by Ashley Hall
For a moment, she just stared at me, and I couldn’t read her. I usually considered myself pretty good at figuring out what women wanted. But this had nothing to do with sex. This was something else entirely.
Something completely beyond me.
“Goodnight, Griffin.” And just like that, she pulled out of my grip and slid from the car. When the door slammed behind her, I flinched, watching her take the steps towards her front door two at a time.
From their place on the steering wheel, my hands itched.
I needed to hit something.
Griffin
The moment I woke up the next morning, I remembered what happened the previous night and cursed, sitting up in bed. My body clock always got me up a seven a.m. sharp, and today was no different—as much as I would have liked to stay in bed all damn day.
Fuck.
Running a hand through my hair, I remembered the way I’d left her last night—her being Sadie Warner, the first woman in a long time to actually pique my interest. Yesterday, she’d been on my mind from the moment those decadent legs of hers had pranced into the gym. She was sweet, far sweeter than most of the women I hung out with. Initially, I thought that was why I wanted her.
Last night, I had been proven wrong.
Yes, I got what I wanted, Sadie’s legs around my waist while I fucked her, enjoying every moan and gasp of pleasure she uttered, but that wasn’t enough. Not nearly enough.
With a groan, I rose and headed to the shower.
Not that any of that mattered anymore. I fucked up royally. Where any other woman might have fallen all over herself at my show of masculine power, Sadie had been terrified.
She was scared of me.
I had to resist the urge to punch a hole in the expensive tile of the shower wall. How was it that I woke up frustrated two mornings in a row? I swore someone was fucking with me. Good thing I had a high tolerance for bullshit.
I started the day as I did every one before it—shower and a protein shake. I needed to get to the gym and I had no desire to deal with the media, who I knew would be waiting for me. So, instead of taking my Jag, I slipped out the back entrance of the apartment building to jog the four miles to the gym. Luckily, before anyone realized I slipped away, I was halfway down the block and gone.
Somehow, I hoped that the pre-workout would help take my mind off things, namely, the sexy fucking reporter who I’d spent the evening with. But by the time I got to the gym, my mind was still full of Sadie.
And it didn’t help that she was all over the goddamn papers. The moment I walked into the gym, Ross was eying me warily. He always had the sense to be careful around me when it looked like I’d had a bad night. “How’s it hangin’, Griff?”
I merely grunted, too wrapped up in my own issues to reply. I had never really been the talking type—something countless women always gave me shit about. Passing Ross by, I grabbed a copy of the city paper from the rack in the gym’s entryway to scowl down at it sullenly. You’d think there would have been some emergency or tragedy they could put on the front page, but no. Of course, there I was in all my glory, standing over the reporter who’d gotten in Sadie’s face like I was the criminal.
MMA Hothead Takes on Defenseless Reporter.
Defenseless my ass. When I remembered the look on Sadie’s face when the guy tried to take a picture of her…I’d do it all over again if I could.
“So, I take it last night didn’t go so well?” The kid had followed me and peered over my shoulder at the paper with a thin smile. “Lady didn’t light your fire, Griff?” You’d think the low growl I uttered might have been enough for him to get the hint but Ross was obviously feeling unusually annoying that day. “Or did she?” A slow smile spread across his face as he clapped me on the shoulder. “I’m pretty sure every guy in the gym noticed when those legs walked in. Did you at least manage to get them to spread just a tiny bit before the whole media fiasco?”
I reacted without thinking. My fist found a handful of Ross’ shirt and slammed him against a nearby wall as a strange mix of irritation and fury coursed through me. The look on his face changed from amused to terrified in two seconds flat as I glared hotly down at him. “Don’t,” I managed from between clenched teeth, “talk about her like that. Fucking ever.”
Ross nodded frantically, no doubt hoping that I wouldn’t crush him against the wall like a bug. Instead, I merely let him go to stalk off towards the locker room, still mad as hell.
What the fuck was wrong with me? There was nothing strange about Ross, or any other fighter in the gym for that matter, wanting to discuss a lay. It was practically ritual, and I’d participated in it more times than I could count. Hell, I was the king. I’d had pussy from six different continents. Girls who couldn’t understand a word of English but still knew my name.
But, somehow, hearing Ross talk about Sadie like she was just another piece of meat…it didn’t sit well with me. I had put her in that position, side by side with one of the world’s most infamous playboys. It wasn’t her fault reporters were trying to get up in her grill; if anything, her reaction said it all.
She was fucking scared out of her mind.
I changed in record time, the need to hit something almost overwhelming. Of course, when I came out of the locker room, Riley was waiting for me.
And he didn’t look happy.
Scratching the back of his head, he gave me a slow once over before speaking. “You look like shit, Griffin.”
Well, it was nice to know I looked as good as I felt. “Why you gotta mess with the kid? He’s just trying to make you feel better.”
