Fight for Me (7 page)

“Where are you going?”

“Home,” I croaked. Damn, he was affecting my vocal skills as well.

“How do you plan on getting there? You didn’t bring your car.”

I shrugged. I hadn’t thought far enough ahead, but I guessed I could’ve called a cab once I got outside.

“You don’t want to walk around this neighborhood in your little party dress.” His eyes darted down to the hemline of my dress, and he shook his head as though he were in charge of where I went and what was acceptable for me to wear.

“I’m almost done here. Then we can go get something to eat.” He grabbed my hand, and despite the hand wraps he wore, a zap of electricity passed between us. His gaze jumped to mine, and I knew he felt it too. He caressed the back of my hand with his thumb and smiled, pulling me across the gym toward the man he’d been working out with.

“This is Tyler Bradshaw the Third,” Ryder said as we stopped in front of him.

The man cut him an annoyed look before he said, “Call me Ty.”

He was tall and built like a bodybuilder, his shirt stretched across his chest like a second skin. His hazel eyes looked way better than mine, maybe because of the sharp contrast between them and his caramel skin. He reached a hand out, and I shook it.

“Alexis.”

“You’re the reason Ryder’s so wound up today.” He laughed as Ryder glared at him.

Is he wound up?
Good, because I felt twisted up inside. I ached to reach out and touch him, taste him.

“Let’s go.” Ryder pulled me away from Ty before he revealed more information I’d love to know. We went through a set of double doors on the other side of the gym. These doors were steel, and a long hallway ran behind them with a number of doors along it. The corridor was humid from the steam billowing out from under one of the doors I assumed was the showers.

At the end of the corridor, Ryder pushed open a door to a small office and practically shoved me inside. “Stay here while I grab a shower.”

“Why do I have to stay here? Can’t I wait out in the gym?” I wasn’t really great with small, dimly lit rooms. I’d much rather watch the men spar. As long as Ryder wasn’t out there, I didn’t have to worry about looking like a drooling idiot.

“No,” he said with no explanation as to why, then turned and headed back down the hall toward the showers.

I looked around the room and decided it couldn’t be Ryder’s office. There was a small, old desk with piles of papers all over it. The carpet was brown and appeared to be something from the seventies.

A dozen picture frames were hung on the wall, and the television had to be an old black and white. For a gym that was so up to date with every equipment imaginable, this just didn’t fit. It felt like I’d stepped back in time.

I walked over to the pictures on the wall and quickly spotted a younger Ryder in one of them. Even as a teenager, he had a fierce fire in his eyes as he posed with an award he’d won. Next to that picture there was an even younger shot of Ryder and David.

The photo was fantastic, taken at exactly the right moment. Ryder was delivering a punch, which probably knocked out his opponent, and David was standing ringside, cheering him on. Despite what Ryder thought, David loved him, and my mom would move the earth to be able to fix their relationship.

I walked over to the desk and decided to arrange some of the mess on it. Before I knew it, I’d organized all the invoices and folders into neat little piles.

Ryder walked back in the room. His chest was bare, and he wore a pair of dark sweats. His wet hair dripped onto his shoulders, and I watched as a water droplet ran down his chest and over his nipple. Damn, I was jealous of the water touching his skin. He pulled a T-shirt over his head and narrowed his eyes as he glanced around the room.

“Got bored?” he asked, cocking his eyebrow.

“No, but going by the polar opposite in your apartment, I thought your OCD might go into overdrive in here.”

He laughed dryly as he walked farther into the room and sat at the edge of the desk. “I don’t have OCD, but my uncle definitely needed some help with organization.”

“Well, you’re welcome.”

He watched me pensively. “Do you have a job?”

“Why?”

“I spend most of my time training or on the road fighting. I could use someone to keep this office in order. Pay the bills and stuff like that.”

“I don’t know.” Being around Ryder for a short period of time was throwing me off. Seeing him on a daily basis would destroy every bit of control I was fighting for.

“Why not?” He slid off the desk, walked around, and stood beside me.

“I just don’t think it’s a good idea.”

