Dashing Devil Omnibus 2: Books 4-6, page 63
For most of his life, Boyd had been taught to distrust creatures like himself. Raised to be a Hero, he had been conditioned to see himself and other Changed as threats to society. But recent events had shattered those beliefs; he had come to accept his own true nature.
As he worked out in the brightly lit gym, accompanied by two gorgeous women making obvious, overt poses and movements to gain his attention, he further accepted a new simple truth—he was attractive. His reflection, despite its fearsome aspects, had also taken on an alluring quality. The perfect symmetry of his face and the aura of power he exuded combined to create a striking and strangely attractive figure.
Boyd could finally see how women might find him attractive. He wasn’t willing to go to the lengths Silvie and the other went to, of course. They liked to describe him as ‘ludicrously attractive’—even the normally stand-offish Daisy had said as much.
It wasn’t vanity that directed such thoughts, but a newfound appreciation of himself. His slitted amber eyes held a depth and intensity that drew people in, and his imposing presence commanded attention.
As he pushed himself through another set of reps, he began to understand that his Change had given him unique qualities that, while intimidating, were also undeniably magnetic.
Boyd couldn't help but smile at this realization, his elongated canines catching the overhead lights in the gym. It was a smile no longer tainted by self-doubt or self-loathing. He had come to embrace the power and allure that his Changed form had bestowed upon him.
He’d accepted that being different didn’t make him a monster. In this world, where creatures of myth and legend walked among humans as Changed, Boyd had found his place. And it was a place he was finally beginning to accept—a place where he was not just a Hero, but also an attractive and intriguing figure.
This made accepting Laura’s obvious infatuation easier to understand and accept, even if he wasn’t ready to commit to a relationship with her. Maybe—eventually—he’d let things progress past a mutually held attraction. But it was not yet that time.
Chapter 6
As Boyd’s workout wound down and he moved over to the small fridge with its selection of sports drinks and water, the pair of women openly eyeing him approached. Raev, like Boyd, didn’t sweat much—even during strenuous activity. Laura, however, was coated in a thin sheen that only added to her allure, especially with her brown hair slightly mussed like it was.
The combination summoned an image of what she might look like after a different, far more enjoyable, form of exertion that he had to shake his head to dismiss.
“Looking good, Big Guy,” Raev purred when he tried to pass her the berry-flavored sports drink she favored a bit more than the others.
She slid passed the offered bottle to loop a hand around his neck and pulled herself up for a quick kiss before dropping back to her feet with a bounce. Raev brushed her fluffy tails across his front as she turned to step back to a more convenient conversational distance, taking her drink as she went.
“You’re looking amazing as always,” Boyd rumbled back as he retrieved a plain water for himself and another with a light peach flavoring for Laura, the trauma specialist’s preference.
“Thanks!” Laura smiled warmly as she accepted the bottle from him, instinct telling him the gesture meant a bit more to her than he’d intended it to. “I noticed you have perfect form when you lift, which is rare for people with Powered strength. Just how many hours have you spent in the gym? It’s like you enter a trance.”
“A hell of a lot,” Boyd rumbled with a smirk as he uncapped his water before taking a long pull that drained a third of it. Hydration, like most bodily needs, was pretty much a non-issue for him, but he got as thirsty as the next guy. “I bet you’ve spent thousands of hours in a gym, yourself, given your form. It was nearly perfect with very little room for improvement.”
“Oh?” Laura asked, brow raising along with the corners of her lips. “Was it my form you were watching so intently?”
“Parts of it, at least.” Boyd smirked right back, which caught his favorite trauma specialist off guard.
As she blinked her eyes at him, he continued, “You tend to set your shoulders a little too tight together, which likely accounts for the way you tuck your elbows in just a bit too much. With a small adjustment, you’d reduce your post-workout fatigue.”
“Oh…” Laura seemed a bit disappointed at the direction he had taken the conversation.
Which was good, because it meant she wasn’t paying attention to the bullshit he spewed to cover for his slip-up. He had been far too distracted by her to notice if she tucked her elbows in too much today—though he had noticed it in the past, so it was a safe option.
“Thanks for the tip,” Laura said with a weak smile before sipping her peach-flavored water.
Boyd had to remind himself that he was not committed to bringing Laura into his family. She was certainly on the list if he determined it would grow further, which is likely why the flirty comment had slipped out. Being indecisive wasn’t good for anyone, but especially not for the woman in question; he’d have to be more careful.
“Speaking of tips…” Raev gave Boyd one of her grins that told him he was probably in trouble. “Laura has been asking about grappling techniques she could use against larger opponents. I told her you would help her out with that, standing in for me to practice with. She didn’t think you would be willing, but I told her you definitely would–given how much you promote a wide range of readiness training for all of us.”
Boyd arched an eyebrow at his kitsune, vowing that her tricks would not go unpunished. He looked for an out that wouldn’t contradict what he’d said before. He only had one, really, even if he knew it would be easily countered.