Groaning, I ran a hand through my still damp hair, wanting more than ever to go back to my apartment and shut out the world until this whole thing blew over. “I don’t want to talk about it.” Stalking past the man, I made my way to the closest of the two rings and made my way through the ropes to climb in. Turning to face Riley, I stuffed my mouthpiece past my lips—the best way to convey that I have absolutely shit to say.
The big guy merely sighed, shaking his head as he grabbed the nearest pair of pads to climb into the ring with me. “You’re going to have to talk about it,” he insisted, raising his covered hands so that I could work on my strikes. In response to his demand, my arm shot out in a lightning fast punch that had him wincing before he continued. “She’s coming in a few hours to take some photos for that article of hers.”
The news sent my punch wild and I almost ended up taking the top of Riley’s head off. He ducked with a curse before fixing me with a glare of his own. Riley was one of the only men on the planet I could count on to give me a beating when I deserved it. “Fucking Christ, Griff! What’s up with you today?”
I couldn’t even answer him. I didn’t know what the hell was fucking wrong with me. Only that Sadie Warner had gotten under my skin something awful, and the idea of facing her again aroused me as much as it intimidated the hell out of me.
As Riley proceeded to put me through my paces, I tried to keep my mind on my training, but it wasn’t the easiest task. My mind kept rewinding to the previous night, when I had all but dragged Sadie from that fancy restaurant, looking as freshly-fucked and gorgeous as hell, and the media leapt on her like dogs.
It wasn’t as if I hadn’t ever stepped out with a woman after fucking her sideways before. The women I knew tended to like that kinky shit. They posed with their smeared lipstick and mussed clothing as if it were some kind of high-fashion fucking photo shoot.
I honestly thought Sadie was going to faint on the spot, and seeing her like that triggered something in me. Hell if I knew what it was, but I wanted to protect her. I needed to protect her. She wasn’t just some huge-titted bimbo in a long line of woman out to kneel before me. She wasn’t a late night partier or some escort out to get whatever she could from a man before leaving him for a better one.
She was just a goddamn gorgeous woman trying to do her job, and she didn’t need that fucked up by everything I got into on an almost
-daily basis.
The sentiment fueled the intensity of my workout, and I trained agility and strength with Riley for a good two hours until my blood was pumping and my pulse was up. By that time, the gym had filled, and other fighters were going about their daily routines as well. As Riley had to devote part of his time to the up-and-comers, he left me to spar with some of the other members.
With a warning for me to be gentle or he’d knock me flat on my ass. I didn’t think Riley had warned me to be careful with other fighters since I was fucking seventeen.
To appease him, I threw myself into the task until around noon. It was a lot harder not to kill people than it looked, especially when pissed beyond all rational belief. I bloodied a few noses and handed out a shitload of bruises all around, but nothing more than my usual.
Hitting things, as it usually did, worked quickly to clear my mind. By the time Sadie actually arrived, I convinced myself that I was above all that shit. If she was intimidated by the media, that was her problem. She made her choices, and so did I.
Yeah…I thought that right up until the second she entered the gym.
Even if I hadn’t seen her, I would have felt her. The moment Sadie walked into a room, she changed the atmosphere. Everyone working on the punching bags stood up a little taller. Boys missed their punches trying to impress her.
And Jesus Christ, she wasn’t even in full knockout mode.
The little suit she’d worn the previous night to dinner had been a far sight more exciting than the hideous dress she wore the first time we met; and, lo and behold, it seemed that said fugly dress had an even fuglier twin.
What the hell was she wearing? Might as well have been a brown burlap sack for all the good it did for her figure. A figure that I knew was ripe and curvy in all the right places. The thing covered up her neck, her arms, and most of her legs; but not even that could detract from how goddamn gorgeous she was.
All that long, blonde hair pulled into a tight, severe knot at the base of her neck, those gorgeous brown eyes, and that mouth…fuck, I remembered exactly what it tasted like. Every pulse of those sweet lower lips as she came on my cock.
Goddamn it.
She brought someone with her, and my first impulse was to send the guy right back down the stairs with a dropkick to the face. He was some pencil-necked-looking intellectual type; exactly the kind of man who blamed me for wetting his girl’s panties and making it harder for him to get a date. For a split second I wondered what he was doing with Sadie—my Sadie—before I realized that he was holding a camera case and a tripod.
He was the photographer.
Fuck me.
My mouth turned downward in a sharp scowl, I watched Sadie scan the gym, obviously looking for me. When that honey gaze of hers found mine, however, her face bloomed red and she looked away quickly. She leaned in to speak to the photographer, who I still didn’t like, and his dumb ass immediately perked up as he followed where she pointed. He looked eager to get to work.
All I wanted to work on was breaking that smile of his in two.
Sadie greeted Riley, and even waved at Ross, which went about making my blood boil again, before she and her dipshit associate finally made it to the ring.
