Worth the Fight (7 page)

Elle

Regina buzzes in to tell me William is on the phone.  It’s the first time I’ve heard from him since I told him I couldn’t see him anymore.   When I told him I wanted to remain friends, it wasn’t just a line.  Our friendship i
s important to me, and I’m glad he called, although I hadn’t expected to hear from him so soon.

“Hi.”

“Hey.”  A second too long goes by that makes me feel like this might be an awkward conversation.

“I wanted to let you know that your letter was a success.”  William’s tone is more business than friendship.

Momentarily, I’m not following the conversation.  Then I realize what he must be referring to.  “They’re going to let Nico out of the contract?”

“Yes, they seem to agree with you that it’s in their best interest to walk away rather than entertain a public lawsuit regarding their ethics.”
  My letter was a bit more underhanded than I normally would like.  A thinly disguised, veiled threat to remind them we didn’t even have to be successful in a lawsuit over their ethics.  The damage to their reputation would come through public persona, just from trying the case in a public forum.

“That’s great news.  Have you told Nico yet?”  My voice c
omes out a little more excited than I had intended it to.

“No.  I called you
first.  If you want to call him and give him the good news, that’s okay with me.” 

Briefly, I feel badly about wanting to be the one
who tells Nico the good news.  But another part of me wants to be the one that pleases him.  William tells me he will fax over the termination paperwork for my review and I agree to look at it as soon as it comes over since they want a response quickly.

After we hang up, I realize just how clinical our conversation was and I feel badly that our friendship may not make it.

Nico

I easily knock the first two guys Preach puts in the ring with me on their asses.  He’s trying to build my confidence, but I’m losing patience.  “Give me a real partner or I’m done for the day.”

Preach laughs at me.  “They are real partners, you just got a bug up your ass today.  But let’s keep it there for the next three weeks.”

It takes less than three minutes to blow through the third sparring partner, and I feel more frustrated than when I started.  Preach is blowing smoke up my ass about how good I look, but I think he’s just giving me weak partners.

I s
pend the next fifteen minutes taking what the jerkoffs in the ring couldn’t handle out on the speed bag.  My knuckles are swollen and bloodied by the time I’ve let off enough steam to take a calm breath. 

Preach looks at my knuckles and shakes his head.  We’ve been together too long for him not to recognize when something is bothering me.  Sometimes he knows what it
is before I do. 

“What’s eating you son?
” 

“
Nothing.” 

“Alright. 
How’s things going with Elle?” 

“
Great.”  I pick up the jump rope and begin to swing it at warp speed.  The rope slips under my feet twice with each hop. 

“Preach.”  I lower my voice so none of the gym rats can hear me.  “
How long do normal people date before they sleep together?”

Preach laughs. 
He thinks I’m kidding.

“
No really, how long?”

“Is that what this is about?  You’re hard up?”  Preach laughs and I get the urge to whip his ass with the rope that I can’t seem to stop swinging.  I have so much pent up energy, it feels like I could workout for days and still be raring to go. 

“That’s right, you’re used to the girls just dropping their panties at your feet before you open that foul mouth of yours.” 
Preach laughs.  “You finally found one that’s making you work for it?” 

Sal, the guy working the front desk today, whistles to get my attention.  “Phone for you.”

“Tell whoever it is, I’m working out and I’ll call him back.”  I look at Sal like he’s lost his mind for interrupting my workout for a phone call.

“Okay, but it’s a woman.”

I hear Preach and Sal snickering on my way to the phone.

Elle

Hearing his voice on the phone makes me smile.  I tell Nico the good news and offer to drop off the documents for him to review on my way to my three o’clock appointment.  He promises unhealthy takeout for me in exchange for my time.  His version of unhealthy and my version are vastly different, but I’m anxious to see him again anyway. 

Traffic is much lighter than usual, and I’m early when I arrive at Nico’s gym.
Early.  I never get anywhere early, even if there are no cars on the road I’m usually late.  The guy at the door eyes me suspiciously as I enter, he probably thinks I’m entering the wrong building.  The red suit I’m wearing is one of my favorites.  It pinches in at the waist and emphasizes my curves in all the right places.  But I’m definitely overdressed for a gym.

“I have a feeling you’re in the wrong place, but I’m glad you came in because I think I’ve fallen in love.”
  His line may be all wrong, but his smile is friendly so I smile back innocently. 

