The Savage Sinner
A Series of Savage Gentleman
Book 2
By Christopher Harlan
Copyright © 2020 by Christopher Harlan
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.
This book is a work of fiction. All names, characters, locations, and incidents are products of the authors’ imaginations. Any resemblance to actual persons, things, living or dead, locales, or events is entirely coincidental.
Proofreading by: Stephanie Albon
Cover Model: Golden Czermak of FuriousFotog
Formatting & Cover Design by: Cassy Roop of PinkInkDesigns
Contents
Also by Christopher Harlan
Reader Quotes
The Secret Keeper
The Savage Sinner
Fight Club
Introduction
Prologue
1. Harper
2. Damien
3. Damien
4. Damien
5. Damien
6. Damien
7. Harper
8. Damien
9. Harper
10. Damien
11. Harper
12. Damien
13. Harper
14. Damien
15. Harper
16. Damien
17. Damien
18. Damien
19. Saturday night
20. Harper
21. Damien
22. Damien
23. Damien
24. Harper
25. Damien
26. Damien
27. Damien
28. Damien
29. Damien
30. Damien
31. Harper
32. Damien
Coming Soon
Damien
Damien
Exclusive Excerpt
The Secret Keeper
Penelope
Also by Christopher Harlan
The New York City’s Finest
The Wordsmith Chronicles
The Me that I Became
The Sick Parents Club
Also by Christopher Harlan
The Savage Gentleman
(A Series of Savage Gentleman
Book 1)
My name is Lucas “The Ghost” Esparza.
I’m the best MMA fighter in the world that you’ve never heard of, but if I have my way, I’ll be a household name soon enough. My life’s been nothing but hard training, crazy partying, and fast women, and that’s just how I liked it. No man had ever gotten the better of me inside the cage, and no woman had ever been able to slow down my lifestyle outside of it.
And then it all came crashing down.
When I tasted defeat for the first time in the biggest fight of my life, I was a broken man—my pride destroyed and my dreams of greatness deferred.
That’s when Mila walked into my gym.
When my trainer told me I had to giver her self defense lessons because she was a ‘special case’, I had no idea what he meant. All I knew was that she had a body to die for, and a face that made me forget my own name. I’d been with my share of women, but she was easily the sexiest I’d ever laid eyes on.
There was only one problem—we hated each other with a passion!
I thought she was whiny with a bad attitude. She thought I was full of myself. But then something happened that changed everything between us. She gave me the confidence to pursue my dreams once again—to be a champion, to make it into the UFC, and to be the savage gentleman that I was born to be.
What readers are saying about “The Savage Gentleman” (A Series of Savage Gentleman book 1)
“I couldn't put it down! When it ended I was disappointed, because I wanted to read more.” —Linda James
"The Savage Gentleman" is Christopher Harlan's first MMA romance and I am now totally convinced that he can write anything and it will be outstanding.” —Michaela Zankl
“Wow! Just Wow! I have to say this! Christopher Harlan can write a book about anything!” —Diann Bryan
“The story of Lucas and Mila was one of raw emotion. Christopher makes you fall in love with the characters and those references he throws in at the best of times will get you laughing out loud.”—Jessica-Wireman Couch
“Had me on the edge from start to finish.Ready for more” —Teresa Lara
“Wow, I loved this book. I was not able to put it down once I started it.. I really hope there is more to Lucas and Mila’s story.” —Katrina Haynes
“Loved this book so much. I need more Lucas and Mila ASAP. I am pretty new to MMA romance and this book was so good”—Mandy Demaree
“I was drawn into the story from the very first page! There is just something real about Christopher Harlan's writing that the reader can't help but identify with the characters regardless of whether they are male or female.” —Tina
“Throughout the whole book I was so impressed by both the characters growth, their up front attitudes, the ability to know what they want, and the courage to solve the problems getting in their way.” —Miranda Briley
“My favorite part about this novel was seeing how much the characters grew and developed. It has some steamy love scenes for those who enjoy it and a happy ending.”—Wendy de Jesus
“I finished this book yesterday and I'm still so speechless. I don't know how to even describe this one but only that it's real good.” —Jessica Morales-Lafaille
Coming May 17th from Christopher Harlan
*Voted the #1 most anticipated Romance of May 2020 on Goodreads!
Check out the exclusive excerpt at the end of Savage Sinner. . .
