Playing for Keeps (Heartbreaker Bay #7)(55)

She knew she was poking the bear, and his mouth curved in a smile that had every single part of her body doing a happy little quiver.

Down, girl .

“Are you challenging me?” he asked.

Hell yes. “I should probably warn you, I sometimes kickbox for exercise.” She shrugged. “It gets my aggressions out.”

“There are other ways to do that.”

That voice again. Her knees wobbled. “I prefer the mats. But if that makes you nervous . . .”

“Get changed.”

She didn’t often hop-to when given a demand. Okay, so she never hopped-to when given a command, and yet tonight she did. But only because she wanted in the ring with him so badly she was nearly humming with anticipation. When she’d been here before, she’d seen him in the ring with her friend Molly, and another time with his friend Lucas, and they’d kicked the shit out of each other. For fun.

Men were so weird, but she could admit that it’d turned her on to watch how well he handled himself. Lucas was a badass security expert and investigator who worked out of the same building she did. Caleb might be a hugely successful venture capitalist, but she’d have never imagined him to be able to hold his own against someone whose job required him to be able to kick ass.

And yet he could.

A few minutes later she was in an exercise tank and shorts, both snug to her body so she’d have freedom of movement without worrying about revealing things she didn’t want revealed. Tying her hair up, she stepped into the gym area.

Caleb was already in the ring, waiting for her in what she’d seen him in the last time she’d been here. Long-sleeved performance tee and loose-fitting basketball shorts.

His warm gaze drifted over her. “You look great.”

“I wasn’t going for great,” she said. “I was going for I-wanna-kick-your-ass.”

With a heart-stopping smile, he held the ropes for her to climb in. “Show me what you’ve got, Tough Girl.”

With a shake of her head at his easy cockiness—he was so going down—she walked around the ring for a minute, her veins pumping with an excitement she hadn’t felt in a long time.

Caleb was still looking far too sure of himself as he waited for her to make the first move. “Pretty damn sure of yourself, aren’t you?” she murmured.

He just grinned.

Oh yeah, waaaaay too confident. And gorgeous, dammit. “You should brace yourself,” she warned.

“Bring it.”

“You think I can’t?”

“So far, I think that you’re all talk. Hold up a sec.” Then he straightened and casually pulled off his shirt.

Sadie froze. Because yes, he was leanly muscled and sinewy and perfect, just as she knew him to be. But he was also . . .

Tatted.

How had she missed it that night they’d spent together? He had tattoos across the back of his shoulders and around one bicep. Another low on a hipbone that vanished into his low-slung shorts and was sexy as hell. And then there were the words Carpe Diem scripted vertically down one leanly muscled side.

Her mouth had fallen open. She’d had no idea. The only thing she could think was that it’d been so cold in her apartment, he’d never taken off his shirt all the way. She was still standing there dazed by the sight of him when he took her down, flattening her to the mat.

Lying on top of her, he smiled. “You were saying?”

“Hey,” she said, more breathless than she wanted to admit. “I wasn’t ready. You distracted me. On purpose .”

He pushed himself upright, giving her a hand to pull her up as well. “With what?” he asked innocently, knowing damn well it was his tattoos, and more than the Ninja Turtle digression. The one on his hip . . . she wanted to lick it. She wanted to lick him . Except he was looking quite pleased with himself.

“I didn’t see them the other night and you know it,” she said.

He just smiled. So he wanted to play it like that. Okay then. And knowing she could give as good as she got, she let her expression go a little sultry as she smiled and turned away, walking slowly to the edge of the ring, wrapping her fingers around the ropes, tossing her hair over her shoulder as she smiled back at him. “You really do have a nice setup here.”

Coming up behind her, he set his hands over hers on the ropes and lowered his head so that he could brush his mouth along the side of her throat. She let out a pleased hum and shifted her body against his.

His breathing changed and that’s when she struck, wrapping a foot around the back of his knee, causing it to buckle. Using her weight as momentum, she took him down to the mat, rolling over so that they were chest-to-chest.

“I wasn’t ready,” he said, mirroring her words back at her. His hands slid down her back to her butt, which he squeezed. “You have a great ass.”

“So do you,” she said. “Which you already know.”

He rolled them so that she was once again pinned. Cupping her face, he dipped his head and she arched up, thinking he was going to kiss her. Instead, he pulled back slightly and met her gaze. “Do you have something you want to say to me?”

“Hmm.” She wriggled. “Whatever’s in your pocket is poking me.”

His eyes darkened with both heat and a challenge that had her brain going from amused to aroused beyond belief in a single heartbeat.