Nico smacks the guy in the back of the head, but I can tell he doesn’t really want to hurt him.  “You got one warning Sal.  Keep your comments and your eyes to yourself, or
you won’t make it into the ring the next time I kick your ass.”

Nico walks around the front desk and puts his arm around my waist and
pulls me to him protectively before kissing me sweetly on the lips. 

Sal snickers
as he rubs the back of his head and mutters something about Nico having all the luck. 

His hand on the small of my back, Nico guides me through the gym.  I’m not sure if women just don’t come in the place often, or if seeing me with Nico has thrown people, but I n
otice everyone stop what they’re doing as we make our way to an office in the back of the gym. 

A man is sitting behind the desk typing on a keyboard with one finger.  Pecking would be a more appropriate description.  He looks up and sits back in the chair, a knowing smile on his face. 

“Preach, this is Elle.”

“Hiya Elle.  I’ve heard a lot about you.”  The man stands and extends his hand to me, a warm smile on his face.  I like him instantly, but I’m not sure why
, I just do.

I look from Preach to Nico, raising an eyebrow in question to Nico, silently asking him what the man may have heard about me.

“I guess I should be thanking you.”  Preach says with my hand still wrapped in his as he continues to shake my hand for longer than a normal handshake.

“You can let go of her hand now, Preach.”  Nico tries to sound threatening, but it’s obvious that the two men respect each other and the banter is something that t
hey’re both used to.

Nico tells Preach that I was able to get him out of the contract and Preach looks impressed.  On his way out the door, Preach smacks Nico on the back.  “Smart and beautiful.  So what the hell is she doing with a s
chlep like you?”

Nico laughs off the comment and shuts the door behind him. 
I watch as he locks the door before turning to me with a devilish grin on his face. 

Without speaking
, he places his hands on my waist and easily lifts me, positioning me on top of his desk.  The look in his eyes makes my body tingle all over.  He takes one large hand and wraps it around the back of my head, holding it in place where he wants it.  I wait while he leans down and covers my mouth with his.  It’s not a hello kiss.  It’s a kiss that makes me feel like he wants to mark me. Like he needs to show me that no one else will come after him. 

Uncaring that I’m wearing a
skirt, I wrap my legs around his waist as he leans into me further.  The sheer fabric on my lace panties does little to dull the sensation of his hardness pushing into my most sensitive area.  His other arm reaches around to my ass and pulls me into him.  Hard.  Already pressed up against him, the additional pressure acts as a trigger and sends a bolt of electricity between my legs where I’m already swollen.  The smallest amount of friction might help me find my release that I’ve so desperately needed since I met this man.

I nip at his lower lip when he
attempts to take his mouth away from me.   Nico groans and responds by squeezing a huge chunk of flesh on my ass that he is already holding snugly.  It’s just shy of painful, but falls on the other side.  The side where the groping and grabbing is erotic and it ratchets up my need to new levels.

A knock at the door brings me crashing down to reality.  On my way down I see myself propped on the edge of
a desk in my suit with my legs parted panting like a wild animal.  Throwing a bucket of cold water over my head would only have had a lesser effect on my libido.  Whoever is on the other side of the door, doesn’t take the hint when no one responds, which only fuels their curiosity and the knock becomes painstakingly louder. 

“I’m going to kill whoever is on the other side of that door.”  Nico leans his forehead against mine, and it helps my initial embarrassment to know h
e’s as affected as I am.

He kisses me once more on the lips.  “Don’t move an inch.”  Something about the tone of his voice sounds more like a command and for once I want to listen instead of challenge the authority that speaks.

Nico walks to the door and cracks it open.  I’m still sitting on the edge of the desk.   Surprising even myself that I haven’
t jumped up to regain my composure.

“Preach told me not to knock, but I have to pick up my little sister in an hour and I didn’t want to run out of time.”  A young boy’s voice unnerves me as I sit completely disheveled with my skirt up around my ass just a few feet away from the door.  I jump up and frantically begin to fix myself.  Nico catches me out of the corner of his eye and I see his jaw clench.

“You’re gonna run an extra mile for not listening to Preach.  Go give me six on the treadmill and if I’m done in here we’ll see how much time is left.” 

I hear the boy whine, but seconds later his footsteps tell me he listened. 

