by Josie Kerr
Nanda snorted and shook her head. “He’ll have to catch Dig first. Junior’s a hard hitter, but he hasn’t got near the stamina of this one.” She patted Dig’s chest.
“I am not going to go near that.”
“Is Hector Maldonado’s family here?”
Nanda scrambled out of the chair. ‘That’s us.” She looked around at the little group of fighters and friends. “All of us.”
The doctor grinned. “Mr. Maldonado came through the surgery great. We got all the bullet fragments out. The bullet did cause a proximal humerus fracture, but because we did arthroscopic removal of the bullets, there was a lot less damage than there could have been. He’ll probably still need some more surgery on his rotator cuff, and lots of physical therapy, but I’m hoping that there will be minimal lasting impairment.”
“Oh, thank God.” Nanda collapsed against Dig with a sob, and he hugged her tightly. “When can we see him?”
“We’ll get him to a room and you can see him, but he’ll be out of it for a while.”
Nanda and Dig stayed with Junior until he woke up.
“Hey, manita. How you doing?”
“I’m doing a lot better now that you’re awake. You slept a lot longer than the doctors expected.”
“Well, getting into a brawl in the octagon and then getting shot while trying to rescue my little sister from a minor New Jersey thug takes a lot out of a guy.” Junior grinned and then sucked in a breath. “Goddamn, my shoulder hurts. Oh damn, did my rotator cuff get fucked up?”
“Maybe. We’ll talk about it tomorrow when you’re not all fucked up on painkillers.”
“I’m not all fucked up. Well, I’m enough not fucked up to tell you that I’ve known about you and Dig for a while.”
Nanda blinked. “What?”
He clucked his tongue. “I’ve known about you two for a while.”
“But . . . how? We haven’t . . .”
Junior chuckled. “Condom wrappers. Dig uses different condoms than I do.”
Oh my God.
“I figured I’d get it out of you when . . .”
And he fell back asleep. Nanda stroked his forehead as he slumbered, and then returned to her chair to wait for Dig, who had gone to search for news of Pierce.
A gentle nudge awakened Nanda.
“Hey, Dom. I must have fallen asleep.” She stretched her back and bent her neck. “How’s Pierce?”
“He was passed out when I went into the room. He doesn’t look good at all.”
Nanda stood up and pushed Dig down into the chair. “You need to sit down. Just because you didn’t get shot or stabbed doesn’t mean you don’t need to rest.”
“Babe . . . ,” he started but then stopped when Nanda curled up in his lap in the chair. Dig squeezed her and left his arms looped around her while he rocked slowly back and forth.
“So.” Dig cleared his throat. “This thing we’ve got going on.”
“Yeah?” Nanda nuzzled deeper against his chest.
“It’s not something that’s just casual, at least to me.”
Dig felt a puff of air against his chin as she exhaled a soft laugh.
“It’s not casual. Not at all.” Nanda sat up to gaze directly into Dig’s eyes. “As far as I’m concerned, it’s about as far from casual as it can be.”
He grinned. “So, it’s serious, then?”
“Yeah, it’s pretty serious.”
“Good.” Dig smoothed his fingers over a tuft of her hair that was sticking out. “You’re all I could think about during the fight tonight.”
“Dom . . .”
“No, let me finish. I just wanted it over so I could get to see you, talk to you.” He pressed his lips to her forehead before he continued. “You’re something else, Nanda. Something completely different than I’ve ever experienced.” He tipped her chin up so he could look into her eyes. “You’re a friend, Nanda. You’re my best friend. I’ve never actually been friends with someone I’ve dated before, and that is so fucking wrong.”
“I’m your best friend?”
He scoffed. “Of course you are. I tell you more shit than I tell anyone else.”
“Even more than Tig?”
“Even more than Tig.”
She narrowed her eyes. “What have you told me that you haven’t told Tig?”
“I hadn’t told him about Jessica.”
“Really? You never told him that?”
“Nope. There’s something else I’ve never told Tig.”
Nanda didn’t say anything, just raised her eyebrows in expectation.
