by Josie Kerr
Dig slipped two fingers into her slick core, and Nanda grabbed his head, pulling at his hair while she thrashed with pleasure as he expertly twisted and scissored his fingers within her while he continued to kiss and nibble at her neck and breasts.
“I take it that’s a yes, then.” He bit lightly at her neck.
“Dig, please.”
Dig stopped his ministrations long enough to roll on a condom, and then he settled into Nanda’s arms and kissed her sweetly before looking her in the eyes and grinning.
“What are you grinning at, you idiot?” And then she grinned and giggled.
Dig shook his head and huffed a laugh. “You. Everything. Nothing.”
Nanda grinned back at him. “Fair enough.” She wiggled against him. “You put that condom on just because you like the way they feel, or are you going to get down to business?”
Dig answered by sliding into her so slowly, tortuously that she was almost screaming with frustration. When he was finally seated within her, Nanda clenched around him, and he had his own moment of breathlessness before he regained his senses and started moving, rocking into her with short, hard thrusts.
“Harder.” Nanda’s expression was fierce as she locked eyes with him and compelled him to go faster, harder, and Dig complied happily with her demands.
Nanda pulled on his hair and made sure he was looking her in the eyes when she made her next demand. “Fuck me harder, Dom.”
A slow, sexy smile spread across Dig’s face, and suddenly Nanda found herself sitting up, face-to-face with Dig, atop his lap, as he lifted her away from his body and then slammed into her, pistoning his hips to meet her. She held on tight to him, whimpering and grunting in his ear with each thrust until he reached between them and squeezed her clit between his fingers. Then she jolted, and with a sobbing moan, threw her head back and rode out her climax, throbbing and clenching around him until he couldn’t contain his own orgasm any longer. He succumbed with a roar, grinding into her and pulsing one, two, three, four times before pulling her down with him, on top of him, so he could kiss her and stroke her face and hold her while they caught their breath.
“Holy shit.”
“Damn straight.” He chuckled and blew out a breath. “That is how you fucking do it.”
Nanda nuzzled into the crook of his neck, licking the fine sheen of sweat that collected there. “No pun intended, I’m sure.”
“Heh. Yeah, no pun intended.”
Chapter Seventeen
Dig opened his eyes to the beige walls of an apartment, not the dove gray of cinderblock of his room at the fight club. He rolled over and grinned at Nanda’s sprawled figure next to him in the bed and kissed her softly on the cheek.
When she tilted her face into his kiss and stirred, waking, he grinned wider and propped himself up on one elbow to get better access to her mouth. As he wrapped his hand around her neck and began to kiss her, she jolted. Dig got ready to wish her a good morning, but her thrashing and screams interrupted him. She pushed him away, still screaming, and scrambled back against the headboard of the bed.
Dig sprang up, physically removing himself as far as possible without leaving the room. Nanda cowered on the bed, breathing hard, her eyes wide with fear.
“Nanda. Nanda, baby, it’s okay. It’s just me, Dom, okay? It’s just me. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Nanda came out of her fear-induced stupor and replaced her screams with hiccupping sobs. Dig approached the bed, murmuring soft, calming words as he came nearer to her.
“Can I sit down, Nanda?”
She nodded, and he sat down on the bed but didn’t touch her until she threw herself at him. Even then, he just held her, rocking her as she cried and calmed herself. Only when she expelled a hiccupping breath and snuggled into his chest did he think about broaching what it was that upset her so much and so suddenly.
“You’re okay, baby. You’re okay, yeah?” Dig looked into Nanda’s eyes, searching for answers. Nanda blew out all her breath and then inhaled deeply. She nodded, timidly at first, and then, as she continued to catch her breath, more confidently.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Sorry about that.” Nanda wiped her face with her hands. “God, I hope the neighbors don’t call the police or anything.” She sucked in another breath.
“You wanna tell me what the fuck that was?” Dig settled against the headboard and gently pulled Nanda against him.
“Not particularly,” she said with a sigh.
“Would you tell me?”
