Cassius Read online

  Kendra opened her mouth. She should say yes. Graham had been right. She needed to try and fill that hole by taking care of some of the lapses in her personal life.

  David made perfect sense. He was cute, fit, and a nice guy. His life was dedicated to athletics, which meant he’d understand her life also being dedicated to athletics. There couldn’t be a more perfect match. There was just one problem.

  There was nothing there. No spark, no cutesy little romantic voice in her ear saying he could be the one or even a horny little succubus saying a flexible and strong man could make for fun. There was nothing on paper wrong with David, but her mind didn’t want her to say yes.

  No. It was deeper than that. It was almost like her soul didn’t want to say yes.

  Kendra took a deep breath and let it out slowly. “I-I’m sorry, David. I feel like I’ve led you on. I’m flattered, and I like totally dig all those nice things you said about me, but I’m not looking for anything right now.” She looked down. “I’ll find a new place to do my training until the competition.”

  “No.” David shook his head and put up his hands. “Please don’t. You didn’t lead me on. I took a shot, and I missed. It happens, and it’s not your fault.”

  “You’re sure?” Kendra looked up, her stomach in knots. “I understand if things are awkward.”

  “I would have loved the opportunity to date Kendra Champion,” David said, “but there’s no way I want to turn down you advertising my place.”

  “Thanks, and I’m sorry.”

  “Nothing to be sorry for.”

  Kendra stuck her hands behind her and backed up. “I think I’m going to get in a jog. I picked this place with a reason. You’re close to Central Park, and I found a list of decent jogging paths.”

  “Oh, yeah, they’re great, as long as you stick to the day.”

  Kendra winked, some of her normal playfulness returning, though the embarrassment lingered. “I don’t like going anywhere after dark.”

  * * *

  Kendra fell into a steady rhythm, enjoying the Zen that came with a decent run. The truth was she didn’t really want to jog. She’d put her legs to the test during her bouldering excursions at Walls and Falls, but it also was too awkward to stay there after shooting David down.

  She’d give him credit. He’d taken it more gracefully than the last couple of men she turned down.

  She’d not thought about it much during her conversation with Graham, but the main reason she was alone wasn’t because she couldn’t find people or that men thought she was too intimidating. That was just the excuse she told herself.

  The truth was she ran into guys like David all the time. They asked her out, and she came up with a reason to turn them down, an excuse like Graham mentioned. Then she filed it away in some deep, dark corner of her memory like it didn’t even happen. She wasn’t sure if that meant she had high standards or was just a bitch. Probably a bit of both.

  She didn’t want to lie to herself anymore. If she wanted to have any hope of finding a man, she needed to accept she was a major part of the problem.

  Kendra shook her head. It wasn’t wrong to have standards. It wasn’t wrong to hold out for someone who made your heart flutter like in a story. She didn’t believe in fairy-tale nonsense like love at first sight, though.

  Love was like sports and fitness. A woman needed to start with a good base and then apply continual, controlled effort to achieve results, but a big part of success was about being reasonable in her goals.

  What were her romantic goals? The more she thought about them, the more she realized she wasn’t sure. Marriage seemed a distant dream, years off, and she wasn’t ready for children for a while, but starting with a decent man who would last more than a couple of dates seemed a good bet.

  Kendra stared down at the ground, trying to let the steady rhythm of her shoes on the path and the evenly spaced lines below hypnotize her into calmness. It worked better than she’d hoped and soon she was barely aware of anything other than her running. That was probably why she almost collided with a man.

  She jerked her head up, her eyes widening. A huge man with a backpack and easy grin spun out of her way, laughing. She skidded to a stop so suddenly she tripped.

  Oh no, she thought, squeezing her eyes shut. I’m going to twist something right before the competition! Damn it!

  Warm, strong hands caught her. She slowly opened one eye, peeking at her savior and potential victim and then opened both eyes. He looked even larger up-close, though now that she wasn’t running at him like an out-of-control train she could appreciate his handsome face framed by light brown hair. His muscles strained against his t-shirt, but his running shorts let her take in his delicious thighs and calves. This man wasn’t just muscular. He was a muscle god, but she appreciated the obvious functional strength in every part of his form.

