Bad Fighter Stepbrother (Book 2) (3 page)

She couldn’t keep her hands off of him and she wanted to explore all of that, but she also couldn’t overcome the guilt of lying about their relationship. What would happen to her mom and Tony if they decided to pursue this relationship? What would happen to their family if they failed as a couple and ended up fighting? How could she create such strife for her family because she felt a connection?

Tears stung her eyes and she swiped at them as the stallion cantered towards her. He nudged her arm when he reached the fence and she slid her hands over his soft muzzle. He was surprisingly gentle for a stallion, and he nuzzled against her as she cried into his neck. She cried for a long time until she heard a throat being cleared behind her.

Turning, she grimaced at the man standing behind her, a bouquet of wild flowers in his hand. “What do you want, Aiden?” She snapped the question and almost apologized when she saw him flinch.
No, I have every right to be angry.

“I wanted to spend time with you. Actually, I had come to the gym to talk to you about the next few weeks, but we got sidetracked.” He took a step forward, and Emma held up her hand to stop him.

“No, you don’t get to be rational. You lied...maybe it was through omission, but you still lied. I don’t know why, but I’m constantly being hurt by you. Every time we are physical, I get hurt.” Fresh tears filled her eyes. “What we did is wrong and we need to stop.”

He stopped walking towards her and his flowers drooped to his side. His eyes filled with sorrow as he said, “There is nothing wrong with what we are doing. We are attracted to each other, and we need to see where this goes.”

“No, it is. You are my stepbrother. How is us being together going to affect our family? What happens after this ends?” The tears were running down her face freely again and she didn’t wipe them away.

“Emma,” he began, his voice hoarse, “I am not your stepbrother. Sure, my dad is married to your mom, but we are just two people who share a common connection in our family. We aren’t committing a sin, we aren’t doing anything illegal, and we have no idea what the future will hold for us.”

He moved towards her and dropped the flowers on the ground. He cupped her cheeks in his palms and placed his mouth against hers. The kiss was bittersweet, and Emma clung to it as he swept her away. She could taste the salt of her tears in their kiss and despite the way her heart was breaking, she knew what she had to do. She had to do it for herself, for her family, and for Aiden...even if he didn’t agree.

Pulling away, she broke the kiss and wiped it from her lips. “It doesn’t matter how you rationalize it. This won’t work between us. You ran away at the first sign of something happening and then you came back for one day. You are leaving tomorrow, so I have no idea how you expect us to sort through stuff when you are not here.”

He winced, “How did you...”

“Mom told me that she was going with you and Tony. The problem is you didn’t tell me when you came and saw me.” Her voice cracked like her heart.

“I was going to, but we got...distracted. I was going to ask you to come with us tonight.”

Her laugh split the air and was filled with sorrow and anger. “How could I do that? I have clients who need me here, and I have a life. I can’t just up and leave everything on a moment’s notice. You should know that.”

He shook his head, “Em...”

“Don’t, don’t say anything else,” she interrupted him and took a step away. “You go and live your life, but us...whatever the hell we were doing, ends now. There is no future for us, and I don’t want to spend my life feeling guilty about the way you touched me and the way I touched you. I just want to forget.”

His fists clenched, and his jaw tightened as anger began to flash in his eyes. “Really, you think it will be that easy.”

She shook her head and tried to walk away, but he grabbed her arm and wrenched her against him. Her hands splayed on his chest, and she felt his heat beckoning to her. His eyes searched hers. “You feel it, too. Don’t lie and say that you don’t feel it.” He lowered his lips to her mouth, and she forced herself not give in like her body wanted her to.

He pulled away roughly and glared into her eyes. Her mouth felt bruised from the force of his kiss. It was like he was staking claim to her shattered heart. “You don’t get to walk away from this, Emma. We are going to talk now or when I get back in two weeks.”

He searched her eyes as she shook her head, “Please, I can’t,” she pleaded. “This has to end tonight for everyone.”

Shaking her gently, he placed another soul-searing kiss to her lips before letting her go. She stumbled slightly as he did. “Two weeks. I will give you two weeks to work through your guilt and then we will talk, Em.”

