Glancing to my right, I got a shock to see Lee Cross and a couple of other guys sparring in the boxing ring. Fuck my life. I couldn’t seem to get away from him. Only yesterday I’d seen him at the football match, and now he was attending my gym. Some higher being was seriously trying to test my willpower. It was too ridiculous for words.

So ridiculous that my feet were suddenly glued to the spot as I watched him throw a punch. He wore protective gear, of course, but he had no top on.

I repeat: Lee Cross was just yards away from me, wearing no top.

My skin prickled with awareness as I watched the way he moved. Right off the bat I could tell he was no amateur, from the way he threw his punches to the way he angled his body.

His skin shone with a thin layer of sweat, making the movement of his muscles so much more captivating. His dark eyebrows furrowed as he concentrated, and when he finally took the other guy down, I felt a quiver between my thighs.

God, I was so embarrassed by myself sometimes it wasn’t funny. My female hormones had me acting like a complete stereotype, and I hated how just the sight of Lee exerting his dominance over another man could reduce me to a tingling mess.

“Karla, are you coming or what?” Reya called impatiently.

As soon as he heard my name, Lee’s head turned, and I found myself caught in his stare. He lifted a bottle of water to his mouth and took a long gulp. All the while his eyes never left mine. At once my skin felt too hot and too cold. He lowered the bottle and wiped his mouth, and the spot between my legs continued to ache with a need I refused to acknowledge. Turning sharply, I went and followed Reya to the ladies changing rooms, stripped off, and stepped under the hot spray of the shower.

The way Lee had looked at me, like he already knew me intimately, was stuck in my head, replaying in a loop. It mixed with my memories of the day before, when his lips had brushed over mine and my frustration reached uncontrollable levels. I really wanted to do something about my arousal, but I didn’t. I wasn’t going to let my attraction to Lee make me act out of character, because I certainly wasn’t the kind of woman who got herself off in a communal shower room at the gym. That was just yuck.

Taking a second to gather my nerve, I got out, dried off, and turned to find Reya studying me curiously.

“So, who was the guy in the boxing ring?”

I frowned at her. “Who?”

“Um, the guy whose body you couldn’t take your eyes off. You were looking at him the same way you look at Felix, but with more hunger.” Reya was real big on the hand gestures and dramatics, ever the artiste. So yeah, she was shy until she got to know you, and then she never shut up talking. She was also highly perceptive. It was kind of annoying sometimes.

“Oh, fuck off.”

She laughed. “I’m being serious. I don’t know what the story is between you and this bloke, but even I could sense the chemistry. It was so delicious I could almost mould it with my hands,” she enthused, continuing with the gestures.

“Go write a song about it, then,” I deadpanned, and she scowled at me.

“Don’t start putting up the aggressive front. You’re not in cop mode now, and I’m not a perp. I’m your friend. You can talk to me.”

Her expression showed she was a tiny bit hurt that I wasn’t opening up to her, especially since she’d opened up to me about her past. It made me want to give her something, so I said in a low voice, “Look, this is all I’m telling you. He’s got a record. He’s seemingly into me. And I’m not touching that shit with a ten-foot bargepole.”

“Why do people always say that?” Reya asked irritably. “Do you normally go around touching things with bargepoles? It makes no sense.”

“Yes, it does. Bargepoles are notorious long.”

“Well, anyway, I think it’s stupid. Besides, do we even use bargepoles anymore? I don’t think so, not since like, the Middle Ages when armies wanted to storm a castle or something.”

I laughed loudly, because seriously, she cracked me up. “That’s not a bargepole, you numpty, that’s a battering ram. A bargepole is quite literally a pole used to propel a barge. It’s all in the name.”

She narrowed her gaze at me. “Oh, my God, I just enabled you in changing the subject, didn’t I? You’re a sneaky little bitch.”

I grinned.

We were rounding the reception area and making our way toward the exit when I caught sight of Lee again and my grin faltered. There was no avoiding him, because he was standing right by the door with a couple of the guys he’d been training with. I glanced at him quickly, relieved to find he hadn’t seen me yet. Then, just as Reya and I were about to leave, he stepped forward and opened the door for us.

“Ladies,” he said, and smiled.

Reya gave him a shy little nod of acknowledgement and stepped past.

“Constable, how’s the head?” asked Lee, eyes flicking briefly to the small bandage covering my wound.

“It’s healing,” I answered, and frowned. It had been irritating me that I’d never gotten the chance to thank him, even if his help had all been an act. “Thanks, by the way. For yesterday.”

His expression softened. “No thanks needed.”

I glanced around. “I’ve never seen you here before.”

Lee nodded. “Murphy’s closed down, so we all had to find a new place to train.”

“Hmmm.”

“Hmmm,” he mimicked, a grin shaping his lips as he leaned down, his hand braced against the door above my head. “Miss Sheehan, do you think I’m stalking you?”

Involuntarily, I snorted, and subsequently flushed with embarrassment. Staring at the floor, I muttered, “My ego’s not that big.”

I felt his breath whisper across my skin when he replied, “It’s a good thing mine is.” His wink told me he wasn’t talking about his ego.

Feeling the need to flee, I quickly stepped by him and outside to join Reya. All the while, I got the sense he was watching me leave. I gave her a lift to the tube station and then set off for my parents’ house. Yeah, I still visited, but it was mostly out of duty to my mum. I was patiently waiting for the day when she stood up to my dad and finally left his sorry arse for good. That would be the same day that elephants sprouted purple wings and scientists declared the world wasn’t round but flat. So, never.

Pulling up outside their house, I grimaced at the sight of the small front garden with its pristinely trimmed rosebushes and perfect little patch of grass. It was contrived, just like everything else about my family. Perfect on the surface, broken beneath.

Using my key to go in the front door, I could hear my dad talking loudly. The Northern Irish accent was a distinctive one, and it had this way of always sounding threatening, even when the speaker was merely commenting on the weather. He was on the phone, and from the gist I got of the conversation, it was a work call.

“We need to pin down McGregor sooner rather than later. He’s a snake — always when we think we have him, he manages to dodge the final bullet.”

Shop talk on a Sunday afternoon. Lovely.

I bypassed the lounge, where my dad was having his phone call, and headed straight for the kitchen. Mum was standing by the cooker when I came in, pulling her roast out of the oven.

“He’s not in the best mood today, love,” she whispered quietly, not even bothering to greet me. “It’s probably advisable not to try and rile him.”

“It’s nice to see you too, Mum,” I said, annoyed, and went to pour myself a glass of water. “And I never try to rile him. He riles himself. By the way, why the hell are we whispering?”

“Because I told you, your father’s in a terrible mood. The case he spent the last few months working on has fallen flat.” She paused, eyes moving to my bandage as she reached up to touch my forehead. “What happened here?”

“Hazard of the job,” I answered flippantly, and refocused on what she’d said about Dad. “What case was he working on?”