by Kent, Julia
The accordion door opens, and Brittany steps into the room. She’s changed out of her white dress into a T-shirt and shorts.
When I turn to her, I see red. She thinks she’s so clever, stringing along some guy and Colt too. There might even be others. I’ve hated a lot of people in this life, but right now, I hate her the most.
“Looking for your secret admirer?” she says as she approaches the ring. “I think I’ve gotten him a little — tied up.”
That’s it. I don’t talk. I don’t think. I just let go of that cage and head straight for her.
Her pretty blue eyes go all wide when I throw the first punch. But she’s a fighter, a real one, and dodges me easily.
She circles back around, stepping away from the benches to a clear space. “You sure you want to do this? I’m a trained fighter. You’re a gym rat.”
“I’ve seen your fights,” I say. “And you suck.”
I lunge for her again, but she’s quick. I feel like a turtle circling around.
“I’m still better than you,” she says.
“You know what I think?” I don’t even know where this is coming from. It’s like someone else is talking. “I think you wouldn’t even have a career if it wasn’t for Colt.”
This stops her dead. She drops her hands, and that’s when I know I’ve nailed it. She can’t leave Colt. Nobody would even give her a match if not for him.
And now she’s going to marry him?
I lunge forward like I’m going to throw a punch, but as soon as her eyes go to my hands, I turn and deliver a hard side kick to her gut.
She doesn’t see it coming, and this knocks her back for a second. Then there’s blood in her eyes, and she runs straight for me.
I have no idea what fighting style she has. I’ve only seen her one pathetic match. But when she gets on top of me, I know I’m going down. And this one won’t be called off by a ref.
She jumps on me like a crab, and we topple to the mat. I squirm and fight to get out from under her, but she knows what she’s doing. Pretty soon, I’m on my belly, one arm pinned beneath me. She’s got the other one pressed into my back.
Arm lock, my brain registers, and I know this is bad. But I am not going down easy. I wait for a moment, just breathing beneath her. I know that normally in a fight the match would be over now. But this isn’t a real fight. It’s a brawl.
Just like I expect, she starts to let go, as if the fight is over.
As soon as she starts to move, I flip over and roll right on top of her. Before she even realizes that I’m still fighting, I’ve landed a blow to her jaw.
Which hurts like hell without a glove.
I’m contemplating the pain of this when I’m lifted right off Brittany. Colt has his arms around my stomach.
I fight him, trying to break free.
“Hey, hey, calm down.” He keeps me pinned. Even with all my new strength, I’m no match for him.
Brittany sits up, hand on her face. “You were right, Colt. She’s got something.”
The unexpected compliment makes me go still.
Colt lets go. “Are you hurt? Either of you?”
Brittany is standing now. “I have to do this thing,” she says to Colt. “You know I do.”
Colt nods. “I know it.”
I don’t know what they are talking about.
She points at me. “She could ruin everything. For me. And for you.”
He exhales in a long breath. “I know that too.”
Brittany doesn’t look mad anymore. Her voice breaks a little when she says, “You promised me, Colt. You promised me you wouldn’t do this again.”
I’m guessing now she’s talking about me. And him cheating on her. Maybe that’s why she was cheating on him. A heaviness settles in the pit of my stomach.
“Brittany, I’m doing my best here.” Colt’s voice is strained too.
This is my fault. My stupid crush. I jerk away from Colt. I want to run. I want to get out.
But as soon as I take a step away, Colt pulls me in again. “You go on,” he says to Brittany. “I’ll deal with this.”
So he’s going to tell me to go. To save his relationship. I wish the hurricane would come back, make the world disappear in the blinding rage. But I sag instead. So this is what happens when I want something. I should never want anything.
Brittany disappears through the accordion and closes it behind her.
I don’t want Colt to let me go. I feel the solidness of his chest against my back, the strength of his arms. I want to remember what it feels like to be held by someone so amazing, so strong. He seems to know this. He doesn’t let me loose, but pulls me in tighter.
“Turn around,” he says. He wants me to look at him.
I don’t know if I can.
Chapter Fifteen
Colt pulls away from me just a little bit. It’s enough for him to get me to turn.
I’m completely exhausted, and pain pulses in a hundred places. I lean into him, face pressed into his clean white T-shirt. For long seconds we just stand there. His chest rises and falls. I move with him. His heart beats a slow, steady rhythm. Gradually, mine comes down to a normal pace. We breathe together like we did that day by the speed bag.
I know tears are forming in my eyes, and I am so mad. So angry that I finally feel this way and it’s completely wrong. So pissed off that everything has always been against me. Something in this world does not want good things for me.
I know when he’s about to talk, because he draws in a different sort of breath.
“Jo?”
I don’t do anything, don’t answer. I feel paralyzed.
His arms move, his hands coming up around my head. He tugs the ponytail holder from my hair. I feel unmasked. But I let him do it.
His fingers slip through the strands. I shiver from the pleasure of it. He massages my scalp and a warmth spreads from my head down through my body.
