After she finished her brownie, Evie got up and hurried off after thanking her one last time. When she was gone, Kalista turned to Jared and found him watching her with an intensity that made her blink in surprise.
“Thank you for bringing Evie by. I really would love to participate in the adoption event.”
“It’s for a good cause and she usually pulls in tons of people. She has a lot of dogs that deserve good homes.”
Kalista eyed his shirt and track pants that both sported a stylized design with the words “Rough & Tough” spelled out in white along one leg of his black pants and down one long sleeve of his shirt. The scripted font was fancy, yet somehow masculine, as was the scrolling red dragon design behind the words. Without thinking, she reached out to trace the letters on his arm and felt him tense. “I see you wearing things that say this a lot.”
“It’s…” He cleared his throat. “I have an endorsement deal with Rough and Tough sports apparel. It’s a company that specializes in making clothes for MMA fighters, snowboarders, surfers…basically all of the extreme sports. They have been approached by some of the main-stream sports teams, but I’m not sure if they are willing to branch out into those markets.”
“Wow, so you take pictures and stuff for them?” She tried to hide her smile as he seemed to squirm in his chair.
“Yeah. Sure…sometimes. Basically, all I have to do is wear the stuff.”
She smiled at him. “That seems like a pretty sweet deal. If someone sent me free clothes I’d wear it, too.”
He got a funny gleam in his eyes as he watched her. “They are always trying to send me women’s clothes to help advertise that line. I’ll let Rever know to tell them to send me some for you.”
Her heart fluttered before settling back into a steady rhythm. “Thanks. I would definitely wear them, especially since I’m going to be working out more from now on.” She paused before asking, “Who is Rever?”
Hammer once again relaxed in his chair, content to spend time with his little fairy. He normally didn’t like talking about his endorsement deal, but he’d answer any question Kali wanted. He had been thinking about her all damn day. Hell, he had also thought about all night…particularly when he had jerked off in the shower before going to bed.
Shit. Just thinking about his cock and Kali together had blood flowing down to his groin.
Focus, dickhead…
“I guess you could say that my friend Adam Rever is my manager. We knew each other from when we were in the Army. He’s also my business partner with another friend of ours, Daryk Nyght. Both of them wanted to join with me to create Fight Hard after I hurt my knee.”
Her eyes clouded with sympathy and she placed her hand on his arm as if to comfort him. “Do you mind if I ask how you got injured?”
His body went tight like some pathetic schoolboy when she placed her hand on him. Christ, she was stroking his arm now. He wanted to fucking whimper as he imagined her soft hand and gentle fingers wrapped his cock and ruthlessly fought back the urge to grab her and carry her out of her bakery like some marauding Neanderthal.
He shifted in his seat before answering. “It was a training accident. Knee injuries are pretty common for professional MMA fighters. Because we twist a lot and do a bunch of ground work, it’s easy to get hurt when you are grappling with someone who is trying to get you in a lock. I knew it was always a risk since I had previously hurt my knee when I was a Ranger.” He saw her wide eyes and hurried to assure her. “It wasn’t bad, and it held up long enough for me to have a pretty good career as a fighter in the ring. I had reconstructive surgery on my knee, and now it’s almost good as new.”
“But you can’t fight anymore? Professionally, I mean.”
“I guess I could now, but I accomplished what I wanted to already, so it was as good a time as any to retire.” She wrinkled her nose at him. He wanted to lean down and kiss it because she was so damn cute when she did it, but he refrained.
“It’s funny to think of you as retired. You’re only what, thirty? I like to think thirty is young, and not just because I will be hitting the big three-oh in six months.”
He chuckled. “I’m thirty-three. Gonna be thirty-four in April, though.”
“Thank God you’re older than me. I feel better now.”
“Glad I could help,” he said with a chuckle.
She smiled. “I’ll have to make you a cake for your birthday.”
That had him pausing. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d had a birthday cake. Sure, after he and his mother escaped his father’s craziness she had always made sure to celebrate his birthday with him, but since then it hadn’t even occurred to him. While he had been in the Army his birthday had just been another day to be grateful he was still alive. When he had come back home and started fighting professionally, he had always been on a strict training program and would never have thought of eating something as sinful as cake.