Chapter 145

**Three weeks later**

**Logan**

I hold Megan's hand as we take Max for a walk in the woods behind the house. This is one of the ways I'm able to spend some time alone with her where we can talk and just hang out. I'd be lying if I said it didn't mean we got to act like a couple for a change.

She's wearing a white strappy summer dress with buttons going down the middle and a pair of brown sandals. Her body has changed since training with David. She has more muscle and she's more defined. I like it, I liked how she was before too. I'd noticed in school that Tyler had been taking an interest in her again, heck a lot of the boys had. They talk about her in lessons a lot. I don't think she realises though and I can't blame them, she seems to have so much more confidence now and I don't know if that's to do with me or her training with David or a bit of both.

I'd noticed she hardly leaves the house, only to go to school and see her therapist. Melanie and Yasmin had both come to tell me they both invite her out but she never comes; she always suggests they come to her or she says no.

David had mentioned that she's becoming stronger every day and that he wants to do a test run of her skills. She asked him to teach her to defend herself and from what he's told me he thinks she could. But I wonder. He wants to fake a home invasion on her to see if she can. She's wicked fast though, an attacker would have to catch her first and then fight her off. Plus I'm not sure that would sit right with me.

"You know David will test you at some point right?" I ask.

"Yeah he told me, he said it will probably be when I least expect it,"

"Did he tell you anything else?"

"That it would be to see if I can defend myself, it will show him how much more he has to teach me,"

"It's sick, he did it to me when I was younger,"

"I'm sure he wouldn't do it if he thought I wasn't ready," she states.

"You trust that old man way too much, you've only been training for six weeks," I state and I decide to speak to David about it.

"You're so cute when you're worried," she says reaching up and pressing her lips to mine. I smile and hold her close to me.

"I'm not worried it's just the thought of some man chasing my girlfriend with murderous intent that unsettles me," I state and she laughs a little and then Max jumps up at us.

"Ok, I'm sorry Max," she says. This was the only downside to taking Max for a walk together. If he noticed I was holding her in any way he wanted to get in on it too. I'm not jealous of my dog. "I think my uncle is going out tonight," she states, and I look at her.

The last time we had sex was out here a week ago and I think we scrapped that idea after we saw one of the security guys on patrol. I don't think they saw or heard us because I sent a text out to them all that we were taking the dog for a walk so they could chill out a little bit while we were gone. I only did that because Max attacked one of them when we took him out, so it's safe to say we're safe with Max around.

"When you say out?" I ask.

"He's going out drinking with some of his old SEAL buddies,"

"How do you know?"

"He told me he's going to invite you along," she says

"Seriously? What do I say to him?

"Tell him you have to grade papers or something," she says with a shrug and throws the stick for Max again.

"I'll think of something," I say, and hold her to me.

\---

Walking into the gym, I see Megan doing what I'm guessing is yoga. Never done it myself, I'm about as flexible as a pane of glass. I can touch my toes and that's about it. Brett is on the treadmill and they're both talking to each other. Then Carl walks in behind.

"Woah, I did not know she could do that," he says tilting his head as he watches Megan hold her leg up straight so she's stood on one foot and presses her head to her knee. "I love it when they can bend like that," he states, and I look at him. "I'm just saying," he mutters and walks towards the weights.

I watch as she turns her head towards me. She slowly lets go of her leg and then slowly goes down into the splits.

"The sex between you tow must be intense," Carl states, and I look at him.

"What?" I ask as I do a double-take. "Shut up he'll hear you,"

"If you don't want him to know stop eye-fucking each other," he says, and places his towel on the floor and sits on one of the bench presses.

"You should know we fucked there," I say to him and walk towards the treadmills. I look behind me at him to see he's debating on moving. I can tell he's trying to figure out if it was cleaned afterwards. I chuckle to myself and start my warm-up.

I watch Megan from the mirror and its torture. This is one of the many reasons I don't come into the gym when she is in. She either flirts with me or distracts me without even realising she's doing it.

When I watch her spar with David or even Brett it makes me proud of how strong she's becoming. Her confidence grows every day with it too. Having her uncle here has improved her mood. I think having someone in her life who is a blood relative helps. Because now she has only him. She wants nothing to do with her grandfather and she's never mentioned anyone on her mother's side of the family.

After about twenty minutes she's sparring with her uncle and even manages to land a few hits, which surprises him. At this very moment he has talked me into sparring with her and I wish I hadn't agreed. She's only wearing a pair of shorts and a sports bra. It would seem she is more comfortable with her body now as well. I do believe it is just us as at school she tends to wear clothes that cover her better.

The scars from her self-harming are on show and I know that when her uncle first saw all the scarring from Benjamin and herself, he lost his shit. He wanted to know why I had allowed her to do this. I had told him I hadn't and I couldn't physically stop her from doing it. He walked out of the room then. From what Megan told me she spoke to him afterwards and about two days later he apologised to me.

I hold Megan in a headlock. She goes to elbow me in the ribs but I wrap my other arm around her torso, pressing her to me.

"Tap out," I say in her ear.

"No," she struggles to say. I sigh and tighten my hold on her neck moving it into the sleeper hold. It is then her leg comes up in front of us and she kicks me in the head. Her flexibility is honestly not fair. Whenever we spar this is what helps her into nearly winning me. I let go of her and step back. I look at her to see that behind her is David and her friends standing watching. She then runs at me kicking me in the chest and I'm not sure she realised how hard she's hit me.

I fall backwards hard onto the ground and try to catch my breath. She stands above me and looks down.

"Are you ok?" she asks with her hands on her hips and a small smile on her face. That's it, enough going easy on her. I jump onto my feet and get into the correct stance. "Be careful you have a bad leg remember," she says with a grin. And I hear Melanie laugh.

"If I win now would it be considered unfair?" I ask her.

"Logan, you know to go easy," David says, and Megan looks at him.

"What do you mean?"

"I could have beaten you a minute or less into this," I state and her eyes narrow at me and I know I've pissed her off. "It's the truth, wouldn't be fair for me to go all out on you when you've only been training for a couple of months,"

"So you've been going easy on me?" she asks. I gulp at the look on her face.

"Yes," I admit and that just causes her to explode. She runs at me and she aims for my face. I block each hit. "Don't aim for the face, we have a rule for that," I say as I dodge her high kick. She tilts her head and shrugs as does a backflip toward me, I block with both arms crossed at my head. She kicks off my arms, lands on her knees, and then punches me in the groin. I drop to my knees and see stars as pain radiates throughout my body.

"You never said that was off-limits," she states, and walks away from me and out of the gym slamming the door shut. I hear them laughing and I look to David and Carl to see them grinning at me.

"Shouldn't have angered her," Brett says. "Women know our permanent weak spot," he states, and walks out.

"I don't think I'll be able to walk straight for a week," I manage to say through the pain.

"We'll go calm her down," Melanie says, dragging Yasmin with her.

"Can someone get me some ice?" I ask, and David laughs before walking out. Carl helps me stand up and I sit on one of the benches.