He leaned in close and smiled. “Does it have something to do with your being attracted to me?”

“I’m not attracted to you,” I snapped. My irritation and jumpy demeanor only proved him right.

He threw his arm around my shoulder. I was immediately enveloped with his scent. I didn’t know if it was just soap or something more, but he smelled incredible. I involuntarily leaned in closer. “Too bad, because I’m attracted to you.” He buried his nose into my hair and said, “Let’s go eat.”

My heart fluttered. It took ten years, but I finally got Ryder to admit he was attracted to me.

Chapter
Eleven

Ryder

We walked to the café a block down from the gym. I’d been coming here since I was eight, which should have made me question bringing Alexis here. Denise, the owner, considered herself my family and, as such, either embarrassed me with old stories or became overprotective when she didn’t like a woman I brought in. Usually I didn’t care if she liked the women because they wouldn’t be sticking around for long. But I really didn’t want her chasing Alexis away before I got a chance to figure out what I was going to do about her.

“Where’d you find this one?” Denise looked at Alexis with disapproval.

“Be nice, Denise. She’s David’s stepdaughter.”

“Oh… Oh, I get it. You'd
do
anything to get David away from the gym.”

I wasn’t sure what she thought was going on between Alexis and me, but I hadn’t even figured it out, so I wished she would clue me in. Maybe she thought I was using Alexis to get the gym, but really, David was using her to get me back into his life.

“Are you ready to order?” she asked, eyeing Alexis suspiciously. Denise was also a close friend to my mom, and she was marking Alexis as the enemy. She was the daughter of the woman who wrecked her friend’s marriage. They were pissed when they found out I’d almost died pulling her from the ocean. They didn’t want her to die, but they were more annoyed that I put myself at risk.

“Give us a minute, please.”

“All right.” She eyed Alexis one last time before leaving us alone.

“I must look like I spent the night in your bed, because she’s looking at me like I’m your latest tramp.”

“You did spend the night in my bed.”

“You know what I mean.” She glared at me. I smiled at her, and her mouth slowly formed into a smile. “Nothing happened, and she probably thinks we had a one-night stand.”

“Don’t worry about Denise. She thinks she’s my mother. You should try the burger.”

She glanced at her menu, but not before giving me a look to let me know she was aware I changed the subject.

“I’m not really hungry.” She looked back up at me.

“You need to eat something.”

“Will you take me home after I eat?”

“Sure. You can grab some of your things and come back to my place.”

“Why would I do that?” She narrowed her eyes and a glimmer of that angry spark from the night before returned.

“Because your parents think you need looking after, and I think they may be right.”

“I thought we already discussed me not needing you to babysit me.”

“After the way you got drunk last night, I think you do. Besides, it has to be pretty lonely in that big house.”

She stared me down, trying to figure out what her next argument would be, but then she sighed and looked away. She’d given up. She was staying with me tonight, and maybe many more nights. Denise came back, and I ordered for both of us.

“Why’d you order for me?” Alexis frowned.

“What?”

“You can’t just presume to know what I want. You don’t know me anymore.”

“You love burgers.”

“Not anymore.” She crossed her arms over her chest. I narrowed my eyes and leaned my elbows on the table.

“Are you the same girl who used to make her mother drive her to a different burger joint every Friday because you ‘just had to experience all the burgers of the world?’” I mocked her tone.

She didn’t like it. Her frown deepened. “I’ve grown up.”

“You have,” I agreed, leaning back in my booth, then letting my gaze travel to the deep V cut of her dress to admire the creamy swell of her breasts.

“What about my car?” She crossed her arms over her chest to take my attention off them.

“We’ll pick it up on the way back from your house, and you can park it in my garage.” She’d left her car at the club, so I guessed we’d have to make a stop and pick it up.

Our food arrived quickly. She looked down at her burger and mountain of fries and then glanced over at my grilled chicken on wheat bread and frowned at me.

“You convinced me to order the most fattening food on the menu and then get that?” She pointed at my plate like I was conspiring against her.

