She's watching me.

I know it's her because no one else in this house dares to stare at me for longer than a second. And even if they did, their gaze doesn't scorch my skin like hers does.

I look over my shoulder toward the door. The curious little minx is too busy looking at my body to even notice. I smirk, shake my head, and continue doing my pull-ups. She doesn't walk away though. She still stands by the door, peeking through.

"What do you want, Aria?" I ask, glancing over at the door again. She steps out from the corner she thought she was hiding behind and steps inside.

"Nothing," she says softly, gripping the book in her hands. "I just...was wondering how many can you do and not even be tired?"

I stop, letting my hands slide off of the bar, and jump down. I turn my full body in her direction. "Do you want to see for yourself?"

Her gaze drifts over me again. My muscles tighten, jaw clenching as she takes her sweet time staring until they reach higher to the pull-up bar. She shakes her head. "I'm not that strong."

"Then try something else," I say, "like a push-up."

Aria squats down, placing the book on the floor. "In a dress?"

Despite her question, she lowers herself further to the ground. My gaze doesn't move from her as she does five. "I've done these before. I did work out when I was living under my brother's roof."

Good. At least she had upper body strength "Then you should be fine with pull-ups."

She pushes herself back up to her feet and looks up at the bar. Her hand reaches up, but it's too high. No surprise there. "I'm not as tall as you are."

I look around the room, eying liquor cabinet in the corner with one table and chair in front of it. "You can jump, grab a chair, or climb."

Her gaze must have followed mine because she walks into my line of vision and grabs the chair, dragging it over. She climbs onto it and reaches up, wrapping her fingers around the pole. She pulls herself up once. "Ok, maybe it's not too bad."

"Try three sets of ten."

She looks over at me. A hint of disbelief flickers in her eyes but soon dissolves. My gaze sticks to her face as she pushes herself up doing one and a half sets, which is more than I expected from her. Her pace slows, arms shaky.

"Keep it up, if not you're going to fall." I smirk, inching closer to her. I stand by her side watching as one hand slips. She grips the bar tighter and tries to pull herself up. I cross my arms over my chest, trying to keep myself from helping her. I underestimated her strength moments ago and I won't do that again.

She tries three times before she finally has both hands back on the bar. The corner of my lip curls up.

"It's still sweaty from your hands."

A small chuckle escapes my lips. "You saying I sweat a lot?"

"Have you seen your body?" She asks as she turns her head to me. Her gaze runs down my body once. "You're basically glistening under the lights."

"And you're staring at my body, because?" I raise an eyebrow at her.

A pretty shade of pink runs over her cheeks as she looks away. "I'm not staring. It's just hard not to look. Especially with all those tattoos and scars."

She's so fucking cute.

"Makes me wonder if it's hard or just looks that way," she mumbles to herself but not soft enough for me not to catch it. If it were any other man, I'm sure they would have thought she meant something else, but luckily—or unluckily for her, it's just me.

I reach over and pry one hand off the bar. "Want to touch and see?"

Her eyes widen and the blush on her cheeks burns brighter. "You're going to make me fall."

She doesn't take her hand away though so I use the opportunity to place it on my chest. Her hand is warm and sweaty against my skin, soft too... very soft.

"Don't worry," I whisper moving closer to her. "I'll catch you if you do."

She pulls her hand from me, causing her other grip to slip. But my arms quickly wrapped around her waist and I pulled her into me. "Had a nice fall?"

Her moonlight eyes stare back at me and her palm spreads open on my chest. My gaze drifts down, following her fingers as they trace one of my tattoos. "You're... not all that hard."

"Try now" I flexed my muscles, tensing, even more, as her hand slid across them.

"At least you're not always this hard. I don't think I could take you."

Her words play in my head a few times as I stare at her. Suddenly I'm wondering if she can take me, but I shake that thought away "and place her down on her feet. "You really need to be more careful with your words. If I didn't know any better I'd think you were flirting with me."

"Flirting?" Aria shakes her head, trying to hide her face. "I didn't mean it like that. I mean take you in a fight."

"A Fight in bed or a regular fight?" I smirk. Watching her fumble might be a new favorite pastime of mine.

"A-a regular fight. You know... bare hands or knives, even guns. It's like your chest could be a bulletproof vest for punches."

I take a step back and cross my arms over my chest. "So why were you watching me all sneakily by the door?"

"I was observing the gym and then noticed you. You looked so concentrated and focused. And then I noticed your scars and tattoos and I got lost in the thoughts of what the history behind them is."

"So you're nosy and curious. That's a dangerous combo." And even more, a terrible one. It could definitely get her killed one day.

"But being stealthy is a very good trait. It just doesn't work with someone like you who is highly aware of his surroundings." Aria takes a step back and bends down, grabbing her book. "And it helps when no one suspects you either. At least that's what my brother used to say when we were little, spying on my dad's deals."

I shake my head. She doesn't understand... "It's still a dangerous combo and a bad thing."

"Because being that way can get you killed. My father once told me." Aria glances down. "I know you don't share your personal life, but seeing you in little moments like these are nice. Makes you seem more like a person than a myth or an all-around monster."

A myth? That's a new one. I know I told her I was a monster, but curiosity gets the better of me anyway. "What have you heard about me that makes you think I'm an all-around monster?"

"I don't believe you are a monster." Her eyes drift up to mine "I heard you were one before you mentioned it. That you can kill with just one glance. You're skilled in the art of torture. You can hit a target from miles away without batting an eye. Ruthless. You're smart, hard to trace, and harder to capture. Dangerous.... That one I hear a lot. Some people even think you're immortal."

"Immortal?" I scoff. Giving us more space, I closer to the bar and reached up, letting my hand grab onto it. I have to stop this aching need to feel her skin on mine again. "And what do you think I am?"

"I believe you aren't a monster and that you are dangerous. But there is much more to you. I think you can be respectful and kind. You are indeed smart. Skillful, but you've had training for that. But most of that is surface level." She takes a step closer, keeping her eyes on me.

My eyebrows draw together. "So you aren't afraid of me?"

"I should be. You would have killed my brother or locked him up for a long torturous life... but you've given me no reason to fear you and that may be naïve of me when we both know you could kill me right where I stand."

"What if I did more than that? You know, before I kill you."

"Like slice an appendage off?" She asks, tilting her head. "I've seen it happen once. It looks painful... no one knew I was around."

I can't stop the laugh that leaves my lips. As if I had to cut off limbs in order to torture her. "You're way too innocent-minded to be the daughter of a Capo."

"You avoid me for a long time," she says like a month is too long. Maybe I should have actually tried to stay away from her. "I don't think you'd be tempted to do anything at all to me in a sexual way if that's what you meant."

"I could rape you," I mention, leaning close to her face. "But I think you believe I'm not capable of doing it since I could've done it before."

Aria holds her book tighter. "You've had plenty of chances to. You still do, but something tells me you wouldn't."

Oh, the poor little princess has no idea what I'm capable of, but I let her continue.

"You'd try to teach me a lesson, but wouldn't go too far. I've seen the look men gave when they wanted to and I've watched them be dragged away."

"Naive." I let go of the bar and take a step closer. Her breath tickles my lips. It would only take an inch to feel her mouth on mine. I huff out a breath, my hands clutch at my sides. "You better leave before I prove you wrong."

"You give me choices." Aria smiles softly and steps back. She keeps going until she's closer to the door. With a nod, she turns, leaving me alone.

A scoff leaves my mouth but I can't help the smile forming on my face.

That one... is a handful.

❤︎❤︎❤︎

total ONC word count: 10,366

thank you so much for reading along! ❤︎