“You didn’t drive when you first arrived at the palace, either.” He bent and pressed a kiss to the top of her shoulder. “But this isn’t boxing. This is a workout.”
They went through the motions of warming up—a series of jumps and squats that Raed had perfected over the years into a tight ten-minute routine. It got his heart pumping and his muscles warm and had the delicious side effect of making Lise’s ponytail swing in time with all of her moves. Raed tried to be a gentleman about noticing the curve of her ass, but her hips made him want to peel off her workout gear and run his palms over her bare skin.
Time to punch some things.
Raed went to a set of built-in shelves on one wall and pulled out the hand wraps and two sets of boxing gloves. Lise gamely offered him her hands to wrap, peering down at the places where they were touching.
“We’re not going to box each other, right?”
“No.” Because I don’t want to spar with you. I want to lay you down and kiss you until you’re breathless with want, and then do other, dirtier things. “We’ll be working with the equipment.”
“Are you the equipment?” The sexy heat in her eyes made him burn, then laugh.
“I wish,” Raed said, and then he stepped back to give himself plenty of space. “This is a simple jab,” he said. “You’ll want to keep your feet balanced like this, and pivot—” He demonstrated the move, and once he was certain Lise had the basics, they moved on to a cross. A hook. An uppercut. She bounced on the balls of her feet, face screwed up in concentration, a sheen of sweat already gathering on her forehead.
“That’s all nice.” Lise kept her gloves up by her face, the way he’d taught her. “But I want to see you kick that bag thing, too.”
“The heavy bag.”
“The heavy bag,” she repeated. “Do it so I can see.”
Raed stepped over to the heavy bag and landed a solid kick to the middle of the bag, his body settling deeply into the motions. Martial arts had been his constant companion as a child. It was one of his first loves, even before driving, and all those years of practice were paying off. Every little gasp and ooh and aah from Lise made him feel like he’d won a competition. Or a hundred competitions.
“And that’s kicking,” he told her.
She raised her eyebrows. “You’re not bad at that.”
“Do you remember everything I taught you?”
“Yes.” She took a step toward him.
“You ready to try?”
“More than ready.”
Raed moved away from the heavy bag. She’d probably want some guidance, but for now—
Lise hopped into position and landed a killer punch on the bag, followed by a smooth hook and an uppercut. She repeated the series with the opposite hand and then fluidly moved into a side kick. She ducked low, working her way around the bag. Kick, uppercut, kick, hook—what? And she’d stood there and let him give her pointers on how to throw the punches?
A laugh escaped from Raed on a cloud of amazement. “You were holding out on me.”
Lise popped her head out from behind the heavy bag. “I’ve done kickboxing.” She sounded breathless, almost as if they’d just finished kissing, and it made him want her more. The sensation pulsed along every nerve in his body, seeming to gather under his skin in a tingling hum. “And I’m pretty good at it.”
Raed went for a set of hand pads and came back to her, holding them up in a silent offer. Lise took him up on it. She threw punches into his palms, and kicks, too, Raed catching every one. They were matched, somehow, matched so well that he felt where she might kick before Lise even moved her body.
“You could be a stunt double in one of my movies.”
“Your movies are beginning to grow on me,” she admitted, landing a hook-cross-hook on his pads. “But that’s probably because you made me watch them.”
“How did you get into kickboxing?”
She was unfairly gorgeous with her blonde hair swinging like that and her huge green eyes focused on him. “Childbirth.”
Guilt slashed across Raed’s chest. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry.” Lise swiped a boxing glove across her forehead. “It was awful, yes. Going through it alone—it gave me a lot of feelings. And the newborn days were hard. But we can’t go back in time and fix that now. There’s only going forward.”
Lise sent a final uppercut into his glove and stepped back, breathing hard. Raed had never been so humbled before, never once, not in his life. “Let’s cool down.”
Arms stretched above her head, Lise took a short lap around the heavy bag and came back to him, handing off the gloves one by one. “Do you have a special way to cool down, too?”
“Tai chi.” He showed her the first position, and then the second, but his heart raced with the intimacy of the workout and the conversation. And the way she was standing—it wasn’t quite right. “No, like this.”
Lise imitated him, but it still wasn’t perfect. Her eyes scanned down the length of his body. He swore he could feel where her gaze landed, and it wasn’t enough—being in the same room as her wasn’t enough. Raed moved behind her and put his hands on her wrists, guiding her hands and body into position.
It was torture, this tentative touching. This silent asking and asking and asking. He held his breath.
And then Lise relaxed back into him, and all the pretenses dropped away. This wasn’t for fitness or sport—it was to feel her breathing close to him. Clearly, she wanted to feel him. He let himself sink into the embrace, wrapping his arms around her from behind and meeting her eyes in the mirrored wall. They looked right together. She tipped her head back into his shoulder, and he ran his hands up, up, up to cup her breasts, using his thumbs to stroke her nipples through her workout gear.
Her body responded to him instantly, nipples peaking, and he dropped his head low to kiss her ear. Yes, everything in him cried out. Yes. Raed worked his way down the side of her neck. The salt of her skin worked him up, making all of him tense, and then—
His phone rang.
He stepped back with a hiss, digging into his pocket, anger and relief surging together. Some of her hair had come loose from the ponytail, and Lise pushed the strands back as he answered the call. Yes, he wanted her. He wanted her badly. But that wasn’t what Qasha needed—not necessarily. His life plan didn’t include falling for Lise in any permanent way.
Did it?
10
Raed couldn’t keep his mind off her the next morning.
The image of the two of them in that mirror felt burned into his brain, and no matter how much Raed wanted a high-powered partner to take on the world with him—to sit at his side in his business, if not his personal life—it didn’t feel...right. How was he going to spend the rest of his life without Lise, even if he had everything else he wanted? His heart tugged one way. His mind tugged another. And his work was lost in the balance.
He flipped back to another sheet of information about his university and how it would work with his foundation, but his mind slid off the words on the page. Lise had been so angry when he found her in the classroom. That emotion had bristled over her even during the workout until she managed to shake it off. They’d spent time with Jake, and she’d been more subdued, but when Raed brought up her frustration, she’d brushed it off again. What was going on with her?