Wrong: A Stepbrother Romance

Off to the side, I beamed with unflappable pride as he sat behind that table, straightening his black skinny tie and picking up the mic to look out at the sea of reporters. Through the buzz of a million people trying to get his attention at once, one question finally prevailed.

“Liam, after more than a year of heavy anticipation, you finally made it to this rematch – how does it feel to know you fought this long and this hard to capture your second victory against Damon Walsh?”

He’d won.

For so long, I had resented the fight because of the spotlight it brought to the new peace in our lives. I missed Liam when he trained, and I hated the skeptics who bashed him on the radio. But as I sat there, I told myself to just enjoy this. He had won, we had climbed our mountain, and I was proud of Liam – in so many ways I could hardly count.

My anxiety finally melted away as the presser kicked off, and I grinned as Liam spoke with ease.

“It’s rewarding. Definitely rewarding. The sport got back two stellar fighters. I had the edge tonight to come out on top, and I couldn’t be happier.”

“The past twelve months have been some of your hardest, for sure – how did you find the resolve to keep your goal in mind and stay focused enough to secure this win against a revitalized Walsh? At any point, did you feel as if you were ready to give up?”

“No,” Liam answered straightaway. I caught the quick flick of his gaze in my direction. He liked to stay stoic, as professional as possible during these things, but I could see the faintest grin touching the corner of his lips after our eyes met. “There was no reason to give up. It was hard to lose the first fight to the sentence, but I still had everything in my life that was most important to me. I fight as hard outside the cage as I do inside, and for me, as long as I had my wife, I had no reason to give up.”

Aria nudged me. A smile spread my lips as the whole room paused before erupting, shouting out their newly formed questions.

“When you say your wife, are you referring to Miss Blakely?”

“When did you two get married?”

“How long has it been?”

The sexiest amusement spread across Liam’s face as everyone processed his bombshell, and he took the questions one at a time. “I’m in fact referring to Sasha. We were married in April. Low-key ceremony. We didn’t really need much more than that.”

“Where did you have your wedding? How many people were in attendance?”

“There were four besides us. We actually got married right on the pier. You guys would’ve caught us if you weren’t too busy speculating on a rematch date,” he smirked, prompting laughter throughout the room. I breathed, relieved to see Liam having fun with the questions.

Toward the end of the presser, he entertained a final, somewhat daring question.

“Liam, you nabbed your second big victory since your return to fighting. The last time you celebrated a big fight, you wound up in a brawl that put your career on hold. No plans for that tonight, right?”

“Christ, man,” Max muttered behind me. He, A.J, Aria and I were tense as we kept our eyes trained on Liam, waiting for his reaction.

He let go of a grin.

“Nah. No plans for that.” His eyes turned to us and he kept them there for a few seconds. “I’m going home to my wife and my friends. I can promise you they give me no reason to fight. Except Max, maybe.”

Another round of laughs and it was over. “Alright, thank you, Liam and congratulations.”

Getting up and stepping off the stage, Liam came straight to me, circling an arm around my waist and giving me a quick kiss as a few cameras followed us out of the room.

On our way home, we made a few stops to throw off any tail, since we were intent on keeping the location of our new place a secret. We had spent what felt like ages house hunting. Liam had wanted someplace far from both his gym and my bar so that we could have a true escape when the day was over, and all we wanted was to curl up together on the couch.

The search went on for what felt like an eternity until we got news that was both good and bad.

Max was leaving. He had long planned his move to California, and hoped to open up Cage Kings West. In the final six months that he was renovating his townhouse in Fort Greene, he knew it wouldn’t be for himself, and he knew exactly who his dream buyers would be.

I loved the building. Liam did too. But we resisted because we didn’t want him to leave us. There were nights spent at the bar where A.J, Aria and I just watched Liam and Max go at it, shouting, pounding tables and fighting over the pros and the cons until as usual, they hugged and Liam said he’d be happy as long as Max was.

“It’s the true end of an era,” A.J said as we all sat in the living room in which I’d cried with Liam the day he turned himself in. It was furnished now, with the old couch from Liam’s apartment and a whole bunch of new pieces, but still, A.J sat on the floor, Max on the table and Liam up against the couch that Aria and I sprawled out on.

“As much as I’ll miss you Max, I’m glad it’s the true end of an era,” I said, raising my coffee mug of champagne, since we’d broken our crystal flutes during move-in.

Liam nodded, raising his cup. “A toast to new beginnings and a goddamned good reason for us to all visit California.”

“Cheers!”