Sweet Victory (Fighting for Love)

by Gina L. Maxwell

  “Yeah?”

  She lifted her hands and embraced the sides of his neck, caressing the edge of his jaw with her thumbs, and smiled. “Yeah.”

  With a satisfied growl, Xan bent to wrap his arms under her ass and lifted her in one swift move. She giggled through a short squeal and held on to him by his hair as she looked down at him. “Come home with me now,” he said. “We’ll spend the whole night celebrating. Naked.”

  As her tits were conveniently eye level, he used his teeth to free the button between them then buried his face in her ample cleavage. Sophie laughed and squirmed, but he held tight. “I can’t leave yet. Kristin’s probably already cursing my name. Now put me down so I can go back to work, you big lunkhead.”

  Lifting his head so she could hear him, he said, “Not until you promise you’ll leave as soon as you can. Let Kristin lock up for you. I want you home and under me, wife.”

  “Okay; yes, I promise.”

  Reluctantly, Xander loosened his hold and let her slide down his body. When she grazed over his still-hard length just before she touched the ground, her breath caught in her throat. She bit her lower lip and he groaned as he watched her eyes turn heavy lidded.

  “Sophie Caldwell-James, if you don’t want me tossing you over my shoulder and taking you home right this instant, I suggest you get you get your cute arse back inside that bakery.”

  “Okay, but I feel I should come clean about something before I go. Earlier when I told you my panties were soaked, I half lied.”

  He tensed. “About which part?”

  She kissed him just under his jaw, then whispered in his ear, “I’m not actually wearing any panties.”

  Before he had a chance to react, she slipped through the back door, leaving him in the back lot laughing with an aching hard-on.

  Chapter Fifteen

  26 days left

  The sound of a key in the lock startled Sophie from her spot on the couch where she’d curled up with a book an hour ago. It was after nine o’clock at night, approaching her usual bedtime, and she’d nodded off a few times already. But she’d been determined to stay up until Xander got home. She missed him something fierce. If she’d thought his training schedule for the last fight was grueling, it had nothing on what he was going through for the upcoming bout.

  More days than not, they didn’t even see each other. She was up before him in the morning, and most of the time she was asleep before he made it back from the gym. When they spoke on the phone earlier that day, he said he expected to be home in time for them to have dinner together. But then he’d shot her a text to let her know he had to take care of some of the business stuff he’d fallen behind on and that she should eat without him.

  Sophie couldn’t wait for the fight to be over in a few weeks so they could get back to a somewhat normal schedule again. She knew that there would always be periods of time that were more training intensive than others, but as long as there were decent breaks between, she’d learn to deal with it.

  That was, if they stayed together past their court-mandated time.

  Don’t worry about that right now. There’s still twenty-six days. Plenty of time to have “the talk” once his fight is over.

  Jumping to her feet, she met him as he came in the door. As soon as he locked it and dropped his bag by the door, she pounced, wrapping her arms around his neck and pressing her lips to his.

  Encircling her waist, he pulled her in tight and groaned against her mouth. “The way you welcome me home never gets old.”

  She gazed up into his eyes and smiled, hoping her nerves about their impending expiration date didn’t show on her face. “If you came home while I’m conscious more often, you’d get that welcome all the time.”

  Xander tucked her hair behind her ear and expelled a heavy breath. “I know, I’m sorry.” He stripped his shirt off and she instantly forgot what they were talking about. “I’m going to grab a quick shower. After I finished the mountain of paperwork on my desk, I did a bit more cardio. I’ll be out in a bit.”

  “You want some company?” she asked, running a finger down the center of his chest suggestively.

  Xander caught her hand and brought it to his lips to place a kiss in her palm. “Not tonight. I just want to get in and out.”

  Sophie smiled, hoping it disguised her disappointment. “Okay, hurry back.” While he showered, she changed into her sleep tank and shorts—hoping they’d be on the floor shortly—and turned down the bed.