He makes this feel so easy, so right. Maybe if he knows about Brittany, it will change things. If he sees who she really is, maybe he’ll know not to marry her.
Maybe he’ll be free.
But I remember him saying, “I’ll deal with this.” Like I’m a problem. Maybe right now he’s calming me down just so he can break my neck, or throw me out, or threaten me into silence.
“About six months ago,” he finally says, “I fell hard for a girl a lot like you.”
I swallow. I didn’t expect this.
“She was fiery. Probably not as raw talented as you. But she had heart.”
I squeeze my eyes shut.
“After — after she left, my work suffered pretty bad.” His voice is different from any of the versions I’ve known, almost broken.
“I lost a lot of fights.”
Zero said he canceled his title match. Maybe it wasn’t about the losses at all. It was a girl.
“Everyone is looking out for me,” he says. “Buster, my trainer, my father, Brittany.”
I stiffen at her name.
“I know. I don’t blame you for how you feel about her. This has to look bad.” He sighs. “I’m not able to explain Brittany right now.” He pulls away from me and this time, I look up.
His hazel eyes are more brown than green. His lashes are dark and fringed. He looks so haunted. I want to kiss him, to pull him close, to make him feel all right. But it can’t be right to do that.
“Can you trust me?” It’s a real question now.
I still don’t answer. I don’t know that I can trust him. I don’t know what any of this means. What it should be. What is right or wrong.
A sadness flickers across his face, and I think the moment is over. I haven’t told him that I trust him. But how can I? He just told the whole world he was marrying Brittany. He should not be in here holding on to me.
But, he is.
“I don’t know if you’ll ever even talk to me again after today.” His voice has fallen to almost a whisper. “So I’m going to take my chance while I have it.”
His lips meet mine and it’s like the hurricane, only different. The world has dropped away, like the wind is carrying us. But I’m not angry. I’m not threatened. I’m swept into it. His mouth is warm and tender and soft, like he’s still asking the question.
I relax into him, and it’s like he rejoices. He pulls me harder against him and his hand cups my head.
Now the kiss is something else, not a question, but an answer. I know what he’s saying, what he feels. It’s heady and beautiful, like a light is shining from the inside out.
His tongue touches my lips, and they know what to do. They open for him and he slips into me. I touch my tongue to his tentatively. Then everything builds into a frenzy, and his hands are moving, our bodies are touching in every place bodies can touch. His arm comes down and he lifts me against him.
His mouth slants across mine. The kiss is deep, like our mouths open into our souls. His heart has sped up beneath my palm. Mine is pounding so hard that I feel it in my ears.
I don’t ever want this feeling to end. I want more of it, more and more and more. I feel bold and wrap my arms around him. My fingers splay across his back, feeling each muscle stretch taut as he holds me in place.
I realize I’m not breathing, and I gasp against him. His mouth lowers then to my neck. Sparks erupt where his lips touch my skin. I could never have even imagined any of this could feel this way. Intense. Glorious. Beautiful.
Something unfurls inside me. I’m not twelve, but twenty now. And I’ve discovered what everyone else knew long before me. That this is what it’s all about. This is why we get up every morning. This.
I pull back a little, so I can look at him again. I want to see if he’s changed, now that I know what I feel.
His eyes are on mine. I see such happiness there. It’s a look I don’t know on him. He’s been fierce. Amused. Concerned. But this —
A light blinds us.
Our faces turn. One of the photographers from the street bolts for the back door.
Colt lets go of me and starts to chase after him. The man slams the door. Colt snatches it open.
I follow close behind. God, that photograph. Just an hour after his big public engagement. This is bad. Very bad.
I blow through the door. Colt is leaning against the brick wall, breathing heavy. “Go back inside,” he orders. His voice is angry.
I back away from him. “Don’t talk to me that way.”
He shakes his head. “Go in.”
Fury rises up in me. “Why didn’t you go after him?”
Colt presses the heel of his hand into his eye. “Because it wouldn’t make a difference.”
I hear a rumbling of voices. I walk in front of Colt to the corner of the building. The wind is crazy, blowing my hair everywhere.
And then I see it.
Reporters. Photographers. A mass of them, all waiting. When I peer out, the flashes pop, dozens of them, capturing me from every angle.
I’ve really done it now.
Uncaged Love
Volume 2
By JJ Knight
author of Revenge
NOTE!
Cliffhanger series ahead.
Major roller coasters.
Intense endings!
Volume 1 and 2 are included in this superbundle.
PLUS a bonus chapter not found in the original books.
The entire series is five parts.
Summary:
An explosive love affair between a struggling MMA fighter and the talented young woman he is training could destroy his career and wreck her recovery from a traumatic past.
Chapter 1
If some people believe a camera can steal your soul, then I just got robbed one thousand times over.
The flashes pop so continuously that I have to shield my eyes. The photographers who had staked out the side of the building are exuberant. I can practically see their mental high fives. They just got shots of the girl conducting a scandalous affair with big-time MMA fighter Colt “Gunner” McClure.