“I have a fight in two weeks. Strict diet.” I shrugged, then bit into my sandwich.

“You’ve been fighting for a long time.” It wasn’t a question. She knew I’d been fighting since before we ever met. She picked up a fry, dunked it in the puddle of ketchup she’d made, and then bit into it.

“Feels like my entire life. My dad—I mean David started taking me to the gym when I was about five. Fighting has always been my life.”

“So you eat, sleep, and breathe the fighter life. You even live over the gym.”

“Living over the gym wasn’t supposed to be long term. When I was training for my first championship, I was practically living there. I asked Uncle Drew if I could stay in the studio over the gym, and he thought it was a good idea. It kept me dedicated to my training and my head on the upcoming fight.”

“It’s a nice place. I’m sure it was no hardship on your part.”

I laughed when I thought of what the place used to be. “Trust me, back when I first moved in, it was an old, extremely cold warehouse storage unit. I converted it a few years ago to what you see now. Besides, living over the gym allowed me to spend more time with Drew before he passed.”

She looked up from her plate and gave me a sympathetic glance. “I’m sorry about Drew. I met him a couple of times, and he was a really nice guy.” She smiled, maybe at a memory. “Funny, too.”

“You met Drew?” I leaned my elbows on the table. I was really interested in finding out when and how she met my uncle.

“Yes, he came by to see David a few times, and Mom talked him into staying for dinner.”

“Really?” I was surprised Drew kept his visits a secret from me. As my hatred for David manifested, Drew never tried to plead a case for his brother. As far as I knew, David was cut off from the family.

Alexis continued to eat and didn’t ask any more questions. I was glad because I was too busy trying to figure out why Drew kept his visits and the fact that David was part owner of the gym a secret.

“Did you enjoy your burger?” I dropped a fifty-dollar bill on the table before we headed for the exit.

She smiled sheepishly. “I almost forgot how much I loved them.”

“Well, that’s what I’m here for.” I threw my arm over her shoulder as we walked back to my place.

“What?” She tilted her head to look up at me.

“To remind you of everything you used to love.”

She tried to hide her smile, but I saw it in her eyes as we entered the gym. In the garage, she paused before getting into the car, studying it with a curious gaze. She glanced up at me over the roof and asked, “Is this the same car you had when you were seventeen?”

I smiled and nodded my head. She glanced back at the car and narrowed her eyes. “I remember it being a lot more beat up than this.”

“Hey, she was never beat up. She’s a ‘69 Camaro. She just needed someone to love her and make her pretty.”

She gave me a comical look and laughed. “It was a piece of shit that was too precious for me to ride in.”

“Oh, I get it. You’re still angry I wouldn’t let you come along for a ride.”

She shook her head, rolled her eyes, and pulled open the door. She got in and I followed, shutting the doors at the same time. I glanced at her, and she stared straight ahead, crossing her arms over her chest. “Looks like I get to have that ride after all.”

“Lexi, that was eight years ago. You were fifteen and had no business going to the places I hung out at.”

She turned and stared at me incredulously. “You let Alec go with you, and we were the same age.”

I turned the key in the ignition, hit the button for the garage door, and started to back out. “You’re a girl—Alec was a boy.”

I glanced at her as I put the car in drive. Her eyes were narrowed, her fingers tapping angrily against her arms. She was getting annoyed with me. “Double standard much?”

“No, it wasn’t a double standard because there were plenty of chicks around us, but you were different.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” She was bordering on angry now, and I wasn’t in the mood to spar with her.

What I meant was that she was too sexy and even more naïve. She wasn’t aware of how she turned me inside out. I wasn’t going to spend my nights fighting off guys because she had the same effect on them. Alec and I had become like brothers, we hung out a lot, but I never saw Lexi as a friend or a sister. She was a threat from day one, and I kept her at bay by pushing her away.

She realized I wasn’t going to answer her question so she huffed and turned away. It was silent in the car for a while before she spoke again. “Didn’t David give you this car?”

And now…
she wanted to piss me off.

I gave her a sideways glance, ran a finger over my lip in agitation, and turned back to the road.