Fight (MMA Romance Club Book 1) (2 page)

Chapter Three

I jumped to my feet and clapped. The second round was over and Jacob was doing really well. He was dominating the match…. I think. I wasn’t really up on the whole MMA thing, so that left me a little confused. Jacob didn’t sit down between rounds. Instead he turned to find me in the crowd. My smile widened as I gave him a shy wave. His next action shocked me completely. He raised his hand to his lips and blew me a kiss.

I could tell people were turning to stare at me. Wondering who I was. I didn’t take my eyes off him until he turned away, took another drink and the next round began.

I surprised myself when I jumped to my feet and let out a scream. My heart raced as his arm was lifted into the air. Blood and sweat trickled down his forehead. He looked directly at me, grinning. He pointed to me before he turned on his heel and climbed out of the ring.

“Anna,” a man spoke behind me. I spun to face him, holding my purse tightly. Dean grinned. “Jacob wanted me to come get you after his match, said he wanted you to meet him in the locker room.”

He wanted to show me his locker room? I took a deep breath, nodded, and let Dean lead the way.

“Did you enjoy the fight?”

“Yeah, it was really cool. He’s really talented. He’ll go far.”

“You really don’t know who he is, do you?”

My brow furrowed. “What do you mean?”

Dean shook his head. “Jacob is…very well known.” I stared at him, trying to figure out what he was saying. “I mean he’s kind of famous.”

“He’s… what?”

“Not super famous or anything, but well known. Didn’t you know that?”

“No… I don’t really pay attention to that kind of stuff,” I admitted. “I… well, to be honest, I’m too busy with my own stuff to worry about other people.”

“So you’ve never heard of him?”

“Nope, sorry.”

“Then why did you agree to come here with him?”

“Well, he asked me to come see him fight. I didn’t realize we were going to have to take a plane there, let alone a private one. By the time we got to the airport I’d decided I liked him. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to go to New York.” I shrugged. It almost sounded like it made sense, but I guess it didn’t. Sometimes a girl just needed to take risk.

“How long have you known him?”

“Since I was a kid.” Dean grinned as we headed down a hallway. “We grew up just down the street from each other and spent most of our time together.”

“What was he like as a kid?”

Dean laughed. “I already promised him I wouldn’t tell you any embarrassing stories.”

“Well that’s no fun.”

Dean laughed louder as he came to a stop in front of a door. “Well, this is where I leave you.” He reached out and pushed the door open for me.

“Thanks, I’ll see you around.”

“Oh, I’m sure I’ll be seeing you again.”

My heart jumped into my throat. He grinned. What did he mean by that? Before I could think about it any longer I focused my attention on the man in front of me. The half-naked man in front of me.

“Hey.” I stepped into the locker room and shut the door behind me. “That was a really good fight.” My eyes trailed over his body. He wore a pair of dark jeans. My eyes locked on his muscular chest, the tattoo that I could finally see. It was some sort of tribal tattoo. Six pack. I counted a couple times just to be sure. My eyes traced lower and lower, down the thin trail of hair that led somewhere else. My eyes locked on the fly of his jeans. I swallowed dryly.

“Did you like what you saw?”

His voice snapped me back into reality. Like what I saw? My cheeks burned as I forced myself to look up. Then it occurred to me what he was talking about. “Oh yes! I didn’t realize you were so tough.”

Jacob laughed. “I try.”

“Really, it was amazing… honestly, all of this is amazing.”

“I know we didn’t get the chance to have dinner, but I thought maybe we could now.”

I stepped towards him as he reached for his shirt. He slipped it on but I reached out and touched his chest before he could button it up. I stepped closer to him.

His grin widened. “Like something else you see?”

I felt myself blush again. But it was too late to be embarrassed. I reached up onto my tippy toes. I hadn’t realized how much taller than me he was. My hand traced up from his chest and wrapped around his neck. Alright, this was it. No turning back. Anna, you are way past the point of no return. I took a deep breath and pulled his lips down against mine. I kissed him gently, and he let me take the lead. When I pulled away from him, I could barely breathe.  My blood pounded in my ears.

