FIGHT Part 1 (6 page)

Chapter 12

Eddie

We get to Philly in record time thanks to the Savage private jet. Tatum gets us settled in our suite quickly so we can get to work on finding this man. This abuser. This pig.

I hate Philly. I hate the whole damn state, all because of one small yellow house in the middle of town. This job is on the south part of the city, so I don’t have to be too close to my nightmare, but just being here pisses me off. I don’t know if he’s even in this town anymore, but it doesn’t matter.

Tatum’s dad has been in and out all morning, hoping to catch this guy before he’s gone for good. Once the police find him we no longer have a case, so it is a race against the law enforcement at this point.

This is where the illegal part of my job comes in to play. What I’m doing, trying to find a criminal before the police can, is incredibly illegal but I get paid so damn good, and honestly, I believe justice will be served better by Al Savage than by law enforcement. Too many times cases like this go unsolved and the perps get off because of lack of evidence. I know Al can cover up any legal trouble I ever get in, as long as his name is kept out of it, so I didn’t worry much.

No, my worry is being spent on a tiny red headed she-devil that won’t stop playing with my mind. Worrying has never been something I have been good at. I just don’t do it, it doesn’t solve anything. I’m a hard facts kind of person, but with Red I have no hard facts and my mind is wandering to all kinds of insane places. She was obviously hit hard enough to knock her down, the swelling to the side of the face told me that. I don’t fight, but I know all about it. Well, I know about hits that people can take, and what the results look like. She looked like she took a sharp jab to the temple, but also a few to the jaw and face as well. The way she was walking told me that she also took some on other parts of her body.

I’m getting pissed just thinking about it. I’m halfway across the country from her and there is nothing I can do to keep her safe from the asshole that did this to her. Tatum told me I need to forget about her, but I can’t. He knows my past, he knows my rules, and he knows she’s not good for me. Most rules were made to be broken, but not mine. Never mine.

All I can think about is her, it’s bordering obsessive. I just need to see her to make sure she was okay, but I have a job to do first.

We narrowed down the location of Tony to a three block radius. Al’s men are on the move tonight to grab him. If they get him tonight, my job is complete and I can go home. If they don’t get him it’s pretty much back to square one.

After a few hours of silence, my phone buzzes next to me. Grabbing it, I see a text from Tatum.

TATUM: Head out, all good here
.

Thank fucking christ. I pack faster than ever and head outside to the car waiting for me. If I thought about it, I’d be pissed at myself for the reason I want to get home so bad, but I don’t let myself think about it. I need to see her, dammed the rules.

The plane is quiet on the way back, which gives me plenty of time to think. Ever since I first laid eyes on Red she has been on my brain. The night she spent in my bed was both the best and worst night ever. I wanted nothing more than to pull her into me and fuck her senseless, but I didn’t make the move. Instead I let her snuggle into me and spent the night memorizing her smell, her breathing patterns, her tattoos. It was fucking hot just thinking about her standing there in my boxers and favorite shirt. I don’t even care that I don’t have them back yet, either. She looks fucking hot in them, she can keep them.

No, scratch that. I don’t want her looking that fucking hot for anyone else. I need my clothes back.

I bet she never thought twice about me after I turned her down that night. Sure she curled into me in the middle of the night, but she left before I woke up and hasn’t talked to me since. Granted I haven’t been home, but even in the hallway she was kind of a bitch.

I feel like my mind is going to implode from the constant battle going on inside me. I want her, I need her, but I can’t have her and I know it. When she’s around me, I have a beautiful sense of peace, but knowing the anger that came over me when I saw her beat up is enough to scare me away. God, what if I actually acted on that anger, all because of someone else? I wouldn’t be any better than my father!

By the time I get back to my apartment I have a massive headache from all of the damn worrying and thinking I did on the way home. I don’t know if she is next door or not. I can’t hear anything, but that doesn’t mean she isn’t home. Maybe she heard me come up the stairs and is being extra quiet to avoid me.

I feel like a fucking teenager all over again, caring about what girls thought of me and whether they like me or not. Jesus why can’t I NOT care about this girl?

I know why.

Because I think I just broke my biggest rule and it pisses me off. Life isn’t supposed to happen this way. Before I know what I’m doing, I’m storming across the hallway knocking on her door, praying she would answer.

Chapter 13

Gwynn

I hear him come up the stairs and turn my TV off. He’s so close to me right now I start to shake from nerves. I know he’s going to confront me, and I don’t think I’ll be able to control myself. These two days with him being gone have been hell. I don’t know what’s wrong with me, but I can’t stop thinking about him. Nor can I stop dreaming about how amazing he would be to in bed. My mind has turned so incredibly dirty that my BOB has most definitely gotten a workout over this man.

