We engage in a slight tug-of-war for her foot as she tries to pull free, and I’m not too happy to let her, and then the door swings open and Diane appears. “There you are,” she tells me with a big grin. “I must feed you now so you can recharge for tomorrow!”
I stare at Brooke, confused as hell, and the way she stares at me as if I’d imagined the connection puzzles the shit out of me. What the hell? Right now, I could’ve bet my life that she’d wanted me as much as I’d wanted her. I toss the ice into the bucket and lower her foot. “I
am
sorry, about your ankle,” I tell her. She wanted my apology, and now she has it. “Don’t worry if you can’t make it to the fight.”
“No. It wasn’t your fault. I’ll be fine,” she hurries to say.
I’m still confused as I push to my feet. “I’ll ask Pete to get you some crutches.”
“I’ll be fine. Serves me right for messing with trees,” she calls out as I head for the door.
I stop and look at her, trying to read her, and for a moment she stares back at me, looking just as confused as I feel.
“Good luck, Remy,” she says.
Pummeled by a shitload of frustration, I consider charging across the room and slamming my mouth on hers, giving her a kiss so fucking wet and deep, there will be no doubt in her mind that she is
mine
. Instead, I shove my fingers through my hair and leave, then charge straight into the suite, where I know I’ll find Pete either on his laptop or on the phone.
“Get someone to look at Brooke’s sprain. Get her some fucking crutches. And get two of your own cars after the fight tomorrow, I want Brooke alone.” I cross the living room in search of food.
Pete dials to concierge. “Do you want the Escalade or would you like someone to drive you?” His yell reaches me in the kitchen as I scour for the food Diane prepared.
“Get me a driver, I want my hands free.”
PAST
SHE FIGHTS
I’m in the zone.
Standing so I can stretch my legs and bounce in place, I curl my fingers and twist my neck to one side, then the other. Riley lifts three fingers, and I’m up in three. After a couple more jumps, I pry off my headphones, slip into my robe, and then wait until I hear it: “And noooow, ladies and gentlemen, say helloww to the one, the
only
, Remington Tate, RIPPPPPTIIIIIIDE!”
Taking off down the walkway, I follow my name, then I leap into the ring, strip off my robe, and hand it over to the guys at the corner. The noise heightens as I open my arms and turn around, taking a good look at my crowd. Hundreds of heads are turned in my direction, waving banners and shit in the air as the name
Riptide
shudders upward and across the ceiling rafters.
My arms still out, I keep turning, scanning the crowd until my eyes lock on her. Brooke Dumas. Sitting right where I want her. She’s framed by the groupies Pete and Riley brought up to my room, and they have nothing on her. She wears her hair down, and her smile, fuck, her smile is just for me. I smile back at her, thinking, this is for you
.
Then I focus on my opponent, wait for the bell, and take him down. Working up a sweat, I take out a second fighter, a third. On my fourth and fifth, I keep jabbing, hooking, shooting out double punches, straight power punches, countering, attacking, and defending.
On my eighth, I block a power punch from his left arm, then I bury my hook in his ribs and finish him with an uppercut to the jaw that knocks him out completely with a
thunk
. He tries to rise, but slumps back down.
The public roars as my name takes over the entire room.
“RRRRRRIIIIIIPTIIIIIIIDE!”
The ringmaster lifts my arm, and I’m catching my breath as the announcer yells, “Our victor, ladies and gentlemen. Riptiiiide!”
The screams are almost deafening, and I turn around and look at her, the smile on her lips so perfect, I can’t fucking wait to kiss it.
It takes me five minutes to shower and change at the hotel, then I cross the lobby to where Brooke waits in the back of a black Lincoln.
I slide in and shut the door behind me, and when I settle in my seat, the back of my hand rests against the back of hers. I carefully watch her for any signs of her wanting to pull away.
We head into traffic.
Brooke still hasn’t protested.
So I run the pad of my thumb over the back of hers, watching her reaction.
She inhales a quick breath, and the way her tits push up against her glittery top makes me hard. I think about running my thumb up her bare arm, her slender neck, then trailing it over that plump, pink mouth I want to feel all over me.
