Free Fighting Lust: A Deadly Sins Novel by Jennifer Miller

headlights, staring at the glove on Hector’s hand – his pants around his ankles. His eyes find mine and I give him a wink and wave before I practically skip out of the room, pleased with myself for calling his bluff.
    Cole is peeking through the door I left cracked on purpose, and pretty much looks like he wants to pee his pants. I finally let out a laugh and call out, “Nice to meet you, Cole,” as I walk away and head to the locker room happy that my shift is over. Maybe I’ll go out and get a drink with Noah and Natalie after all.

 

     
    It’s been a couple weeks since I saw Tessa at the hospital and a day hasn’t gone by that I haven’t thought about her. I’m not sure what it is about her that’s got me all in knots. Maybe it’s the way she took control and had her way with me at the bar. Maybe it’s the way she didn’t take my shit at the hospital. Maybe it’s the mysteries hidden in her eyes. I don’t know. What I do know is that I want to see her again. I also know that I’m not sure how I feel about that.
    Ryder King doesn’t ever go out with the same woman twice. Ryder King doesn’t even think about the same woman twice. Doing so would establish an impression that I’m interested in more than just sex, and I’m not. And I don’t want any woman to get any expectation about starting some relationship with me. Ain’t going to happen. Planting that idea is unacceptable and something I’ve always avoided at all costs. I’ve been there done that. I let myself go there before and all it led to was pain. So the fact that I can’t get Tessa out of my head, doesn’t sit well with me.
    Work has been busy lately. I love my job and it works well for me. As a fireman, we are either waiting around to be called to a job, or at a job. Waiting around means I get to do a lot of weight lifting. We have a complete gym at the station and if it wasn’t for my fighting, I’d never need to go to another gym. Over the last couple weeks when we’ve been called to a site to assist with a car accident or a fire, I’ve offered to accompany the victim to the hospital, if needed. Each time I was turned down. Sure, I had an ulterior motive, but they didn’t need to know that. All the guys looked at me like I’d gone crazy when I offered, but I ignored them.
    Kind of like what I’m doing now, but this time it’s ignoring the guys at the gym. They’re all fucking around, but I’m seriously trying to get in some sparring practice. “Is anyone ready to fight with me or not? You are all wasting my time sitting here gossiping like chicks.”
    Dylan gets into the octagon and takes a fighting stance, “Stop being a cry baby. If you want to fight, let’s fight.”
    “Finally,” I say with a roll of my eyes.
    Despite telling Cole that I would yank off his balls and shove them down his throat if he spoke a word to anyone about what happened at the hospital, , he spilled anyway. When I walked into the locker room earlier, I heard raucous laughter and didn’t think anything of it until it increased when I walked inside. Dylan, Zane and Levi surrounded Cole and each had various looks of mirth and disbelief on their faces. Cole immediately assumed the look of guilt and shame that comes not so much in feeling bad about telling the story but in getting caught and I knew in an instant that he didn’t give a shit about my threat. Truth is, if it had been the other way around, I’d have told anyone and everyone that would listen. I guess I can’t really blame him, but I’ll pay him back, that’s for damn sure.
    They’ve all been giving me shit ever since and have been more interested in ribbing me than in logging in some training time.
    Taking a fighting stance against Dylan, I prepare to spar with him, but a pain runs through my head and I wince. I have had a headache off and on, and my stitches have been bothering me, they still pull a little but are starting to itch.
    “What’s the matter man?” Zane asks me