“He won! He won!” she shouted in Shannon’s face.
One round. Crash had finished him off in only one round! Her eyes moved from Angel’s elated face to the cage. Crash’s eyes were zeroed in right on her, and suddenly the rest of the room, the noise, the crowd, it all faded away. There was nothing but Crash and the way he was looking at her, his eyes boring into her. And then she smiled at him, and a little grin pulled at the corner of his mouth.
Crash made his way out of the cage. He poured a bottle of water over his head that Cole passed to him and wiped his face and chest with a towel Red Dog tossed to him. While Cole pulled off his gloves, Crash’s eyes searched the crowd trying to find Shannon. “Where’s my girl?”
His girl. It sounded nice. It sounded right.
Just then she pushed through the crowd, stopping four feet from him. She was breathing hard, having to have fought through the mob to get to him. They stared at each other across the space. “There’s my girl,” he whispered, a smile breaking across his face.
He’d been denying to his brothers, and maybe if he was going to be honest, to himself as well, that she was his. That bullshit was over. He wanted to claim her, right here in front of every fucking one of his brothers and every other guy here tonight.
Shannon dashed the last few feet, and Crash swept her up, his arms wrapping around her thighs and lifting her up. She looked down at him and laughed, “You won! You won!”
“Told you I would, Princess.” He stared up at her, and the rest of the room faded away. And then her hands cupped his face, and she lowered her mouth to his, and he got lost in the sweet taste of her mouth, his head tilting to better fit their mouths together. His t
ongue delving inside.
He could hear the reaction of the guys around him and the crowd enfolding them. The whistles, the cat-calls. He didn’t give a shit if everyone saw. She melted against him, making little mewling sounds against his mouth, and every punch he’d taken, every blow he’d borne had been worth it. Oh, hell yeah, this was worth fighting for.
Green stumbled from the cage, dazed and looking beat to shit. The look on his face said he couldn’t believe what had just happened.
“Walk it off!” Red Dog growled with a grin.
“You never had a chance, Green,” Wolf advised him with a laugh.
“Yeah. Serves you right for getting in the ring with a man that had as much riding on the outcome as he had,” Red Dog expanded emphatically as he handed him a towel.
Green took it and wiped the blood from his face. Frowning, he questioned, “Why, what did he have riding? He make a big bet?”
Wolf nodded toward where Crash held Shannon. “You’re lookin at the prize.”
Green looked over, his hand wiping the towel down his chest stilling. “You’re shittin’ me. Why didn’t you tell me? Christ, I didn’t stand a chance.”
Red Dog and Wolf burst out laughing. Dog turned to Wolf and asked, “I just made a shit-ton of money on that fight, how about you?”
Wolf grinned back and high-fived Dog. “Abso-fucking-lutely.”
Red Dog grinned. “Cajun got his ass handed to him, Green got beat to shit…I don’t know how Christmas is gonna top this.”
Crash let Shannon slide down his body until her feet were back on the ground. “I gotta go shower and get changed, so we can go.”
She nodded, but her eyes went to his bare chest, taking in his beauty. My God, he was gorgeous. “I like you shirtless and sweaty. It’s sexy as hell.”
Hunger tightened his eyes. “Babe, you say shit like that to me, and we ain’t gonna make it home.”
She gave him a saucy grin. “Oh, I think you’ll manage.”
Cole had moved off to get Angel. As they made their way back to Crash, Shannon heard Angel yell out her congratulations. “Crash, you were awesome!”
“Hey, Crash! Here. Use my room. Looks like you two aren’t gonna make it home,” Cole yelled over the crowd, teasing as he sent his keys flying through the air toward the couple.
Crash’s fist came up and caught the keys in mid-air. He grinned back at Cole, and then looked down questioningly at Shannon.
She wanted their night together to be special. There was only one place that would be perfect. That huge poster bed of his. The place she’d imagined them together in since the first night she’d crawled into it. It had to be there. She shook her head, the movement almost imperceptible.
Crash’s nod in return was almost as subtle. “I know,” he whispered. The keys went sailing through the air back to Cole. “Think we’ll pass on the room, brother. But thanks for the offer.”
Cole grinned, his look moving between them. “You sure?”