“So…” I tried to think of something to say.

He pulled me closer to him. “So, I want to spend the night with you. Please?”

That didn’t help my heartbeat. I found myself nodding.

Jacob stroked my cheek. “Yes?”

I cleared my throat, hoping my voice would come out somewhat normal. “Yes.” Yes. I was going to spend the night with a man I had just met. I stepped away, reached out and took his hand.

“I know a great little place that should still be open, if you would like to get something to eat.”

“That sounds perfect.”

“It’s on the way back to the hotel.” He pulled away from me and reached for his suit jacket as I stepped closer to him. I fumbled with the buttons on his shirt. Why do I have to do these up? I want his shirt off, not on. I withheld my sigh as I did the last one up and stepped away, before I let my body overrule my mind.

Jacob grabbed his backpack and we headed out of the locker room. He pulled me closer to him and kissed my forehead.

We exited through the back door. “Do you mind walking? I like to walk after a fight.”

“Of course. That sounds nice.” I stepped closer to him as we headed down an alleyway and I looked around. “Wow.” There were no stars in the sky, well, at least none I could see. “It’s beautiful, isn’t it?”

“In an odd way, yes.”

Jacob pulled me to a stop as we approached the alleyway. He peeked around the corner and let out a deep breath. “Fuck.”

“What’s wrong?”

“Um,” he turned back to me. “This is awkward. I see reporters out front.”

“Press?”

“Yes.” He looked away. “It’s not uncommon for them to be hanging around after a fight, looking for anything that they can jump on and…if they see us…”

“They will jump?”

“Yeah, pretty much. So we can wait around here until they leave, or we can find another way out of here.” He looked around. “Are you game for climbing a fence?”

I snorted. “Well, I’m game for anything, even if we do have to climb a fence. I know you don’t want anyone to see us together.”

“It’s not that I don’t!” he interrupted quickly. “It’s not that I don’t…”

“Look, I get it. It’s not like I’m your girlfriend or anything, and it’s just a pain in the ass if everyone thinks that.” I shrugged. If I were in his situation I would probably feel the same as he does.

He looked relieved as he let out a deep breath. His shoulders relaxed. He leaned towards me, and brushed his lips against mine. “Thanks.” Another quick kiss. “Now, let’s get out of here.”

A giggle escaped me as he pulled me towards the other end of the alley. My heart raced. We passed a couple dumpsters and a pile of trash before making our way towards another opening. I slipped up against the wall and peeked around the corner. My heart raced.

“Should we risk it?”

It was either make a break for it or we were actually going to have to climb a fence. I looked down at the dress I was wearing. I never had liked dresses much. Jacob pressed himself against me as he glanced around the corner. His hands traced over my thighs and trailed up the hem of my dress. “Let’s not risk it,” he whispered as he pulled away from me again.

I wanted nothing more than to pull him back into my arms and fuck him right there. I took a deep breath. I didn’t want our first time to be in an alley. I followed him to the fence. He looked at it, then at me. “Are you going to be able to get over it in that?”

I laughed softly. “It may not be graceful, but yes.”

He crouched down and interlocked his fingers. I stepped into his hands and grabbed the fence as he boosted me up. I got enough momentum to get my leg over the other side of the fence.

I felt his eyes on me as I carefully lifted my second leg over and dropped to the ground. I landed on my feet, but felt the force of the jump in my legs. I watched as he quickly scaled the wall.

He landed beside me, grinning. “So, how’s this for a first date?”

“It’s definitely one I will never forget.” I returned his grin as he held his arm out for me. I took it, my grin widening as I felt his muscles. First date. There will be more?

We walked down the alley in silence until we neared an intersection with the street. He looked out and around the corner. “Alright, we should be far enough away from them.”

My heart raced as he pulled me out onto the street. I glanced over my shoulder to see the group of people had grown. They were all circled around someone, though I couldn’t tell who. I was just thankful that it wasn’t me and Jacob.

“I hope you’re at least enjoying yourself so far.”

I laughed. How could I not be? “I am.”

“Good.” He turned left onto another street. It looked familiar. I saw our hotel in the next block.

