The Fight

by Alice Ward

  “I’m afraid I don’t know much about the different types of massage.”

  “This is her first massage,” Caleb offered from the doorframe.

  Sophie clapped her hands. “Really? How exciting. Well, the key today will be explanation. Ask whatever questions you want, and please tell me what you are or aren’t comfortable with.” She looked to Caleb, and I didn’t think it was possible, but her smile grew even more dazzling. “If you don’t mind, I’d like to take fifteen minutes to just explain how this whole process works so that we’re not just tossing her in the deep end. Is that alright?”

  “Do whatever is best for her health.”

  Wow. That was an interesting way to say that. Not do what will make me the best fighter or get me in the gym faster, he wanted done what was best for me. I was stunned for a second. I wasn’t used to many people caring so specifically for my wellbeing.

  Maybe I didn’t need to be so cautious around him? Maybe Grace was right, and I could let my walls down just a little?

  No, Cherry Bomb. Caleb is just looking out for his investment. You’re too emotional. Get over it ASAP.

  “Sounds great,” Sophie twittered. “Well, if you, sir, don’t mind skedaddling, I’m gonna get Miss… oh, bless my heart, I forgot to ask your name.”

  “It’s Cherry.”

  She clapped again. I hoped that wasn’t a habit. As much as I liked positive attention, I didn’t need constant applause. “How pretty. Like cherry red or sweet cherries.” She gestured for me to step into the room.

  The massage table in the center was covered with white sheets, and the scent of mint joined the lavender. I inhaled deeply, letting the aroma work its magic as I walked the perimeter of the room. Like everything else Caleb provided, this seemed incredibly high-end, way out of the price range of anything I could afford on my own.

  “I was named for the Black Tartarian cherry trees on my family’s farm. They were one of the sweetest varieties you could grow in Indiana.”

  “Well, isn’t that fascinating!” She shut the door and turned to face me. Sophie clapped her hands for the third time, and I shut my eyes. “Well now, how about we talk about sports massage?”

  “You know what? I trust Caleb, so I’ll trust you. Let’s just forget the discussion and get this done so I can get back to working out.”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Caleb

  I’d tried to stay away from the gym during the time I knew Cherry would be there, using the needs of the homeless shelters in the city as a tool to keep my mind occupied. I’d met the plumber at Good Samaritan, contracted to have the sprinklers installed, and they’d finished. Then I’d called the inspections department to give them a piece of my mind when the inspection was holding up moving the families back in.

  Now the shelter was open and already filled to capacity. I’d made sure that Wayne, Rosemary, Kyle, and little Isabella had their regular room back and I was looking into alternatives to help this family and ones like them to get back on their feet and stay there. And I made sure Kyle was offered a job that would actually pay the bills once they saved enough to move out. I wanted to do more but knew if I did I would be stepping all over Kyle’s pride. And there were so many more like them, who’d lost their homes because of an illness or a lost job or even their landlord raising their rent. I didn’t have a solution, but I was working on it.

  There hadn’t been so much as a whisper about Lillie, and even though that wasn’t surprising, the familiar twist of pain still ached throughout my chest.

  As if my twin sister being on my mind wasn’t enough, Cherry now hovered at the edge of my consciousness practically every moment of the day. My need to be near her had escalated.

  The other day, I’d walked into the sight of Cherry pushed beyond her limits in the ring, sparring with one of my best sparring partners. It was a thing of beauty. There was something downright electrifying about her every time she stepped on the mat. She was fire personified, and every time I managed to catch a glimpse of her face, there was an inferno in her eyes.

  She fascinated me in a way no other woman ever had, and I felt like she was some kind of challenge that the universe had dropped into my lap.

  That was one reason I’d stayed away. I had an irrational need to conquer her. But she wasn’t that kind of challenge. I also wanted to build her up, to fuel the raging blaze within her and see just how fiercely she could burn. I wanted to see what she could do at her highest potential, all the barriers she could smash.

  I wanted that fire to turn on me so I could touch it, feel it flare with my own as my length covered her and she welcomed my cock into her hot body.

  I was a mess. And if I was making absolutely no sense to myself, I wondered if everyone around me could see it too.

  Not knowing what else to do, I’d stayed away.

  But I could only stay away so long. It was only days until the fight with De La Matta. She was, after all, my newest project, and one that I wanted to be profitable so I could sponsor other fighters.

  I’d long since given up on trying to tell myself that this was only a business venture. It was a waste of energy, and while I was many things, I wasn’t a liar, not even to myself. I felt a connection to this spitfire of a woman, and that was that. I couldn’t tell that she felt the same, so I wasn’t sure what my next move would be. I didn’t want to move on.

  I wanted her here in my office. Now.

  I picked up the phone and pressed the button for the front desk. Chris answered, and I barked, “Have Cherry come to my office as soon as she’s available.”

  “Yes, sir. I’ll inform her as soon as she comes out from her massage.”

  I hung up. Knowing she was near to naked under the hands of the massage therapist right down the hall had my cock calling all the shots.

