“Then Blue wouldn’t know she’d been spending her Sundays training.” Deacon groaned. “Jesus. As the Dojo Fucking Turns, eh?”

“Apparently. As long as I’m on a gossip-girl roll, what if Maddox and Fee are hooking up in addition to meeting for secret training sessions?”

Deacon stepped away from the bar. “And with that . . . I’m done.” He patted his crotch. “Whew. For a second there, I worried my dick had turned into a vagina during this conversation.”

“You are a fuckwad.”

“No. I’m a man who’s damn proud of my Y chromosome.”

Beck laughed.

Thankfully they were wrapping up the PR/party/event plans when Deacon and Beck returned. As soon as Molly acknowledged him, he tapped on his watch. He mouthed, Been forty minutes, babe.

She mouthed back, You’ll live.

Not the answer he wanted. He stood and reached for her. “Enough business talk.”

“But, Deacon, we need her input,” Katie said.

“Nothin’ will be decided tonight anyway, so it can wait. I can’t.” Without another word, he towed Molly away from the table and around the corner. He pressed his hands by her head above the wall.

“What’s this? I thought you were taking me to the dance floor.”

“I can’t dance to this shit.”

“You’re in a mood.”

“One that’s rapidly turning into a bad mood,” he said brusquely. He curled his hand around the back of her neck. “I wish we’d stayed in bed. None of this crap that’s goin’ on has anything to do with us.”

“You are wrong about that, because this time next week we’ll both be in LA.” Molly hooked her fingers in the belt loop of his jeans and tugged until their bodies were closer. “But why the bad mood? You expected to be Black Arts MMA showcase fighter?”

“No. Just some stuff Beck said got me to thinking.”

“Maddox’s big announcement got all of us thinking too, that he and Fee are more than trainer and trainee. Not that Fee has ever hinted at anything in that direction.”

“Fee and Maddox? In a relationship and shit? Never gonna happen.”

His declaration seemed to annoy her. “And how are you so cocksure about that?”

“One, because Maddox was married to a Brazilian woman and he’d never put himself through that hell again. Two, Gil.”

“What’s Gil got to do with it?”

“Babe. Think about it.”

“Don’t babe me. And since when are you so perceptive about relationships and shit?”

Such a smart mouth. “Don’t need to be perceptive when I’ve got eyes. Gil and Fee have been dancing around each other longer than we ever did. It’ll come to a head one day—sooner rather than later. And I hope I’m a fuck of a long way away when that happens.”

“I never thought of that. I’m surprised there isn’t more hanky-panky going down between the instructors and students at Black Arts and ABC.”

Deacon lifted his eyebrows. “Hanky-panky? Is that what we got up to in the training room?”

Molly offered him a sultry smile. “That was too hot to be mere hanky-panky.”

“So define hanky-panky, literal girl.”

“Dry humping on the mats. Oral sex in the stairwells. Hand jobs in the—”

He smashed his mouth to hers, stopping the flow of dirty scenarios. Damn teasing woman knew it’d get him hard.

She laughed against his lips.

“Speaking of hand jobs,” he murmured against her throat. “I haven’t forgotten our game of ‘get off, get gone.’ I know it’s my turn.”

“With as often as you’ve been fucking me since our reconnection? I don’t see when you would’ve had time.”

“And there’s that dumb ‘twelve-hour no payback’ rule,” he complained.

“That would’ve been a problem for you this week, stud. How you’ve had energy to fuck me stupid morning and night with as hard as you’ve been training? I thought I might not see you much. But you proved to be a man of many talents and outstanding physical stamina. I’m lucky.” She pecked him on the lips. “And a little sore.”

His concerned eyes met hers. “Have I been too rough?”

“I would tell you, but you haven’t been. You’ve just been insistent, and I’ll never complain about that. I love the way you look at me. I love the way you touch me. I love that you’re obsessed with showing me how you feel about me so I don’t doubt what’s between us. I really love your kinky side, because it unleashes mine.” She slid her hands up his chest. “But we have no choice but to take a break because I bled that last time.”