last set of my light two-hour workout, and Knox is lying on the floor on his back, spread out like a starfish, still trying to catch his breath.

When I woke up today, the plan was to do my full-body workout to try and burn some of the tension that has been building in my normally peaceful home. When Knox said he wanted to do my routine, I made the decision to switch to the lighter one to get him used to it. I could tell that he mainly focused on strength training.

After the warmup, he seemed confident, so I kept going. Towards the end, I could tell he was struggling. When I joked that we weren’t stopping, I thought he knew it was sarcasm. Looking back now, I think he took it as a challenge and pushed it too far.