He turned on his heel and stormed away from her. Emma felt her heart give a final lurch and she almost called out to him to stop. Sinking to the ground, she stared at the riot of color in the forgotten bouquet of flowers.

Chapter Four

Emma stared out the window at the rainy landscape and sighed. The house felt empty and devoid of life. It was definitely devoid of laughter since her mom and Tony had left with Aiden. She’d promised to invite Julia to stay in the main house, but she couldn’t bring herself to ask her. She’d wanted to be alone, and her mood did not make her good company.

She spent the last week working and drifting through the house like a ghost. She’d been overwhelmed with sadness and the guilt of what she’d done with Aiden still ate at her. But what was worse was that she wanted to see his face. She wanted to head into her gym and find him moving around the equipment.

What she wanted was to hear him tell her about all the things he wanted to do with his life. Talk to him about his passion for healing injured fighters. It was inevitable that a fighter would obtain a serious injury, and he wanted to help them overcome the inability to enter the ring again. Despite everything, she liked having him for company.

The shrill sound of the phone filled the room, and she jumped at the noise. She moved towards the handset and picked it up. “Hello?”

“Emma? It’s Mom.”

Emma felt her heart dance into her throat. She sounded upset, like she’d been crying and her mom rarely cried. Emma said, “Is everything okay? Are you okay? Tony?” Aiden, she added silently.

“Yes, yes. I’m okay and so is Tony, but Aiden was injured in the ring last night.”

Tears stung at Emma’s eyes as she asked, “How bad? Is he okay?”

She turned and stared out at the rain-soaked world behind the glass, but all she could see was Aiden’s sad eyes the night he had left her near the paddock. “He suffered a pectoral tear last night. The dumb man decided to keep fighting and won his match despite being in pain. He is in surgery right now.”

A pectoral tear! The surgery could fix it, but it would be six weeks in a sling and then several weeks of physio to strengthen the area. Plus, it could mean that he never went into the ring again, depending on how bad it was. He was looking at at least three months off, maybe even half a year. “How bad is it?” she asked.

“The doctors said it was a small tear, not a full one, so with surgery and proper exercise and physio, he shouldn’t suffer any long-term repercussions. The doctor has mentioned retirement though because it only opens him up for more injuries in the future,” her mom explained.

“I know. I have worked with this type of injury before,” Emma said. She glanced at the time, it was just past noon and she could see about catching a late flight. “Where are you? Should I fly out?”

“No, Aiden didn’t want you to know, but I have phoned everyone else, including your brother. I thought you should know. We are going to stay in LA with him for the next few weeks and then he is going to come to our house to recuperate.”

The tears slipped down her cheeks and she swiped them away. “Okay, will you keep me posted on how his surgery goes?” she asked.

“Of course, sweetheart.” The pause was so long that Emma wondered if her mom had hung up before she said, “Would you be willing to do physio with him?”

Emma nodded before she replying, “Of course, you didn’t have to ask me that.”

“Well, I wasn’t sure...considering...oh, Tony, I’ll be right there,” Alison said. “Sorry, sweetheart, Tony is calling me. I have to go. I will talk to you soon. Love ya.”

A soft click sounded in her ear, and Emma realized the connection had been severed. She stared at the phone, her mind reeling by what had happened. Aiden was injured and it could ruin his career. It stopped the headlining fight in a week’s time for sure and probably put him out of the cage for at least six months, if not longer.

A new sense of guilt washed over her and she shuddered when it clutched at her heart. What if she was the reason he was injured? What if their fight had caused him to lose focus in the ring and that was why he was hurt?

She felt miserable, and it would be weeks before she could see him for herself and make sure that he was okay. Grabbing a blanket, she curled up on the couch with it and cried herself to sleep.

Chapter Five

“Take it slow, damn it,” she snapped at him, and Aiden growled in response. He had been a pain in the ass for the last six weeks and everyone was ready to drug him just to keep him silent. The surgery had been successful and then it had been six weeks in the sling as his body healed the damage.

