12. Kael

12

KAEL

Paige stays in her room all day, almost as if she's avoiding me, and I wonder if it's because of our training session.

Having my hands on her felt almost wrong, but also too right at the same time.

Some part of me does understand that she's a gorgeous woman, but she's still my best friend's little sister. My boss's baby daughter. Off-limits in all kinds of ways.

But I'm a man, after all, and she's a woman, and it makes sense that I'd be mildly attracted to her. Plus, I've been hard up. That's all it is.

Since I know she hasn't ordered food or come down to make herself something, I order Thai food for dinner. I've had enough dinners with the Burkes to know Paige's taste, and when the food arrives, she pads downstairs.

"Do I smell Thai?" She bounces a little on her heels, and I fight a chuckle, telling myself I do not find it cute.

"You haven't eaten all day." I frown.

She pouts a little.

"I was tired. I've been sleeping. "

The fact that her eyes avert from mine tells me she's lying. I let it go.

"Good, then. You needed the rest, I guess. But after dinner, we're going to have our first real training session."

She grins. "Do I get to kick you in the balls?"

"No." I snort. "Not like you could be fast enough to hit me, anyway."

"Try me."

I look over at her, her chin tilted up, and I wonder what her lips would taste like, how they would wield beneath mine.

Would they be soft? Hard? Would she open her lips to let my tongue in?

Wait, what? What the feck is wrong with me?

I look away, focusing on eating, and I don't talk again until we head into the living room.

"You remember there's a gym downstairs, right?"

I stare at her.

"That's right, I remember you said something about it last time. Is it any good? Can we use it to train?"

She shrugs. "The previous owners left some equipment, but it's mostly just open space and mirrors."

I grin. "Perfect."

Can't wait to see what I have to work with down there.

She leads me down to the gym/basement, and it's better than she let on—there's even a punching bag in the corner.

I walk over toward it, and she follows me.

"You can punch this instead of going for my bollocks."

Paige doesn't crack a smile, frowning instead.

"Won't it be more helpful to work on a moving target?"

"Not at first. You've only been training for a little over five minutes, little princess. You can't expect to hit a moving target, especially someone experienced in combat, in such a short amount of time."

"I almost hit you last time." She smirks, and I shake my head, smiling softly. She's an eager one, that's for sure.

I shrug. "Maybe. Or maybe that was just to make you feel better. Anyway, before going for moving targets, you need to learn how to hit properly."

Settling in front of the punching bag, I motion for her to approach me. "Come here. Stand in front of me, and I'll help you with your stance."

She stands where I point and gets into position.

I put my hands on her hips before moving her leg forward. "Always drive forward with your right. You're right-handed, right?"

She nods and puts her hands up to her face, open-handed, and I'm pleasantly surprised that she remembered.

"Now, use your whole body. Not just your wrist."

Paige throws her right hand out, and it's a little sloppy, but she follows the instructions, punching with her whole body, swinging the body just right.

"Good," I tell her, but she's closing her legs again, abandoning the position I placed her in, going back to the wrong stance.

I work her legs spread again with my thigh, not bothering to crouch down.

She draws in a sharp breath, and when I put my hands back on her hips to widen her stance, she's trembling under my fingers.

My cock twitches in my sweats.

I let out a breath through my nostrils, trying to calm myself.

Feck .

I pull back, and Paige huffs out a breath, focusing, punching again, and this time, it's weaker.

"Keep your momentum. Keep that wide stance, and then try to move your leg forward as you punch."

She goes back to the wrong stance again, and I grunt, spreading her thighs with one of my own again without even thinking about it. Or maybe I am thinking about it, somewhere in the back of my head. Maybe I'm thinking about what those thighs would look like spread out in front of me. Beneath me.

Paige gasps out a little moan, and I wait for her to push me away.

I'm growing hard against her hip, and I know she can feel it, but she doesn't pull away.

"Little princess," I murmur in her ear. "You all pent up?"

She doesn't answer, but she rocks her hips back against me, and I work my thigh between her legs, pressing it up to put pressure where I know she needs it.

God, she is so hot through the fabric. Searing me through the sweats.

Paige rocks her hips awkwardly, and I hold her hips in my hands, moving her back and forth, flexing my thigh to give her more pressure.

I shouldn't be doing this. I certainly shouldn't be so diamond-hard in my sweats that I can barely stand myself.

But she's eager, rocking her hips as I move her, grinding down against me, little moans coming out of the back of her throat in a rumble.

"Oh, god." The tremble in her voice does something to me.

Then she rocks forward, letting out a low cry, and I know that she's arrived at her peak .

As soon as she starts to breathe out through her mouth, coming down, guilt and panic wash over me.

