“I lost one soulmate to this sport. I don’t want to lose another.” Her eyes glazed over with the tears she was desperately trying to hold back. “I shouldn’t have said that, should I? I’ve made things worse.”
I held her face in my hands and looked her in the eyes. I needed her to not just hear what I was about to say but feel it too.
“You could never make anything worse. You make everything better.” She nodded, but I could tell she wasn’t convinced. She tried to shift her gaze to the floor, but I wouldn’t let her. I needed her to listen, to accept what I was saying. “When this is all over, I’m taking you away somewhere. Just you and me. I’m gonna treat you like the queen you are. Everything is for you, Harper. Every fucking thing.”
She smiled and shook her head.
“I don’t need fancy holidays or nights away, Brandon. I just want you. Maybe you could send your nan away, though. So we can have a bit of privacy.”
I threw my head back and laughed at her cheekiness. Not that I didn’t agree. My nan, God bless her, could be a thorn in my side at times.
“And that’s why I love you so fucking much. You’re the only person in this God damn world that wants me for me.” I placed a gentle kiss on her forehead as she grinned and wrinkled her nose.
“And I’ll kick anyone’s ass if they take advantage,” she said proudly, looking up at me from underneath her long eyelashes.
I loved that about her. My firecracker. My little warrior. She wasn’t scared of anyone, and she probably would kick their asses. She had become my biggest cheerleader, and I don’t know what I’d ever do without her. I hoped I’d never have to find out.
I couldn’t hold back any longer. I grabbed the backs of her thighs to lift her up and her legs locked firmly around my waist. I slammed my lips over hers, pushing her back against the wall and plunged my tongue into her mouth. Tasting and teasing, sliding my tongue over hers and feeling my need for her grow as our teeth clattered together and we panted out the same breath. Kissing her was everything, and yet not enough. I needed more. I needed to be inside her.
I pushed my hips into her so she could feel what she did to me, how hard she made me. Even when I faced an important fight, this woman had managed to blindside me and make me her prisoner. The switch in my head that turned off most of my humanity, the one that made me the machine I needed to be to stay focused in the ring, it didn’t work around her. She’d ripped the wires out and short circuited my system. I was still feral, but I needed something else to quench my thirst now. I needed her.
Suddenly, there was a loud knock at the door that pulled us from our lust-filled bubble. The door swung open, interrupting our moment, and Pat’s head appeared from behind it, shouting at us.
“Showtime, lad. Put her down and get your head in the game. I’ve got a lot of money riding on this one.”
Harper wriggled out of my hold. Her lips were red and swollen from our kiss and she smoothed her hair to try and control the stray wisps that had fallen free from her ponytail. She’d never looked more beautiful than she did now. I ran the back of my hand down her cheek and she held my hand and kissed inside my palm, then reached up on her tiptoes and placed a delicate kiss on my lips. A gentle goodbye kiss. Only it would never be goodbye, not where she was concerned. I meant it when I said I would never leave her. This was forever.
“Knock him out. For me,” she whispered and then walked out, not once acknowledging Pat’s presence. She slid past him like he was nothing and left me without a backwards glance. Pat and his mates stood in the doorway like a pack of hyenas ready to feast on the spoils of my victory. From heaven to hell in a matter of seconds.
I jabbed my arms out in front of me, punching the air and getting myself psyched up. As I did, I spotted Ryan, Zak, and Finn a little way down the corridor. Then my head almost fucking exploded when I saw who they were talking to.
Jensen Fucking Lockwood.
Only he wasn’t dressed like the rest of them. He had his hands taped up and he was wearing a pair of blue shorts. The peace and serenity that’d cloaked me when Harper had been here was swiftly and cruelly stripped away. All I felt was pure, unbridled anger.
“It’s him, isn’t it?” I gestured down the corridor to where Lockwood was facing-off with my friends.
“Yeah. It is.”
I turned to glare at Pat, hoping he could feel the torture of my gaze penetrate through his rhino thick skin. He hadn’t stitched me up, he’d ripped a massive fucking hole through any shred of trust I might’ve had.
How could he keep something like this from me?
He held his hands up in defence, but his face showed no remorse, only crinkles of mirth from the way his eyes wrinkled as he spoke. “After your last fight, with all that talk, this is the showdown the punters wanna see. You’ve got nothing to worry about, lad. You could beat him with one hand tied behind your back.”
I could beat Pat too. A prospect that was looking more in
viting by the minute.
“A heads up would’ve been nice.” My blood was boiling already.
“If I’d told you he was back in town, you’d have gone off like a bloody firework and kicked his ass. Probably got yourself thrown into jail for the pleasure too. At least this way everyone gets to see you pound his face in, and you get paid for it. It’s a win-win.”
I couldn’t concentrate on what Pat was saying over the pounding in my head. All I could see was him acting the big man down the hall. All I could focus on was getting into his face and knocking him the fuck out.
“It’s a fucking set-up. Finn was right.”
“It’s business!” Pat raised his voice and waved his fat finger in my face. “And it’s money. The people out there want this fight. You bragged about it yourself at your last match. This is what we do, lad. We give the audience what it wants. We take their bets, and we go off laughing all the way to the bank.”