  She was just about to get in when she heard a knock on the apartment door. Who the hell would be at their door at this time of night? Maybe the neighbor needed something. Mentally shrugging, she made her way back to the front hall and peeked through the peephole.

  A woman in tight workout clothes and a pixie haircut stood on the other side like a gorgeous brunette Tinkerbell. Before her mind could run away with at least a dozen possible reasons the woman was there, Sophie unlocked and opened the door. “Can I help you?”

  Surprise flashed over Tinkerbell’s face. “Oh damn, I’m sorry,” she said with a nervous laugh. “I completely forgot he was married.”

  Sophie arched an eyebrow, feigning boredom and apathy when she was feeling things closer to dread and indignation. How many other women had forgotten that Xander was in a relationship? Did that mean that he never talked about her? Did he take his ring off when he was at the gym? “Well, now you’ve been reminded,” she said flatly. “Good night.”

  “No, wait—”

  “Bridget?”

  Both women turned their attention to Xander approaching in nothing but a towel wrapped around his waist, water droplets clinging to his bare skin and his damp hair mussed like he was in the middle of a sexy photo shoot and not dragging ass after a long day at “the office.”

  Sophie glanced back at Bridget quick enough to catch the awestruck look on her face before she masked it with a friendly smile. “Hey, Xander, I didn’t mean to barge in on you,” she said apologetically. “I just wanted to drop this off so you had it for your run in the morning.”

  Bridget held up his elevation-training mask. It looked like a miniature gas mask that only covered his mouth and nose and simulated the air in a much higher altitude. Sophie knew he wore it during his runs to improve his cardio.

  “Oh thanks,” he said as he came up behind Sophie and accepted the mask. “Where was it?”

  “In my bag. I must have accidentally shoved it in there after we finished on the treadmills, thinking it was mine.”

  “Ah, no worries. Thanks again for bringing it over,” Xander said with a smile. Sick of feeling like an interloper, Sophie cleared her throat and arched a brow at Xander. “Oh.” His eyes widened briefly like he was just now remembering her presence. “Sophie, this is Bridget, one of my fighters-in-training. Bridget, this is Sophie.”

  “His wife,” Sophie supplied for good measure as she shook Tinkerbell’s offered hand.

  “It’s really nice to meet you. Anyone who’s able to snag this guy must be one hell of a woman.”

  Despite Sophie’s initial irritation with Bridget, Sophie had to admit that her warm smile seemed genuine. “Nice to meet you as well. Thanks for bringing his mask all this way. Stop in at the Sweet Spot sometime for a gluten-free cupcake, on the house.”

  “Thank you, I will. Have a good night, and see you next week, Xander.”

  They said their good-byes and then locked up before retreating to the bedroom again. Though she’d decided Bridget wasn’t a malicious ex-lover looking to cause trouble, it did bother Sophie that one of Xander’s fighters—someone she assumed he worked with on a very regular basis—had completely forgotten that he was married. Real marriage or not, they were definitely in an exclusive relationship…weren’t they?

  Sophie sat on the bed and pulled the covers over her lap as she watched Xander finish his bedtime routine of brushing his teeth, hanging up his towel, and getting into a clean pair of boxer briefs. She tried to think back over the last several months. He
knew she’d been burned in the past and didn’t trust a man to stay faithful, much less stay at all. And he’d assured her that not all men were like the ones she’d been with. But for all his talk of owning her body, was their relationship exclusive? They’d never discussed exactly what they were once they started having sex, and she’d told him in the beginning that she didn’t expect him to stop sleeping with women. Maybe he thought he’d gotten the best of both worlds—a woman at home and as many others as he wanted—and with her permission, no less?

  Twisting the edge of the sheet in her hands, she worried the corner of her bottom lip. She was probably being ridiculous. Xander doted on her when they were together and made her feel like a queen. She was just feeling out of sorts because they’d had such little time together recently.

  But what would their relationship look like in twenty-six days?

  Stop thinking about that, damn it.

