ROMANCE: ALIEN ROMANCE: Captured by the Alien Dragon (Alpha Male Alien Abduction BBW Romance) (Bad Boy Shifter Fantasy Romance) (56 page)

“Hey! The little kid who couldn’t retaliate against all those bullies is back. My advice is you get that weak-willed mentality out of your head as soon as possible, man. Is it that female manager of yours? You haven’t been quite the same ever since she began whispering foolishness into your head. What did she say again?” Jon paused for a few seconds.

“Oh, stay away from the ring, don’t watch no more. Say no to violence,” he said in a mocking whiny tone in imitation of Claire.

“Did she really expect you to do that?” Jon snorted.

For some reason that Rodney didn’t quite understand, he felt strangely protective of Claire and felt that he should defend her. The last thing he needed, though, was Jon suspecting that he liked her and chanting one of his favorite relationship lines in his face.

“Obey the bro code. It’s bros before hoes, not the other way around” he would say.

Still, Rodney had to make a decision. He stopped the treadmill and hopped off, heading towards the weights and dumbbells at the left side of the gym.

“I’m thinking that I should take a break from MMA fighting but I’ll still train with you,” Rodney tossed over his shoulder.

Jon hopped off his own treadmill and jogged after his friend to catch up with him.

“What? Why!? Don’t do it, it won’t look good for your personal image. How long is this break of yours even going to last? I won’t be surprised if it lasts so long you lose your touch and eventually retire at the ripe old age of twenty six.”

“Don’t go off jumping to conclusions now,” Rodney grabbed a 200lbs. barbell with both hands and began lifting, rhythmically inhaling and exhaling at the right times. Rodney checked the mirror to see how his form was - an unnecessary habit that wouldn’t go away.

Jon stepped in front of him, blocking his view. Rodney sighed but didn’t stop. It wasn’t always easy to be patient with an unrelenting friend.

“Fight one more time, just for me. I’m scheduled to be facing Patrick the Pulverizer a month after you. When you beat him that will encourage me and because we’re about evenly matched, I’ll probably beat him too.”

Suddenly, Rodney put his barbell back in its place.

“What do evenly matched people who are really good at a sport love to do?” Rodney asked excitedly, his eyes had lit up.

Jon shrugged his shoulders, “uh compete?”

“And we’re long overdue for that.”

Catching Rodney’s gist, Jon started grinning too.

“Now this is the man I know! I hope I got through your thick skull, eh?”

“Lay down some mats over there.” Rodney pointed to some free space, beside the punching bag.

CHAPTER TWO

After the mats were laid down and their gloves put on, Rodney and Jon stood opposite each other, and assumed their fighting stances. Rodney was only a little stronger than Jon but Jon was more versatile than his friend. Jon threw a punch at Rodney’s face; Rodney parried and counter-attacked with a roundhouse kick that was dodged by Jon.

Jon launched a series of acrobatic kicks at Rodney, who simply somersaulted underneath him. He hadn’t expected that and landed stumbling with his back to Jon. Rodney was tackled from behind and fell to the floor, with Jon on top of him. Rodney swung a punch to Jon’s jaw, knocking Jon’s upper body off of him. Jon was still holding on tightly to Rodney’s shoulders and back though, on top of him. Jon recovered fast and grabbed Rodney’s wrist, pulling it in between his legs and then arching his back he placed pressure on Rodney’s elbow.

Rodney groaned. He’d just allowed himself to be subdued quite easily by his own tough standards.

“Again,” he said.

“I thought I clobbered you but okay.”

Rodney gave him a dirty look as they both got to their feet.

Getting back into their stances, they studied each other looking for weaknesses.

Rodney swung an uppercut that Jon sidestepped with ease. Jon gave a hook punch coming from the side that Rodney saw coming with no problem. He ducked underneath his friend’s arm and moved in behind him, quickly grabbing Jon’s arm. He lifted it over his head, shifting Jon’s weight onto him and flipped his partner over him. Jon flew over his shoulder and slammed hard into the mat. Immediately Jon executed a leg sweep and Rodney joined his partner on the mat. Rodney copied Jon’s method and moved perpendicularly on top of Jon. He put his legs like a scissor around Jon’s torso and was squeezing for at least two minutes before Jon couldn’t take it anymore and had to tap on Rodney’s leg to show he had submitted.

“Alright, that’s enough for now. I’m going home to go hit the showers,” Rodney decided.

Jon nodded.

“What are you going to do afterwards?” Jon asked this because usually they would do something that didn’t require too much energy like going bowling together or watching a movie. So far they hadn’t done anything after practice this week.

Rodney’s brow furrowed.

“I want to meet up with Claire again after a power nap and just talk to her. I hope to be able to make a firm decision about whether I should continue with my MMA career or not. And if I do, how I can ensure my image isn’t affected.”

Surprisingly, Jon didn’t say anything harsh to that.

He simply said, “I hope you make the right choice. I’m probably just going to get a drink or something.”

Without another word the two close friends parted ways and left the building. As Rodney made his way home, though, he couldn’t stop asking himself how he would know if he was making the right decision or not.

CHAPTER THREE

Claire Redway had been watching videos of Rodney fighting other MMA fighters on TV in her living room for the past few hours. She hated—no despised, violence. Yet, because of her billionaire client, she found herself far too often studying the fight he’d had with Vernon. Claire kept replaying the look of anguish that kept coming over his face at realizing the damage he’d done, looking down at Vernon’s prone body lying on the ground.

