Page 93 of Falcon

Chapter 20

Faith

Texas is fucking hot.

I don’t mean the annoying, inconvenient kind of hot. It’s the sink into your bones, hard to breathe, sweating through your clothes and you feel the strong desire to do the Polar Bear Plunge kind of hot.

“You okay over there?” Falcon asks from the other treadmill.

Who the fuck decided that putting a gym outside was a good idea? Who cares that it’s covered and there are fans? It’s a thousand damn degrees out here and I feel like I may die.

But I’ll never let him know that. He has weigh-in tonight and he needs to make sure he sheds any extra weight before then, so…he needs to sweat.

“I’m great.” I even push myself up on the handlebars to move my feet to the sides of the treadmill so pause for a minute and down a few gulps of water.

“You didn’t have to come out here with me, you know? You could have stayed up in the room. I would have understood.”

“And miss you in all your sweaty, glistening glory? No thanks. I’m okay. Just hot.”

He gives me that smile I adore so much and gets back to his run.

It’s been two days since our time on the cliffs. Something shifted in the air that day. Falcon and I felt electric before, but now the electricity runs deep into my bones.

We spent the next day leading to our flight to Dallas in bed; making love, kissing, talking, eating…we didn’t do anything except that. We just spent time together because who knows what the fight nights will look like.

We arrived at the hotel in Dallas early this morning, after an even earlier flight. We settled into our hotel room, which was fucking massive, by the way, and went straight to a meeting with the rest of Falcon’s team. Everything was happening so fast that I could hardly keep up.

And after a quick bite to eat, we changed clothes and came down here to the outdoor gym, or as I like the call it, the place where I will die from a heatstroke.

I finish my water and hop back into place on the treadmill and continue my very slow, barely even considered a jog, jog until Falcon finally slows his speed to a cool down and sheds his very wet shirt.

You’d think I’d be used to the sight of him by now, but I’m so not. Not even close.

His body is lean, but so muscular with just a slight tan. He’s got those V muscles that make women do stupid things and a thin trail of hair leads from his navel and dips below the waistband of his boxer briefs, which are just barely poking up above his gym shorts.

Sweat is rolling down his body in small beads, thanks to the Texas humidity. Yes…thank you, humidity, because without you, I wouldn’t have this fucking spectacular view.

His dragon tattoo is on full display, snaking up his arm and shifting and moving with his muscles.

“You’re staring. It’s incredibly rude, you know?” he tells me, as he steps off the treadmill and snatches a towel to wipe down with.

“I won’t apologize. What am I supposed to do when you’re out here like that? I’m only human,” I joke, stepping off my equipment and going over to him, smiling when he pulls me close with an arm around my waist. “Are you nervous?”

“About what?” he asks, resting a hand on the small of my back.

“The weigh-in. The fight tomorrow. All of it.”

“I don’t get nervous anymore, baby.”

“How is that possible? Everyone gets nervous.”

“Let me rephrase that. I get anxious. A nervous excited, but I also focus inward and get in the zone. I’m all work the day of a fight.” He pushes a stray hair that fell out of my bun behind my ear.

“Good. Because you need to focus to make sure you’re safe.”

“Are you nervous about watching me?”

I release a breath and really contemplate my response.

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