Penny’s heart pounded, the upbeat thump-thump making her body vibrate from head to toe. Her arms and legs ached from overuse, and what had been a feminine glow an hour ago was now a profuse fountain of sweat. Not even during her most difficult haul-in did she have to work this hard.
She made a mental vow to punch her bail enforcement mentor the next time she laid eyes on his clean-shaved head. Vince had obviously been training her with kid gloves, and because of it, she was about to have her rear end handed to her on a platter—or more accurately, the floor mats.
In and out. Slow and steady. Hands on knees, she focused on the mechanics behind breathing as she shot a glare at the man standing smugly a short four feet away.
She had to go and suggest a damn gauntlet. And then she went even stupider and agreed to put her fate and Rachel’s fate in the hands of Alpha’s training coordinator. She should’ve known. She did know the second Rafe slowly slid his delectable mouth into a little smirk. Right now the only thing she had going for her was that it wasn’t him she’d been pitted against in the hand-to-hand demo. Of course, she wasn’t faring all that well against Logan either.
Beneath his sexually themed T-shirt and flirtatious Southern-boy smiles, Logan Callahan was as hard bodied and obnoxious as the rest of his team—something she neglected to see until he flipped her to the floor the first of many times. Now that her eyes were wide open, she was determined to take him down. Just as soon as she could stand upright without fear she’d teeter ass over foot.
“You done already, darlin’?” Head cocked, Logan rocked on the balls of his feet, his blond wavy hair falling in perfect position and not looking at all like they’d been at this for close to forty-five minutes. “Do you want to take a water break? Perch your sweet self in front of the AC? Or how about a nap?”
She drilled the former Marine with a glare that pulled his mouth into a grin.
“I’ll be taking a nap if someone doesn’t do something soon,” came a voice from the sideline. “Unless you’re trying to knock him over with a bat of your lashes, Red, you may want to actually move.”
Penny redirected both her glare and her focus to the man standing to her left. Though the rest of the team held up the wall with their backs and watched as if her match against Logan were better than Monday Night Football, it was Rafe of whom she’d been painfully aware.
The man wasn’t in-your-face sexy. You wouldn’t find him on the cover of GQ or walking down a runway wearing a pin-striped suit and expensive cologne. But between his chiseled body and the few days’ worth of dark stubble peppering his jaw, he could star as the main attraction in any woman’s hottest bad-boy fantasy.
Lord knew he’d fueled her own as she’d lain in bed last night. In fact, the main plot of her personal Rafe-induced flight of imagination involved him getting really close. And naked. And a whole lot of sweaty that definitely didn’t involve hand-to-hand sparring.
Dream Rafe had nearly sent her body up in flames. His hands. His mouth. Good God, and when he used them together? She was lucky she hadn’t set the bed on fire. Never having been the type of woman to be fueled by lust, she found the whole experience a little overwhelming—and a hugely bad idea.
“Have something to say…Red?” Rafe’s scrutiny pulled her back into the moment. Before she could conjure a snappy retort, he turned to Logan. “Stop giving her time to recuperate. You’re not doing her any favors by being too easy on her.”
Logan gave him a skeptical snort. “Easy? She looks like she’s an axe kick away from passing the hell out.”
“Then we’ll have proven our point and can send her on her way home.” Rafe slid her a condescending smirk. “Which is where she should be.”
Label it daddy issues or feminist tendencies, but what Penny hated most in the world—besides nylons—was being dismissed. Either Rafe knew that or he didn’t care. No matter his reasoning for being a mountain-sized jerk, it sparked an inner fire she hadn’t felt for a ridiculously long time.
“Like hell will I be going home.” She stepped back onto the center of the mat and crooked her finger at Logan. “Let’s go. No napping. No taking it easy on me.”
Logan looked a bit wary by her sudden rejuvenation. “Okay, but will you go easy on me?”
“No.” Penny spun. Her fist clipped the blond operative’s jaw in a back fist that would’ve hurt them both if he hadn’t ducked when he did.
“Jesus.” Logan shot a glance toward Trey. “Why the hell am I the one being offered as the sacrificial fucking lamb? She’s your not-so-little sister.”
“Because you volunteered.” Trey smirked. “And I’m not stupid. I saw what she did to Tommy Wilcox when the little shit tried to cop a feel at the homecoming dance. No way in hell was I offering.”
“You could warn a brother, you know.”