He nodded again, looking a little mystified. Hopefully he’d figure it out as he went. And as long as he didn’t royally fuck it up, Kee would forgive him just for making the effort.
I left him to it and took the stairs down to the middle floor. The gym was blissfully empty, so I cranked up a playlist with a heavy beat and got to work. I’d designed my workout to go easy on my knees, with low impact cardio and a full body resistance routine. Even so, I usually felt at least some pain or tension.
Today, I had none.
I was on my last few reps on the rowing machine when Eli strolled in, looking bright and fresh in his loose shorts and tight tank. I could feel the sweat dripping down my face, and my shirt was plastered to my back. At least he would be just as grimy once his workout got started.
He turned down the music and said, “You’re up early.”
I grimaced. “Unfortunately.” I finished the set and paused to catch my breath.
“Want to train?” Eli asked with a head tilt toward the sparring mats.
“You just want an excuse to beat me up because I ruined your fun yesterday,” I said without heat.
Eli’s grin was sharp and quick. “Varro is fast as fuck,” he confided. “It was a good match.” The grin wiped away. “Too bad it was necessary.” Eli looked at me. “Did you know he’s making apology cookies?”
I rolled my eyes. “Where do you think he got the idea? He seems sincerely sorry. If he’s not, Kee will eat him alive. Either way, she gets cookies.”
Eli offered me a hand up, then easily pulled me to my feet. “You’re too soft. Let’s toughen you up.”
“I will enjoy making you eat those words, Bruck, even if I have already done an entire workout while you got your beauty sleep.”
He grinned and tossed me a pair of hand wraps. I snagged them out of the air and wrapped both hands with the ease of practice. I jabbed at an imaginary foe, testing my muscles. I’d gone hard this morning, and I could feel the fatigue. Eli would eat my lunch if I let him get close.
I removed my shoes and socks and stepped onto the mat. Eli was nearly twenty centimeters taller than me, with a much greater reach. He was stronger, and for all of his muscled bulk, he was fast, too.
In other words, he was the worst type of opponent, which made him the best for training.
I tapped my wrapped knuckles to his and then danced out of reach. I had to keep moving. Once he got me on the ground, this would be over embarrassingly fast.
He feinted at me, but I dodged the real blow and retaliated with a quick jab to his flank on my way by. “Getting slow in your old age,” I taunted.
“If I’m old, then you’re ancient,” he said.
I laughed. He was only two months younger than me.
“Make sure you tell everyone that an old crone beat you up,” I said, darting under his guard to land a light blow on his abs. We weren’t trying to hurt each other, so the strikes were just hard enough to let the other person know that they’d been hit.
He clipped my shoulder when I wasn’t quite fast enough on the escape, and he grinned at me. “Now who’s the slow one?”
We kept circling, trading taunts and blows in equal measure. I was decent at hand-to-hand combat, but in a real fight, Eli would mop the floor with me. But because we trained together, I knew how to take on a much better opponent, which had saved my skin more than a few times.
After fifteen minutes, I flopped down on the floor and tapped out. My muscles had picked up a fine tremble and I sucked in great gulps of air. “You win this round, Bruck. Don’t let it go to your head.”
He grinned down at me, barely winded. “I win every round.”
I tried to sweep his legs out from under him, but he jumped back with a laugh. “Enjoy your nap. Some of us are here to work out.”
“At least help me up, you monster,” I growled at his retreating back. “Respect your elders!”
“You got yourself down there, you can get yourself up.”
I stared at the ceiling and tried to get my breathing under control. I really was going to be moving like a little old lady once the muscle soreness set in, but at least my thoughts had settled.
We were going to Valovia and it seemed like we might be there for a while. Allies would be few and far between. I needed to ensure that Torran and his crew saw us as indispensable before we landed. And I needed to strengthen the ties between our crews.
So all I had to do was personally overcome more than a decade of war and distrust, and then persuade two teams of people to do the same. In the next week.
I blew out a heavy breath. Sure, no problem.
Chapter Eleven
By the time I’d stretched and then dragged myself to my feet, the gym had gotten busier. Chira was running on a treadmill in shorts and a tank. Her pale skin practically glowed in the overhead lights, and she’d pulled her silvery hair up into a short ponytail. She moved at a steady clip, her breathing deep and even.
Eli was working his upper body on the resistance press, and he had finally started sweating. A glance at the resistance setting showed that it was because he was pressing far more than my body weight.
My gaze snagged on Torran, who was rowing. His resistance setting was also incredibly high, but that’s not what had grabbed my attention.
It was the flex of the muscles in his back and shoulders during every pull.
Which I could clearly see because his sleeveless shirt clung like a second skin.
I took a moment to appreciate the sheer beauty of all those muscles working in unison. Rowing was a full body workout, and it took practice to make it look so easy. But his smooth rhythm never faltered, not even when I looked up and realized he was watching me in the mirror.
I didn’t know how long I’d been caught staring because his expression was inscrutable, but I could feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. His eyes flickered over me and I hoped I didn’t look as bedraggled as I felt.
Of course, the mirror killed those hopes. I was flushed and sweaty and the curls in my ponytail had frizzed so much that it looked like Luna’s fluffy tail. On her it was adorable . . . on me, not so much.
I needed a shower and breakfast, maybe not in that order.
When I started unwrapping my hands, Torran stopped rowing and approached. The view from the front was just as fine, with his chest and abs lovingly defined under his shirt. He nodded at my wraps. “Do you need an opponent?”
A shiver raced over my skin at the thought of sparring with Torran, but I shook my head. “No. Eli already kicked my ass this morning. I was just gathering enough energy to take these off and head upstairs.”
Torran frowned. “Are you injured?”
“Nope, just tired.” I slowly unwound the wraps and realized just how true that was. I’d been slacking off on my workouts and it was showing. “If you need an opponent, Eli would probably enjoy sparring with you. He’s a good partner as long as you don’t go around insulting the people he cares about.”