Between Love and Hate

Compose Myself

*Kane's POV*

As we sit in the civic, I can’t believe I let her talk me into this. I am apparently wholly incapable of saying no to this girl.

When we reach the gym, there are a few cars out front so it’s probably pretty busy. When we begin walking, my gaze flickers down to the tight leggings she has on and I consider making her go back to her room and change into something less appealing.

I don’t suggest it though, remembering how mad she was when Jace freaked out about the outfit she wore to that club. When we walk through the doors, several heads turn our way and I make sure to glare at anyone whose eyes linger a little too long, silently telling them to back off. Thankfully, in the short time I’ve been going here, I’ve developed a reputation so they all avert their gazes quickly. I look down to find Violet looking around the gym at the equipment, completely oblivious to all of the attention.

I lead her over to the ring where Striker is attempting to train some new guy who doesn’t seem able to defend more than one move in a row. When he sees me and Violet, he pauses the session and jumps down from the ring.

He glances at Violet and then back at me with an amused expression on his face. He looks back at her and says, “Hey Violet, right? Striker, nice to see you again,” He says, sticking out his hand.

I see her cheeks redden a bit as she takes it and says, “Um, yeah, sorry about that. And thank you, I guess.”

“Don’t worry about it. You here to watch Kane?”

“Um, no, I’m here to learn,” She tells him and his eyebrows raise as he looks back at me.

“Oh, that’s cool. So you’re going to join the classes then?”

“No, she’s not. I’m teaching her myself. Just here for the equipment,” My jaw clenches at the thought of anyone else touching her. I also don’t trust any of these people not to hurt her.

Striker gives me another look and then says, “Alright man, I was just asking.”

“Rex here?” I ask.

“Yeah, he’s in his office.” I nod and then lead Violet towards the back. I knock on the door and then open it when I hear him yell “Come in” from the other side of it.

“Kane, hey. Oh, you brought your friend. Violet was it?” she nods and says, “Yes, um, I’m looking to sign up here,” she tells him. I look over at her and say, “No you’re not, we’re just going to use the equipment. I’ll be teaching her.”

“Fine by me, use whatever you want Kane,” Rex says.

“What? No, I wanna pay to use the gym. I’m not going to just piggy-back off of you Kane,” She tells me, looking up at me through her eyelashes. The second my eyes meet hers, I lose all will to argue with her.

I huff and say, “Fine,” I look back over to Rex who is giving me a smile and handing a form to Violet. She takes a seat on the chair off to the side and begins filling it in. Once she’s done, she pays him in cash for her membership fee.

Rex walks us out after and shows her to the girl’s change room / washroom so she can put her things in a locker. She heads inside and Rex turns to me with an amused look on his face and says, “So-”

“Don’t say it, Rex,” I say, giving him a warning glare. I don’t need him to tell me she’s got me wrapped around her finger. I’m already painfully aware of it.

When she comes back out, Rex says, “Well, welcome and enjoy. You’re in good hands with Kane here.”

“I know,” she replies softly, giving him a small smile and then looking back at me. The corners of my mouth start to turn up a bit at her words. I don’t know how she manages to make me feel so good with just two words, but she does.

I can see Rex holding in some kind of sarcastic comment before he says, “Right, well, I better get back to work. If you need anything, you know where to find me.” I just nod and then lead Violet over to the far side of the gym.

I remove my shoes and socks and she does the same. We start with some jump rope for a warm up and some active stretching. After that I figure the best place to start is with punching. I show her how to stand properly and then have her punch into the air multiple times on each side until I’m sure she has the technique down. I then take her to a bag and tell her to do the same thing. After quite a while of punching the bag, we’ve gone over jabs, crosses and elbows.

She seems to be catching on fairly quickly so we move on to kick. I show her a turning kick and she nods and then tries one herself, “That felt weird,” she tells me.

“Probably because you did it entirely wrong. Don’t treat your leg like a pendulum. It’s more like a whip. And you have to pivot your foot. How about we break this down. Okay, so first thing is you bring your knee up while pivoting your standing foot. Your leg should end up parallel to the ground with your knee bent.” She tries to follow but her foot doesn’t pivot and she almost falls over backwards but I catch her elbow to steady her.