“I’m much stronger than anybody she should be training to grapple with.” He couldn’t help the smirk that crinkled his lips. “I’m also a fair bit bigger than anyone she is likely to encounter.”
“Yeah, but you can act like you only have D-Ranked strength,” Raev replied, as he knew she would. “It would make for good training. She does all right with me, even when I’m going all out. Come on! I promised her I would get you to do it if she set a new personal best earlier. You wouldn’t want to make me break a promise, would you?”
“You should be more careful about making promises that require other people’s participation,” Boyd grumbled, recognizing that he was just being stubborn at this point.
“I only promised to get you to do it,” Raev smirked. “I didn’t specify a timeframe. If not today, then soon. Besides, you are acting like this something more than self-defense training.”
Boyd glanced over to Laura who had been watching the byplay with amused interest. Her chest was rising in slow even breaths and he noted that her sports bra was something he might expect Silvie to wear. Combined with a pair of shorts that barely covered the curve of her ass, that outfit spelled trouble—especially with her impressive, sculpted physique and the glowing sheen of healthy sweat.
“What are you worried about, Boyd? It’s just training,” Laura said with a smirk in a slightly husky tone that did anything but assuage his concerns.
Still, Boyd was a professional. And, more importantly, he had been raised around and trained with many gorgeous women all through his teens, back when he’d actively withdrawn from engaging with them. Arguably, he should have more self-control now than he’d had in those hormone-driven days—especially since he had several willing outlets for his energies.
He wasn’t so sure about that. As a teen, he’d been much tougher on himself when it came to such matters. Those willing outlets might have weakened his resolve, not strengthened it.
“Huh…” Raev let out a disappointed sigh, “I suppose I understand… given how hot Laura is. You probably couldn’t keep things professional. I get it.”
“Of course, I can,” Boyd replied firmly, mentally preparing himself as he set his water down.
He marched over to a cabinet that had a set of grappling gloves sized for him. Boyd kept his nails filed down, but the extra precaution just made sense. Plus, the thick material would make his job of keeping things professional while making sure a member of his support staff received self-defense training a tad bit easier.
“I’ll try to go easy on you, but it might be a good idea to wear some padding,” Boyd rumbled as he pulled the gloves on.
Laura prowled over to a cabinet not far down from his and pulled out a pair of fingerless gloves that would offer her wrists some support and little more. She smirked at him as she pulled them on. “These will do. I won’t worry about a few bruises, but the fact that neither Mindy nor Tinker have come into my ward has me pretty confident about your self-control.”
Boyd caught the wordless grumble that almost escaped him in his throat, turning it into a hum of confirmation. The padding would have made his job easier.
“I’ll get the room set up,” Raev called out as she trotted out the door and over to a panel outside the room that was most commonly used for yoga and other guided calisthenics.
Laura picked up her water bottle from where she’d set it on top of her cabinet and took another sip before capping it. She popped in a mouth guard, and sauntered after Raev.
Boyd regretted not taking the initiative as he struggled to pull his eyes from her firm rear in those tight shorts. He’d heard of but never seen a quarter. Suddenly, he wished they still made them so he could test an Old Earth phrase Royce had repeated a few times.
He wondered how high it would bounce.
By the time they reached the smaller, mirror-walled room, the floor had changed out for something with a little extra padding. It wasn’t exactly cushiony, but it was soft enough to take some of the impact out of any falls, drops, or throws without affecting their footing. Laura and Boyd wasted no time moving out to a ring that was marked in the center of the room.
“Let’s start with the basics,” Raev said from off to the side. “Face each other and then Boyd, take an untrained wide swing you might expect from your normie-standard mugger. Laura, show him why he should take this seriously.”
Laura smirked at him as she adopted a solid ready stance. The same challenge he saw in Raev’s eyes glowed in her paler green orbs. She bounced on her toes a few times before nodding her readiness.
Boyd raised his fists in the classic bar brawler stance men with no training naturally took and looped the requested punch at Laura at a lazy pace.
The trauma specialist’s reaction was anything but lazy, and would have worked on anyone less trained or solid. Both hands snaked out to clasp his swinging wrist as it closed on her and she stepped inside his guard, moving forward to get some momentum before dropping her weight on his arm and swinging forward to drive her knee into his thigh before planting the firm rear he’d admired before into his hip and twisting into a throw.
Boyd was slow to react, as he’d limited himself to what a normie his size might do, and allowed her to roll his bulk over her back, surreptitiously assisting with a little leap. She disengaged, releasing his wrist as he flopped over onto his back. Instinct almost drove him to use the wings he’d curled tightly to his back and push himself up to his feet, but he fought the urge long enough to allow Laura a follow-up.
Scooting across the ground in a flash, she got her strong thighs locked around an arm and his neck in a solid hold. Again, he restricted the instinctual urge to twist his neck so he could bring his horns into play or otherwise break the lock.
Instead, he rumbled, “Very good,” as she applied enough pressure to take any normal person out of play.
“Thanks,” Laura said as she released him and slid away before popping up to her feet. “I’ve taken up to the intermediate self-defense training for non-Powered, so I should be solid on the basics.”
