Page 66 of Healing Souls

She lets out a little squeak. “Ryker!”

“Close your eyes, Harley,” I murmur.

She squeezes them shut and then buries her face in my neck. I take a deep breath and remind myself now is not the time or place for my dick to get hard.

Turning around, I find Grayson standing look confused as fuck, which is oddly cute. I strut past him and take off at a jog down the stairs and straight into the gym.

The lights are all off, which makes it kinda creepy, so I turn around and gesture at Gray, who followed us down. He nods and hits the lights to illuminate the entire gym. There are no windows down here, but we have a good A/C system and multiple ceiling fans, as well as a lot of lights making it bright as shit.

I rub Harley’s back and whisper, “Alright, I am here holding you, and Grayson is going to come stand right next to us. I want you to open your eyes and look directly at me. Remember that this place looks nothing like that basement did. This is more like an entire lower level than a dingy ass basement.”

Grayson stands right next to us and rests his hand on Harley's back. She takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly.

I say in her ear, “Ready, little flame?”

She nods and lifts her head from my neck, slowly opening her eyes she looks directly at me. I give her a huge smile and without thought lean forward and kiss her. She lets out a tiny gasp but soon returns my kiss and moves her hands from my shoulders to the back of my neck. One of her hands slowly glides into my hair.

I can't help but let out a groan as I slowly pull back and look at her blown pupils. Her legs squeeze around me, and I know I need to get her off me before I accidentally take things too far before she’s ready.

Gently tapping her butt, I say, “Alright. You can do this. Down.”

She unwinds her legs from my waist, and I lower her to the ground. She glances around the room and takes another deep breath. “You’re right. It looks nothing alike. I don’t even feel like I’m in a basement.”

I grin and glance at Grayson, whose cheeks are red. Smirking at him, I slap his shoulder as I walk by. “Did you want a kiss too?” I murmur.

The red on his cheeks seems to darken even more as he stares at me. I freeze for a second before shaking my head and moving along. He probably was thinking about kissing Harley.

“Okay, so what kind of things did you do at the gym before?” I ask as I walk towards the wall with all our gloves.

I figured she could take some of her anger out on a punching bag, and I could get away with being closer to her than normal and walk her through it or even maybe teach her how to spar.

I get no response, so I spin around to find her taking in everything in the gym.

“Harley? Are you okay?” I ask, hesitantly wondering if she’s taking in the gym or starting to panic about the basement part.

She glances at me over her shoulder from where she was checking out our wall of treadmills. “I’m good.” She chuckles. “I just didn’t realize how much peace I found being in a gym.”

I grin. “I feel the same way. I love being in the gym. It helps me a lot.” I point at Gray, who has taken a seat on one of the benches along the wall. “He, on the other hand, hates the gym.”

Gray blinks a few times before focusing again. He scoffs quietly, “I don’t hate it. It’s just not my favorite place to be like you and Cade.”

Harley tilts her head as she looks between us. “You don’t have to stay down here with us, you know.”

“Yes, he does,” I sing as I turn around and go back towards the assortment of gloves I was originally heading for.

“Not today, Ryker,” Grayson groans.

I smirk even though they can’t see me. “Yes, today. Yes, every day. You have been slacking off a lot lately. If we plan to be a part of the club, then that means possibly being put in positions where we need to know how to defend ourselves. I don’t care if you want to be a techy nerd. Nerds still gets down here every day and works out. You can too.”

Grayson says nothing because he knows I am right, but Harley asks, “You guys want to be a part of the club? Like full members?”

I nod. “Yes. But let's talk about that later. Right now, we have shit to do and aggression to get out.”

“Okay. Where is Cade? Is he coming down here?” Harley walks towards me, glancing around.

“He went for a run and will be out for a while. You’ll probably see him later tonight,” Grayson responds.

My anger spikes. She asks about him because she cares and yet he is off screwing around when he should be here with all of us. I know in the deepest parts of my soul that Harley was meant for us.

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