Dig stroked her back, and Nanda shook her head but started talking. She told him about her on-again-off-again boyfriend, Gene. Eugene had pined for Nanda since middle school, and Nanda indulged him but never really took him seriously. Gene, or rather, Gino as he was now known, latched on to some of the town’s lower-level thugs, hoping to work his way up to be a made man. Unfortunately, Gene was neither bright nor especially enterprising, so the higher-ups never entrusted him with much.
Gene, a casual drug user for years, started using more and harder drugs. His behavior, once just thoughtless, became erratic. He and Nanda fought more and more, and he began physically lashing out. He never hit her, but he put a few holes in the walls of her apartment and broke some furniture, and Nanda began to fear for her safety. Finally, after he threw some dishes at the wall behind her and a shard of broken pottery cut her, Nanda broke it off with Gene and told him not to come back until he got his act together.
“So, a few weeks later, he called, wanted to see me. He sounded fine, like his old self, like the sweet, geeky guy that I actually liked, so I told him he could come over. He didn’t show up for hours, and when he did, I thought he was high because he was acting all crazy, all paranoid. So I kicked him out. Maybe ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. I figured he was coming to grovel. For a long time, I didn’t open the door, but he just kept banging and banging. I was just going to open the door to tell him to fuck off.”
Dig pulled her closer, and Nanda climbed into his lap and tucked her head under his chin. He stroked her back while she finished telling him of her ordeal.
She opened the door, expecting to find a hysterical Gene, but instead she found two goons that Gene’s “employer” used for “security.” They pushed their way into her apartment, demanding that she give “it” to them. What it was, Nanda had absolutely no idea, and she told them that. But they didn’t believe her. So they made an example of Nanda as a message for Gene.
“And you have no idea what they were looking for?” Dig asked.
“I have no idea, Dig. God, if I did, I would have given it to them, plus Gene. And they obviously think that I do have something, because Junior and I came home and the house was wrecked—all the furniture overturned, cushions slashed, drawers emptied. And what’s worse is that I haven’t heard from Gene since that night. The Gene I know doesn’t stray very far from home and can’t help himself from getting in the middle of stuff.” She looked at Dig with big, tear-filled eyes.
“That day when you came back to your trashed apartment, that’s the day you and Junior headed back here, right?”
Nanda shook her head with a little laugh. “No, stupidly enough. I wanted to stick around to see if Gene was going to show up. But then guys started coming to the gym and making threats, and well, I decided it was time for a real change. Junior was headed back the next day anyway, so . . .”
Dig didn’t respond. He just sat with Nanda in his lap and rubbed her back and held her.
“Say something, Dig. You make me nervous when you clam up.”
“Those assholes come down here, fuck with you? They’ll have to go through me, you understand? No one’s going to get near you, Fernanda. I mean it.”
“Thank you, Dig, but I don’t need anyone to protect me. Not you, not my brother, no one. I can keep myself safe, thank you very much.”
Dig snorted. “Since you did such a good job earlier.” He regretted the words as soon as they came ou
t of his mouth, even before Nanda flew out of his arms and out of the bed. She pulled the sheets and comforter around her, leaving Dig sitting in the middle of the bed, naked, with his mouth dropped open in surprise.
“Get out.”
“Nanda, come on. You know I didn’t mean it that way.”
“Get. Out.”
“Fernanda, babe, be reasonable.”
“Get. The fuck. Out!”
Dig tried to talk to her, but she was shoving his clothes at him, all the while cursing rapidly in Spanish. At least, Dig assumed she was cursing. The last straw was when she tripped over the sheets that tangled her legs, and Dig snorted a laugh. Nanda turned red and shrieked at him, and Dig held up his hands in defeat.
He pulled on his clothes and shoes, and before he left, he turned to Nanda, who was still naked and wrapped in a sheet, and said, “You can be a bitch to me all you want, but know this: we aren’t done, Nanda. We’re not even close to being done.”
And he stormed out of the apartment.