“I’ve never told Tig that I love him.”
Nanda inhaled sharply.
“Nanda, I love you. I truly, truly do. I love you, and I’m in love with you.”
“Oh. . .”
Dig kissed her cheek, and she let out a contented sigh and snuggled into his arms.
They sat like that for a long time— until the sun peeked through the blinds and techs began to come in and take vitals and blood and the doctor made his rounds.
Ryan poked his head into the room shortly after the doctor left. “Hey, guys.”
Nanda went to Ryan and captured him a big hug. After she updated Ryan on Junior’s condition, Ryan suggested that Nanda go home and try to sleep and that he’d stay with Junior and call her if he woke up or anything changed.
“I figure you need to make some calls to your sisters, and you know, to Derek, to tell them what’s going on.”
Nanda threw her hands up to her cheeks. “Oh my God, I totally forgot to call Derek. Junior’s supposed to be in New Jersey on Monday to train some of Manny’s guys. Shit, I need to call Manny, too.”
Dig got up and stretched. “Okay, girlie, simmer down.” He kissed her forehead. “Ryan’s right—we both need some rest. Why don’t we do that, and I’ll run you back up here in a few hours?”
“You really don’t mind, Ryan?”
“Of course not.”
Nanda hugged Ryan again, a little tighter this time because she knew how hard this had to be for the former soldier.
“We’ll be back in a few hours, Goody.” Dig squeezed Ryan’s shoulder. “Thanks.”
Ryan nodded and settled down into the seat that Dig and Nanda had just vacated.
“Go, guys. I’ll call you if anything comes up.”
Dig and Nanda left the room. As Nanda pulled the door closed, she saw Ryan take Junior’s hand and press it to his lips before he settled back into the chair, still clasping Junior’s big hand in his.
Nanda and Dig returned to Dig’s apartment at the fight club after stopping by a drugstore to get a toothbrush because Nanda couldn’t face going back to Junior’s apartment, even to get some toiletries.
They showered, separately, and when Dig emerged from his turn, he found Nanda sprawled out in his bed, mouth open and snoring, completely naked. Dig chuffed a laugh and climbed into the bed, pulling her to him so that he could cradle her in his arms.
The moment he touched her, she burrowed against his body, wrapping her arms around his torso and intertwining her legs with his. She pressed her face into his chest and sighed.
“Love you, Dom. Love you so much.”
Dig grinned and kissed the top of her head and settled down to sleep.
Chapter Forty-four
Nanda had set the alarm for an hour before visiting hours started so she could make the calls to her family and to Derek, but it wasn’t easy waking up. The alarm blared for a full ninety seconds before Dig let out a strangled “Babe, turn that fucking thing off,” and Nanda cracked open an eye long enough to reset the alarm for half an hour later.
This time when it went off, she silenced it immediately, bolted upright in the bed, and blinked, looking around her like she didn’t know where she was. Dig rolled over and looped his arm around her waist, kissing the large lotus bloom that decorated her hip.
Nanda grabbed her phone, and settling back agains
t the headboard, called her sisters. After reassuring them that Junior was going to be fine and that they didn’t need to come down just yet, she took a deep breath and called Derek.
Nanda tossed the phone onto the bed after a somewhat awkward, stilted conversation with her brother’s boyfriend.
“Tell me what’s bothering you about him.” Dig had been watching Nanda closely.
She slipped the phone back onto the nightstand and burrowed her face back into Dig’s chest. “I think he’s seeing someone else. I don’t know why, but ever since that first day when he showed up with Junior, I’ve felt this way.”
Dig kissed her forehead, and then her cheek, and then pressed his lips softly against hers.
“What can I do to help?”
Nanda shook her head and kissed his chest. With a sigh, she admitted that there was not a thing either of them could do, even if it was any of their business, which it wasn’t.
Dig continued to place soft, sweet kisses on her face, neck, and shoulders, slowly moving down her body until his head rested on her soft belly. Nanda stroked Dig’s hair, and when he flicked his tongue against her folds, she gave it a tug, encouraging him to go deeper and continue his ministrations. After a few minutes of kissing and teasing, Dig cradled her ass in his hands and tilted her hips up to his mouth for better access.
