Like now. She was squared up and hitting the bag with all her might, trying to pay attention to her hot, yummy instructor, but even he couldn’t keep her from glancing over and seeing what Phillip was doing. And what he was doing was slowly overheating her. Every punch into the bag was done with skill and precision. It was as if he had been kickboxing his whole life and when he started to sweat, it took everything out of her not to tackle him. The class was torture and not because of the workout, but because of Phillip’s sexy ass.

The crazy thing was that while making her want to jump his bones, he had her laughing her butt off, too. He was a nut, making faces at her, and making her laugh when they would break for water. The thing was that was how it always was with him and, if she were honest with herself, she would admit she liked it. That she liked him. But since admitting that would never happen, Reese hurried to clean up before meeting up outside to walk down the street to her favorite sushi place.

“That was a lot of fun,” Phillip said, before reaching for the door to let them inside.

It was torture, she thought before saying, “Yeah, it was.”

Following the waitress to their table, Reese slide in and was surprised when Phillip sat beside her rather than across from her. As he cuddled close into her, she watched as he picked up a menu and started to read it. Instead of pointing out that this was what a couple would do on a date, she leaned over his arm and looked at the menu too. She wanted to be close to him, and no matter how much she knew it wasn’t a great choice, she couldn’t help herself. She just hoped she didn’t pay for it later.

After picking out their sushi rolls, Reese leaned back in the booth and sipped on her water as they watched the highlights from the Assassins game the night before. When Phillip’s awesome goal replayed, she found herself smiling as she watched him score again. She usually didn’t watch hockey, but the night before she had. Since she wasn’t one to admit things, there was no use in asking why she was watching it last night, but she had.

“Good goal,” she found herself saying.

“Thanks, do you like hockey?”

“Eh, I guess. I mean, it isn’t baseball.”

“Baseball, huh?”

“Yup, I love watching baseball.”

“Seriously? Baseball is boring compared to hockey.”

She gave him a sneaky grin before saying, “True, but they wear very tight pants, and all you guys do is skate and knock into each other. I mean, that’s kind of hot, but it would be better if it were me you were slamming into.”

With a shake of his head, he muttered, “You horny little thing.”

“It’s true, I am, but you like it.”

“Very much so,” he said, winking at her before reaching for his own water. When his hand came to rest on her thigh, he moved his hand down to her knee and then squeezed before looking over at her. A smile pulled at her mouth before he leaned over and met his lips to hers in a soft, sweet kiss.

When he pulled away, he smiled as he said, “I’m on a mission to make you like hockey more than baseball.”

“Unless you are wearing tight baseball pants, you aren’t keeping my attention.”

Holding her gaze, he said, “I always keep your attention, and you know it.”

Reese giggled as she looked down to hide her blush, knowing he was right.

Phillip was having a great day.

After waking up and working out, he was going to drive home and take a shower before napping, but then he decided to go see Reese. He had planned on having her naked for most of the afternoon but, when he learned of her plans, he decided that it would be fun to just hang with her, and it had been. After a long class, where he mainly watched her ass jiggle as she hit a bag, he now had the pleasure of sitting beside her and enjoying her. She was easy to talk to, and he loved her teasing little comments. It had turned out to be a great day, and he was hoping it would end with her beneath him.

“So you said Claire is doing well?”

He nodded before saying, “Yeah, she is slowly but surely going back to the girl I used to know.”

“If you don’t mind me asking, why haven’t you always had her? I know some of the back story, but it just seems like she is better off with you.”

“Yeah, she is,” he said, before washing down the piece of sushi he had just eaten. “But my sister, her mother, didn’t want me to have her. Thought she was a better choice for her than I was.”

“That doesn’t seem to be true though.”

“Nope, but Rochelle thought it was.”

A moment passed before Reese looked over at him and asked, “Had she always been really bad into drugs?”

Phillip looked away, his mood souring. “Yeah, both my mom and Rochelle were horribly into them. My dad was an alcoholic. He ran out on us when I was three, and then it’s the horror story of strippers and drugs. Claire and I were caught in the middle of it. Thankfully, I never touched the stuff, it scared me, but they needed it to survive, I guess.”

“That’s too bad, I’m glad you never touched it though.”

“Yeah,” he said with a shrug.

“It’s a disease, you know.”

Phillip glanced over at her. “What is?”

“Addiction. I know it seems like a selfish thing and all it does is hurt people, but it’s a disease.”

He shrugged as he twirled the chopstick with his finger. “That’s what the therapist told me, that it’s not my fault.”