  He might not be linebacker stout, but he wasn’t small either. He was more a quarterback or running back. Nice. Very nice. Perfect.

  The man set her on her feet and let her go, that same easy smile remaining. “You okay?”

  Kendra nodded, her eyes still wide. “I’m so sorry. I got lost in thought, and I wasn’t looking where I was going. I could have like totally hurt you.”

  The man laughed. “No offense, but I’ve been run into by a lot bigger guys than you, and they bounced off. I think someone would need to launch you from a cannon to have a shot of hurting me.”

  “Thanks for understanding.” Kendra managed a chuckle, smiling.

  She couldn’t help but let her gaze roam over the body, trying hard not to stare at his crotch and wondering what that looked like. A light sheen of sweat covered him. He must have been on a run, too, though she wondered why he took such a bulky backpack with him. Maybe it was loaded with weights as part of a training regimen.

  Kendra extended her hand. “Sorry. This is kind of embarrassing. Not something I want associated with the Roving Champion brand.”

  The man looked confused and gave her hand a firm shake. “Roving Champion?”

  Her heart kicked up even more. The man had no idea who she was. It wasn’t like she was always recognized on the street, but it was nice to run into a hot guy who wouldn’t prejudge her based on her fame.

  She waved a hand. “It’s a play on my name. Kendra Champion.”

  “I’m CJ,” the man offered, his confusion vanishing. “Nice to meet you, Kendra.”

  A bolt of excitement struck her center. Kendra did her best not to lick her lips. There was something about the way CJ said her name that made her knees weak. It wasn’t just the fact that he was a ridiculously muscled stud. He wasn’t the boy next door. This was the bad boy who rode into town on a bike and scared your parents.

  “You jog here a lot?” Kendra asked.

  CJ shook his head. “Not normally. I’m only in town for some business, and I’ve staying nearby, so I figured I’d check out the neighborhood.”

  “Kind of the same for me.” Kendra nibbled her lip, an idea percolating. “Mind if I stretch a little? I always like to stretch as part of my cooldown.”

  “No, go ahead.”

  Kendra sat and leaned forward, spreading out her legs and stretching her arms forward until her fingers touched the ground. She wasn’t lying about her cooldown, but the current goal of her stretching was to let CJ see her body from different angles. The flame, the spark, the missing piece that was lacking with David was there with CJ.

  Nope. Not a spark, an out-of-control raging inferno. Her toes curled a little when his bicep tightened with him scratching the back of his neck. The muscle was huge.

  “You’re saying you don’t know this area then?” CJ asked, sounding slightly disappointed, but still smiling.

  “Sorry.” Kendra shifted and lay on her side, ignoring some moisture in the grass, and she performed some quad stretches and hoped he appreciated the curves of her body. “I’ve been to New York a few times, but I don’t know it well.”

  There was a bre
ak in the smile, the briefest of interruptions. Kendra only noticed it out of the corner of her eyes. She hoped it meant he liked what he saw when she bent forward and showed off her ass. The original smile never came back, not fully.

  Kendra finished stretching and stood, now concerned she’d tried too hard and ran him off. Part of her screamed to ask for his number, but she didn’t want to come off too thirsty. If David could ask her out, CJ the Super Stud could.

  “It was nice to meet you, but I’ve got to get going,” CJ said.

  “Oh.” Kendra failed to keep the disappointment off her face. “Um, if you have time, you should come and watch me compete in the Knickerbocker OCR Assault, or you know, like anybody. Obstacle course races are very crowd friendly because it’s pretty obvious if a person’s doing well. The event is free to the public, by the way!”

  She hated the desperation in her voice, but her pride wouldn’t let her ask him out at this point.

  CJ stared at her for a moment, a hint of frown on his face. “The Knickerbocker OCR Assault?”

  “Yeah.” Kendra nodded quickly. “You’ve heard of it?”