Chapter Eighteen
“What the hell are you so happy about?” Dig scowled at his best friend, who was whistling a jaunty tune and doing what looked suspiciously like skipping while he returned the free weights their rightful places.
“The same shit I’m happy about every day, man. I’m doing what I love and making a living at it. I’ve got friends and family whom I love and that care about me. And I get to have sex without a condom as much as I’m able with a woman whom I adore.”
“Did you just say ‘whom’?”
“Shit, yeah.” Tig did another skipping dance move and then began to jab at Dig. “What’s got your jock all tangled up?” The smaller fighter danced around Dig, who continued to scowl at him and seriously considered sticking his foot out to trip his obnoxiously happy friend.
“Fuck you, Tig,” Dig growled but smiled and shook his head. “Not everyone can meet their soul mate at a bar.”
“No, but those that do are lucky. But speaking of bars and soul mates, what the hell is going on between you and Miss Sassy? And don’t even try to tell me ‘nothing,’ because between that little scene at karaoke and the way she was moping around after you left C and Bailey’s cookout, I know there’s something going on.”
“Whiskey was solely responsible for that little scene at karaoke. I don’t know how she worked all day Saturday, because she was puking her guts up most of the night.”
“Oh, really? And how do you know that?” Tig quirked one blond eyebrow at Dig.
Fuck.
“I took her home and stayed at Junior’s apartment to keep an eye on her. And I’m glad I did, because she was spectacularly sick. I made sure she stayed safe.”
“Uh-huh.” More grinning.
“Shut up, man. We didn’t do anything.”
“Uh-huh. And her behavior at the cookout?”
“What about it?”
“I just told you she was moping around after you left.”
“She was?”
Tig rolled his eyes and shoved Dig in the chest. “Uh-huh. Majorly moping. Bet you’re pissed that you blew her off for Crazy-ass Amber.” When Dig continued to scowl, Tig stopped. “Wait—did something happen with you and Amber?”
“No. I mean, yes, and no. I’m not going to see her anymore. She’s just too much. She doesn’t even like to talk. At all. It’s not very much fun anymore.”
Tig barked a laugh and grinned at Dig. “Look out, Dominic DiGiacomo just might be growing up! But seriously, what happened with Amber?”
Dig snorted. “What happened is I might have said a different girl’s name when I nutted while Amber was blowing me.”
Tig cringed. “Man, that’s really bad, even for you.”
“I know. I apologized, but yeah, Amber and I are over. I think we were both kind of relieved.”
“It’s probably a good thing, with you going into camp tomorrow. The last thing you need is the distraction of high-maintenance pussy.”
Dig barked a laugh. “Charlotte would kick your ass if she heard you talking about a woman like that.”
“Yeah, she would, so don’t tell her. But seriously, Dig, eyes on the prize. This is a big fight for you. You can’t let a woman, any woman, distract you. Not even Miss ‘I Don’t Date Fighters.’ ”
Dig huffed a laugh. “Yeah.”
“Oh my God, it was her name that you said, wasn’t it? Holy shit, Dig, you cannot tell me that something isn’t going on between the two of you.” Tig squinted at him.
Dig groaned. He wanted to talk with someone about Nanda, but they had promised each other that they wouldn’t tell anyone. On the other hand, this was Tig, his best friend. If he couldn’t talk with Tig about the Nanda situation, he couldn’t talk with anyone.
“She would kick my ass if she knew I told you, but . . .”
Dig proceeded to relay what happened with Nanda the morning after without explicitly mentioning the facts of the night before. When he finished, his normally loquacious friend said nothing—he just gaped at him.
“So, what are your thoughts, Tig?”
“I think you need to concentrate on winning this fight and put that woman out of your mind. She’s not going to let you near her, like really near her, until she’s ready, and she sure as hell doesn’t seem ready to me.”
“No, she’s not.” Dig leaned against the wall of the weight room. “I just hope none of this crap has followed her down here. Man, I wish I had known about this Gene before. What an asshole!”
Tig had a thoughtful look on his face. “You realize that this boyfriend’s probably dead, right?”
