The Fight for Love (Contemporary Romance) (5 page)

***

Lucie checked her phone for what felt like the millionth time. Still no call or message from Dalton.

“Dammit,” she groaned in annoyance to herself. Outside it was dark. Stars shone in the black sea of the night sky as Lucie sat curled up on her sofa catching up on some of her favorite TV shows. But she struggled to concentrate on what was happening on the small screen. Her hands kept wandering over to her phone as though she was addicted to checking it. She chewed her lip nervously, wondering over and over why Dalton hadn’t got back to her. Perhaps he didn’t get the message? But what if he had and he was just ignoring her?

It was half past ten in the evening when Lucie plucked up the courage to text Dalton. She wasn’t feeling brave enough to call him again in case he was actually ignoring her. Her message echoed the sentiment of the voicemail she’d left him. Once she’d composed it, her finger hovered nervously over the send button. If she kept contacting him she feared that she risked appearing like some sort of desperate stalker. But they’d had a great time together, she hadn’t imagined that. There was real chemistry between them. Her body still shuddered whenever she remembered how amazing it felt to be in his arms.

Lucie pressed down on send before giving herself chance to chicken out of sending the message. Then she sat up for another hour in the hope that Dalton might call.

***

Dalton was sprawled across the plush leather sofa in his open plan apartment. Beyond the large windows the city glittered like a million man-made stars. But Dalton wasn’t admiring the view. He was half watching a show on his plasma screen which was up on the wall above his solid marble fireplace.

He was tired but not yet ready to sleep. For years Dalton had suffered with insomnia. He blamed his childhood when he’d spent countless nights fearing what happened when he closed his eyes. Back then it felt like each time he dared to fall asleep he’d wake up to his mother screaming.

Stretching, he yawned and considered that perhaps it was time to go and lie on his king-sized bed. He could watch the TV in there anyway. He was about to get up when his cell phone beeped from where it was lying on the sofa beside him. He lazily reached for it and saw a new message from Lucie. He deleted it without reading. Then with a groan he got up and walked over towards his bedroom which was up a metal staircase and hung above the living area in its own private alcove.

As his head hit the pillow he was still thinking about Lucie. But Steve’s words were also tumbling around in his mind. It felt wrong that he should have to choose. Why couldn’t he have it all? Surely he could make space in his life for both Lucie and fighting? But if that was the case why hadn’t Dalton called her back? In reality he knew why. He tried dating before and it had never worked out, he was too focused on his career, too driven to make space for anything else in his life. He knew that he should have called her. She probably thought he was an ass for not calling her sooner.

Tormented, he rolled onto his back and stared up at the mirror which was hung above him on the ceiling. He looked so small alone in his vast bed. All it would take was just one call to have a handful of beautiful women beside him but they wouldn’t want to sleep. And besides, Dalton didn’t even want them. He wanted Lucie. But with her, he couldn’t kick her out come morning and make empty promises to see her again. Perhaps Steve was right. How could he find the time to treat Lucie the way she deserved? It’d be better for her if she just forgot all about him.

***

It was midnight and Lucie’s eyes stung from trying to stay awake. She was in bed now, her phone on the pillow beside her just in case Dalton called. She started to consider that perhaps neither of her messages had gone through but she knew how ridiculous that logic was. He was blatantly just ignoring her.

Feeling hurt, Lucie rolled onto her side and pulled her legs up to her chest. She wasn’t the kind of girl to get hung up on a guy. She’d always been a career girl, in a relationship with her job, yet here she was struggling to sleep because she couldn’t stop thinking about some guy she’d hooked up with once. Lucie felt pathetic. A stray tear fell down her cheek and soaked into the pillow as she eventually closed her eyes and drifted off into dreams filled with Dalton.

***

The shrill sound of her alarm clock woke Lucie up with a start. Sitting upright in bed she glanced around, waiting for the fog of sleep to lift. Her startled heart beat wildly in her chest as she groaned and ran a hand through her mussed-up hair. After a few moments she reached for her cell phone and briefly held on to the vain hope that maybe Dalton had been in touch during the night. He hadn’t. There were no new messages waiting for her, no missed calls or voicemails. Dejected, Lucie hauled herself out of bed and headed over to the bathroom, intending to take an extra-long shower to try and wash away all lingering thoughts of Dalton.

She continued to think about him in spite of her desperate attempts not to as she drove to work. Even the bright morning sunshine couldn’t lift her spirits.