Nico shuts the door and turns his attention back to me.  I’ve already righted my clothing and I’m no longer sitting on the desk.  “You weren’t supposed to move.”  

“There was a little boy five feet away and my underwear w
as showing.”  I cross my arms, letting him know he can expect that this isn’t a one-time occurrence.  Listening isn’t always my strong suit.

He shakes his head
from side to side but his head is down and I can’t see his face to read what he’s feeling.  Standing my ground, I don’t move from my spot as he walks back to me, completely invading my personal space.  He looks down at me, his eyes are still half-mast from our encounter and I gulp finding my mouth suddenly dry from the way he’s looking at me.  “Saturday night.  I’ll make you dinner.”  He looks up at me to gauge my reaction.  “Bring a bag because I’m not letting you go next time.”

The swell between my legs that was
ebbing, flows back at a rapid pace.  “Okay.”  My voice cracks as I respond with a whisper.

Nico lifts my chin, forcing me to look into his eyes.  “Okay?”   Even though he told me what I was doing this weekend, he still wants confirmation. 

My eyes don’t waiver as I respond.  I force my voice louder.  “Okay.”

Nico smiles like I’ve just given him a prize
he really wanted, and it’s contagious.  Mirroring his enthusiasm, I can’t help but smile back.  He takes my hand and grabs my bag and another bag that I’m all too familiar with.  Take out. 

His hand reaches for the door and he pauses.  “We can’t eat in here or I can’t promise I will control myself.  You look so damn sexy in that suit and the way you smell makes me lose control.”
 

***

We eat our lunch in a small lunchroom that’s open to the gym and I walk Nico through the main points of the contract termination I’ve brought him.  He’s forgoing a multi-million dollar endorsement payout and has to give back a substantial amount of money he’s already been advanced.  If it bothers him at all, he does a good job not letting it show.

Elle

Saturday morning
I call my mom to check in.  I feel guilty I don’t call often enough, but sometimes I just need to try to block out that part of my life.  It’s not my mom’s fault that I can’t separate her from the past that haunts me.  I don’t mean to, but so much is deeply interwoven that it’s hard to take the good out from a web of bad memories.

Four years of therapy helped me to start to live again
, and these days I really think I’m doing it.  Guilt for not feeling regret had me stuck in a bad place, but most days I think I’ve moved on.  Most days. 

Mom and I spend ten minutes catching up and then the conversation moves to William.  She casually asks how he is and is surprised when I tell her that we recently stopped seeing each other.  I don’t mention that I’ve started seeing someone because I’m not in the mood for the third degree.  Not today.  I wouldn’t lie to her if she asked, but I know she would ask whether I’ve shared my past with him or not.  For some reason she seems to think tha
t telling people about the worst day of my life is cathartic.  Perhaps it would be, but I wouldn’t know since I’ve never told a living soul outside of my weekly group meetings.  Sure, lots of people know.  But those are the people that read the headlines.  They didn’t hear it from my lips.

After I hang up, I spend
an hour trying to figure out what to wear to Nico’s.  The outside layer of clothing is the easy part.  But I want to look sexy without my clothes on.  It dawns on me that I’ve never been concerned over what I wore for William.  Not even in the beginning.  Perhaps I should have been, but there’s no use dwelling on that now.  Whatever the reason, I feel the need to please Nico Hunter.  I’ve never felt that way with another man.  A few weeks ago, if a woman would have told me that she dressed to please her man, I probably would have thought she was pitiful.    But the way that Nico looks at me makes me high.  It’s like a drug I crave desperately to have again.  His pleasure is my reward, and I’m willing to do whatever it takes to earn it. 

I’m honest with myself about how I feel, but
it doesn’t make me accept my own reaction to the man any easier.  I’m torn between giving in to what feels so right and chastising myself for acting like a weak little girl. 

I manage to get a few hours of work in
during the afternoon.  My workweek is always six days, but with Leonard out it’s pushing seven.  A half day today and possibly no work tomorrow will make my Monday brutal, but I’ll care about that Monday. 

I arrive at his building on time.  The only two times I
’ve been on time to anything in the last year have both involved Nico Hunter.  Even I can’t chalk that up to coincidence.  As I make my way to the door, I’m nervous and fidgety.  Anticipation wreaks havoc on my ability to multitask and I don’t even notice he’s standing in the doorway, as I fumble in my purse to put away my keys while walking. 