  I stayed at my desk to hide his obvious glee. As I finished cost projections, I realized I was actually under budget. I’d toyed with the idea of bringing on the nutritionist that I had been planning on hiring closer to Cherry’s debut. There was no telling what she was eating at home, and I was willing to bet that her diet consisted of cheap fillers and carbs. She needed protein, a lot of it, and I was well aware that meat wasn’t always affordable for low-income families.

  Granted, the three thousand a month she was getting was supposed to help with that sort of thing, but I had picked up on the fact that she put family before everything. Her clothes were still just as worn and generic as when she first walked in almost two months ago, and she carried the same bag, patched in multiple places.

  I wondered what it must’ve been like to have such loyalty to family that she put them before her own health and needs. It was admirable, even if it was foolish. It had been a long time since my own family had resembled anything so caring, not since Mom died when Lillie and I were ten. Dad had increasingly grown more and more distant until he was barely even home

  It was hard to remember a day when Dad was softer, but he had been. He’d changed when Mom died, but he had turned into an unfeeling bastard when Lillie stopped coming home. His only communication with me was doling out orders and consequences if they weren’t followed to the tee. When I’d worked for my father, if I would have done something to endanger the company and the empire that he’d built, I would have been ousted in an instant. One reason I’d gone out on my own with Hunter.

  Uncomfortable with where my thoughts had gone, I got up from my desk to see if Andre had arrived yet. I wanted to take his opinion under advisement on the nutritionist, as well as what else we could do to bolster Cherry even further. I was determined she was going to show every single one of those muscle-bound idiots at the upcoming fight just what she was capable of.

  I strode quickly down the hall, intent on finding Andre, but I came to a halt as the door to the massage room opened, and Cherry walked out, clad in nothing but one of Sophie’s white sheets.

  The air thickened, as did my member, and I couldn’t keep my eyes from going over every inch of bare skin
.

  Her golden skin looked that much more radiant against the white of the sheet, and her hair was up in a loose bun on the top of her head. There were red, puffy marks on her upper back from where the therapist had been working, and I had the sudden wish that it had been my hands there.

  She must have sensed my gaze because she whipped around, her face turning as red as the marks on her back.

  “I had to pee,” she blurted then looked down at the sheet.

  She was so adorable, so innocent looking standing there wrapped in white that I couldn’t help the smallest of smiles. I cocked a brow. “Glad to hear you have a functioning bladder.”

  She shifted and turned even pinker. “Right. I just, uh, didn’t want you to think that I was out here on purpose. Like I was…”

  I took a single step toward her. Not far enough to cut her off, so she could still exit if she was uncomfortable, but closing the distance enough that she could feel my presence just inches from her. “Like you were trying to seduce me?” I murmured, letting my voice drop lower than normal.

  Cherry swallowed, hard. A surge of lust, followed by protectiveness and passiveness went through me. She was good at putting on a show of being indomitable, and it made me want to dominate her all the more.

  “Yeah, that,” she breathed, her eyes drifting to my lips.

  I could feel her body responding to mine, and her hand reached for me tentatively.

  Perhaps my attraction was less one-sided than I had thought. It could be that she was just as intrigued by me as I was with her, but she kept it to herself for professional or personal reasons. But coming to conclusions like that was dangerous. It could lead to all sorts of misunderstandings and misinterpretations. I needed to know what she thought, what she felt, but she was about as forthcoming as a clam.

  I took one more step forward so that our bodies were almost touching, and instead of taking back her space, Cherry leaned forward, closing that final distance between us.

  My skin jolted at the contact, and all my thoughts of nutritionists and fight prep fled. God, I wanted her so intensely that I was tempted to haul her to my office and take her right there.

  “Oh my, am I interrupting something?” Sophie’s voice cut through the mood like ice.

  I straightened, quickly moving away. Anything I might say would be a lie, so I just gave both of them a nod and walked toward the front of the gym to look for Andre like I’d been doing when Cherry appeared, looking like some kind of Greek goddess wrapped in a tunic.

  I was somewhere right between chagrined and cocky, and for once I wasn’t sure how to arrange my facial features. Cherry certainly had a way of turning the entire world on its head and surprising me in the best way possible.

  “What’s with you?” Andre asked, spotting me from where he was lounging in the receptionist’s chair. “You look like a cat that caught a mouse but isn’t quite sure what to do with it.”

  How apt. “You could say something like that.”

  “Something like that, huh?” His eyes narrowed. “You weren’t making it on our girl, were you?”

  “No,” I answered honestly. Not this time. But his tone was odd, so I leveled a critical eye at him, intent on reading his body language. “But why would that be a problem, if we were… making it.” Just the man using the phrase “making it” in reference to her made me want to break him in two.

  “Because relationships with fighters never work, take it from me. And neither does just trying to stay casual. Someone always ends up using someone, one gets feelings, and then everything falls apart. Usually, someone gets sued. And that would be you.” He let out a dry, bitter laugh. “Take it from me. You are from way too different worlds on way too many levels. Just enjoy her as eye candy but don’t think about getting a taste.”

  I wasn’t going to tell him that I had already had more than just a taste of Cherry, so instead, I leaned forward so that my elbows were balanced on the counter. “There are plenty of words you can use to describe her, but eye candy is not one of them. It would do you well to talk about your charge with a bit more respect when she’s not around. Understood?” I didn’t leave any room for question in the tone that sounded less like a request and more like a threat.

