A Dangerous Woman

Chapter 16

Blaise Taylor

My father had forced me to sit with him in his office as he went over the arrangement for the tenth time. I listened as coldly as I did the first time, which he knew.

Aidan and I were to spend two months in England together and then two months in Italy.

This was sold as the attempt to make us both more comfortable with each other in preparation for our marriage but in reality, it was for the deadly duo that our parents sought us to be, to finally form. A duo was sought as it would increase the fear status of both Mafias and the four months together was believed to be of help as it was to create the trust needed.

After a year of engagement, we would then go to see the Russians, for their blessing of our wedding and attempt to avoid a war with them.

Finally it was said that we would wed.

I knew that even if I had planned to fight the arranged, eventually Aidan would always become my husband. I had no say to oppose this, as a woman in a man's world never did.

However, it did not mean that I had to like him and in a childish attempt to show this, I had avoided him as much as I physically could without alarming my father.

I would have to spend every meal alone with him but other than that I was free to do what I pleased. I believe this amount of freedom may have been Antonio's idea to make our relationship form as naturally as it could on a forced contact. He did love his son and was trying to make this as best as possible for him.

But this obviously, did not work.

I did not speak to him outside the meals and even during the meals, I kept to conversation to a minimum.

I maintained my normal daily routine to carry on the facade that the deal hadn't happened.

My routine always started by going to gym at 3:00am, this was to beat the crowd and train for as long as possible in silence.

Today I stupidly woke up late, from staying up until midnight overthinking everything, which meant that I had to go down to the gym, at 5:00am. I knew most people still would not be down there but it meant that I had less time to complete my whole routine before people started to appear.

I quickly dressed in a grey sports bra that had a light blue patterning over it and matched it with grey sport leggings. I completed the look with a pair of light blue Nike trainers and then tied my hair back in a simple ponytail.

As I opened the door to the private gym that I prided myself on, I saw him.

It was just my luck that Aidan would be there.

I quickly tried to leave unnoticed but he spotted me and coughed lightly so I knew that he had.

His eyes were trained on me, observing my every movement, but I still continued to the door. I only stopped when I saw the expression in his eyes.

They were challenging me, he was challenging me, questioning my strength to stay. I couldn't back down from the challenge and so I mentally groaned and remained.

I began my normal routine, one that forced my muscle to work at their maximal level. This always caused me to be drenched in sweat, but I didn't care as not only would I usually be alone, I found the pain of pushing yourself to the limit to be freeing.

I could still feel his eyes on me and I returned my own fair few vicious stares at him.

Admittedly, his body was perfection. The way that his arm muscle strained his t-shirt to its very limit as they bulged every time, he strained them.

The simple black shirt that he wore, was stuck to him as if it were a second layer of skin. It was adhered to him, with the sweat he had worked up and allowed him to show off his extremely toned torso.

His hair, while slightly sweaty, still remained intact an in its swooped back position. The sweat added a rough edge that I enjoyed staring at.

I moved to the final stage of my work out, skipping a few stages to get out before more people arrived.

The punching bag. To distract myself from my hormones that had run wild.

I wrapped my hands with tape before beginning, to avoid unnecessary injury and then started with some gentle touches to the bag.

I began fully warming up and started bouncing from foot to foot as the adrenaline entered my blood and coursed through my body.

I landed punch after punch, all of which accurately hitting the centre of the bag.

In the midst of my continuous chain of punches, I saw Aidan in the corner of my eye.

This influenced the ringing of his voice in the back of my head, asking me what my favourite colour was, both when we asked me innocently as a child and when he taunted me a few days ago.

My braining was working overtime and I just crashed. All I could only think of Jordan. His sweet smile, warm laugh and tanned skin all lost. I could see his pale, cold body. His cold dead eyes. My punches got more rapid and harder as I channelled my pain into my actions.

It was blind fury and all I could hear was the metal that held the bag, struggling to cope.  

All of a sudden, hands grasped my waist and pulled me away from the punching bag.