  Xander climbed into bed on a groan and slid under the covers with her. “Aw, poor baby,” she said as she moved lower to snuggle close to his hard body and warmth. “You must be sore after all that hard work today.”

  “You have no idea.”

  He wrapped her up in his arms, and she took the opportunity to maneuver one of her legs between his so that her thigh brushed the heavy weight of his balls. “Why don’t I help take your mind off all those aches and pains?”

  “Would you mind terribly if I took a rain check, Soph? I’m so knackered, I don’t know if I could even stay awake for the finale.”

  A sharp blade of insecurity sliced through her. The first thing to go when Jared was messing around on her was their sex life. Maybe Xander was getting bored with her; maybe this was the beginning of the end. The idea had panic bubbling up.

  “Is everything okay?” she asked hesitantly. “With us, I mean?”

  Cradling her face in his hands, his brows pulled together over the bridge of his nose. “O’course it is. I’m sorry I haven’t been able to give you the attention you deserve lately. Remember, this is only temporary. After the fight, I’ll take some time off from training and my new job will be spoiling you with so much affection, you’ll be begging me to go back to the gym, yeah?”

  After the fight. “So you’re going to stick around? After the fight?”

  He gave her a funny look. “Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?”

  Because legally you won’t have to. “Okay. Good.”

  He brushed a tender kiss on her lips, then another on her forehead. “Now let’s go to sleep. If you’re lucky, I might wake up in a few hours feeling like my usual amazing self and grant you a few of my Xander’s Special Orgasms.”

  Sophie smiled and tucked herself against his side. “Wow, I’m such a lucky woman.”

  Chuckling sleepily, he amended her statement. “Well, you might be. Let’s not get ahead of ourselves. I might also slip into an eight-hour coma and you’ll be shite out of luck.”

  “If the past is the way to predict the future, then I’d say that’ll likely be the case.”

  Exhaling a deep breath, Xander relaxed as though the tension from the day had drained into the mattress. “I’ll make up for it, Soph, I promise.” As he succumbed to the sleep pulling him under, he repeated those comforting three words. “After the fight.”

  She just hoped he meant it.

  Chapter Sixteen

  13 days left

  Sophie walked with extra pep in her step as she headed to TLP2 with a bakery box full of her Sophie’s Lite cupcakes dangling from the string hooked on her fingers. Thanks to Xander’s idea of employing an intern of sorts, Sophie and KP now had the freedom to take days off. Not at the same time, of course, but Rachel had caught on quick, and as soon as Sophie trusted she could handle things, they’d agreed to give her more responsibility and officially bring her on the payroll. She was eager, talented, and loved working at the Sweet Spot. Sophie couldn’t have asked for a better employee.

  The thought of finally making Grams’s bakery everything Sophie had dreamed for it as long as she could remember made her smile so big that her cheeks were in danger of cramping. But she couldn’t care less; Cloud Nine floated firmly beneath her jade-green chucks and nothing could make her fall through. The day was beautiful, she’d had a great visit with Grams earlier, and in a few minutes she’d surprise Xander and his teammates with baked yumminess. Not that her man would eat any this close to his big fight, but the others would devour his share.

  Her man.

  Somewhere between Ferris wheel rides, Old Maid with Grams, and the hundred or so times he’d rocked her world both in and out of the bedroom, Sophie had unexpectedly and totally fallen for her husband.

  She only wished she knew if he felt the same way for her. They still hadn’t had any kind of serious talk about the future, though the future didn’t exactly describe something that was happening in less than two weeks, and for as heavy as the looming deadline felt, it might as well be sitting right on top of her chest.

  But now more than ever, Xander needed to stay focused. He’d told her the last couple of weeks before a fight were grueling. The last thing he needed was for her to go “all girl” on him and demand he talk about his feelings. No matter how badly she wanted to.

