Spitfire Suckerpunch (House of Pain Book 2) by Lavender Parker

something?” she said, tossing her thick, curly ponytail over her shoulder. The big diamond ring on her finger caught the light, drawing attention to itself. It was still so strange to think of Gennifer as a married woman. He had to admit, of all the kids in the family, he would have expected Hector to run off and elope first. Hector was more impulsive, whereas Gennifer had always been more practical. The only explanation he could come up with was that love, true love, made people do crazy things.
    “Just ask,” he said, cutting to the chase. Gennifer wagged her eyebrows at him as Erica wandered over to them.
    “Well, you know I have the class tonight,” Gennifer said.
    “Uh huh,” he said.
    “And I know you feel really strongly about women being able to take care of themselves,” Gennifer continued. “We deserve to be able to kick as much ass as we want to. Right, Erica?”
    “Right,” Erica said, nodding her head, her red curls bouncing. Tate resisted the urge to sigh. Gennifer didn't need to sell him on her class, so he didn't know why she was bothering.
    “You want me to wear that fucking padding, don't you?” he said, motioning to the padded football-like gear at the edge of the ring. It was reserved for whatever fool Gennifer could convince to become a human punching bag for her class. He had no problem with the class; as a cop, he believed that all women should be able to defend themselves against attack. But that didn't mean he was interested in being involved in any way, shape, or form.
    “Mikhail did it two weeks in a row and Hector just said no,” Gennifer said, finally dropping all pretense. Erica's face lost a little of her smile at the mention of Hector's name and Tate knew exactly why Hector had refused. He couldn't blame him. Having women crack his nuts for an hour didn't exactly sound like a good time, especially not if one of the women happened to be pissed at him.
    “What about Austin?” he said, looking around for his friend.
    “Austin said he would do it next week,” Gennifer replied, blinking up at him and sticking out her lower lip, trying to look pathetic enough for him to agree.
    “He's full of shit,” he said, scratching the back of his neck. He was feeling itchy all of a sudden.
    “Come on. You could give my girls good advice on what to look out for,” Gennifer said. “Besides, you're not scared of a bunch of women, are you?” He shook his head, not able to suppress a smile at the way she was trying to convince him.
    “What if I was scared?” he said, just to throw her off.
    “I would say...” she trailed off, leaning back on her heels as she tried to come up with a response. “I would say you should be. But that's an even better reason to help me out. Face your fear head on.”
    “Nice try,” he said, sidestepping Gennifer and Erica on his way to the locker room.
    “ ¡Ay, tan molesto! ” Gennifer hissed, all vestiges of cute innocence disappearing, leaving the real Gennifer behind. “Don't be a pendejo . I'm going to have ten girls here in twenty minutes and I need a punching bag!” He ignored her and kept walking, raising a hand to his face to hide his smile. “What do you want?” she called after him, not yet giving up. “I'll give you whatever you want. Within reason.” He stopped, thinking hard if there was anything his sister could him offer that would actually make it worth his while.
    “Okay,” he said turning around to face her.
    “Okay what?”
    “I'll be a human punching bag,” he said.
    “If?”
    “If you promise to never ask again,” he replied. She narrowed her eyes at him.
    “But I have five more weeks of classes,” she said. In response, he simply shrugged his shoulders. Not his problem. “Fine!” She threw up her hands. “But you better get yourself all padded up, because I'm not going to let them go easy on you.”
    “Perfect,” he said, groaning inwardly as he turned and headed for the sanctity and quiet of the men's locker