she's mine.

98

The hallway was long, white, and empty.

"You have five minutes," the taller older man who was standing outside the door growled as he looked me over. He was one of the trainers. I recognized him, and I could tell he somewhat recognized me. He gave me a nod and softened his gaze before stepping aside to allow me into the men's locker room.

As many times as I had been at a gym for Jonny, I had never, I mean never, been in the men's locker room. Jonny was able to joke and have fun, but the locker room was strictly off limits. I felt bad even walking through the door, but the thought of Eli on the other side pushed that guilty feeling down real quick.

It was another white hallway, not nearly as long before it took a sharp turn. I followed the path and found myself standing in an empty room with metal lockers on either side of me and Eli in front of me. He was farther than I expected. He was at the other end of the locker room sitting on a bench with his head hung low and his elbows on his knees.

He didn't look up when I entered the room. He probably assumed I was another one of the guys. His dark curly hair was a mess, yet still glistening with sweat from his fight- causing it to be even curlier than usual. I walked slowly toward the wild creature, afraid of scaring him away and back behind his walls.

As I neared him, I could see all the built up tension pulling at his back muscles. He still didn't have a shirt or pants on, just his fighting shorts. His body rose and fell with the hard crashes of his breathing.

I stopped before him, unsure of what to do next. I didn't want to speak, it was a sweet silence as I listened to him breathe. I lowered myself unto my knees in front of him to look at him in the eye. His eyes raised to mine, guarded at first until his eyes took me in. Then they softened. He let his eyes stroll over my face, almost mesmerized in my features.

He raised a hand to lightly glide his thumb over my cheekbone. My eyes fluttered at the softness in his touch. It was almost incredible to know that those gentle hands were the same ones just crushing another man only thirty minutes ago.

"Are you okay?" I whispered in this silent room. His thumb trailed from my cheek bone to my lips. He paused there for a mere moment before dropping his hand. He looked away and then back to me. His eyes were hard when they returned to me. "What happened?" I gently nudged him again to speak to me.

"They wanted me to lose, they wanted me to take the loss," he spat out. his hair was all over the place and his eyes were wild with anger. I looked at him confused as I breathed a 'what'. He shook his head. "I know," he growled. "Jonny- the team wanted me to lose," he spoke through gritted teeth and the tension in his shoulders returned. "They said it was strategy. I am not going to freaking lose just so-" his voice had risen to a near yell and he had stood to his feet when he cut himself off. I sat back on my heels and looked up at him, just watching.

I nodded. That was Eli. That was the man I had fallen in love with right there. In his heated, sweaty, disastrous state, this was the man I loved. The man who refused to bow down, the one who couldn't hold back his will to fight and the man who stood for what he believed in no matter what. No one could tell him to submit in a fight, I knew that better than anyone. I didn't ask anything else, I could see the rest play out in my head.

Instead, I just tilted my head as he looked down at me. As we looked at each other, it seemed to hit me. I had been the only one they allowed in here. The only one even the coach knew could calm him. We didn't talk much, in fact communicating seemed to be the hardest thing for us at times, I was the only one who could calm him.

Suddenly, he reached out a hand for me. I took it without thinking and let him pull me to my feet. His brown eyes were full of a fire, maybe it was the close proximity w hadn't had in so long, or maybe it was just the fight not long ago. Either way, my breath was cut short as his hand, in one swift motion, let go of mine and reached around to my waist, pulling my body into his.