Tangled Up Read online

  ‘Only if you let it be. What did he mean when he said “We’ll do this another time”?’

  I pressed the ice pack against my head. ‘Don’t know, because I am never going to see him again.’

  ‘But if you do?’

  ‘I’ll ignore him.’

  She stuck her feet up on the arm of the sofa. ‘He’s even hotter than he used to be and that’s saying something.’

  ‘I don’t need to hear that.’

  ‘And you look great in that dress. He didn’t take his eyes off you. The two of you have insane chemistry.’

  ‘I don’t need to hear that either.’ Every time I thought about my embarrassing behaviour, I wanted to slide under the sofa—except you never quite knew what you were going to find under our sofa. ‘I feel hot all over.’

  My sister stood up. ‘I’ll get you that fire blanket.’

  4

  DESPITE MY THROBBING head, I showed up to work early. I wasn’t going to let an unexpected encounter with Hunter derail my life. He was my past, not my future. We had new management. We were now officially owned by the Black Belt Corporation. There was no way I’d risk giving them any reason to get rid of me. Hopefully, they’d see my bruised head and take it as a sign I was dedicated to my job.

  My first class was waiting. As well as karate, I taught self-defence and I’d had the same group of women for the past year. We talked about threat awareness—I felt as if I ought to sit in on my own class after what had happened the night before—and I went through the areas of the body most susceptible to attack, in my case my heart, and demonstrated basic self-defence techniques. Sometimes I thought these women turned up only for the companionship, but I enjoyed the class and I liked to think if they ever needed to defend themselves, they might remember what I’d taught them.

  Today as I got them into position for the warm-up, all they could talk about was some hot guy they’d seen on the way into the gym. This wasn’t unusual, because the place was teeming with hot guys. As day jobs went, it was a good one, which was another reason I was wary about the change of management.

  ‘Have you seen him, Rosie?’

  ‘Who?’ I tried to get them to focus but it was hopeless. The whole hour passed like that, with them exchanging giggles and asides. At the end of the class I sent them all off for a cold shower.

  I had an hour before I taught my under-sixteen karate class, and as the new manager still hadn’t asked to see me, I decided to use the time to train. After the night before, I needed to let off steam.

  I started with cardio. All martial arts place a heavy focus on body conditioning. It’s not enough to practice competitive fighting techniques. You have to be fit. Sometimes I run in the morning before work. More often I just find time in my day to use one of the gym or fitness suites. I skip a lot. And although it makes people like Brian shudder, the truth is the Muay Thai is a very effective workout.

  Huge glass walls looked over the river in our main gym, so at least you had a decent view while you were punishing your body.

  The place was half-empty and I warmed up and then focused on bag work. Because we used hands, feet, knees and elbows to attack, the bags were longer and heavier than normal punch bags. Muay Thai was called the art of eight limbs for a reason. Kicking, kneeing and elbowing a kick bag increased your stamina and power. After the fiasco of the night before, I worked on driving the leg in repeat kicks. If I hadn’t messed up, I wouldn’t have needed to be rescued. I was going to make sure it didn’t happen again. But as I smacked my shin into the bag, I didn’t pretend it was one of those four guys; I pretended it was Hunter. I was almost enjoying myself until I heard his voice behind me.

  ‘You’re straightening your leg and losing power.’

  For a moment I thought I’d imagined it because I was pretending to kick him.

  No such luck.

  Hunter was standing there, black T-shirt and track pants skimming a body hard with muscle. There was just a hint of the dangerous about him and a self-confidence that had always drawn me as much as his looks. Sexy didn’t begin to describe him. My gaze locked on to his, blue on to black. I was out of breath from smacking my shin into the heavy bag and staring at him didn’t do anything to calm my heart rate. ‘What are you doing here? Are you stalking me?’

  ‘How are you feeling?’ He was looking at my head. ‘Any aftereffects? Dizziness? Nausea?’

  I had both those things but neither had anything to do with the blow to the head. Being in the same room as him turned my brain and my knees to pulp. ‘I’m fine.’

  He lifted his hand and pushed my hair aside so that he could take a better look. The warmth of his fingers brushed my skin and I felt as if I’d been electrocuted.

  ‘What are you doing here?’

  ‘I should be the one asking you that question. You should have taken the day off.’

  ‘We’ve had a change of management. The last thing I need is to lose my job on top of everything else.’

  ‘You wouldn’t lose your job.’

  ‘How do you know?’

  His gaze slid back to mine. ‘Because I’m the management.’

  For a moment I thought I’d misheard and then I stared into those dark velvet eyes and knew I hadn’t. ‘Fit and Physical has been taken over by the Black Belt Corporation.’

  ‘That’s right. I own the Black Belt Corporation.’

  ‘You?’ It hadn’t occurred to me it could be him. I felt stupid. I hadn’t taken any notice of the word Black in the company name. But now I thought about it, it was obvious. Hunter had trained in this place. Spent every day here growing up. He’d loved it as much as I did.

  And he was back.

  Now I really did feel sick.

  ‘You own Fit and Physical?’ My palms were sweaty. I wiped them over my workout pants. I noticed he was wearing the same black T-shirt all the staff wore and wondered why I hadn’t seen that the moment he walked in.

  ‘I was going to tell you last night but I thought you’d had enough of a shock for one evening.’

  James, one of the other instructors, walked into the room. ‘Mr. Black—er, Hunter, could I just—?’

  ‘Not now.’ Hunter didn’t even turn his head. He kept his gaze fixed on me and my skin burned as if I’d lain naked in the heat of the midday sun. My mouth was as dry as if I’d hiked through the desert. Once again I wished I’d saved this man for a time when I was better able to cope with him. I’d wasted what could have been the hottest, most exciting relationship of my life on my messed-up teenage self. I wished I could wind the clock back. I’d ignore the angst and enjoy the man.

  James took one look at Hunter’s face and then mine and backed out of the room, no doubt to spread the word that Rosie Miller was about to get her marching orders from the new boss.

  I stooped and picked up my water. ‘Right. Well, I’d better leave.’

  ‘Why would you leave?’

  Because I was about to leap on him, strip him naked and enjoy the sex without any of the angst that went with relationships. ‘I think it’s best.’

  ‘Are you really going to walk out on a job you enjoy because we were once lovers?’

  We both knew he hadn’t been just my lover—he’d been my everything. Hunter had filled all those empty gaps in my life and when he’d walked away, I hadn’t been sure I’d hold together. It had been like playing emotional Jenga. Once that all-important piece had been removed, the whole structure had collapsed. It made me cringe to think about it.

  Fortunately, I’d rebuilt myself and I was pretty robust now. I wasn’t going to blow over in a strong wind and I wasn’t going to let the threads of my life unravel over a man.

  There was no way I would walk out on a job I loved just because working alongside Hunter reminded me of the most humiliating time of my life.

  ‘I wasn’t suggesting I leave the job,’ I lied, ‘simply the room. Unless you’d like me to leave the job?’

  I dumped the problem right back in his lap.