“Griffin Webb!” the pencil-neck exclaimed, gazing up at me with watery blue eyes as he held out his hand to shake. “Gary White, Grind photographer. It’s so nice to finally meet you in person! I’ve seen every one of your fights.”
Oh fuck. Worse than a hater. He was a rabid fan.
I kept the handshake as brief as I could before slipping under the ropes to join both of them on the floor. Sadie, for her part, kept her eyes on the floor as she murmured her greeting.
“Good afternoon, Mr. Webb.”
Mr. Webb? Mr. Webb my ass. Less than twenty-four hours ago sweet Sadie was moaning my name as I fingered the sweetness between her legs, and now I was Mister Webb? Before I could open my mouth to call her bullshit, she beat me to the punch. “Gary’s one of our best photographers. He’ll get some awesome shots of you to go with the article.” She turned to the pencil-neck like he was her salvation, giving him a small smile.
“You want some action shots, right, Gary? And a few studious poses as well.”
“Well, whatever Mr. Webb thinks would be best,” he stammered, eying me almost nervously. What I thought would be best was him getting the hell out of my gym, but I wasn’t about to do anything else as pig-headed as I had last night. I’d scared Sadie enough already, and no matter how pissed off I was, none of it was her fault.
So I’d play nice. For the time being.
“Yeah, lemme go find some chump to work with,” I grumbled, heading over in Ross’ direction. I figured I’d make amends for that morning by letting him be in the shots with me. Kid needed a little publicity. He was going to be a great fighter one day, if I didn’t kill him trying to protect him.
As I tried to convince him that I hadn’t meant to choke the shit out of him, all I could think of was Sadie. She was here. After leaving the car last night in a huff with barely a word, she was within my reach again. The animal in me wanted to rip off that brown rag and carry her screaming form to the locker room.
To make her scream some more.
Last night in the restaurant wasn’t enough. I wanted no more of that hidey-hole discreet bullshit. I wanted to get her alone where I could hear her bringing down the house.
But there was fat chance of that now. Any idiot with eyes could see she was tiptoeing around me, Griffin Webb, the fighter with an attitude problem and major issues.
As the photographer set up for his shots and Riley warned everyone else to stay out of the way, Sadie kept mostly to herself. Every once in a while she’d whisper to Mr. White, leaning suspiciously close to his shoulder as she looked intently at the shots that he was getting.
Did she have to touch his arm like that? And did she have to whisper in his goddamn ear? It felt almost like she was taunting me, but even I was nowhere near that insane.
The smell of peaches and cream floated around me while I chased Ross around the ring. The kid put up a brave fight, but nothing too tough. Enough for the photographer to get the action sequences that he wanted while I, for a change, tried my hand at showing off for the camera.
Usually, I wasn’t into photo shoots. They were all the same. Some middle-aged, swooning woman asking me to take my shirt off and make eyes at the camera. I did them because Riley told me to, because I knew it was good for my image. Hell, I hadn’t even let them take school photos of me when I’d still been susceptible to that shit. I didn’t like cameras, and I didn’t like photographers.
But what I liked even less? The way Sadie hovered around this guy, smiling and laughing at him when she wouldn’t so much as even look at me.
For the first fifteen minutes or so, I kept things light with Ross. Pulled a few jabs and some pretty run-of-the-mill kicks. The first time Sadie had ever walked into the gym, the electricity had been intense. I never abided by anyone except the guys watching me train, but Sadie seeing me go down? That hurt. I needed to show her what I was made of.
To regain her attention.
So I kicked it up a few notches. Pulled out all the stops. I performed a few jump kicks that had never seen the ring. Made Ross’ head spin with the speed of my combinations and executed so many takedowns that the kid was all but begging for mercy. I wasn’t usually so rough, but goddamn it, Sadie seemed hell-bent on pretending I didn’t exist.
On the rare occasion that she did look up to see me fighting, she looked away the moment our eyes made contact and made herself busy with something else: watching other fighters, talking to Gary, she even headed into Riley’s office for a few minutes to chat him up. I might as well have been chopped fucking liver.
By the end of the two-hour session, I was sweating bullets from my exertions, and Ross was on the cusp of unconsciousness. Gary seemed happy, ranting and raving about several particular shots. As I made my way from the ring, he shoved his camera
in my face for me to take a look and it took everything I had not to break the goddamn thing. I didn’t want to bring my number to two inside of twenty-four hours.
Instead, gritting my teeth, I let him show me a multitude of pictures of myself in action—most of which I had to admit were pretty damn good. Better than anything I’d ever seen before, anyway.
Sadie, however, was miraculously not interested. She waited off to the side, staring devotedly at the screen of her phone as if it contained the answers to all the problems in the universe. I wondered if she was actually reading anything, or simply looking for any excuse to avoid interacting with me.
Luckily for me, I got a small chance when Gary asked if there was a computer around for him to upload the images to the cloud. I’d never been more grateful for technology in my goddamn life and all but shoved him towards Riley’s office, and the only computer in the gym.