“Yeah, I do.” Dig sighed. “And I think Nanda does, too, and feels some guilt about it.”
“Damn. Good luck, buddy. I can’t say I envy you.” Tig looked at his watch. “Mr. Johnson will be here in about ten minutes. I gotta go.”
“Yeah, I’ll catch you later, Tig.”
Tig waved and headed out to his client appointment, and Dig finished putting the weights on the racks while ruminating about how he was going to approach Nanda.
After spending the entire time disinfecting the benches and considering his options, Dig made up his mind to go talk to Nanda, apologize, and then tell her he was going to back off because of the fight. And then he was going to do his best to actually do it, as hard as it was going to be. Not in the least bit pleased, but somewhat content, Dig decided to make one last grocery run to do meal prep before tackling The Nanda Situation.
As he headed out to the parking lot through the back door of the gym, he ran into a big guy who seemed to be hanging around the back entrance.
“The door to the fight club is on the other side of the building, buddy,” Dig said.
The guy looked confused for a moment but then seemed to realize what Dig was saying. “Oh, sorry. You guys are kind of hard to find. I was hoping to meet Junior Maldonado.”
“Oh, man. Junior’s in New York, getting ready for the big fight.”
“Really?” The man looked at his phone and swiped through a few screens. “Damn. I can’t believe I missed him.”
Dig shrugged. “It’s not like he’s not going to be back. Go around the front and make an appointment. That way, you’ll be sure to get to see him. He fills up quick these days since he’s splitting time between here and New Jersey.”
The guy stuck out his hand. “Thanks, dude. I appreciate it.”
Dig shook the guy’s outstretched hand, and they walked in opposite directions.
Chapter Nineteen
The sounding of the bell on the front desk prompted Nanda to come out of the small storage room attached to the front desk.
“Hey there, how can I . . . shit.”
“Hey there, gorgeous. You’re just the person I wanted to see.”
Nanda froze in place at the sight of the man who had almost choked the life out of her four months prior.
“What do you want?”
He leaned clo
se to her. She caught his scent of stale cigarettes, mints, and Aqua Velva and had to swallow back the bile that rose in her throat.
“The same thing I wanted before, Nanda. Give it to me and I’ll walk away. It’s as easy as that.”
Nanda sucked in air through clenched teeth, and ground out, “I told you, I don’t know what it is. If I did, I’d hand it over! And Gene!”
The man across from her smirked. “Oh, sweetheart, we’ve already caught up with Gene. And, funny thing, he insisted you had it.”
Nanda paled, and a cold sweat ran down her back. “What did you do to him?”
“That’s none of your concern for the moment. Just hand it over and we’ll be done.”
Nanda slammed her hand on the counter to hide her growing panic. “I’m telling you, I don’t know what it is or where it is.”
“Hey, man. Nanda get you all squared away?”
Nanda had never been so thrilled and so scared to see Dig in her life.
The thug leveled a look at Nanda, and after pausing a beat, nodded. “I’ll let you get back to it, then. I’ll tell my buddies to make sure that they catch up with Junior when he’s home.” He nodded, shook Dig’s hand again, and headed toward the door. Right before he stepped through the door, he turned and called out across the gym lobby, “Nanda, I’ll be seeing you again, hopefully soon.”
Dig made a face. “Dude—creepy much?”
Nanda raised a shaky hand to her neck and then her face, wiping away the clammy sweat that had gathered on her brow.
“Nanda, you know that guy?”
“No. No, I don’t. I’ve never seen him before he walked up, but he creeped me out.”
“Did he say anything inappropriate to you?”
She shook her head, not trusting herself not to vomit all over the counter.
Dig leaned down to look her in the eye. “Nanda, what the hell is going on?”
“Jesus Christ, Dig, lay off. He was just one of those creepy-ass guys who gets off on making women uncomfortable.” Nanda blew out a quick breath and smiled with a confidence she didn’t feel. “I think I’m just tired. I didn’t get a lot of sleep this weekend.”