“You good?” I ask and when I meet her eyes, I see her pupils dilate as she nods. I release her elbow and say, “Next time, use the momentum of your hips turning to help pivot your foot.” She tries again and gets it this time so we do that a few more times and I say, “Alright good, now the second part. When you get your knee up, hold it there.”

She does so and then wobbles a little but grabs my hands for support, sending little tingles up my arms. “Okay, now just kick your foot out without moving anything else.” She does it and I say, “Good, a few more times.” She’s still holding my hands and I watch her face concentrating on the bag. She drops her leg and stands up facing me, hands still in mine.

She looks away shyly and pulls her hands back. “Alright, now try the whole movement again.” She does it again and it’s much better. We practice that for a while on both legs and when I check the time, we’ve already been here over an hour.

“Alright, how about we take a break, you’re going to be sore tomorrow as it is since you’ve never done this before. We can shower and then go eat, okay?” She nods and then says, “Can we stretch a little first? I feel like my hips are gonna hate me tomorrow if I don’t.” I rarely stretch. I am not the most flexible person on the planet. I agree to it anyway though.

She sits down on the mat and then spreads her legs out straight to the sides and then leans forward. My mouth drops open and blood rushes straight to my d**k. She starts to move through various stretches and when I tear my eyes away from her and look around the room, I see I’m not the only one staring. She pushes back into a downward dog and I get up on my knees and push her down by her lower back and say, “Okay! Nope! That’s enough of that.”

“What? Why?” She asks with a look that is so painfully innocent.

“Because I’m not the only one in here who’s imagining all the things you can do with that kind of flexibility.” Her cheeks flush and she sits down and says, “Right. So I guess we should go then.”

“I’m gonna need a few seconds to…compose myself,” I tell her and her eyes flicker down to my shorts and she makes a little O with her mouth. “Oh no, stop that. That is the opposite of helpful.”

“Sorry,” she says and then just sits there cross-legged. I close my eyes and focus on calming myself down, trying to think of anything other than her. Eventually, I manage to settle down long enough to, well…settle down.

“Okay, let’s go.” We head to the change rooms to shower and I rush mine to make sure I’m done first and then wait for her just outside her door. When she comes out, I walk with her through the gym, once again shooting glares at all of the guys who stare at her.

When we get to the car, I ask her what she wants to eat and she says, “I don’t really care, as long as it’s edible and not too far because I’m starving.” I nod and end up taking her to a little Mexican place. We both order tacos and while we wait for our order, she says, “So, I think I’m going to go visit my dad this weekend.”

“Is Jace going to be there?”

“I have no clue. I don’t think I ever got around to discussing it with him before, well, before everything happened. Although I suppose there is a chance he goes there anyway, but it would just be a coincidence.”

“Have you spoken to your Dad about Jace?”

“No. I’m procrastinating because I don’t know what to tell him. Maybe I’ll call him tonight and mention it while I ask about this weekend.”

I just nod. After we eat, I drop her off at her dorm and just as she’s about to get out of the car, I grab her arm and pull her back in, lean over the centre console and kiss her like I’ve wanted to do all evening. Her hands fist in the front of my tshirt and she kisses me back with an equal amount of desperation. She moves her hand up to the back of my neck, pulling me into her, trying to get closer.

She starts climbing over the console onto my lap and I know I should stop her, but I don’t want to. Instead, I reach down to the lever under the seat and slide it all the way back to give her more space. Once she’s straddling my legs, I place my hands on her hips and start to plant gentle kisses down the side of her neck. I suck a little when I reach the soft spot just above her collar bone and she moans, digging her nails into my chest.

I move back to her lips and she starts grinding her hips against the bulge in my pants as our tongues tangle together.

“Come upstairs with me,” she whispers against my lips so softly I almost don’t hear it.

I push her back gently and say, “What did you say? What about calling your Dad? And Stella?”

“My Dad can wait. And Stella isn’t here, she went out with the guy from Saturday. I mean, if you don’t want to, I-“ I push my lips back against hers, and grind her hips down against me and say, “Does it feel like I don’t want to?” She shakes her head gently and then I help her back to the passenger side so she can get out of the car.

I take her bag out and carry it directly in front of me while we walk through the dorm building to her room.