  “Uh, sure. A little. I’m not really a big expert on these kinds of things. Maybe I’ll check it out.”

  He stared at her, looking her up and down, but without the lust, subdued or not, she would have preferred. She knew what that look was. It was doubt.

  “And you’re going to compete?” CJ asked, obvious suspicion in his voice.

  Kendra folded her arms, now anxious and wondering if CJ preferred his women busty over toned. “Yes, I am. I actually do this sort of thing for a living.”

  Her stomach churned when the words left her lips. Her innate competitiveness and desire to prove herself could come out too hot and strong at times. CJ admitted he didn’t follow the OCR scene. He might have been expecting a different body type.

  “I’m sure you are,” he said.

  “I’m more than a pretty face.”

  Kendra barely managed not to wince. She couldn’t believe she’d just said that. Any chance she had with her stud had sunk to the bottom of the ocean with that prissy display.

  CJ chuckled and waved. “I believe that. I hate to cut this short, but I’ve got to meet someone. I probably will check out your event. See you around.”

  Kendra stood there, her mouth half-open, as CJ jogged away. She let herself be mesmerized by the swing of his huge arms and her own imagination of how rock hard both his abs and ass must have been under his loose clothes before remembering how she’d all but hissed at him and tried to claw his eyes out for a mild rebuke.

  Kendra took a couple of steps, thinking about running after him before stopping and accepting the inevitable. A ridiculously hot man hadn’t dropped into her lap. Instead, she’d collided with him and rather than getting his number or securing a date, she’d let her pride run him off. He probably hadn’t meant anything by his question.

  She wasn’t even sure why she’d reacted so intensely. Plenty of people said far worse in the comments on her video. Detractors had called her a fake-ass bitch to her face, and she’d been able to blow it off, but for some reason, the idea of CJ doubting her wounded her deeply. She didn’t know anything about him other than he was hot and had a nice voice.

  Kendra facepalmed. “Roving Champion? More like Roving Idiot!”

  Chapter Five

  CJ had never considered the use of his nickname a tactical advantage before. Most hybrids kept the Roman-style names they were given by their creators, despite them being a painful reminder of their bondage. He didn’t mind being called Cassius, but things had naturally flowed toward CJ years ago, and the name made him feel freer.

  Being able to go up to a normal human and give them a name that didn’t scream Ancient Rome or Greece helped cut down on suspicion. At this point, he wouldn’t have been surprised if any large man with such an old-fashioned name was automatically assumed to be a hybrid.

  He’d heard on the news that the hybrids’ naming conventions had leaked over into the general public in some countries, including the UK, US, and especially Italy, where there’d been a surprising surge in babies with ancient Roman-style names in the last couple of years.

  CJ chuckled and shook his head at the thought as he continued his run. He was trying to force out memories of a certain beautiful jogger and her body. It was almost like she was trying to entice him by stretching in her tight-fitting workout clothes to show off her sculpted shape and toned ass. If she had been, it’d worked.

  He bit down a growl and imagined fieldstripping a rifle. If he let himself think too much about the delicious woman he’d run into, his loose shorts weren’t going to keep his cock in place.

  “This is what I get for obsessing over Vestals,” CJ muttered. “Shit. Julius was right.”

  The idea of bending Kendra over and making her howl with pleasure wasn’t unappealing, no matter who she was, and he still hadn’t decided what the Vestal revelation meant for him. On most days he thought he should continue waiting until his fated mate showed up. Now, he wondered if some short-term relief wouldn’t be so bad, especially with someone as enticing as Kendra.

  “Damn it!”

  He wasn’t supposed to be thinking about her or how he’d liked to rip off her sports bra and squeeze her tits. Like a lot of athletic women, she wasn’t busty, but he didn’t care. He could imagine running his hands down her front while she moaned and then skimming her sides until he squeezed her firm ass. He’d lift her and plant her on him.

