Careless and Reckless — Chapter 25

Their gym isn't your standard home gym, then again I didn't expect it to be, we are talking about the Kings after all. It has got almost every facility you could imagine, way too many to name.

In the centre of the large room there is a clear space that is more padded than the rest of the floor, I'm assuming it's a sparring area.

"Okay, green eyes," Wyatt starts. "Because I did interrupt your run, why do you go on the treadmill first to warm up."

I nod at him in response, walking over to one of four treadmills. I start on a light jog, working my way up to a faster pace.

"That's good, keep it up," Wyatt calls from his position by the door. "Carry on, I'll be back in a few minutes. I just have a couple things to take care of." Without another word he exits the room swiftly, closing the door loudly behind him.

About thirty minutes later, Wyatt enters the room, a scowl on his face. With concern rushing through me, I hop off the treadmill and walk over to him.

"You alright?" I ask, slightly out of breath from running.

"Fine," he responds in a clipped tone.

I sigh in frustration. I wish he would open up to me. "You're clearly not okay, what happened?"

"Nothing," he says sharply, seemingly getting more aggravated by the second.

I cross my arms over my chest and give him a stern look. "Wyatt — whatever your middle name is — King, why are you in such a foul mood?"

Usually I would've given up by now and not pressed him to answer but I'm tired of him being so closed off with me. He knows all about James and my fucked up head but he doesn't tell me anything about him. He helped me when I was upset and I want to return the favour. I want to help him but his stubborn arse isn't letting me.

He glares at me. "Aurora, drop it," he says in a low growl.

I shake off the tremors I get from his tone of voice and stand my ground. "If you won't tell me what's going on the least you can do is let out some of that pent up aggression."

He furrows his brows at me. "You were going to teach me to fight," I prompt.

He sighs. "I was, wasn't I? Alright, since you're all warmed up I want you to show me what you've got," he says with a clasp of his hands, some of his anger seeming to fade. "Hit me."

I freeze momentarily. "What?" I sputter out, seemingly confused and worried.

"Chill, green eyes. I'm not going to hurt you. In fact I'm probably not going to fight back for the next couple of months, not until I think you're ready."

"So let me get this straight, you want me to fight you but you're not going to fight back?"

He nods.

I shake my head. "That's stupid."

He chuckles, more of his anger seeming to dissipate. If he won't tell everyone what's bothering the least I can do is help calm him down. "You think you can take me?" Wyatt asks with a raised eyebrow.

"No," I say shaking my head, "I know I can."

He seems surprised by my sudden cockiness but shakes it off, getting into a low crouch. "Alright, green eyes, show me what you've got."

He doesn't need to tell me twice. I start with a quick right hook to the jaw. Wyatt doesn't dodge in time, clearly too shocked.

Using his frozen stature to my advantage, I lunge forward with multiple punches to his abdomen. He stumbles before regaining his balance and resuming his crouch position, his face now focused.

I attempt a kick to the shin but, now that Wyatt seems to be over his shock, he dodges with ease.

He goes for a punch to the face but I see it in time and duck, sending a low sweep kick as I do directly to his shin, it doesn't seem to have much of an effect though.

Before I even have a chance to compose myself, Wyatt lunges at me, making me fall to the ground but not before I grab onto his t-shirt, meaning he falls as well.

After a small ruckus from the both of us, I end up flat on the floor, my hands pinned above my head and Wyatt hovering above me. "Looks like I win, green eyes," he says with a smirk.

I stare at him defiantly, me green eyes boring into his electric blue ones, doing my best to ignore our second compromising position of the day.

Our faces our inches apart and I can feel the blood rushing to my cheeks. My eyes dart to his lips but I quickly look back into his eyes, refusing to entertain the possibility of ideas forming in my mind. Pull yourself together Ari, you're doing all this to prove James wrong. You need to focus.

After a while of just staring at one another, I sigh in defeat. "Fine, you win, now get off me," I grumble, squirming beneath him.

"What was that?" Wyatt asks mockingly.

I glare at him and he chuckles lowly, getting to his feet and reaching his hand down to hoist me up.

"What happened to you not fighting back?" I ask with a smirk on my face. Shit, now I'm smirking, Wyatt is starting to rub off on me.

"Well I didn't think you actually even knew how to throw a proper punch, let alone be able to fight properly. You're actually pretty good, green eyes. Where did you learn to fight like that?"

"My dad," I say, not elaborating on the subject. I've nothing against my dad but I'm not ready to talk about him just yet, not even Ava knows much about him.

"Right," he nods, not pushing me to continue, thankfully. "Now, let's get onto some training."

I stare at him in disbelief. "But you just saw that I can fight, there's no need," I say, not wanting to do anymore exercise.

"True, you can fight but there's always room for improvement."

I huff at him.

"Don't give me that look. Now come on, we've got work to do."

I groan but comply, ignoring the fact that he's treating me like a child because, in fairness, I am acting like one.

~*~*~

Four hours later, I collapse onto the padded ground, all my limbs sore and aching.

"I'm never ever doing that again." I let out a dramatic sigh and close my eyes, ready to take my second nap of the day.

"Is this your way of saying that you give up and that you'll never beat me?" Wyatt asks coyly.

I immediately shake my head. "Not at all. How do you know I wasn't holding back because I didn't want to hurt you?" I ask, obviously not being truthful. I hear Wyatt chuckle before lying down beside me, our bodies mere inches apart.

He flicks my nose. "Because I know you didn't, but you are a lot better than I thought you'd ever be. I mean you're cute and small, no one would ever suspect you to fight like that," Wyatt says, lost in thought, rambling about whatever comes to mind.

I decide to take what he said as a compliment, ignoring the part about me being small, I'm too tired to even go there.

He talks about the last few hours in greater detail and goes over some of the key concepts he tried to teach me but since I already knew them all I didn't pay much attention and instead was trying to block him out so I could sleep.

I don't bother to reply to him instead I let out a small yawn, turning onto my side, sleep consuming me.

"Green eyes, we can't go to sleep here, it's not good for your back."

I let out a muffled groan as a reply, my way of telling him to fuck off without having to move my lips.

I hear him sigh and stand up. Before I know it I'm being effortlessly scooped up into his arms. "Come on, green eyes, let's get you to bed," he murmurs in my ear as he starts walking, his footsteps echoing as he does so.

I'm too exhausted to reply and instead snuggle into his chest, all rational thoughts having left my brain, consumed by sleep. Soon I'm placed onto a comfy mattress and the sheets are on top of me. I get a small sense of déjà vu, remembering Wyatt doing this only a few hours ago.

However, last time I didn't feel the mattress sink beside me. I pay the thought no attention, too tired to let my mind over analyse every little thing. If I start to think about it I'll never get any sleep.

I hear Wyatt yawn next to me and this causes me to yawn too. As I'm on the brink of unconsciousness I feel something warm wrap itself around me and moments later I'm being pulled into a mass of warmth and coziness.

Before I know it, the whole world blackens around me but there's soothing tingles running through my body and an undeniable sense of comfort in the atmosphere that I've never felt before. I let out a sigh of contempt, snuggling closer to the warmth, wishing that I could stay like this forever.