That girl would be me.
And it’s only been an hour since the public announcement of his engagement.
To someone else.
Colt snatches me up and tosses me over his beefy shoulder.
He jogs to the back door of the gym and yanks it open. We pass through, my head very nearly banging against the frame. The moment he turns the lock to ensure the photographers can’t follow us in, I start kicking.
“Put me DOWN!” I insist. I am not fond of being hauled around like a cavewoman. My fists pummel his back. But after getting into a fistfight with Colt’s new fiancée, Brittany, I’m pretty worn out.
“You done?” he asks.
I relax against him, my butt in the air. We might have been making out like teenagers a minute ago, but now I’m ready to bust his jaw.
He lets me down. As soon as my feet hit the ground, I ask, “What the hell was that?”
“That was someone leaving the back door unlocked after a press conference.” He runs his hands through his blonde hair in agitation.
“And grabbing me like a potato sack?”
“So they don’t see any more of your face than they already got.”
Even though I’m pissed as hell, I can’t help but watch the muscles of his arm flex with every movement. He’s one of the world’s best fighters, at least he was before his little meltdown a few months ago, and it shows in every sinew. His blonde hair is bright even in the low light of the back extension of the gym. If he looks at me, I will forget everything that just happened and get lost again in those hazel eyes.
But I have to stay mad.
Less than an hour ago, before the press stole my soul, and before we made out like teenagers, and before my catfight, Colt and Brittany announced their engagement to the press out in front of Buster’s Gym. That’s where I work, and where the happy couple trains as fighters.
Apparently some of the photographers hung around hoping for an exclusive shot.
And boy, did they get it.
“So, what happens now?” I ask. “Will that picture of you and me … kissing” — it’s hard to say it out loud — “Ruin everything between you and Brittany?”
“No, Brittany and I go way back.” He sits on one of the benches by the practice cage. “But she’s going to be very mad I messed up her big announcement.”
“Don’t you mean YOUR big announcement?”
Colt leans forward and drops his head in his hands. I’m acting mad, but really I am confused and lost. He told me to trust him, that he couldn’t explain the relationship between him and Brittany. But I can’t just let it go. It doesn’t matter what I feel about him. I can’t be kissing somebody else’s future husband.
I sit next to him and let the silence flow around us. It’s easy just being there, even if we have set off a media frenzy.
I already knew Brittany was seeing some other guy. I spotted her with a stranger a few nights ago. Well, I sort of stalked her down a back hallway. But still. Something about their situation isn’t right.
I screw up my courage to ask Colt the big question. “Is the engagement fake?”
He doesn’t answer right away, like he has to think about it. “Yes and no,” he finally says.
A non-answer. I let him think about it some more. Then I decide to drop my own bombshell. “She’s seeing someone else. I saw them kissing at the charity show.”
He lifts his head. “She was that indiscreet with Greg?”
So, he knows about her other man. And he doesn’t care. I could not be more confused. “I sort of followed them. No one else saw.”
“Okay, good.” He sighs. “This was bound to blow up sooner or later.”
“So, I guess the wedding’s off?” It’s a fair thing to ask, given that we were so hot and heavy a few minutes ago.
“Jo, don’t ask questions.”
Back to being a jerk. Fine.
I don’t have anything else to say. We sit again for a while. I spot my pony
tail holder on the floor. I shiver, thinking about when Colt took my hair down, before the photographer arrived. I reach for it and tie my hair back up. This gives me the feeling that I control something.
The accordion door between the practice ring and the weight room slams open. Brittany is back, and her face is red with anger.
“What the hell do you think you were doing?” She holds up her phone. “I’ve gotten twenty messages in the past two minutes!”
I glance at Colt. “That was fast.”
He shrugs. “Gossip travels at the speed of Twitter.”
I notice with some satisfaction that her cheek is bruising where I socked her. Though I probably look worse.
Brittany stands in front of me, blonde hair falling in perfect waves. She’s still in workout clothes, and her bare foot taps the floor anxiously. “I had no idea you would move so fast.” I’m not sure if she’s talking to Colt or to me.
“Brittany, it was my fault,” Colt says. “I should have known they would hang around.”
“She’s out of here,” Brittany says. “I’ve already called Geoffrey. He’s speaking to Buster now.”
“Who’s Geoffrey?” I ask.
Colt stares at Brittany with a look so cold that I shiver. “That was underhanded.”
“I had to,” Brittany says.
“Bringing in my father was not part of the deal.” Colt is angry now. His jaw tightens.
So, Geoffrey is his father, the former heavyweight champion known to most people as The Cure McClure. He’s the reason Colt is training at this rathole in the middle of one of the poorest sections of LA. Getting back to their roots. He hopes mixing with street fighters will end Colt’s losing streak.
Brittany starts pacing. “The reporters are STILL out there. The whole nasty pack of them. I’ve called the cops, your security team, and rounded up some of the regulars here to go sweep them out.”
Colt glances at me. “We can’t have them following her. She doesn’t have security.”