Page 49 of Crash
Theguywho I knew was Cole, thumped the other guy on the arm and he looked up. His eyes widened at my approach, his gaze running up and down my body. Ignoring the both of them, I continued across the mats. I wasn’t there for them.
“Linc,” Cole said, nodding in my direction.
He turned then, his gaze meeting mine, and he smiled. It was this huge grin that told me everything I needed to know. He was glad to see me…out here.
“Hey,” I said, my voice coming out in a squeak.
“Vee.” He glanced over my shoulder toward the office. “You okay?”
My cheeks began to heat, more out of habit than anything else. “You heard, huh?”
“Not really,” he replied. “Couldn’t make any of it out.”
“Liar.”
He held his hands up, palms out. “True story.”
I glanced at the two fighters and they turned away sharply, pretending to get back into their repetitions on the bag.Eavesdroppers. Lincoln narrowed his eyes at them and gestured for me to follow him across the mats. To my dismay, he led me into the change rooms. He stuck his head into the men’s, and it must’ve been empty because he ushered me inside.
Standing in the middle of the empty change room, I couldn’t help but squirm. This was where he’d… Where I’d heard…
“Don’t even think it, Vee,” he said. “It’s the only private place in the whole gym.”
“I—” I took a deep breath. “I was thinking it.”
“Do you want to go someplace else?”
I shook my head. “No. Here is fine.” It was just a test of my resolve. He didn’t mean anything by it. “About yesterday. We never got to talk aboutthe thingbefore Ash ripped you a new one.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Lincoln replied. “I can hold my own against him.”
“I told him to fuck off,” I said.
“He’s just looking out for you,” Lincoln replied, leaning against the wall. “I get it.”
I frowned. “There’s looking out for me and then there’s keeping me locked up so I won’t hurt myself. I’m not crazy.”
“No, you’re not,” he said with a smile. “You’re pretty fucking hot.”
“Lincoln…” I rolled my eyes at the same time my body began to tingle.All the way from my fingertips to there.You know…there.
“Can’tlie, Vee.”
I glanced away, suddenly overcome with shyness. Sucking my bottom lip into my mouth, I shook my head.
“There are a lot of things I want to tell you,” I said after a moment.
“Me too.”
“It’s not easy for me,” I went on. “It’s all so new… I have problems I’m still trying to work through. I don’t want to disappoint you.”
“I doubt that,” he said, and I stared up at him. “I know the score, Vee. I can call youVeenow, right?”
“I think you already made up your mind about that yesterday,” I replied with a shy smile. Raising my hand, I let my fingers brush over my lips.
“I wanna do that again, you know. Kiss you.”
I pulled in a breath and it wavered unsteadily. Closing my eyes, I tried to calm myself, but it wasn’t really doing much. My lips were tingling with anticipation already. Was this normal? Being in this room, just us alone with each other, was sending me into a total overload. Did he feel it too?The thickness in the air, the spark and the force trying to crash us together?It was so overwhelming I was positive he could.
