“Just in case what?” He straightened the towel.
“He…might…try…to sabotage…it happens…in the…publishing world…” I was huffing a bit, but not too much that I couldn’t handle it.
After running for about thirty minutes my brother and I caught up, him on his football team members and their problems, mine about my books.
“Come on little Sis, let’s get you ready for weight training.” He placed his hand around me, guiding me through the gym.
“So where’s Jessica?” I asked smiling.
“It’s her day off,” he said quickly.
“So…” I said smiling.
He glared. “Don’t you start!” he interrupted me and gave me my dumbbells.
“She likes you,” I added.
“They all like me.” He grinned and I laughed.
“Conceited much?”
He took his dumbbells, “Always.”
We trained until my arms felt like jelly and my legs were about to give out.
“That’s my girl.” He slapped me on the back and I almost fell over. “You always train hard,” he offered.
“Yeah, ‘cause of you.” I tried to punch him, but I lost my balance and tripped instead, hitting the wall.
He looked at me and waited until I made a sound. When I did, he began his full-on belly laugh. The whole gym stopped and stared. I couldn’t help but laugh with him. He tried to help me up but he was laughing so hard he made me fall again.
“What the fuck, Dar?” I shouted.
He held out his hand again, trying to help me up. It was pointless since he still was laughing.
“My bad, sorry,” he said, still laughing. I stood up and gave him a dirty look. “Ah come on Kass, don’t be like that.”
I was walking away, glaring at him. I wasn’t really mad, but I knew he’d feel bad. That’s when he started to laugh just as hard as before, if not harder. I had walked right into a wall of man muscles and almost fell over, but the man grabbed my arm before I could hit the ground. He pulled me up and stared down at me. Those damn grey eyes.
Ever since I met him, those damn eyes haunted me.
“Nice seeing you here.” His low voice always sounded as though he spoke only to me. The world around me faded and I stood there looking brainless in front of him.
“So, I see you’ve met Jason,” my brother said as he tried to stifle his laughter.
“Yeah, I met Jason,” I said, still looking at those eyes.
“Kass...Kass?” My brother waved his hand in front of my face.
“Yeah, sorry.” I looked away and saw my brother narrowing his eyes at me.
“Let’s go, girl, time to eat and take you home.” I nodded, following him down the hall. I could feel Jason’s eyes burrowing through me as I walked away from him. Darios waited until I joined him and held out his hand to lead me to the locker area.
“So how do you know Jason?” he asked.
“He helped me through a sticky situation,” I said, opening the door to the women’s locker room.
“What kind of situation?” he asked now concerned.
“Mob related,” I said as I walked in.
“Kassia?”
I ignored him.
My brother didn’t bring up Jason or the mob incident until he drove me back home.
“You’re a grown woman and can do what you like, but…”
I held out my hand and stopped him
“I have never once told you anything about your extracurricular activities, besides teasing you,” I said pointedly.
He nodded. “Yes, you’ve teased me enough about it.” I glared and he stopped talking.
“So you and I are not going to have this conversation. What I do is my business, but I give you leave to tease. It’s only fair.” I smiled and winked, as I reached for the handle of the car to get out.
“He’s so young, Kass. I just don’t want to see you hurt.” I slammed the door and sat there stupefied.
“Are you serious? You literally have fucked all of Manhattan, if not the entire state of New York and maybe most of the country, considering that you travel with the team. And you have the nerve to tell me he’s young? You have an age limit; you’re in your forties and you will only fuck anyone under thirty,” I attacked.
“Watch it, Kass!” he warned.
“Watch what? The truth?” I opened the door of his Escalade and stepped out. “You listen here, Darios. Don’t you dare give me this double standard bullshit or I swear I won’t speak to you again.”
Darios leaned towards the door. “All I'm saying is that he’s twenty-five, maybe twenty-six. I don’t know. I just don’t want you to get hurt.” I glared at him, the nerve of my brother.