Path To Redemption (Fighter's Den, #1)

Chapter 8 - Emily

"Why am I here?" I mutter aloud to myself.

I'm standing in front of Fighter's Den at the crack ass of dawn when I could very well be sleeping. Not that I'd been asleep to begin with. My entire night and the one before were spent tossing and turning, recounting my conversation with Jaxon. Not Tim. Jaxon. While we'd grazed among deeper topics regarding my passions and his personal concerns, most of our conversation held a flirty and near sexual vibe. I'd caught his eyes on my lips on more than one occasion and his gazes that drifted over my body had felt like a physical touch, igniting heat all over me. I found it hard to believe that he was as attracted to me as I am to him but last night held all the evidence I needed. The asshole in him was sure to make an appearance from time to time but it'd almost seemed like he was conflicted with himself. That made the two of us. I'm attracted to him, yes, but I'm not on board with pursuing it. The two of us was chaos waiting to happen. I wouldn't act on two lust induced interactions and I doubted he would either. And yet, here I am, standing in front of my father's gym with an excuse ready as to why I'm here when I really just want to see Jaxon again. I know my dad wouldn't question me since I'd stopped by this gym lots of times and his students knew me well enough. I guess the paranoia that I was actively seeking out one of his students this time was just getting to me.

The various sounds of grunts and strikes meet my ears as I enter the gym. The atmosphere in here is dense and thick with heat and it smells like sweat. Gross. My eyes dart over the men in process of their training. Or should I say, shirtless men. Nevermind. Totally not gross. I can't exactly say it's a hardship having a boxer as a father when you're greeted with sights such as this. Cameron, one of my closest companions as compared to the rest of dad's students, turns to me with a dazzling grin. He's seriously the most charming man I've had the pleasure of coming across and he's not hard on the eyes either.

"There's my favourite girl." He opens his arms wide for a hug.

"No, thanks." I decline with a laugh. "You're really sweaty right now."

"You're telling me you're passing up the opportunity to cop a feel of all this?" He runs his hands down his defined abs and to the very tip of his gym shorts, doing a little thrusting jig with his hips. Another laugh bubbles out of me at how ridiculous he looks.

"You're a terrible dancer." I inform him.

"I can put my hip thrusting to other good uses." He waggle his eyebrows suggestively. "Ones I'm really good at."

"Yeah, we're not having this conversation."

"I like this conversation."

"And I'd like to keep my breakfast in my stomach." Nate, another of the guys, calls from where he's doing pushups on a mat.

"He's just jealous of my thrusting skills." Cameron mock whispers.

Nate pauses mid-pushup to roll his eyes.

"I'm pretty sure my thrusting skills are far more practiced than yours."

"Ooh, are you trying to say you wanna show me?"

"Get the fuck out of my face." Nate laughs.

I shake my head at their immaturity but I'm smiling. These boys were something else.

"Hey, Em." Asher calls out to me when he walks out of the locker room. Wolfe is trailing behind him and grunts out his greeting. He's not a man of many words.

"Hi, boys." I smile at them. Asher gives me a quick hug that has Cameron scowling.

"Get your grimy hands off my girl." He warns. Asher merely snorts and goes about stretching.