He left my bedroom laughing, and I flopped back onto my bed with a groan. But I couldn't be mad at him, despite how much I wanted to stay asleep. He was training me because he loved me. He wanted me to have the best possible chance of protecting myself rather than sitting in my ivory tower and waiting for my knights in shining armor to save the day.
I loved that. I loved that my guys wanted to empower me, not weaken me. They believed in my abilities... but in return I needed to play fair and show up when Kody had time to train me.
Dammit.
Groaning way too much, I rolled out of bed and changed into a crop top and yoga pants. That'd have to do.
I scraped my hair up into a high ponytail as I made my sleepy way down to the gym, yawning every three steps, then damn near swallowing my tongue as I entered the gym.
"Come on!" I exclaimed with my hands on my hips. "This isn't fair."
Archer just laughed from where he was doing pull-ups in nothing but a tiny pair of tight boxer shorts. Prick.
"Sorry, babe," Kody called out over the thumping music, "can't hear you over all that hypocrisy. Hey, nice work-out outfit." He strolled over to me with a smug grin, his hands on his hips. He wore a pair of loose basketball shorts and nothing else. Seriously. I could see his dick swing when he walked. How the fuck was I meant to concentrate with him like that?
My frustrated gaze shifted back to Archer, but he just shot me a wink and an air-kiss as he flexed harder.
Pop.
My ovaries just exploded.
"Kody..." I whined. "You're being mean."
He just grinned. "Payback's a bitch, babe. The number of times I've suffered through a session with you while dealing with a hard-on..." He shook his head and clicked his tongue. "Now, let's get started. I wanna work on your actual combat skills today."
I pouted, but he was making good points. I did tend to wear minimal, skintight clothes to work out in, knowing full damn well I was driving him nuts. Apparently, it was time for me to take a bit of my own medicine.
"Isn't that what we've been doing for weeks?" I asked, following him over to the cardio machines where he always started me for a warm-up.
He nodded. "We have, in theory. But I want to see you put some of those skills into action. Arch has kindly offered to be your sparring partner."
My jaw dropped. "You want me to fight Archer?" My voice was a shocked squeak, and I jerked my head to glare at the big asshole. "I can't fight you!"
His smile was pure evil. "Why not, Princess? I'll go easy on you."
"Why not?" I exclaimed. "Are you kidding? You'll annihilate me!"
"Only if you ask me really nicely," he replied with a hungry look, and my cheeks instantly heated. They seriously wanted to kill me this morning.
Kody chuckled to himself like he was enjoying his sick little idea. Bastard. "Come on, ten-minute warm-up while I sort through some shit with Arch, then you can have at it. I won't even call foul if you throw some dirty fists."
Now, I could have been wrong, but that sounded a whole lot like Kody suggesting I punch Archer in the junk, which left me with a conundrum to ponder the whole time I was warming up on the elliptical machine.
On the one hand, Kody was basically giving me permission to fight dirty and take Archer to his knees. On the other hand, at the moment I quite liked Archer's dick intact.
Ugh, talk about caught between a rock and a hard place!
When the timer beeped on my machine and Kody told me to get some gloves on, I was no closer to a decision. I guessed I would just wait and see how easy Archer wanted to go on me.
As it turned out, despite the boys teasing, they still intended to take my training seriously. For the next half hour or so, Archer was the perfect sparring partner. He was patient and calm, offering constructive criticisms and supporting Kody's training techniques. I actually felt like I was learning, which wasn't at all what I'd expected from a sparring session with Archer in those tiny shorts.
But then Kody asked us to work on grappling, and that's where my professionalism fast evaporated.
In my defense... I was only human.
"Kate," Archer warned as I arched my back and ground my ass against him. "Stop it."
I let out a low chuckle, despite the way he held my arm trapped behind my back. He was supposed to be demonstrating a wrist lock, but all I could think about was how Kody'd bound my hands with his belt when he fucked me several weeks ago. Then I started thinking about Archer's mention of fun features in his new bed frame and... well... I was no longer interested in learning to fight.
"You guys started it." I rolled my hips again and felt his cock thicken against my backside. Yep, I wasn't the only one done with fight training.
Kody blew out a breath, scrubbing a hand over his hair. "Babe, you're killing me here. Maybe we should call it a day." He checked his watch, then nodded. "Yep, I think we're done."
"Thank fuck," Archer muttered as he released my arm. He gave me no time to recover, though. I let out a small scream of surprise as he twisted and lifted, throwing me over his shoulder in the same motion as he stood up.
"Arch—" I started to protest, then shut the hell up when he smacked my ass. Hard. He started striding out of the gym with me over his shoulder.
Kody's shout of protest made Archer pause. "Hey, what the hell, man?"
"Sorry, bro," Archer replied with a snicker, "my expertise doesn't come for free, you know." He was teasing, obviously, implying that he needed to be paid in sex for his sparring time.
Kody folded his arms, glaring. "Arch—"
My fingernails dug into Archer's sides and excitement fluttered through my upside-down belly. "Archer, play fair. Kody called dibs this morning."
In all honesty, I knew there was no freaking way Archer was going to back down and hand me over to Kody. For one thing, I wasn't a damn sack of flour. For another, his big dick energy was already kicked into high gear and he might legitimately explode if forced to shove it all back in a box.
So yeah, I was messing with him. But also, Kody was giving me that look that gave me all kinds of naughty ideas. Sometimes Kodiak Jones and I were damn near sharing a brain.
"Fine," Archer snapped, a frustrated growl threading through his voice. He started walking again with me still slung over his shoulder, "Are you coming or what, Kody?"
Fuck yeah. That was easier than expected.
Kody's satisfied chuckle followed us as Archer all but ran up to his room, then dumped me onto his bed. I was still sweeping my sweaty hair back from my face when Kody entered the room and kicked the door shut behind him.
"Well, this took an interesting turn of events." I leaned back on my hands and eyed up the two of them. They were both hard, their choice of clothing doing nothing to hide that fact, and I licked my lips.
"Fucking hell," Kody muttered. He crossed the distance between us and grabbed my face in his hands. His lips met mine in a flurry of desire, his tongue tangling in my mouth in a way that told me exactly how this was all going to play out. Archer might think he was the biggest alpha-hole in the house, but Kody was no beta.
Fuck me. I was in for a rough ride with these two, that was for damn sure.
"Get that bra off," Archer ordered, moving to his nightstand then pulling the drawer open.