  Pulling open the glass front door, a blast of heat blew her hair back. If she’d been hoping for a brief respite from the desert heat in an air-conditioned gym, she’d come to the wrong place. She forgot Xander had told her they train with the garage bay doors open and only use big fans for any kind of breeze. The massive space with black mats on the floor and black everything else felt like a sauna. It actually felt humid, but without water being poured over heat rocks, the moisture in the air could only be coming from one thing: sweat. Sophie took in the twenty or so men—and three women, she noted proudly—working hard at various things. Yep. Lots and lots of sweat.

  She spotted Xander immediately and bit her lip as she watched him sparring in the cage with another fighter. Both wore the fingerless padded gloves, mouthguards, and cushiony head gear. The men each landed a few blows with a couple connecting to Xander’s head, knocking it back far enough to make a point, but not do any serious damage. Still, it couldn’t feel great, either.

  Visiting him unannounced at the gym was technically a no-no. Xander had made it clear months ago that one of the rules of TLP2 was that nonmembers weren’t allowed to pop in and hang out. It distracted the fighters, and “a distracted fighter was an injured fighter.” But she wasn’t planning on bothering him. She just wanted to drop off the cupcakes for everyone to enjoy and then she’d be on her way.

  Turning into his office, Sophie was surprised to see a woman sitting at his desk. A beautiful woman with blond hair, a huge rack, and legs for days. She was looking over some files so maybe she was like an admin or something. The woman gave her a quick once-over and visibly decided she wasn’t impressed with Sophie’s appearance. What a bitch. “Can I help you?” she asked with irritation clear in her tone.

  “No,” Sophie said, offering a tight smile. “I was just dropping these cupcakes off for Xander and anyone else who wants some.”

  “Cupcakes?” she sneered, eyeing the box like it was full of venomous snakes.

  “Oh, don’t worry. They’re the healthy versions of my normal ones. All the taste, none of the gluten, and low on calories.” Why the hell was she explaining herself to this viper?

  Realization of who Sophie was lit the woman’s face. “You’re Xan’s wife.” Before Sophie had a chance to confirm or deny, the blonde’s gaze dropped to the papers in her hand then lifted again. Her sympathetic smile was as fake as her boobs. “Sorry, I mean, soon-to-be ex-wife.”

  Sophie’s blood ran cold. “Excuse me?”

  Her mouth rounded into a shocked expression. “Oh no, he hasn’t told you yet?”

  “Told me what?” she asked through clenched teeth.

  “Don’t feel too bad. It only makes sense now that he’s back in the UFC,” she continued as though Sophie never spoke. “Going to the bi
g show always changes them. He has the opportunity to make a ton of money that night in bonuses alone, not to mention what the purse is for the fight, and it’ll only grow from there. Add in all the women that come along with that kind of fame and the last thing professional fighters want is to be tied down to one woman. You see it all the time. Doing this now eliminates your ability to claim half of his prize money and he’ll be able to enjoy the bevvy of women at the after-parties, guilt-free.”

  Devastation dropped like lead in her stomach. “I don’t know what the hell you’re talking about nor do I really care to. I’m just going to leave these on the desk.”

  “Of course,” the woman said, holding the papers out, “but you might want to take these with you.” Sophie snatched them from her hand and peered down at them, confirming what she’d feared as the woman drove home the last nail in the coffin. “Xan’s filing for divorce.”

  …

  Xander groaned, the sound echoing in the empty locker room, as he pulled the clean T-shirt over his head. There wasn’t a spot on his body that didn’t ache from today’s training blocks with Reid. For such an easy-going bloke, the man was positively sadistic as a coach. He’d pushed Xander to his limits and then pushed him even farther until he felt like a wet noodle and could do nothing more than collapse in the jacuzzi tub to loosen up his sore muscles.

  Grabbing his gym bag, he exited the locker room. Having told one of his part-time guys to lock up behind him, all the lights were off except the one in the office, which was where he’d left his keys and the packet of papers he planned on taking home. He had an important conversation he wanted to have with Sophie tonight. One that would hopefully result in him shredding those papers. But he didn’t want to make any assumptions, and with the end of their six-month sentence approaching, whether they stayed together or followed through with their planned divorce was up to her.