  “Duly noted. Just be thinking about what I’m saying to you. Cherry is new to this world, and it’s the worst time for her to be distracted. If it was a year from now, I’d say go for it. But this early…” He shook his head, and I knew he was right.

  I straightened and forced my expression to neutral. “Now, I wanted your thoughts on hiring a nutritionist. Beneficial, or too close to the tournament to make any sort of difference at this point?”

  The poor coach looked like he was suffering from a bit of whiplash with my sudden topic change, and just shook his head. “You know what? I’ll get back to you on that after our session today.”

  “Of course.”

  I watched him go and debated on walking back to my office, but I wasn’t sure I had given Cherry enough time to return from the bathroom. As much as I would’ve loved to see her clad only in a sheet again, her curves evident through the thin material, I also didn’t need to put myself through that kind of torture. It wasn’t that I couldn’t control myself around her, just that I didn’t want to. Badly.

  Shaking my head, I headed for the outer door. Maybe the cool air of the first day of March would help me forget exactly how perfect Cherry felt pressed up against me with only a single layer of cotton and the material of my suit between us.

  Not likely, but I could always hope.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  Cherry

  Inhale.

  I splashed cold water from the gym bathroom faucet on my face then looked in the bathroom mirror, trying to calm my nerves.

  Exhale.

  It didn’t work.

  After two weeks of careful prep and basically running myself ragged training, the first weekend of March and the day of my fight against Roberto De La Matta was finally here.

  Focus.

  Inhale. Exhale.

  Everything will fall into place.

  I had never fought so hard to improve or put my body through such hellish workouts. But I could feel that a lot had changed. I’d thought I was in great shape before, but apparently, that was just the tip of the iceberg. I could not wait to see what results Andre could pull out of me after a few more months.

  I took one more quick look in the mirror at what might be the last glimpse of my unbattered face. After the fight, I knew I could be sporting some bruising for a while.

  You can do this.

  I could feel it in my bones — I was going to make waves tonight.

  I gave myself a nod then headed back out to the gym. Caleb had offered to pick me up at my house to take me to the fight, but I’d suggested meeting on common ground instead, for a mix of reasons.

  One, was that I just didn’t want him infringing on my world that much. My house was my safe haven, tucked away from the whole fighting scene that I had thrown myself into.

  Second was that my trip in the silence of the car that Caleb insisted pick me up had become a vital part of my fight prep. It gave me a solid twenty minutes —twenty minutes was precious when you had four younger siblings — of just listening to my music, focusing on my breathing and envisioning the day. No one talked to me or teased me mercilessly. It was my time. Skipping that time right before what might be the biggest fight of my life just didn’t seem like a good idea.

  “You ready?” Caleb asked from where he was waiting at the receptionist desk.

  He was dressed in a fitted shirt that showed more of his muscle mass than his usual suit. With jeans throwing him into a much more casual look than I was used to, it was a hundred percent unfair how delicious he looked. I wanted to run my hands through his hair to feel just how thick I knew it was and bury my nose in the crook of his shoulder until I could breathe nothing but his scent.

  Inhale. Exhale.

  I settled for a curt nod. “By
all means, lead the way.”

  His responding nod was just as short, and then I was following him outside. We got into his car without another word, and then he was carefully pulling away from the curb. As I watched him, it seemed as if his eyes scanned the sidewalks on either side of the street, stopping on each pedestrian, assessing them briefly.

  “You’re looking for her,” came out of my mouth before I could stop it.

  His hands tightened on the steering wheel, squeezing it so hard I half expected it to break in two.

  When he didn’t respond, I said, “I’m sorry. I—”

  “Yes.” He let out a long sigh. “It’s a habit. I’ve been looking for so long, it just became second nature to scan the streets. I guess in the back of my mind I’m still looking. Hoping. She’s my sister, I still have hope. Sometimes that’s all I have.”

  I nodded, a lump forming in my throat, and managed to croak, “Hope is good.”

  He frowned. “Or hope can suck when it has you shackled to the past.”

  Silence descended over the car, but it wasn’t uncomfortable. It amazed me, the highs and lows I’d hit with Caleb. Some moments were so charged with sexual tension that I just wanted to grab him by his expensive suit lapels and kiss him stupid. Some of our moments were peaceful, comfortable even in a way it would be with a friend I had known forever. This was a deeper moment. The kind where a confidence had been shared with the trust that it would go no further. It made me shift in my seat. I didn’t know if I wanted Caleb to expect anything out of me besides a good fight, one I was more than happy to give him.

  I watched the buildings pass as we cruised along. It didn’t take long for us to arrive at Broadbent Arena, but the parking certainly wasn’t easy because the arena was inside the fairgrounds, which usually had multiple events going on the weekends. We bypassed the main lot, parking near the back entrance in a VIP spot. We were early, in plenty of time for final check-in and warm-up as well as whatever other prep a camera crew might or might not need. I wondered just how jam-packed it would be once most of the spectators arrived.