Nanda sucked a breath in through gritted teeth when he took a big, soft bite at her pussy, then slowly slid two fingers in while he teased her clit with his talented tongue.
“Oh, holy fuck,” she moaned and ground against his knuckles, hitching her legs wider so he could go deeper. Dig chuckled while he fucked her with his tongue and fingers, causing yet another delicious wave of pleasure to course through her. Nanda balanced her feet on his shoulders, and Dig forced her knees down to the bed. He licked his lips as he gazed upon the beauty of her and then closed his eyes in order to allow himself to be completely submerged in her taste and scent. He took one last long lap with his tongue and then sucked her clit into his mouth, making her writhe and moan and whimper. She shuddered and her hips bucked, and then she went limp, panting with exertion.
Dig chuckled and kissed his way up her body until he reached her sweet face. Nanda threw her arms around his shoulders and attacked his mouth with hers, tasting herself on him and smelling herself in his beard, and writhed up against him, her hands scrabbling at him, gripping his hard cock in her fists and pumping and tugging at him.
Dig’s hips bucked, and he sucked in a breath. “Fuck, Nanda, I want you. I want inside your tight pussy. I want to bottom out in you.”
She kissed him harder and opened herself, guiding him inside her.
“Whoa, whoa, hey.” Dig stopped and looked into her eyes, both of them breathing hard. “Babe, I need a condom. Hold on.”
Dig moved to open the drawer of his nightstand, but Nanda caught his hand. “You got tested, right?”
“Yeah, sure. Right before the fight.”
She grinned. “Um, I’m on the pill. Well, the shot. I get a shot.”
“You mean, you’ll let me go in bare?”
Nanda nodded and smiled, and Dig grinned back at her and slid inside her hot core and moaned.
Nanda clenched around him as soon as he was seated in her, and when he flexed, she emitted a little whoop and attacked his mouth again. They rocked and pulled and pushed against each other, rising and rising until they both shuddered and cried out the other’s name. Then they collapsed, spent and satisfied.
Nanda cracked open the door to Junior’s room and sighed.
“What’s up, babe?” Dig peered in after her, wondering what made her sigh as if her heart were breaking, and spied Ryan, still sitting in the chair where he was last night, still holding Junior’s hand. “Oh, man.”
“I know, right?” She shook her head. That fuck Derek wasn’t even going to come down, citing that he had some important meetings that he absolutely couldn’t miss.
“In or out, you two.” Ryan yawned hugely and rolled his neck but didn’t let go of Junior’s hand. “I didn’t expect you to be back this early.” Ryan looked at Junior’s hand in his and then laid it gently down on the bed before getting out of the chair.
Nanda went to Ryan and pulled him into a tight hug. Dig could see Ryan’s hands squeeze her back before he stepped back and wiped his face. Nanda cupped his bearded cheeks in her hands and heaved a big sigh.
Ryan chuffed a laugh. “I know. I know.” He nodded sadly. “When’s everyone arriving?”
Nanda relayed Ines’s and Marta’s scheduled arrival dates, her voice trailing off.
“He’s not coming, is he?”
Nanda shook her head.
Ryan scoffed in disgust. “Jackass.”
“I know.” Nanda patted Ryan’s chest, though she didn’t know if that touch was more for her comfort or his. “Did he wake up at all?”
“A few times when the pain medication was wearing off.” Ryan and Nanda continued to speak in low voices, Dig listening in and holding Nanda’s hand, until they heard a cough.
“What are you three yapping about?” Junior asked in a thick voice.
“Hey, Big Brother.” Nanda went to his bedside and placed a soft kiss on his shaved head. “How you feeling?”
“My shoulder hurts like a bitch.” Junior lifted his good hand to cup Nanda’s face. “How’re you? Does this hurt?” His hand hovered over the livid bruising on Nanda’s cheek.
“It’s a little sore, but as long as I don’t touch it, I forget about it.”