“Did you like the fight?” My voice is low and gruff.
She stares out at the window, her thoughtful profile making me want to fucking beg for it.
“No. I didn’t like it,” she admits as her eyes finally come to mine. “You were amazing! I
loved
it!”
The words hit me with such joy, I laugh, and I grab her hand, lift it to my mouth, and scrape my lips across the small rises of her knuckles, looking at her.
“Good,” I murmur, staring deep into her eyes. It takes all my effort to let go of her. But I want her to get used to me first. I want her to smell me, feel me right here. I want her to feel my body heat and get accustomed to me. My presence. Everything about me. When I sit next to her, this is the last time I want her shoulders to go tense and tight.
Soon, we reach the club. I help her out of the car, and when she slides her small hand deeper into mine, I feel so fucking possessive, I don’t let go of her. I want every man looking in her direction to know this one’s fucking
mine
. In silence, I lead her past the bouncers and to a private room in the back.
“Pete is getting a lap dance,” Riley tells me at the door of the private room, and I’m disappointed when Brooke quietly pulls her hand free from mine. “You don’t mind treating him to one as a birthday present?” he asks me.
We all watch as a woman in a glittering silver bikini heads for Pete, who looks goggle-eyed. Brooke squirms at my side, and Riley turns his attention to her, his eyebrows flying high. “You shy about this, Brooke?” he asks in amusement.
A soft-pink hue stains Brooke’s cheeks, and a rush of possessiveness charges through me. I engulf her hand in mine again, quietly asking her, “Do you want to watch?”
She shakes her head, and I quietly tug and lead her outside, noticing how she flattens her palm against mine, her soft fingers interlaced with my bigger ones. God, she’s so perfect. All my instincts are raring for me to claim her.
She lets me lead her through the throng like she knows she’s mine, or like she wants to be. There’s noise and a crazed crowd of dancers, and as an Usher track reverberates through the room, Brooke leaps in excitement.
“Oh, I love this song!” she tells me, squeezing my hand in a way that makes my chest hurt.
The blonde groupie spots Brooke from within the dance floor, and before I know it, she’s pulling her away.
“Remy!” The redhead who’d been dancing on the table of my suite grabs me and hauls me in by their side, and I can’t take my eyes off Brooke. Dark haired and sexy, she moves as gracefully as a cat as she dances. Hips swaying side to side. Long golden legs. Debbie pulls Brooke closer by the hips and they’re dancing as one, the undulating movements of Brooke’s small waist and narrow hips heating me up to the point of madness. She laughs and turns around, arms waving in the air, as the chorus of “Scream” begins.
She spots me. I’m not moving, even though everyone else around me is. Only my heart thunders inside me.
Mine mine mine.
There are things you’re certain about. That you’d bet your life on. Things that you just know. You know the heat of a fire will burn you. Water will quench your thirst.
She
is one of those things; the most unerring certainty of my life.
She looks into my face, the look in her eyes soft and giving, and every inch of me wants to
take
what she’ll give me. I reach out, spin her around, and crush her body against mine. I dive hungrily to her lovely neck, brushing her hair to the side, and pressing into her spine, inhaling her like a madman. Her scent curls around me and I part my mouth, hungrily grazing her skin with my teeth before my tongue flashes out for a taste of her.
She moans as she reaches up behind her, locking my head to her neck as the crowd dances around us. I grab her hips and pull her harder against my cock and, holy God, I want her.
Heart pounding, I spin her once. Then, her gold eyes lock to mine, I see they’re liquid with wanting. I’m shaking with need as I grab her chin in one open hand and gently nuzzle her.
“Do you know what you’re asking for?” My voice is husky with arousal. “Do you, Brooke?”
She doesn’t reply, so I grab her ass and haul her closer, my mouth almost on hers. I want to have her now. Tonight. I want to wrap my hands in her hair while I pound inside her, I want to smell her desire all over me and drown my tongue in her taste. She slides her fingers up my chest, into my hair.
“Yes.” As she pushes up on her toes, she pulls me down by the head, and suddenly her body slams into mine. My arms fly out to steady her.
“If it isn’t Riptide and his new pussy,” some dipshit sneers behind her.