The crowd had been chanting “Rodney Hemming” over and over again. But unlike most MMA fighters, Rodney didn’t respond back with a celebration pose or smile back. That haunted look was the same one that Claire had seen on many of the faces of her previous clients. It was the face of someone who had just acted unconsciously or had been forced to do something they would come to regret in the very near future.

The common cases were a drunken man abusing his family, or an anger management case picking continuous fights in jail and upon returning to the real world, would ask for Claire’s help in changing his lifestyle. Then there was Rodney, who had only been defending himself during the fight with Vernon. She’d seen how Vernon had been wildly charging him like a bull. She had decided that she could…no, would, work on him and reform him into a better man. After meeting Rodney already, she could tell that there was an innocence hiding behind that tough exterior he always put on for show. Claire was thinking that she didn’t want Rodney to keep needlessly feeling guilty in his heart. Just then, as if on cue, her phone buzzed. Claire muted the TV and answered.

“Hello,”

“Hi, Claire, it’s me, Rodney. I was thinking that if you have nothing to do today, we could go out, maybe, if it’s fine by you, at 7 p.m. And we can just talk. Would that be okay by you?”

“Sure, that sounds fine. I live at 34 Ashwood Ave. Do you know how to get there?”

Rodney didn’t say anything for a few awkward seconds like he was reconsidering or wanted to take back what he’d just said.

“Uhhh,” he hesitated again, “I think I can find my way there. My car has a top-notch GPS system.”

“Okay,” Claire practically sang.

“See you soon.”

Claire had been trying to play it cool the whole conversation and sound like the date was just business. She didn’t ever think of her clients romantically, so it was a surprise to her find out how excited she was by Rodney’s call. Her phone told her it was 5:30 p.m., just an hour and a half before he would arrive. That was enough time to pick out a nice dress, shower, and put on her makeup. After all, it wasn’t everyday she got asked out by a billionaire.

CHAPTER FOUR

At 7 p.m., a blue Bugatti Veyron Vivre pulled up to her driveway while she was standing on the porch waiting for him. It took Claire a moment to realize that this was only her first time getting into a Bugatti, or any vehicle that extravagant. The car door flipped open and upwards when Claire approached the vehicle door. Claire saw Rodney face to face for the second time in her life. She slid in and the door closed behind her.

“Hey,” Rodney smiled.

“How was your day?”

“Well, considering how I haven’t had work for a few weeks, pretty simple. Today, all I did was sit around, relaxing. But my day is about to get better, now that you’re here.” Claire hoped that Rodney got the message.

Rodney winked at her.

“Aww. How romantic!” He teased.

“Shut up already,” Claire punched Rodney in the shoulder playfully and regretted it.

Her knuckles felt sore like she’d just hit a punching bag with her full strength. How pathetic. She glared at Rodney; he was huge when it came to height. His seat was pushed backward, and he was slightly hunched over the steering wheel. Maybe he was about 6ft 3 inches, she guessed. His build was huge; his loosely buttoned dress shirt was worn tight across his torso. And every time Rodney talked, she couldn’t help but stare at his chest. Rodney was wearing brown dress pants and Claire again noticed similar muscle development. His calves were huge as well, straining against his pant legs.

The smug grin Rodney wore on his face didn’t seem to disappear, despite the pain Claire was in.

“Problem?” Rodney tried to ask innocently.

“You haven’t moved out of the driveway yet,” Claire said.

“Noted. Think of the most expensive restaurant you always wanted to go to but could never afford because of the ridiculous prices.”

“Um,” Claire thought for a moment. “Le Bleu Cygne.”

Rodney whistled, impressed.

“I see this isn’t your first time,” he teased.

At last, he backed his car out of the driveway. Claire’s neighbors were looking on in interest at what was happening. She was sure that almost everyone in her area knew whom the billionaire MMA fighter, Rodney Hemming was. She didn’t even want to think about the rounds of nosy questions from the guys on her street and the demands coming from the women as to why ordinary Claire had been handpicked as his date.

Claire raised her eyes to notice Rodney looking her up and down. His eyes rested right on her cleavage and Claire was glad she’d picked the dress that she was now wearing. The red dress she wore fit nicely around her curves, especially since her form was plus-sized.

“I’m sorry for not saying this before, but you look gorgeous,” Rodney praised.

Claire blushed.

“Keep your eyes on the road.”

Rodney awkwardly obeyed her, not having a smart reply on the tip of his tongue this time.

“So . . .” Claire drawled out, hating the momentary silence. “I never got to ask yet. How was your day?”

Rodney’s lively smile came over his face again.

“Well, first I started off with my usual routine of stretches and took my 15 km run, trained for three hours in the gym, took a break for breakfast and then headed back to the gym for some cardio and jump roping.” Rodney stopped to take a breath. “After that, I ate lunch with my training partner Jon, looked at some film reviews and did some light sparring. So…I would say it was a pretty average day, nothing crazy.”

Claire narrowed her eyes at him.

“Okay, now you’re just rubbing it in.”

Twenty minutes later, they had arrived at their destination, the famous Le Bleu Cygne. Rodney drove into the parking lot and found a spot. He killed the engine and, still in his seat, opened both doors. Claire was still getting used to that. For a second she’d thought that he would open her car door to show chivalry, the way guys always did on dates. She could hardly wait to get inside. They reached the entrance and opened the door.

As soon as the pair stepped in, the smell of indigenous dishes and steamed vegetables from the kitchen flooded Claire’s nostrils. The dining room was not exactly flooded with people; only a few customers sat at their tables eating. But this was no ordinary dining room, Claire gasped in surprise. All the walls surrounding them as well as the floor were teeming with fish and other sea animals. It was like an aquarium had been built around all them.