Junior looked past Nanda but then locked eyes with her. “How is everyone else?”
“I think they’re okay. The girls are coming down in a few days to stay with you until you get settled.”
Junior groaned. “Fuck me.” But he chuckled while he said it. The arrival of a nurse, come to take him to get an MRI, interrupted his further lamentations. As they wheeled his bed out, Junior waved and smiled at Ryan, who nodded once.
Nanda blew out a breath. All they could do was wait now. She thought that the waiting was the worst part about hospital stays.
Dig kissed her cheek. “Now that I’ve got your attention, I said I’m going to go and check on Pierce.”
“Sorry, Dom. I’m a little bit—”
Dig silenced her by kissing her on the mouth. “Don’t apologize. I’ll be back in a few.”
Chapter Forty-five
Dig walked through the hallway toward Pierce’s room. He paused for a moment outside the closed door and then knocked.
“Yeah?”
Dig stuck his head in and was surprised to see Pierce up and dressed.
“Whoa. They’re discharging you?”
Pierce walked stiffly around the bed. “No, I’m discharging myself. I’m fine.”
“Dude, you are so not fine.” When Pierce tried to push past Dig, he caught the other man’s arm. “Pierce, man. Thank you. I don’t want to think about what would have happened if you hadn’t been there and done something.”
“I don’t ignore two guys and an obviously terrified woman going into a room in a shitty no-tell motel.”
“Well, a lot of people would have.”
“I wouldn’t.” He cleared his throat. “I gotta go. Checkout’s at eleven, and I gotta clear my stuff out or it’ll be confiscated. I’ll see ya at Foley’s.” He pushed past him to leave the room.
Colin found Dig standing in the middle of the room, a contemplative look on his face.
“Hey, man, where’s Pierce?” The big fight club owner looked around the empty room and frowned. “They didn’t discharge him already, did they?”
Dig told Colin about his conversation with Pierce and then broached a dangerous subject.
“I think Pierce should join DS Fight Club.” Dig waited for Colin to lose his shit, not that he blamed him. Hell, he could barely believe those words came out of his own mouth.
Colin pursed his lips and looked hard at Dig. Dig squirmed under the
intense gaze of those silver-blue eyes.
“I mean, I know that there’s shit between you two—” Dig stammered.
“That’s why I was wanting to talk to him—you know, to think about joining us.”
Dig blinked. “You were?”
Colin nodded solemnly and then grinned. “Do you know where he was headed?”
“I’m assuming back to the motel where the thing happened. He’s apparently living there. He said something about needing to get back before they confiscated his stuff.”
Colin whistled low. “Damn, he’s fallen on hard times since Pryde booted him.” He shook his head. “I’m going to go see if I can round him up. Junior’s back in the room, being a pain in the ass because he’s bored and uncomfortable.”
Dig groaned at the inevitable confrontation he was going to have with his trainer. “Lovely.”
Colin snickered and slapped Dig on the back. “Don’t envy you at all, buddy.”
Dig made his way back to Junior’s room, rehearsing what he planned to say to Junior regarding his relationship with Nanda.
He stood in front of the door and drew a big breath in. Okay, Dominic. Man up. Junior’s not that scary.
Okay, Junior was completely that scary.
He knocked on the ajar door and stuck his head inside.
“Hey, man. I was wondering when you would grow a pair and come see me.” Junior grinned but then winced. “Man, I can’t turn my head that far without hurting. Stop lurking in the doorway, and get your ass in here.”
Dig walked inside the room to stand next to Junior’s bed. Junior quirked an eyebrow at him and said, “So. You and Fernanda, huh?”
“Uh, yeah. Yeah. Me and Fernanda. Junior, I really want you to be okay with this, but if you aren’t, too damn bad, because we are together, and we’re going to stay together.”
Junior picked at his blanket. “So, what’s next? You know, for you two?”
Dig shrugged a shoulder. “I want to continue to get to know her, to be her friend, grow our friendship. I just want her to let me love her, you know?”
Junior nodded and with a sigh, said, “Good. That’s good, Dig.”