Boyd performed his wing-assisted kip up and turned to face her with a nod. “Intermediate is more than the basics. What did you want to work on?”
“Up to what I can handle.” Laura shrugged before she shook her arms out. “Raev thinks I might do alright against someone on the lower end of D-Ranked strength, assuming they didn’t have any extra resistance.”
“That’s pretty much what I just tried to mimic, so I would say she’s right,” Boyd replied.
“Since it is self-defense, and seeing as she has the basics down, I was thinking we should focus on surprise grabs for her to break free from.” Raev answered the question that Laura had misunderstood.
Boyd sighed, knowing full well that the tricky fox’s real goal was to cause as much skin-on-skin contact as possible.
“We should probably start with a basic headlock from behind,” Raev continued. “Laura, turn around and pretend you are just standing there. Boyd, you know what to do.”
Laura turned as requested and relaxed with her arms at her side. Boyd walked up and leaned down to pull her into the basic headlock, wrapping his forearm around her neck and grabbing his bicep that rested over her shoulder. She knew how to handle this hold, grabbing his thumb and pulling until it would have broken on a normal person.
He pretended it hurt enough to peel the hand away and break the hold.
From there, Raev walked them through a series of basic and slightly more skilled holds and breaks, eventually finding the point where Laura was receiving useful instruction. At first, Boyd was surprised by how professional things stayed, though that slowly shifted as the session wore on. A lot more grinding than would normally be involved in breaking an assailant’s hold started to get worked in.
At that point he regretted not donning one of Tinker’s shirts. The grappling didn’t involve much exertion on his part, but Laura was working hard for each win. She felt warm against him, which made the various firm and softer bits of her hard to ignore. More of her hair escaped the bun she’d had it in as the session continued, adding a disheveled appearance that sent his mind down paths he wished it wouldn’t.
Eventually, he found himself bent over Laura who was down on her hands and knees, mimicking a situation where she was crawling away to avoid notice or staying behind cover and had been discovered by an assailant. He grabbed her around the shoulders as if he intended to scoop her up as Raev instructed him to do when Laura squirmed under him, ostensibly to break his grip.
The effect was a pose exceptionally unlikely to happen in any sort of real fight, but something that happened in his bedroom fairly regularly. He was bent over her, arms around her shoulders and chest, pressing her into the ground with his knees planted to either side of hers and that firm ass pushed directly into his crotch.
“Nnff!” Laura made a groan that showed effort but did not belong in a fight as she wiggled, pressing herself more firmly against him through his shorts.
Boyd felt himself begin to respond as she clearly intended him to and was surprised. He normally had enough control over that part of his anatomy to avoid any response he didn’t want to have.
“Oh… hello there,” Laura panted in a tone that blended effort with appreciation.
For some reason, the fact that she’d noticed his growing issue embarrassed the hell out of Boyd and he stood up, Laura dangling from his arms in a bear hug around her shoulders, as his tail lashed the air behind him.
Boyd shifted his grip, taking her by the waist before gingerly setting her down as far away from him as he could. “Ehm…” He cleared his throat as his cheeks burned.
“I am not accepting new applications at this time.” Boyd metaphorically kicked himself for the lame line as he turned and fled like a schoolgirl who had just had her skirt flipped up. The amused velvet chuckle that chased him out of the room both comforted him and added to his embarrassment.
At least Raev found it amusing.
“Shit!” Boyd heard Laura curse behind him as he stepped through the doorway. “Did I go too far?”
“Nah,” Raev replied, “he’ll be fine, you just…” the end of the sentence was cut off by the automatic door closing behind him.
Boyd didn’t understand why the woman, as gorgeous as she was, flustered him so. He pondered the problem on the way to the bathroom off their main bedroom. He needed a cold shower.
Something similar had occurred with Tinker back in the box on their way down to the Tower’s sub-basement before they’d come out to the base. Raev had been present for both occasions. Which left him with two explanations. Either he was reacting to his fox-featured love’s desire for him to respond to the women in question, or it was because he was truly interested but waiting for something.
Which was the other similarity between Laura and Tinker.
He was able to understand the reason for his embarrassment. It was because he normally had no trouble controlling such physical reactions. When he failed to do so, it was mortifying. He imagined similar incidents most of the other boys experienced in the PAC had probably prepared them to face it in the future.
Boyd had reached his bathroom by the time he came to that conclusion. There, he found a naked and very good-at-it Mindy waiting for him in his shower, warm water already running.
“Kuh-he!” She giggled, delight in her amethyst eyes. “I planned to make you feel better after being embarrassed, but now you deserve a reward for the self-awareness. Come here.”
Chapter 7
Boyd let out a low groan as five luxurious bathing implements shifted about his body. He was already regretting the declaration he’d made that everyone had to wear a bathing suit for the group bath—while also praising his wisdom and forethought in making it. It made Tinker more comfortable with the situation and would keep what was meant to be a simple bath from devolving into something else.