My fight is tonight and I’m not ready for it, but I’ll never tell Mac that. I’ll show up and do my fucking best, but even I’m pretty sure I’m not going to win. I just don’t feel it anymore.

Sitting on my couch in the dark room feels foolish, but I’m so nervous that he’s going to be pissed, I don’t know what to do. What if he hates me, what if he is so disgusted with what I do, that he doesn’t ever talk to me again? I’m not sure I can deal with that type of rejection from him. This man that I barely knew has stolen all of my brain functions for the last two days, and I’m unsure if I’ll ever fully get it back.

When the knock comes I get up and open the door, waiting for the onslaught of questioning. There he is in all of his tattooed, muscular glory. Good god he’s so fucking hot, standing there arms at his side breathing heavily.

Before I can conjure up words to speak he’s on me. Pushing his way into my apartment he slams the door and pins me to it. His lips are so soft I never want to stop kissing them. His body is pushing me against the door and his elbows are resting on the wood behind my head. He smells so fucking good, and is so hard already that I feel that familiar pull between my legs immediately. One that needs as much friction as it can get. I moan into him, trying to wrap my legs around him to achieve a better connection. I feel him smile against my mouth and laugh as his hands find my ass and lift me to aid me in my quest. No words are exchanged as I grind myself against his jeans, the thin fabric of my yoga pants helping me achieve the perfect amount of friction. The kisses keep coming, slow and steady, his stubble around his mouth probably rubbing my face raw but I don’t care. I grind into him more until the all too familiar electricity starts buzzing through me. He must have noticed the change in my pace and subtle shivers radiating off of me. Growling, he pushes me harder against the door.

“Come for me, Red,” he whispers into my ear before starting to nibble on my ear lobe.

I’ve never been one to come on demand, but hell if that one sentence didn’t send me over the edge. Gasping and grabbing onto his head, I moan into his neck as pushes me harder against the door. As I come down from my euphoric high, I find myself being moved from the door, down the hall to my bedroom. Both of us still fully clothed, he carries my body effortlessly to the bed and lays me down. Stripping off his shirt he looks down at me and smiled.

“Hey.” He smiles and I loose it. All reserve I thought I once had went out the window when that smile was directed at me. I crawl as fast as I can to get his clothes off, then he does the same for me, literally ripping off my bra, claiming it’s taking too long to unhook.

I’m more than ready, and by the looks of it he is too. He towers over me, and for a brief moment I wonder how we would fit together. I’m not the tallest of people; I only come up to his chest. And he is HUGE. Like, I’ve never seen someone so big. I’m not that big! Now I’m only slightly starting to panic that things won’t mesh well, but when his eyes hit mine all worries fly out the window.

“You okay with this?” His voice is gravel, full of lust.

“Absofuckinglutely,” I say, and push him onto the bed.

I straddle his body, lining myself up with him and lift over him. His eyes never leave mine as I slowly and agonizingly start to sink down. Good lord he is so fucking big. It takes damn near forever to be completely filled with him, and the torment in his eyes as I make my descent is insane. I can tell how much he’s holding back, but I’m in charge and I’m enjoying it.

“Fucking-A Red. Good lord... ah!” he gasps as I pull up and break contact with him. I grin at him, loving the fact that I’m driving him nuts.

Realigning myself, I start my decent again, this time a little easier than the last. When I make it all the way down, his hands grab my hips and slowly guide me back up and then down again. Swiftly, he manages to flip us over without breaking contact. I’m impressed, but more so I’m incredibly turned on by this man towering over me.

“Grab onto the headboard,” he growls at me, his voice demanding and sexy as hell. When I don’t move fast enough, he pulls my arms above my head and holds them there with one hand while the other teases my nipples. His thrusts get harder and harder, and before I know it I’m coming again, screaming his name so loud they can probably hear it downstairs. Eddie’s movements become quicker and quicker, and seconds after my orgasm, he pulls out and grabs himself to release all over my stomach. That’s fucking hot. I’ve never had it that rough, but holy HELL I like it.

Eddie collapses next to me, gasping for air and I lay there wondering what the fuck just happened. My heart’s beating so fast and hard I can hear it in my ears, I can’t feel my fingers or my toes due to the double orgasm I was just served, and I don’t even care about the mess in my bed.

He’s staring at me when I turn my head, smiling that world shattering smile, and it’s directed one hundred percent at me.

              “So, I had an entire plane ride back here to figure out exactly what I was going to say to the girl that won’t leave my head. That wasn’t anywhere on the list of things that I had planned, but FUCK it. That was fucking amazing.” He grins a devilish grin, and I laughed harder than I’ve laughed in a very long time.

              What was a girl to do when the man of her dreams knocked on her door and fucked her senseless? Laugh...because it’s either that or cry, because I’m pretty sure I just fell in love with him.