What the hell am I doing?

Of course, there's some part of me that's beating on my chest as an animal at being the one to give her pleasure. She's beautiful, her curves won't quit, but...

She's Paige Burke. Declan Burke's little sister. Patrick Burke's daughter. And I just made her come on my thigh.

I wrench away from her, putting my hands up.

"Maybe we need to set some boundaries." I rub a hand over my mouth, which has gone dry.

Paige turns, frowning. "What do you mean, boundaries?"

"I shouldn't be touching you so much. You've got to work on your stance, but I... I crossed a line."

Her cheeks flush pink, lips parted.

God, I want to run my tongue through those fluffy pillows, take her mouth, own it.

She looks away, and thank god, because the fog in my head clears, and I can focus on anything else but kissing her again.

"Okay." She looks at the floor. "Boundaries."

"I don't touch you more than I have to. And when we spar, it's only punching." I pause, trying to lighten things up a bit. "Above the belt."

She smiles slightly at that, and I feel a little less guilty.

She enjoyed it, right? It's not like I'm taking advantage of her. She's twenty-seven, not a teenager anymore, as much as that would make things much easier now.

"All right. Fair enough." She looks up at me again, green eyes wide. "Are we finished for tonight?"

There's a sheen of sweat across her neck. And my tongue goes dry at the thought of dragging it along it. Would I taste the salt, or is she sweet all over?

Feck me .

"We're done." I turn around and leave the gym, heading upstairs to the main house.

Paige follows behind me, but I don't utter another word, don't look at her again, just go directly into the guest room.

I cannot believe I did that. But at the same time, it felt amazing. And I hate myself for that.

Now I've got to do something, or this erection is going to be obvious all night. So, I head for the shower, turning on the water as hot as it will go, hoping to cleanse these feelings from my skin, these thoughts from my mind. Erase the memory of her sweet moans and the feel of her in my hands, rubbing on my thigh.

This is so bad.

What the feck was I thinking?

I was thinking about her pink tongue darting out to wet her full lips, her wide green eyes. The freckles that dance across her nose. I was thinking about her ass pressing back against me as she rode my thigh, how hot she was through the fabric of her leggings.

I groan low in my throat, not taking time to tease myself, just grabbing my insistent erection around the base and pumping my fist in slow, long strokes, panting as I put my forehead against the shower wall.

It's only a few strokes, a few images of what she'd look like spreadeagled or up on all fours, before I paint the shower wall white and then use the water to wash it down the drain.

Jesus fecking Christ. I've got to get my shit together and keep it together .

This is supposed to be a boring babysitting job, not like this.

I have to stay away from Paige Burke, all while watching her like a hawk. It's a tangled web of a situation, and I hate it.

Sunday's coming up, though, and I have a plan to get all this out of my system. It's not Paige. It can't be. It's just that I haven't had a woman in weeks.

When I get into bed, nude, I make a quick phone call.

"Darla." Her voice is flat, and I can't help but grin.

"It's your favorite customer," I croon, and she snorts out a laugh.

"More like my least favorite. Where have you been, Kael? Haven't seen you at the club in ages."

She goes by Darla because she loves The Little Rascals , but her real name is Ramona, which she hates that I know. Enough late-night trips to the strip club and rolls in the hay, though, and you end up learning things about each other.

Not that it's ever been anything other than sex and friendship for me and Darla. She works at one of Murphy's strip clubs, and we met a few years ago when I was between jobs. We've been doing this ever since. I just call her up when I'm not on a mission, and she always says yes.

"Had a job. You know I don't?—"

"Have girls on jobs," she answers for me. "Yeah, yeah. You could at least call, though. I worry about you, Kael."

"Nothing to worry about." I shrug even though she can't see it. "I can take care of myself."

"No one's doubting that, but Murphy's been... well, he's been crazier than usual."

I frown. "How so?"

"Like... violent crazy. He threw a blender across the room, nearly hit Diamond, all because she snarked at him. But you know Diamond. She snarks at everyone."

"Is it because of his daughter?"

"I assume so, but it's not like he's going to talk to us girls about it." She scoffs. "Anyway, you must be off work now. You wanna come over? I'm not working tonight."

I sigh. "Unfortunately, I'm still on the take. But I'm thinking of breaking my rules on Sunday. You up for it?"

"You know I am." The grin in her voice is so clear it's like I can picture her face right now.

"See you then."

She hangs up the phone, and I try to call back a memory, the last time that Darla and I slept together, but her brown eyes keep turning green, her lithe body turning curvier. She keeps turning into Paige as I close my eyes.

It's going to be a long time until Sunday.