***

Dalton grunted as he lifted the heavy set of weights above his head. Every muscle in his arms strained to keep it up. But he liked the pain. When he lowered the weights with a gasp he gestured for Steve to add more to the dumbbell.

“You sure?” Steve wondered warily. Dalton rarely lifted this much.

Dalton could only nod, too exhausted to speak. He was training harder than usual but he felt like he had to. He felt a burning desire to keep pushing himself, no matter how much he ached. Lucie had not contacted him again, he assumed that she was already moving on and forgetting about him. But he hated himself for not being the guy she needed him to be.

He lifted the weights again, sweat pouring down his back. He didn’t smile once during the training session.

The work day ended and still Lucie hadn’t heard from Dalton. She tossed and turned all that night thinking about him, running over the last time they had been together. The sex had been great. The chemistry between them sizzled so why had he now gone cold on her?

The following morning Lucie was still a bundle of unanswered questions and so she went into the city early to meet Deena for a coffee before work.

“It’s not working out?” Deena drew her neatly shaped eyebrows together and pouted in dismay.

“It’s not even been given a chance to work out,” Lucie sighed as she nursed her fresh mug of steaming coffee. “He’s just gone cold on me.”

“Hmm,” Deena clicked her fingers and shook her head fiercely. “Men!”

“Tell me about it,” Lucie grumbled sadly.

“Do you think he’s got someone else?”

“I honestly don’t know.” Lucie didn’t want to admit that she’d spent hours searching the internet to see if Dalton Hughes did have a secret girlfriend squirreled away somewhere but all the websites seemed to agree that he was very much an eligible bachelor. He had been linked to numerous beautiful women but never in a serious capacity. Maybe Dalton was brushing her off because he didn’t want anything serious. Lucie wilted at the thought.

“Look, whatever reason he has for not calling you, a real man would tell you directly, none of this childish avoiding you business.” Deena’s words were spoken with brisk certainty.

“That’s all I want really,” Lucie admitted forlornly, “just a reason why he hasn’t called. Some sort of closure.”

“Then get it!” Deena urged enthusiastically. “Go to the source and demand to know why he isn’t being a real man about it.”

“Isn’t that a bit…” Lucie squirmed in her chair, “desperate?”

“Would you rather risk looking desperate and get the answers you seek or spend weeks, maybe even months moping around after this guy?” Deena asked fiercely. “It doesn’t matter how you look, Lucie. What matters is how you feel.”

Lucie reasoned that she must look pretty dire at the moment. She’d taken a quick shower that morning and allowed her hair to dry during the drive into the city and she’d forgotten to put on any makeup. She looked exhausted and wrung out which was exactly how she felt. Maybe Deena was right, it was worth looking desperate in front of Dalton just to know with certainty why on earth he hadn’t called.

“No man is worth making yourself upset for,” Deena reached across the table and patted Lucie’s hand. “You’re a successful, independent woman, Lucie Walters. Don’t let this mystery man of yours make you forget all the things that are wonderful about you.”

“Thanks, Deena, I really appreciate you talking to me about this.”

“Anytime,” Deena smiled kindly.

“How are you so clued up about men anyway?” Lucie wondered.

“I grew up with four older brothers.” Deena rolled her eyes dramatically. “Trust me, in a house bursting with testosterone you learn a thing or two about the opposite sex.”

Lucie chuckled as she raised her mug up to her lips.

“But I’m serious.” Deena’s expression hardened. “Find this guy and have it out with him. You’ll feel better if you do. Imagine he was a client or a source ignoring your calls. You’d challenge it, right?”

“Right.”

“Then approach this in the same way. Because after all, it’s not a contract he’s breaking but your heart and you can’t let him get away with that.”

***

Dalton did his best to ignore how much he ached. His muscles were burning in protest with every move he made but he had to push the feeling out of his mind. He’d overdone it at the gym the previous day and he knew he only had himself to blame.

“Do you want to take five?” Steve asked, sounding concerned. Dalton realized that the pain he was feeling must have been written upon his face.

“Sure.” Dalton swung out of the ring, dropped down onto a nearby bench and reached for his bottle of water. He was so thirsty his throat felt like it was coated in sandpaper.

“Sleep badly last night?” Steve wondered as he came and sat beside him on the bench and handed Dalton a towel.

“I guess.”

“Too many women in your bed with you?” Steve laughed.