A sexy, exciting, edge of your seat HEA contemporary romance, SECRET KEEPER is a standalone story inspired by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward’s STUCK UP SUIT, publishing in 2020 as part of the Cocky Hero Club world, a series of original works, written by various authors, inspired by Keeland and Ward's New York Times bestselling series.
Blurb
“She was the fruit of a forbidden tree, but nothing in this world was going to stop me from tasting her.
My name is Dylan Murphy, and I work for the rich and powerful of an exclusive Manhattan building. Graham Morgan was my first boss, but soon after I was working with some of the most famous entrepreneurs, business moguls, and movie stars in the city. They trusted me because I always followed the cardinal rules:
Never betray secrets. And never, under any circumstance, get personally involved.
I’d never dreamed of violating my professional mantra. Not until she walked past me.
The look we exchanged that night set my body on fire, and I knew right then and there that no matter the consequences, she was going to be mine. But she was one of them—off limits and out of my league, but she was the kind of woman who I was willing to risk everything for.
I keep other people’s secrets for a living, but the biggest secret of all might be my own.”
Add to your Goodreads
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The Savage Sinner
My name is Damien “The Sinner” Reyes.
I’ve been called every name in the book by my long list of haters: cocky, hard-headed, impulsive, arrogant. But there’s another name I like to go by—the best MMA fighter in the world. You’ve never heard of me, but one day you’ll know my name.
I was broken when I met her, mending mental
and physical wounds, and that’s when Harper approached me, wanting to tell my story to the world. There was only one problem—she was the hottest woman I’d ever seen in my life. Why was that a problem? She wanted a profile for her blog, and all I wanted was to see her naked. It was doomed to never work out. But, then one night, I asked her to go to dinner with me, and everything changed between us.
I thought it would be smooth sailing, but then her unknown past stepped between us, threatening not only the two of us, but standing in the way of my personal dreams. If I can overcome my obstacles, then I know I’m destined for greatness. There are only three things I want now—Harper by my side, a contract with the UFC, and for everyone in the world to know that I’m the most Savage Sinner in the world.
“I’m the best at what I do, and what
I do isn’t very nice.”
—Wolverine
Prologue
Damien
I don’t know where I am.
All I feel is disorientation and an intense throbbing in my temples.
I’ve been hit in the head hard enough to shut the lights off, and I’m just waking up now.
I’ve experienced this one time before. It was in Thailand, almost a year ago. I fought the local champion in this small village just outside of Bangkok. Now, whatever you’re picturing when I say village, it’s probably accurate—dirt roads, chickens running all over the place, small homes made of local building materials.
The one thing you’re probably not picturing is the ring.
As poverty stricken as that village was, the one nice thing they had was a ring where the local men and boys fought a few times a week.
I showed up as a tourist, and a cocky one at that. Twenty-one years old at the time, cocky as fuck, and ready to beat all of the respective Thai asses who were willing to accept the challenge of throwing down with their American challenger.
I thought I was a badass. And then I met their champion.
This little guy would have been a weight class beneath me if we’d been fighting in America, but, in rural Thailand, weight and size matter much less than experience, and this guy had a lifetime’s worth of it. I thought I’d kick his ass easily—fast enough to have the local women in the village celebrate me as the new hero in town and cook a huge feast in my honor.
That’s not quite how it went.
I was told later that it was an elbow—one that I didn’t see coming. I remember the feeling when I woke up. The humiliation and humility came later, but the initial feeling after getting knocked out cold in that ring is the same feeling I have now.
Only I’m not in a ring. I’m not in a cage. There are no lights or crowds or coaches. No doctors are standing over me, asking how I am, and there’s no referee in sight.
I’m in my regular clothes, on a bathroom floor, getting the shit beat out of me. I feel blood dripping down my face, and, as I start to get my bearings, I remember what happened right before.
It was him. He came out of nowhere.
I can’t believe this happened. I go to stand up but, as soon as I put weight on my right leg, I collapse to the ground. That’s when the pain comes. I feel it, shooting down my entire leg.
I can’t believe this happened.
I can’t believe any of this.
1
Harper
***SIX MONTHS BEFORE STORY***
I slam the door so hard that I scare myself. I didn’t even know I could be that strong, but I guess being in a blind rage gives you a little more strength than you normally have.
He’s finally gone.
He didn’t want to go, but I’ve had enough.
I should have known better than to mix work with pleasure, but sometimes my heart takes over for my head. Now I know better. He was the wrong one for me, no matter what I thought at the time.
