Page 148 of The Striker (Gods of the Game 1)
The music was still playing as we held each other, me on the barre and him standing in front of me, our limbs intertwined in a sweaty, exhausted tangle during our come down.
“That’s one way to do cardio,” I panted. “Congrats, Donovan, you passed your final training test.”
His hoarse laughter vibrated from my head to the tips of my toes. “I expect a gold medal commemorating the moment.”
“Of course you do.” I rested my head on his shoulder, closed my eyes, and breathed him in. Some people were comforted by the smell of their childhood or their mother’s cooking, but I was comforted by the scent ofhim. Rich, earthy, masculine.
It was the scent of home.
“How are you feeling, darling?” Asher stroked my hair, the gentleness of his touch a complete one-eighty from the way he’d just fucked me. “That leg on the barre move…”
I giggled at the mix of awe and concern in his voice. “I’m okay. The position wasn’t uncomfortable, and the lower barre helped.” I lifted my head and gave him a teasing smile. “That’s one of the perks of dating a dancer. We’reveryflexible.”
His eyes glittered with relief and a fresh touch of heat.
“I see that. I can’t believe it took us this long to use the studioproperly.” He shook his head in mock disappointment. “What have we been doing?”
“Less fun stuff, unfortunately.” I sighed, drowsy but satiated. “But it’s a good last day, isn’t it?”
Asher’s face softened. “Yeah, it is.”
We held each other for a few more minutes until our breathing returned to normal and we finally, reluctantly disentangled. We turned off the music, cleaned ourselves up, and sanitized the studio, but we were still holding tight to the day while it lasted.
Because come tomorrow, everything would change.
CHAPTER 38
ASHER
The next day, a heavy sense of déjà vu slammed into me when I walked into Scarlett’s studio at RAB for the first time in two months.
It looked exactly the same as it did my first day here, and memories resurfaced like vivid snapshots from the past.
The bag. The realization that she was the mystery girl from the pub. The shock when I found out she was also Vincent’s sister.
The events felt like they happened both yesterday and a century ago.
I’d walked in resentful of my forced training and reentered head over heels for my trainer.
It was funny how one summer could change so much.
Scarlett’s smile dazzled when she saw me, but it lasted only a second before her gaze drifted over my shoulder and it morphed into a more neutral version of itself.
“Vincent, you’re early,” she said a little too brightly.
“I dropped off my luggage and came straight here.” Her brother strode in and hugged her. “Look forward to seeing what you have in store for me.”
He gave me a curt nod, which I returned with a similar one of my own. Neither of us quite knew how to handle the thaw in our relationship when we were sober, so we kept a respectful distance while Scarlett turned on the music.
“It’s going to be harder than the wishy-washy workouts you’ve been doing on your own,” she said.
“Wishy-washy?” Vincent sounded outraged. “I have a great training regimen. AskMen’s Health. My interview with them was their most popular article last year!”
Second most popular.I bit back my reflexive response.Myinterview with them got a thousand more clicks than his, but antagonizing him before I told him I was dating his sister later this afternoon was probably not a smart move.
“Uh-huh.” Scarlett sounded unimpressed. “Either way, you’re not caught up on the type of training we’ve been doing all summer, so I’ve modified today’s session to account for that. The season starts in less than two weeks, which means we only have five sessions together.” She wrinkled her nose. “I’m not sure why your coach insisted on having you come back for so short a time, but it is what is. We’ll start with warm-ups and then go into the resistance bands.”
I knew why Coach wanted Vincent to catch the tail end of our training together, even if it was only for two weeks. He was gruff and grumpy as hell, but he was an optimist at heart. He probably thought two weeks of forced bonding was better than none.