              Shit.

  Chapter 14

Eddie

That laugh.

I want to make her laugh like that every day for the rest of my life. I want to be the only reason that beautiful sound comes out of her mouth
.

Holy SHIT what am I thinking? I can’t do this, I can’t be here...what the hell did I just do?! I came over here to demand answers about the bruises and strange behavior the other day, but instead I put up no resistance when the tiny, feisty being that opened the door dared me to make a move. The way she stood in the doorway, waiting for...something. Hell I don’t even remember my train of thought that brought us here to this bed. All I know was it was the best fucking feeling I’ve ever experienced. And I can’t have it again. I can’t make a routine of this. This will be hard enough to walk away from now that I’ve had her once, but I can’t let it go on.

She’s lying next to me, smiling at me after finally finishing her laughing fit, and I can’t get my body to cooperate with my mind. I need to leave, to get out of here. Something isn’t allowing me to do that though, it’s like there’s a boulder keeping me pressed to this bed right now. What is this woman doing to me? I’ve spend the majority of my life having no problem with my rules, following them to a T. One look at this woman has turned me into a completely different person, and I’m not sure I like it. Damned if she isn’t the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, though. Messed up hair, sheet draped over the lower part of her body, hugging her hips. She rests her head on her hand and smiles.

“Well, let’s have it then. What did you come over to say to me?” she smiles, her eyes glowing for me, and only me.

I sigh, talk about a mood killer, discussing something as depressing as being beaten, right after the best sex I’ve ever had. Before I can manage to get the words out her phone rings. Cussing, she runs out of the room, draped in the only sheet from her bed, to get it before whoever is calling is sent to voicemail.

“Alright, I got it!” she yells from the other room. Storming back into the room, not near as relaxed as she had been just moments before, she starts rummaging through her drawers. She stops, as if she remembers I’m still in her bed, and stares at me.

“So...I should have been at work by now. I’m crazy late.” Her brows furrow as she stares at me waiting for a response. Probably waiting for me to leave so she can get to work.

“You work downstairs, I’m sure it won’t take you long to get there,” I laugh. “Sorry for making you late....kind of.”

She grins and cocks her head at me.

“Okay fine, not sorry at all,” I say. She throws her shirt at me, then storms across the room to grab another one. I laugh a little more until I realize I’m still bare ass naked in her bed. Right. Time to leave, Eddie.

Getting up without any attempt to hide my growing attraction for her, I slip on the layers of clothes she just ripped off of me. Nah, this wasn’t comfortable at all, wearing this tight of fucking pants with a growing boner. How can just looking at her do this to me? Good god. I need to get away from this girl. Heading out the bedroom door, I stop when I hear her.

“You should come tonight,” her voice travels across the room from inside the closet.

“Oh I should, really? I’m sure that already happened,” I said grinning devilishly. Why was I flirting with her, I need to get away from this situation but I can’t force myself to walk.

“Har har. Be a punk then...but yes. It’d be nice to have you there.” She came walking out of the closet and those eyes hit me once again.

Dressed in tight ass tiny shorts and a sports bra, my eyebrows pull together taking in the sight in front of me. She’s throwing things into a gym bag while talking to me about something that my mind wasn’t even listening to. Gauze, gloves, shoes all go in the bag. Fuck. My gut keeps telling me to leave, now. Whatever is about to happen, I’m not strong enough for it. I need to leave. But I don’t. I push on like an asshole, like someone knows bad news is about to hit them in the face but they don’t fucking move.

“Gwynn, since when do bartenders dress like they are going to a fight?” I can feel my entire body tense as she raises her eyebrows at me in surprise.

“Since this bartender started fighting three years ago.” Her tiny face scrunches up at me in confusion, like it’s the most stupid question she has ever heard.

No. No no no, this can’t be real. She can’t be a fighter, she’s so tiny. FUCK! I can’t get my breath and things start to look really weird so I brace myself on her door frame and glare at her.

“Please tell me this is a joke,” I’m able to grind out.

The look she gives me tells me it is most definitely not a joke. It also tells me that my response is not at all what she was expecting. Of course not, most men would be thrilled to have a fucking MMA woman. I’m not most men, though. My entire existence has revolved around a no fighting, no matter what, rule. EVER. NO FUCKING FIGHTING.

Now I’ve gone and fucking fallen for an MMA fighter who won’t leave my thoughts along. Shit.

“Hey, I gotta run. You coming?” I hear her ask from the front door. How the hell did she get all the way over there?

Am I going? Am I going to break one of my steadfast rules to watch the woman I lo-...
Holy SHIT
what is wrong with me!? Out
. Out out out
, I need to get out.

“No,” was all I could get out as I storm past her and into my apartment right across the hall.

A fucking fighter.

Fuck. Me.