Once he was out of the sling, he had wanted to get right to training to be back in top shape, but Emma had refused and had started him on light exercises that would strengthen the pectoral muscle. He’d been surly ever since arriving home and they were always fighting.

In fact, Emma had no idea how to deal with him now and she wasn’t sure where she actually stood with him. He had avoided her the first week and only saw her when their parents were in the room. When he did see her, he cast angry glances her way, and she felt devastated that he was like that.

The sessions had started while he was still in the sling, and it was miserable. He bitched constantly, and whenever she tried to talk to him, he pulled away. The sessions were filled with tension – it was like he couldn’t stand her touch anymore. She left each session completely spent and in tears, but Aiden never seemed to notice.

Currently, a migraine was playing in her temples and she was ready to call it quits. She had never had such an obstinate patient! “I can handle more weight,” he cursed as he lifted the bar. She watched his face and his injury site to make sure he wasn’t straining too much.

“Probably,” she said tersely, “but if we push too far and too fast, you will only tear it again...and then that poor surgeon will be upset with you.”

He glared at her, but he fell silent as she counted out the reps before they moved on to the next exercise. Finally, after a half hour of excruciating exercises, Emma was stretched thin and wanted this to be over. “I thought we would finish with some hydrotherapy. I will get the tub fixed up and then you can undress and spend some time in the tub.”

Aiden stared at her, but he didn’t answer, and Emma bit down the anger that was surfacing. Over the last few weeks, the guilt she had felt was quickly being replaced by anger. She was so angry with him over everything. He needed to talk to her more now than he ever had to before, but he refused to talk to her about anything except his physio.

She left the room and began running the water into the tub. She felt him, rather than heard him, enter the room behind her and when she glanced back, she blushed as he took off his shirt and shorts. He slipped off his underwear as she said, “You know, I have a change room and robes for you to use.”

He stopped and turned towards her, and she felt her stomach clench at the sight of him. Even in recovery, he looked amazing. She sighed at the hard lines of his body and the perfect six-pack that edged down to his hip. Surprisingly, unlike most fighters, he didn’t have a single tattoo and it was almost shocking seeing a man’s form without ink. She loved tattoos, but something about his clean skin made him seem more dangerous...and made her want to lick every inch of unmarred skin.

She did notice several scars on his chest and other parts of his body from his fights, but most of them were old. The angriest one was the surgery site near his pectoral muscle, but even it was mostly healed. “I didn’t think it would matter,” he said quietly in response.

“That what wouldn’t matter?” she asked.

“If I was naked in front of you.” He sounded hurt and Emma looked into his eyes. They were filled with an angry sorrow that she couldn’t explain. “You made it clear that there was nothing between us.”

She flinched at his tone, but she picked up a towel and threw it towards Aiden. “Stop being an ass,” she snapped as she crossed her arms. “It matters because you shouldn’t be getting naked in front of me. And besides, you said that you wanted to talk when you got back.”

“Yeah, and...”

“And you have been back for six weeks and you haven’t talked to me once, outside of meals and working through your physio plan. Even then, I mostly get one-word responses. This is actually the most you have spoken to me in the last six weeks.”

He opened his mouth to reply and then closed it before he sighed. “You’re right, Em. I’m just so angry right now. It was stupid. The guy got the arm bar, and I tore the muscle trying to get out of it. Really, the injury was stupid and I didn’t have my head in the ring...I had it elsewhere.”

Wrapping the towel around himself, he sat down on the chair in the room and threaded his fingers through his hair. For the first time since he got back, she realized that he was growing his hair out. The thought of why he would tore at her heart...he expected to never go back in the ring again. It was only a few inches long, but the thick black hair would have been a disadvantage during a fight.

She knew what he was saying, but she ignored the guilt that had blossomed inside her. She walked towards him and crouched down in front of him. She took his hands in hers and forced him to look up at her. “Hey, it’s not your fault...things happen in the ring.” She cupped his cheek and he shuddered under her touch. “This isn’t the end, you know. You can still train and get back in the ring.”