“Yeah, something like that,” Dalton agreed softly. In reality there had been but one woman in his bed with him preventing him from sleeping soundly and that was Lucie. He couldn’t stop thinking about her. His body felt physically torn trying to decide between being with her and his career. He’d never felt so conflicted before.

“You feeling good about the fight next month?” Steve enquired politely.

“I always feel good about a fight,” Dalton scoffed playfully.

“Aha,” Steve reached for Dalton and rubbed his head. “That’s my boy! Total powerhouse you are, son! You’re on fire right now! There’s whispers that you could get the trifecta of titles this year – you’d make history.”

Dalton closed his eyes and blissfully imagined how it would feel to hold all the possible titles in his weight class. He’d be the undisputed champion. He’d be on top of the world. When he opened his eyes he saw Lucie storming towards him. For a brief moment he thought perhaps he’d imagined her, that somehow thoughts of her had strayed from his dreams to his waking thoughts. But when Steve also looked over Dalton realized with a stab of panic that she was very much real.

“Dalton, I need to talk to you,” she declared sternly.

“Ooh,” Steve slowly got up from the bench. “I think that’s my cue to leave. I’ll come back in ten, Dalton, okay?”

Dalton gave his trainer a stiff nod and then looked back at Lucie. Her eyes were glittering with anger and she looked paler than usual. What was she even doing there? Dalton frowned, why was she interrupting his training session at the gym?

***

Standing before Dalton, Lucie started to wonder what she was even doing there. In her mind her plan had made so much sense. She’d located the gym where he trained thanks to a quick internet search. Then she’d convinced the newspaper that she was going over there to get an exclusive interview to follow up her piece about the fight. When she arrived at the gym she flashed her press pass and the receptionist let her straight in. Working for The Standard had opened a lot of doors for Lucie over the years.

But now she was actually there looking at Dalton, noticing how his skin glistened with sweat and how his powerful arms bulged within the white T-shirt he was wearing, she couldn’t focus. She knew what she needed to say but knew how pathetic she was going to sound saying it.

“Lucie?” Dalton stood up, looking alarmed. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to see you,” Lucie hoped she sounded confident but not confrontational. She pushed a stray strand of hair out of her eyes and wished she’d taken the time to apply her makeup that morning. She felt as pale as a ghost without it.

“Okay?” Dalton eyed her warily. She wondered if she was the first woman to invade his space at the gym demanding answers. Probably not. The thought made her feel even more shamed by what she was doing.

“Look,” she sighed and lowered her voice, “I just want you to be straight with me. I think I deserve that at least. You’ve been ignoring my calls, why?”

She watched Dalton squirm uncomfortably as he massaged the back of his neck. She wished she hadn’t caught him training when he looked so good. It was hard to focus on her words when all she wanted to do was rip his T-shirt off him and melt into his powerful arms.

“Lucie.” Dalton glanced helplessly in the direction his trainer had gone, then turned his gaze back to her. “Lucie, I’m sorry. You must think I’m such an asshole. I just didn’t want to lead you on. I’m not in the market for a girlfriend. This,” he gestured to the ring beside him, “this is my life. I’m already in a relationship with my career, I’m not about to get into anything else.”

Lucie’s cheeks were on fire. He was blowing her off. To her face. She wanted the ground to open up beneath her and just swallow her whole. But the faded linoleum she was standing on remained intact. Taking a deep breath Lucie pushed back her shoulders and willed herself to appear unconcerned.

“Okay, well I appreciate your honesty.”

“I feel like a real heel,” Dalton told her. “But in my life, everything comes second to fighting. It’s better you know that now before…”

“Before I get hurt?” Lucie challenged angrily. It was too late for that. She was already hurt.

“Lucie –”

“No, I get it,” Lucie raised a hand at him and shook her head. “You’re not in the market for a girlfriend. Well, guess what, Dalton? I’m not for sale. Not now, not ever. I thought that perhaps what we’d had meant something to you but clearly not. I forget that you’re as famous for sleeping around as you are for your fighting.”

Lucie knew she was taking cheap shots but she couldn’t help it. She was so hurt the words were just tumbling out of her with no control.

“So, yeah, see you around, Dalton.” She turned and began storming off back towards the main area of the gym. She half expected Dalton to dash after her, to declare that he was wrong, that he couldn’t just let her walk out of his life. But he didn’t follow her. Lucie lurked on the parking lot for several minutes in case he changed his mind. When he didn’t, dejected, she got into her car and drove back over to the newspaper.