Page 29 of Love Punch

“In here? Together?” I asked, trying not to sound too needy. I failed completely.

“Yes.”

“Am I dreaming Is this just a champagne-induced hallucination?”

“Try sleeping,” Bradley said, pulling the blanket over me. “I’ll still be here when you wake up from your dreams.”

Chapter 13

Bradley

Ifelt…calm, relaxed. For once, waking up didn’t make me want to curl up into a ball as much as it had over the previous week. Arthur was cuddled close, tucked under my armpit and we were both naked as the day we were born. Life was good.

‘What’s got you smiling?” he mumbled, looking up at me through bleary eyes.

“You,” I simply stated.

“Yup, that’ll do it.” He laid his head back down on my chest and I tightened my arm around him to hold him in place, like he’d fly away if I let go. My other hand idly played with his hair as his skated across the planes of my stomach. Watching him there, so secure, made that crushing sensation of weakness cease to exist. I was exactly where I needed to be.

Arthur stroked his finger down my tattooed arm and smiled. “We still need to get your last one done,” he said, coming to rest on the patch of bare skin above my palm.

“I didn’t win. Doesn’t count.”

“No? Then you don’t feel like you’re winning now? He drifted one nail across the bumps of my knuckles and across my thigh. I shivered.

“Shut up,” I sighed. “I’ll think about it.” I thought about what those tattoos actually said and how I knew we weren’t ready for that yet. Would he feel the same way about me if he new the words etched into my skin weren’t boxing terms? If it was something so much more personal?

“You know, I realise I kind of jumped you last night. I hope this doesn’t constitute workplace harassment,” Arthur said, pulling me from my reverie. “Because if you have to know, I will be throwing out any HR complaint you put in against me.”

“What if I put in a complaint to Jason?” I asked teasingly.

“That man wouldn’t know a filing cabinet if it hit him in the face,” Arthur replied. “Believe me, best we leave the harassment cases to me.”

Something in his tone made me feel uncomfortable. “Have there been cases?”

Arthur’s hand froze briefly, then continued its dance across my skin. “At the gym?”

“Yeah.” I almost didn’t want to know, but surely I’d have known if they had.Surely.

When Arthur spoke again, his voice was quiet. “A few. I’ve handled them, expelled the perpetrators when they’ve happened. People seem to be comfortable enough to come to me before we have to take it any further.”

“From now on, I want to be more involved. How could I not have known?” I asked, more to myself than to him.

“You were a boxer. I was the everyman. But if you want to be more involved in all of it—the good, the bad and the financial—I think we can do that,” he told me. “Let’s make the Imperial Gym’s legacy one that lasts, yeah?”

I brought his hand up to my mouth, brushing a kiss across his knuckles. “Yeah. That sounds good to me, love. Let’s do that.”

We were quiet for a minute, but the question I’d been burning to ask him since last night was still playing in my mind. “I confessed my feelings for you last night,” I finally said.

“You did. Why do I feel like that’s the start of something bigger?”

“It is…you didn’t.”

“Didn’t what?” Arthur started. “Wait, you think last night wasn’t me confessing my feelings?”

“I dunno. You didn’t…we just did stuff, you know? We’d had a couple of glasses of champagne. It could have been something like lust.”

“Bradley Tyler, I have lusted after you since the day you dropped your towel in that change room,” Arthur scolded. “But feelings? I’ve been nursing those since about week two. And they’ve only gotten stronger.” He craned his neck up to press a kiss to my cheek. “Right, shower time for me. No, you may not join me. I’ve seen the twelve-in-one shit you use and I won’t have it touching this precious skin.”

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