"Harder, Bells."
"I AM going harder."
"You call this harder? Please. I swear it's like you're swatting a fly."
Sweat is dripping down my face. Steve's however, has barely broken a sweat. Fuck him.
"Steve," I begged. "I need a break." He sighed and took off the mitts that I've been punching for the last hour and a half.
"Okay Bells. Let's take a break. We gotta build up your strength though," he said. I quickly reached for my water bottle and gulped it down like I was having my first sip of water after 7 years in the desert. Feeling his eyes on me, I pulled the water bottle away from my lips and met his eyes with my own.
"Yeah I know. I'm sorry," I said quietly. He gave me a small smile and shook his head.
"It's okay Bells. This is all new to you, and new to your body," I saw as his eyes flashed quickly down my body and snapped back to meet my eyes. I hid my smirk behind my bottle.
Yeah, we've had a few flirty glances and comments towards each other.
With that in mind, I picked out a pair of short shorts and a deep blue sports bra for our workout session today. Let's just hope Unc doesn't see it.
I've been here with the team for about 2 weeks now, and it's certainly been interesting.
My days are spent either doing school work, or training. Unc wants me to test out of my classes so I can be done with high school, so I've been hitting the books really hard to make that happen.
Training, however, has sucked absolute ass.
I have practically no muscle since coordination has always been an issue for me and never put a lot of effort into working out like this, and Steve loves to push my limits. I understand why, but fuck it's exhausting.
If he's gonna work me out this hard, I wish he would work something else out on me. My pussy has made several comments like this.
A part of me feels guilty. I still loved Edward, but I can tell there's something about Steve. He's...the golden boy. He's kind, and smart, and caring. But, he doesn't treat me like I'm fragile. He makes me feel valued, and while Edward was always good to me for the most part, I never felt like he valued what I had to say or what I wanted.
And it's nice for someone to push me out of my comfort zones. And Steve has absolutely no problem doing that. Especially during training.
I'm brought out of my thoughts by a throat clearing. I look to Steve and he's smiling gently at me.
"If you want to stop for today, that's okay. If you want to keep going, we have 30 more minutes and can keep going." I blew out a sharp breath.
"Let's keep going. I can do this," my voice was determined. He gave me a small proud smile, and my heart fluttered.
"That's what I like to hear," he said, putting on his mitts again. I let out a sigh, and put down my water bottle.
Time to do this shit again.
The hot shower I take after training feels blissful. My aching and sore muscles are thankful for the relief, and it's one of the few moments I'm alone to my thoughts.
My thoughts, and pussy, however, decide to drift to Steve.
Watching him train was mesmerizing. The way his muscles flex and move with every turn and movement, the strength he has while training, seeing his body get a light sheen of sweat...
I pull my bottom lip between my teeth as my hands trail down my body, and of their own accord, one of them heads to my clit. My eyes flutter shut as I rub in gentle circles, and slowly dip one finger in my pussy. I let out a quiet moan as I do so, as images of Steve fill my head.
My mind wanders to other activities we could do that make us sweat, of him touching me instead of myself, feeling his strong hands gripping my body in ways I hadn't been before.
I imagine hearing him moan my name as my fingers swirl around my clit faster, and my breaths come in short and quick pants.
"Fuck," I whisper.
The image that sends me over the edge though, is of Steve bending me over my bed, and pounding my pussy as his hands grip my hair tightly. My body spasms slightly from my release, and I am quietly trying to catch my breath a bit.
I let out a sigh as I rinse off my dirty deed. That's the third time this week.
I step out of my shower, and wrap a towel around my body, my hair dripping slightly still. Walking into my closet, I debate over my outfit for the day. It's only 11 am, and I decide I want to go explore New York a little bit.
I grab a pair of my dark wash skinny jeans and a royal purple halter top, and pair it with my favorite converse. Just because I'm wearing nicer clothes doesn't mean I have to give up my comfortable shoe wear.
I hear a knock on my door. Thinking it's Nat or Wanda, I yell for them to come in.
"Bella?" Shit. Definitely not a female. I peek out of my closet and see Steve. His eyes zero in on my current attire, or rather, lack of attire, and he doesn't speak.
"Steve?" I say softly, but there's an edge to my voice. Fuck. He's seeing me wet and practically naked.
His eyes snap to meet mine before he quickly turns around.
"I-I'm sorry Bella, I didn't-" he stutters. I give a small giggle. At least he gets as flustered as I do.
"It's fine Steve," with a new bout of confidence I fully step out of my closet, clothes in hand. "What can I do for you?" I walk closer to him, placing my clothes on my bed. I turn to him and find he is averting his eyes from me. My confidence sinks slightly.
"Tony wants to talk to all of us. When you're ah- when you're dressed, meet us in the team room," he says, and quickly walks towards my door. But not before I see his eyes trail my body one more time, lingering on my legs.
"Sure thing, Cap," I give a wink. He smirks slightly and heads out the door, closing it behind him. I let out a short breath I didn't realize I was holding, and turn to my bed to start getting dressed.
What does Unc want?
"We're doing what?" Bruce deadpans. My eyes are wide as I look at my, apparently absolutely and one hundred percent insane uncle.
"We," my uncles motions his hand around in the circle. "Are going to have Bella trained with weapons." Is he absolutely manic? I barely have done standard COMBAT training, and even then it's mainly been boxing with Steve, or learning some basic defense moves with Nat.
"Tony, she's not ready for that," Steve piped in. I threw him a thankful look.
"Unc-" I'm interrupted quickly.
"Bella, as much as I wish we could wait, we can't. I've got Fury and the board on my ass. They want her trained, and fast," he sighs.
"Why are they so insistent? I don't understand," Wanda says. She's been quiet for the most part, seemingly just absorbing.
"I don't know. They haven't exactly given me a reason," he replies.
"Well if they haven't given a reason then I don't think we need to," Nat says. "She's barely getting combat training. This is all new to her. If we overload her with all these new tactics, combats styles, weaponry, on top of you're almost finished making her own equipment and she will need to learn that as well, it can be easy for a mistake to happen. Surely they want less mistakes made more than they want an extra fighter."
"Romanov I am trying to push it back. I am fighting them at every turn. However, they are insisting. If we can incorporate an hour of weapon training a day, with her hour of combat training, she's smart, she can pick it up."
"It's not a matter of if she's smart Tony. Her body is new to this. If we push her too far it could end up hurting her more than helping her!"
The arguing is getting louder, and I lean forward slightly, rubbing my temples with the pads of my fingers.
"There has to be a reason that they're pushing this! And I don't trust them as far as Clint can throw them!"
"Well no shit but wouldn't we rather her be prepared for whatever horse shit they have planned?"
"I'd rather rip the stick out of their ass that's obviously impaled their brains!"
I stand up and slam my hands down on the table.
"Shut up, god dammit!" I yell. "No one has even asked me about what I'm thinking. Anyone curious?"
They all look at each other warily.
"You're right, Bella," Steve says quietly. He looks me in the eyes intently. "What are you thinking?"
I'm quiet for a moment before I meet Unc's eyes.
"This will be too much on my plate," I say. "I've been doing two hours of combat training a day, plus studying my ass off for my test out for school. If I add weaponry on my plate, something is gonna suffer, and I can almost guarantee it will be school. Tell them to, like Nat said, rip the stick out of their asses and wait for me to graduate. Then we can start weaponry."
Unc sighs but has a small smile.
"Kid, I can't wait to hear what they have to say about that. There can't be much they can argue with. You need to finish school."
Well, let's hope you're right about that, Unc.