This snapped me out of my daze and I instinctively reacted by grabbing a hand and using it to flip its owner onto their back.

Aidan dizzily looked up at me from the floor.

I gritted through my clenched teeth, "Don't touch me."

He quickly put his hands in the air in a joking manner, implying his surrender,

"Hey, I was just gonna say your knuckles probably need a little break, amore."

I looked down at my hands, my knuckles were split open, blood was drying after having seeped out, and the bruising setting in.

I didn't feel anything as my spiral had numbed me. I walked out leaving Aidan alone and speechless on the floor.

I tried my best to ignore his presence but the meals we were forced to have together, couldn't be avoided. He constantly tried to start a conversation, beginning with asking if I was okay but my responses were so dry, that he eventually stopped. We ate in silence.

As soon as my food was eaten, I exited the room as fast as I could.

The following morning, I woke up at my usual 3:00am, wanting to completely avoid bumping into Aidan. Yet for some odd reason and to my complete surprise, he was in the gym, doing his warning up stretches.

I did my best to ignore him, occasionally sneaking a few glances as I went about my normal routine.

I started wrapping my hands to begin with the boxing part of my work out, wincing when I touched especially sore place on my hands that were no longer numb.

A husky voice broke me out of thought, "I don't think that bag can take much more of your abuse but you know if you need a sparring partner, I can help out."

I scoffed at him and proceeded to gently hit the bag.

He spoke again with a slight annoyance in his tone, but he was clearly not getting the message, "Ohhh, I get it, you're scared."

I stopped hitting the punching bag and put my hands on my hips as I narrowed my eyes, "Get in the ring!"

We both entered, he was smirking because his strategy of using my competitive side to lure me into a fight with him, worked.

We both circled each other, eyeing each other up, searching for faults and a place to start.

Aidan's pride got the best of him and he launched at me.

This left his knees undefended and I brought a swift kick to his right kneecap. This knocked his leg out from under him and caused him to topple to the fall.

As he caught himself on his knees and I used his position to bring a knee up to his face. He blocked my kick and then used the momentum to swipe my feet from under me.

I fell backwards to the floor but quickly flipped back up to my feet.

Back on his feet, Aidan jabbed at my jaw, which I swiftly dodged and then landed a blow to his stomach.

He stepped back and in doing so left enough room for me to spear him.

I pinned him under me as he lay on the ground and then landed two punches to his face.

I quietly groaned as small trails of blood left his nose, which I called a win for me, in order to save my already sore knuckles from further pain.

I won.

I walked away, turning my back to him as I did.

Without realising, he had gotten back to his feet and grabbed my foot which caused me to fall to the ground.

He flipped me over and quickly straddled me so I could move out from under him. He pinned my hands either side of my head and smirked down at me as he moved his face closer to mine.

I could see how truly beautiful this man was, from the small green flecks scattered in his brown eyes, his button nose, to his lips that were so full of sarcasm that I wished I could kiss the smirk right off him. Not to mention, his huge muscles rippling down his arm and his abs slightly on show as his shirt had been pulled up.

The chemistry between us was undeniable and before I knew it, he had leaned in so close to my face, that our lips were hovering inches away.

"You're too cocky, amore." He whispered.

"I'm cocky because I'm good, I earnt it." My lips lightly brushed against his as I spoke.

His eyes became hooded and sparkled with lust.

He closed the small gap between us and kissed me. I hesitantly returned the kiss as heart screamed at me to do so.

It was quickly deepened and I could feel my heart beating faster and my temperature rising.

He was in control but I let him remain so for now.

After what seemed like an eternity and a second in one, I opened my eyes.

I saw his beautiful traitorous face and focused in on a faint scar that ran across the top of his cheek.

A scar that I hadn't noticed before but realised it was from that night, the night he killed my brother.

Reality crashed down upon me, hard. I kicked him off of me and left without another sound.

I didn't see much of him for the rest of our time in England and while I was mainly relieved, I think a part of me was disappointed.