  A steady growl left CJ’s mouth now. A woman like that was bound to have a lot of stamina. She could keep up with him as he pumped away, staring up at him with those beautiful dark brown eyes, the light curls of her hair bouncing as he shoved himself in her again and again.

  CJ broke from the trail and rushed over to a tree, his breathing ragged. His shorts were beginning to tent. The last thing he needed was someone calling the cops on the horny perv in the park. He held out his arms and braced himself against the trunk, taking deep, slow breaths and trying to imagine anything but Kendra’s full lips on his cock. He gripped the tree as tight as he could, digging into the hard bark with his nails and welcoming the small sting.

  This was not the time to be distracted. Whatever else he decided about waiting for his Vestal, he couldn’t lose focus when on a mission. Angry and confused thoughts swirled in his head as he dropped his arms and continued staring at the dark tree trunk.

  The brief hope that fate had smiled on him and delivered him his Vestal vanished. Kendra seemed annoyed with him toward the end. He doubted he’d run into his fated mate only for her to not like him. It wasn’t supposed to work that way.

  “Problem?” came a quiet voice from behind. “Why didn’t you come all the way to the rendezvous point?”

  CJ spun around, baring his teeth and growling, his fists snapping up. Julius stood behind him, a confused look on his face. The expression softened to one of amusement.

  The aggression faded in CJ, and he turned his head. How long had he been standing at that tree to make Julius come looking for him? Yes, he wasn’t that far from their prearranged meeting point, but it was far enough.

  “I don’t think they’re going to jump you in the park in broad daylight.” Julius chuckled. “This is what happens from spending so much time around Cornelius.” He tapped his forehead. “Caution isn’t the same thing as paranoia.”

  CJ blinked and lowered his fists. He chanced a glance at his shorts. The mountain had returned to the sea. There was no way Julius wouldn’t have commented if he had noticed.

  “Just jumpy,” CJ mumbled. He looked around. “Something about this place.”

  Admitting that he was overly horny after meeting a hot woman would only lead to an annoying conversation.

  Julius nodded slowly before leaning in closer and lowering his voice. “I didn’t see anything…” He smirked. “I’m not going to say I didn’t see anything suspicious because I saw a lot of that in alleys, but I didn’t see an
ything I’d associate with them, and I circled the entire Big Apple Sportsplex more than once. It’s mostly fencing you can see through. It doesn’t look like they’re trying to hide much.”

  “Yeah.” CJ thought back to his patrol route. He’d earned looks from people both in the park and beyond, but a huge man jogging past was bound to set people on edge.

  Kendra had almost run into him, but he doubted any spy with skill at all would let the prey get away without at least getting some contact information. Despite what Julius said, CJ hadn’t let complete paranoia infect him.

  Their enemies might be dangerous, but they weren’t all-knowing or perfect. Hawaii proved that, and the fact Alpha Squad teams were all over the country looking into possible operations only established it further.

  A trio of women jogging nearby all slowed, their gazes lower than appropriate. They smiled brightly at both Julius and CJ.

  Julius moved away from CJ, waving at the women and giving them his own smile that somehow didn’t reach his eyes.

  “Let’s head back to the motel for now,” he murmured. “We’re drawing too much attention together.”

  * * *

  CJ and Julius spent a couple of minutes inspecting their room for bugs and sniffing for any unexpected scents. Satisfied there was no trouble, CJ settled down in a chair while Julius leaned against the wall looking thoughtful.

  “It’s not like we thought it was going to be that easy.” CJ shrugged. “Knowing they’re doing something with the Big Apple Sportsplex is not knowing what or where to look.”

  “The jogging sweeps are a good initial strategy,” Julius replied, rubbing his chin. “We’re lucky we’re so close to the park. We might be big, but there are plenty of big humans who are training in the park, too, even some guys our size.”

  CJ grinned. “I spotted a whole group of guys from a firehouse. If anyone asks who we are, we could lie and say we’re firefighters.”

  “No reason to give them a lead to check on. Firefighters are a big deal in NYC.” Julius shook his head. “A lie that can be tested isn’t a good lie.”