I’ve always had a problem telling the good guys from the bad —sometimes one seems to turn into the other after I start dating them, but I know for sure that we need to not be together anymore.
Now he’s gone, and I’m alone.
Time to start over again.
2
Damien
“Keep your goddamn hands up!”
That’s my trainer, Matt.
He’s the owner of my gym, The New York Fight Club, and besides being my trainer and manager, he’s also like a second father me.
“They were up!” I yell through my mouth piece.
“Oh yeah?” he asks as I move around the ring with one of my training partners. “Then why did you just get tagged with that jab? Stop talking back and keep your hands up, you’re not in Thailand anymore.”
He’s not wrong—Matt rarely is when it comes to technique. A lot of fighters claim to have the best coach or the best team in the world, but in my case it’s one hundred percent true. As a coach, trainer, and mentor, Matt has all of the qualities that fighters need to be successful—he knows how to motivate, when to back off, and, when necessary, how to light a fire under your ass. At the moment, he’s holding strong in that last category, but it’s only because I need to get yelled at sometimes to keep me motivated.
It goes back to when I was a kid.
See, I’m not like most MMA fighters today.
Take my good friend Lucas “The Ghost” Esparza. He’s one of the best light heavyweight fighters in the world, and he just recently got signed to the UFC. After he had his breakthrough fight, every media outlet he did an interview with didn’t miss the opportunity to tell the world how well spoken and how well educated he was. Lucas is MMA’s poster boy—a contrast to all the violence people still associate with the sport from back in the early, no-rules days.
I don’t have your typical MMA background story. I wasn’t an all-American wrestler at a division one college. I didn’t win a bronze medal in Olympic level Judo, and I sure as hell didn’t take karate or tae-kwon-do lessons with my dad every Saturday.
My story is more like an old-school boxer.
Fighting is in my blood. I grew up swinging at everyone who messed with me, and that was no short list. I got my ass kicked by everyone until I learned how to give back all the shit that came my way, and I learned the hard way that there’s no one in this world who’s going to fight your battles except you.
I fought at school. I fought after school. And most of all, I fought at home. Fought a drunk mother who brought home random men all the time, and fought a bastard of a father who I had to go live with after my mom lost custody of me.
Conflict is what I know. And the Octagon is where I let all of my frustrations out.
But, I don’t want anyone’s pity. I’m not some wounded little animal. I’m a grown-ass man who enjoys kicking some ass, and I’m not afraid to admit that.
“What the hell did they teach you over there in Asia, anyhow?”
“A lot,” I say, moving around to avoid taking another shot to the face.
“I’ve gotta be honest, it’s not looking that way at the moment.”
I said Matt’s like a father, and right now he’s like that annoying father who yells at you for being ten minutes past your curfew. But like I said, I need that sometimes.
“Be kind, Master Splinter, one of your turtles has a cracked shell.”
I look away from my sparring partner long enough to catch Matt’s eye roll. Lucas started the whole ‘Master Splinter’ thing—that wise old rat in Teenaged Mutant Ninja Turtles—and the rest of us heard it so much that we just started repeating it. Matt wasn’t too happy about it, and he has a love/hate relationship with the name.
“I told you not to go, didn’t I?”
“You did,” I answer. “But Yoda told Luke not to go the Death Star in The Empire Strikes Back also. Sometimes you just need to follow your gut.”
“That’s a pretty good comparison,” he says with a smile. “’Cause stupid Luke came back without a hand, and stupid Damien came back to me with a fucked up leg. Both of you should have listened to your respective teachers.”
Last ye
ar, I left to train in Thailand against everyone’s advice. I was twenty-one at the time. Now, I’m a year older, injured—as Matt wasted no time in reminding me—and no closer to my dreams of being in the UFC with my boy Lucas. This wasn’t the plan.
The plan was to take the momentum I’d built with a three-fight win streak on the regional scene, build an even better striking skill set training Muay Thai with the actual Thais, and then come back an even scarier fucker than I was before.
But you know what they say about the best laid plans. Here’s what actually happened.
I moved to Thailand, lived in a fight culture that views you as weak if you need too much medical attention or recovery time during training, and I got myself nice and injured. Why? Because I’m stupid, and too tough for my own good sometimes. We’re all too tough for our own good. That’s why we need good trainers like Matt.
“Time!” he yells.
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