Angels & Demons

A few hours later, Quinn was finally able to rip herself away from the beautiful apartment and venture downstairs into the main house in search for some food. Mister J was sitting at the kitchen island when she opened the door at the bottom of her stairs. There was a stack of papers scattered in front of him and he seemed to be looking for something. He barely looked up at her as she entered and without really meaning to she ended up standing behind him, sort of looking over his shoulder.

"Nosiness gets people hurt around here, girl," he mumbled, a pen balanced between his teeth. She could see his bright red lipstick smudged all over it and absently wondered how the hell he dealt with the makeup mess that undoubtedly had to be all over everything he owned. She knew his words were meant to scare her, to get her to keep her nose to herself. But for some reason, they just made her more curious about what he was looking at.

"What is all that?" she asked as casually as she could as she headed to the refrigerator.

"Business. Nothing you need to worry about, and nothing I'm going to tell you about anyway," he told her, and even though he didn't look up at all, she thought he sounded slightly amused.

"So, when are we supposed to start this training?" she asked a few minutes later, and he looked up from his work just briefly.

"Whenever you're ready. Tell me you're not bored already?" he asked her, and she shook her head.

"Not bored necessarily, just ready to continue making money," she said, and something about her tone made him look up at her and hold her gaze.

"You'll be kept comfortable here, I can assure you of that," he said glancing around the kitchen.

"I don't want to be 'kept', though. I want to keep myself," she told him, and something about the expression on his face changed and for a moment she thought he might be impressed by her words. His face cleared a moment later, so she couldn't be quite sure.

"Very well. We'll start right now," he said, organizing all of the papers into a pile and shoving them into a folder.

He led her down into the basement of the house that had been modeled into a gym with what looked to be a small shooting range in one corner. The center of it all was a small boxing ring that looked like it probably hadn't been used in a long time. In fact, most of the equipment looked like it hadn't.

"What, we're going to fight?" she asked him, and he chuckled lightly.

"Why not, dollface?" he asked, and she shrugged casually.

"Because I'd kick your ass, that's all," she said, and when she glanced over her shoulder at him, she saw what she was pretty sure was lust in his eyes.

"If you think so, then why not?" he asked, his face regaining composure.

"Fine," she said, getting into the ring and waving for him to follow. He did so and before he was even standing completely upright, she moved to him and punched him hard in the stomach. He grimaced lightly and looked at her with murder in his eyes. "Cheat," he said, standing tall and moving toward her.

"What? You're telling me you never fight dirty?" she asked, and he shrugged.

He swung at her and she dodged him easily. He did the same thing a few more times and she dodged both of them. He tried to get her down to pin her, but she was too quick for him and jumped on his back, knocking him to his knees. Before she was able to get him down the rest of the way, he flipped her easily, pinning her to the floor of the ring by her wrists. She wriggled underneath him and was contemplating kicking him in the crotch when her eyes locked onto his. He stared at her for a moment, and she wished she knew what he was thinking. Suddenly she was overwhelmed with the want to kiss him, but she didn't want it to not be returned. He stared at her for a few more moments before flashing his metal-capped smile.

"Too slow," he said, letting her wrists go and standing above her. He offered her a hand up and she took it, glad the moment had passed.

They practiced for a few hours and by the time they were done, she was glad for it. She'd always thought of herself as being pretty good as far as street fights and stuff went, but it became clear pretty quickly that J was much better than her and actually knew his stuff. She was quick, but he was quicker and once they settled into the routine of practicing together, she realized there was a lot that he could teach her.

He tossed her a towel and she dabbed the sweat off of her face with it. He stood perched in the corner of the ring and she was very aware of his eyes on her, watching her like a hawk.

"What?" she asked him, not able to take his gaze anymore.

"Has anyone ever told you that you're probably the most... alluring thing in the world?" he asked her, his quiet voice ringing as loudly as a police siren in her ears.

"Yeah, and they were always lying to get laid," she told him once she finally regained her composure.

She stepped out of the ring carefully and made her way up to her apartment without another word. Once she was safely alone, she flopped down on the soft bed and sighed heavily. She couldn't believe the things she already felt for him, so fast. She didn't know if anything he'd said to her was genuine, but somehow she wanted him so badly that she caught herself wondering what it would be like to trace his tattoos with her fingers and then run those fingers through his hair. She cursed herself for the thoughts. When she'd agreed to this whole thing, she'd promised herself that it was just for business, but now... now, she wasn't sure.

"Fuck, I'm in trouble," she whispered to herself, shaking her head to try and clear it.