Over her dark head, I see the motherfucker.
Scorpion.
A human-size insect, wearing his usual shit-eating smirk, while his three goons flock his side.
The thing about fighting is you never know when to stop. They just shoved Brooke, and I want to shove each of them back to the ground, then break their arms in half. I fucking can’t—and even if I could, right this moment I’d rather take her away from these motherfuckers than stay here and punch their faces in.
“What’s your girlfriend’s name? Whose name does she call out when you fuck her, huh?”
Gathering a piece of her top in my fist, I use it to guide her out of the dance floor, then I turn her to me and block Scorpion’s view of her with my body. “Go back with Riley and ask him to take you to the hotel,” I quietly tell her.
She meets my gaze. “You can’t get in a fight, Remy.”
“We’re talking to you, douche-nozzle,” I hear from over my shoulder.
“I heard you, asshole, I just don’t give a fuck what you have to say,” I shoot back.
I sense him move and swing around in time to see his fist coming and duck, then I shove him hard enough to slam his ass to the floor. Grabbing the other one by the shirt, I push him back a couple of steps. “Take a hike or I’ll cut your fucking balls off and then feed them to your mother!” I growl as I grab the other two and shove them back, and when the first one stands and approaches me from behind, I let my elbow swing back, high.
His nose cracks under my bone, and he howls.
“Sorry, dude, my bad,” I say.
Scorpion is grinning. I find myself bloodthirsty enough to grin back.
You happy I’m about to break your skull in two, motherfucker?
Then, suddenly, Brooke materializes from out of nowhere with two bottles, and she’s whipping them up in the air and crashes them over the two bastard’s heads. Glass explodes and rains down on the floor, then she runs back to the bar so fucking fast she’s like a little bullet.
I would be highly amused if every single protective instinct inside me hadn’t shot off the charts, and if she hadn’t run back with a third bottle—
a third fucking bottle!
I grab it from her hand before she can do anything and nudge her back toward the bar, where I slam it down hard. Then I toss her over my shoulder and charge back to the private rooms. I swear if I don’t get her out of here right now, I’m going to end up
killing
someone.
Brooke squirms and tries to pry herself free, slamming her fists into my back, complaining, “Remington!”
I tighten my hold on her ass to still her and see Pete chatting with a group of women. “Scorpion’s out there with his fucking goons—I’m out,” I growl at him, then charge outside and shove her into the back of the car.
Our driver jumps behind the wheel and quickly pulls into the traffic. I’m struggling with myself in the backseat while Brooke tries to catch her breath, and holy god, I’m trying to erase the image in my head of watching her recklessly charge two fully grown, bloodthirsty men. “What
in the hell
did you think you were doing?” I explode, shaking with rage.
For her part, Brooke doesn’t look one bit concerned—she looks fucking delighted. “I just saved your ass and it felt amazing,” she says breathlessly, looking like a goddamn vision in that gold little top.
God! I want to fucking shake some sense into her, and at the same time I want to push her skirt up to her hips, bend over between her legs, and sink my tongue in her until she moans my name and makes me forget everything that just happened.
I don’t fucking like Scorpion looking at her.
I don’t like him talking about her.
I fucking don’t like him pushing her.
And I can’t even put into words how I feel about her smashing the brains off his minions with a couple of fucking bottles.
Jesus.
I scrape my hands down my face and then rub the back of my neck, all my limbs shaking. “For the love of fucking god, don’t ever,
ever
, do that again.
Ever
. If one of them sets a hand on you, I’ll fucking kill them and I won’t give a rat’s fuck who sees me!”
When she only stares at me with a defiant little gleam in her eyes, I catch her wrist and squeeze so she understands she can’t fucking take on men like them, releasing her when she gasps. “I mean it. Don’t fucking
ever
do that again.”
“Of course I will do it again. I won’t let you get into trouble,” she counters.
I can only stare at her, a thousand things I’ve never felt in my life hitting me all at once. “Jesus, are you for real?” My chest feels like a knot as I drag a hand along my face and stare outside, trembling when I think of all the years nobody has given a shit whether I get in trouble or not. “You’re a stick of dynamite, do you know that?”