Most of the stores were closed by now, all the lights were out and the doors were locked, except for one.

Even this late at night the traffic was heavy, office lights were still on and I could hear people shouting in the distance. I heard Latin music coming from above.

The light in front of us signaled to let us know we were allowed to walk.

“So, Dean says you two have known each other for a long time.”

“Yeah. He had it rough growing up. We lived right down the street together, so he spent most of his time at my place. He’s like a brother.”

“He’s a fighter too?”  I had heard them on the plane, but I needed to get my mind off my dampening panties.

“Yup, we started training together when we were twelve years old.”

Is he single? I have a friend who might be interested in him. I couldn’t help but smirk at my own thoughts. Carly would love a fighter. She’d always been into MMA, wrestling and boxing. I didn’t like to watch. I just boxed to keep myself in shape.

“I have a friend like that. Well, I guess I’m more like Dean. I spent all of my time at my friend’s place growing up. Not that there was anything wrong at home.” I added the last part quickly. “It was just that she had the hot tub, and her parents weren’t home very much.”

Jacob laughed as he came to a stop in front of one of the few places with lights on. He pulled the door open and motioned for me to step inside. I took a deep breath as my lungs filled with the scent of fresh pizza. I took another deep breath as Jacob stepped in behind me and we headed to the counter.

“Hey!” The guy behind the counter looked like he’d known Jacob all his life. “How’s it going? You look pretty beat up.”

“Rough fight tonight.” Jacob returned the grin. “You should have come to see it.”

“I always miss the good ones.” The guy laughed. He looked young, like he was maybe sixteen. His acne-covered face beamed. “What can I get you?”

“The usual.”

The kid turned his attention to me. “And you ma’am?”

Ma’am? Wow, I’d never been called ma’am in my life. “I’ll…” I looked around. There were so many to pick from. “I’ll just take a classic cheese, please.” 

The man nodded and headed away from the counter. Thirty seconds later he returned with two steaming hot slices of pizza. “A classic cheese for the lady.” He handed it to me, wrapped in a brown paper bag. “And for the…er, gentleman, a bacon, mushroom, olive.”

“Thank you.” Jacob nodded as he took the brown paper bag from the kid; after he slipped him a bill we made our way towards the door.

“Don’t you want your change?”

“Nope, just keep it!” Jacob shot over his shoulder as I pulled the door open for him and motioned for him to go first.

As soon as we were outside I pulled the oversized slice of pizza from the bag and took a small bite.

“Oh God, this is amazing.” I risked burning my tongue and took another, larger, bite. It was worth it.

“What was your childhood like?”

I shrugged. “It was normal, I think. I’m not really sure what normal is to most people, honestly. But it wasn’t exciting. My mom let me hang out with friends whenever I wanted. I lived at Carly’s more than my own house. My dad lived with us, but he wasn’t really…part of the family. My parents never got divorced because they didn’t believe in it, but the fact of the matter was that my parents’ marriage ended when I was fourteen. They were civil to each other and everything, but they just didn’t love each other. My parents have both had significant others for years. They both seem okay with it.” It sounded so strange, normally people couldn’t wrap their heads around it so I didn’t like telling them, but I needed something to tell him and there was nothing else remotely interesting about me. “Other than that, my life was normal. I graduated school with mostly As and Bs. I spent most of my time with my friends. When I graduated high school I worked for three years nonstop and then I moved out on my own, well with my best friend.”

“Impressive. For someone to work so much I mean.”

I felt a blush touch my cheeks but didn’t say anything. I wasn’t used to being called impressive. I had no clue how to react.

We walked back to the hotel, mostly in silence, other than an occasional comment or question.  Billboards and neon signs lit the entire way. The streetlights were there, but compared to the neon that highlighted the bars and clubs they were barely noticeable. The sidewalks were still busy as people walked past us. Taxis had their lights on in the dark, and the traffic seemed to be getting heavier. In the distance all I could see were buildings lit up in the sky showing signs of life in a city that seemed to never sleep.

Chapter Four

Jacob had insisted on getting us each a room. He said he didn’t want me to feel uncomfortable sharing a room, even if there were two beds in it.