“Hey
, beautiful.”  His voice is low and sexy, but it scares the shit out of me nonetheless, because I hadn’t realized anyone was there.

I jump and look up, spilling the contents of my overly stuffed purse all over the concrete.  

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you.  I thought you saw me standing there.”

Nico leans down to start cleaning up the mess, and I almost lose my balance in my heels as I lower myself to join him in collecting my things. 
He smiles at me with a sexy smile and I smile back.  I’m momentarily lost in his knee weakening smile, until I see what he’s holding in his hand out of the corner of my eye and realize it’s the reason for his sly smile.  My birth control pills.  He extends his hand to offer them to me, but doesn’t release them as I go to take them. 

“Good to know.”  Nico
’s smile has grown from a smirk to a full-blown, panty-dropping grin and I feel the red creep up over my face.  God damn it, I’m a grown woman who accepted an invitation to stay at a man’s house tonight, but yet I blush at the site of birth control pills.  What the hell is wrong with me?

I quickly scoop up the rest of my personal life on display on the sidewalk and I’m relieved that I had removed the flavored condoms that Regina had shoved into my purse before I left yesterday.  Bacon flavor.  What woman wants to taste mea
t while, you know, tasting meat?

Nico stands and doesn’t offer to help me get up.  He just does it. 
After I’m balanced he leans in and plants a soft kiss on my lips.  Not much more than a brush, but I feel it all the way down to my toes.  And we are standing in the middle of the sidewalk.  There aren’t any people around, but still, it’s out of character for me to have a public display of affection.  Or at least it was before.

“You didn’t bring a bag?”  Nico’s face looks so disappointed, like a little boy who was just told he couldn’t have the puppy h
e’d been planning on bringing home.

“I did, I just left it in the car
.”  Nico tilts his head and squints his eyes at me. 

“You’re not sure if you want to stay?”  I can hear the disappointment in his voice.

“Umm.”  How do I respond to him?  Of course I want to stay, but it felt funny walking into his house with an overnight bag, even though he invited me.   Almost presumptuous.

Nico takes my
hesitation as confirmation that I’m not sure if I want to stay.   He takes a step forward and wraps one arm around my waist, resting just north of  my ass.  The other hand moves to behind my head and he kisses me.  Fiercely.  His tongue seeks mine, then he sucks on the tip of it as he pulls it away to add teeth.  His teeth bite down on my bottom lip and just as I begin to feel the pain from his bite, he sucks and licks away at the spot he just wounded, making it more than better. 

I feel his hand that was holding my lower waist travel down and he pulls me flush against him tightly
as his hands roam over my ass and he cups almost my whole cheek in one large palm.  Tingling sensations shoot through my veins and I feel the sensitive skin between my legs swell.  Nico growls and squeezes me harder before he pulls back slightly, releasing my mouth, tugging at my lip between his teeth as he pulls away.

I have no idea where I am.  My senses are all keenly focused on the man who just stole my breath and I’m panting when he finally releases my mouth fully. 
His breath is fast as his mouth drops to my ear and he speaks in a strained voice.  “I’m about ten seconds away from losing my self-control, Babe.  Think I can get that bag for you and move this inside so we don’t give the whole neighborhood a show?” 

Nico pulls his head back and waits for my answer.  But I can’t speak yet, so I nod my head yes and just watch as he takes my keys out of my hand.  He kisses me again on the mouth, this time much softer.  “Not that I would mind.  I don’t give a shit who’s watching as long as I get to do that to you.” 

I force myself to close my mouth as I stand there watching him grab my bag from the car and return to me, his disappointed face now replaced with a megawatt smile that reminds me of his fighting name.  Lady Killer.  If the name fits…

Inside, t
hings cool down, which I’m grateful for.  Or, at the rate I was going on the street, I would have been in his bed within fifteen minutes of my arrival.  Nico picks me up and seats me on the kitchen island, so we can talk while he cooks.  Watching him breeze around his kitchen, I realize how sexy a man who knows his way around the kitchen can be.  There’s something instinctually alluring about a man who wants to take care of his woman.  Not that I’m the barefoot-and-pregnant-in-the-kitchen-type of woman.  But this is different.  An almost natural role that he takes in our relationship and I find that I like to be taken care of.  It’s something I have never allowed anyone to do before.