She blinked up at him. “You sure you don’t want to have sex first?”
He grinned. “I’m sure. But I wouldn’t mind something nice to look at while I change.” He eased her sweater over her shoulders and set it on the bench. The room was tiny. It had probably been more of a closet one hundred years ago. Now it was converted into a sort of dressing room or locker room. With only a few yards of space in either direction, there was barely enough room to maneuver.
Leo turned her around so she faced the group of three gray lockers on the left wall. They were rusting and dented with age. They reached almost to his height. He stroked his hands up her sides and lifted her arms over her head to place them on the cool metal locker doors as far as she could reach. “Leave your hands here,” he whispered into her ear, letting his breath make her shiver.
He loved the way she reacted to him. So easily aroused. So damn sexy when flushed with need.
He lifted her skirt and palmed her ass cheeks again. The jewel between them peeked out, tempting him to twist it or pull it out and push it back in. He did neither, knowing she would collapse if he went any further. “Spread your legs, babe.”
She inched her feet farther apart, wavering slightly on the sexy heels she wore.
He released her skirt to brush her hair over one shoulder, leaving her upper body exposed to his gaze while he stepped back to change. The pinkened skin of her shoulder blades made him salivate.
She gripped the flat cold surface of the lockers with the tips of her fingers so hard they turned white. Each time she moved even an inch, her ass swayed, shaking her dress.
Leo closed his eyes and took a deep cleansing breath. He needed to get his head in the game. As soon as Ivan showed up, he would turn Katie over into his hands and concentrate.
While she faced the lockers, he shrugged out of his clothes and pulled on his loose black fighting shorts. His cock was still engorged, but it couldn’t be helped.
Needing to push her a little more, he set his hands on her shoulders and spun her slowly back around. He pressed her against the lockers, reached under her skirt, and pinched her butt cheek, making her squeal and jump. He cupped her offended ass. “Stop wiggling around, and don’t make a sound.”
Her eyes widened and she licked her lips.
Leo tapped the round bulb situated between her cheeks. She leaned forward into him, her forehead landing on his chest, a soft mewling sound escaping her lips.
“No noises.”
She grabbed his biceps as if the act would help her divert her need to moan.
Leo couldn’t resist the urge to reach farther between her legs until he could stroke her sweet folds. He parted them easily with one finger and dipped inside her warmth.
She was soaking wet. Her legs shook. Her fingers dug into his biceps. “That’s it, babe. Feel the desire. Don’t act on it. Hold it in.”
When he tipped her head back with his other hand, he found her lips pursed to keep from making any sound.
“Let it build. Think about my touch while I’m in the ring. I’ll make it worth your while after the fight.”
She nodded.
He slipped his finger out of her and lifted it to suck her wetness. “You taste amazing. I can’t wait to bury my tongue in you.”
She shuddered. Her mouth opened, but no sound came out.
He turned her around again and pressed her chest into the lockers with a hand between her shoulder blades. “God, your shoulders are gorgeous all pink like this.” He let his fingers dance along her heated skin and then grazed them down to lift her skirt again. “And this plug. So fucking sexy.” He was torturing himself unnecessarily, but if he’d had to look into her eyes another moment, he would have broken down and fucked her.
A knock sounded at the door.
Katie swung to face him so quickly her long hair whipped into her face. Deep blue eyes penetrated him. “You weren’t going to open that, were you?”
He cupped her face. “Babe, I won’t be sharing one inch of your delectable skin with a single soul. Relax.”
She lowered her shoulders and sighed. “I thought…”
“You thought I would open the door to any random person while your back was turned, your legs spread open, your pink skin showing?”
She chewed on the corner of her bottom lip.
“Never.” He kissed her forehead, handed her the sweater from the bench, and waited while she put it on. And then he opened the door.
Ivan stood in the frame, smirking. Alena stood behind him to one side, leaning around his huge body, also grinning.
Leo shot them both a look that said Don’t say a word if you value your lives.
“You going to go warm up or what?” Ivan asked.
“Yep. You got Katie?”
“That’s what I’m here for.” Ivan glanced at her and winked before sobering. “Though I’m not sure this is a good idea. Bringing two women to this fight, I mean. We don’t know what Yenin’s up to. Three of his men were just killed. And no one has a clue what he has in mind next.”
“And you think leaving them at home would have been a better idea?”
Ivan sighed. “No.”
Leo turned toward Katie, cupped her face again, and kissed her soundly. “Do not lose sight of Ivan for one second. Got it?”
“Yes, master.”
He growled, his dick jumping at her choice of words. “You want to call me master, I’m good with that, but don’t ever do it in that sarcastic tone.”
She swallowed hard and nodded.
With one last peck, he turned and left the small changing room before he lost his resolve and plastered her sweet ass to the wall to ravage her. He needed to get his head on straight. He had one hour before his fight.
∙•∙
Katie watched Leo walk away and then turned to follow Ivan and Alena toward the main room. This venue was new to her. Her third. But they were all similar. Rough underground basements that had seen little care since their construction in the early 1900s. The halls were narrow and the floors irregular stones.
It was difficult to walk around in her heels on the uneven surface.
Alena was also wearing heels, but she had on tight black jeans and a peach sweater that hugged her torso perfectly. Ivan glanced at her every few seconds, a scowl on his face.
Alena seemed to shrug him off. If Katie wasn’t mistaken, the woman was goading him intentionally. And she liked it.
Ivan led them down the hall that seemed more like a secret passageway and through a door on the right that led to the main area of the bar. The blast of noise wasn’t unexpected, but still jarring.
Alena grabbed Katie’s hand and held on tight as if she too found the setting formidable.
Ivan ushered the two of them to a corner next to the bar. Two men were currently fighting in the ring, but Katie presumed they weren’t anyone Ivan knew well. “Do either of you want something to drink?”
Katie shook her head alongside Alena. Drinking would make her need to pee, and entering a restroom in this establishment wouldn’t be her idea of a good time. In fact, there was every chance Ivan wouldn’t even allow it.
Katie turned toward Alena. “Have they let you out of the apartment this week?” She smiled warmly, hoping to start up a conversation with the petite blonde.
Alena giggled, leaning in to answer over the roar of the crowd. “No, but I’m wearing them down. My brother has mostly been with Haley. He’s gotten rather protective of her. I’ve been trapped with Ivan and often alone in the apartment. I need them to lighten up and let me go out.”
Katie nodded. That life would drive her insane.
“After what happened last week, it will probably be two more years before they decide it’s safe enough to give me an inch.” She rolled her eyes.
“Maybe they really would let you come work at my clinic. Does that interest you?”
Alena beamed. “Of course. I’d love that. Are you sure you don’t mind? I don’t need to get paid. I just need somethi
ng to do.”
“I’m sure we can get you up to speed on something worthwhile so you can make some money at the same time. It’s not exactly a glamorous place to work. It’s a free clinic, after all.”
“I’ll try to talk some sense into Mikhail and Ivan.”
“I’ll talk to Leo. Maybe he can help.”
Time passed quickly while Katie leaned to one side to watch the fight through the enormous throng of patrons. Many of them held up money and shouted bets between one fight and the next.
Alena helped Katie understand some of the rules better, though there weren’t many. More like suggestions to avoid getting killed by a disgruntled loser after the fight.
Ivan stood in front of them, nearly blocking them both from anyone’s view, his arms crossed over his chest, his feet planted wide. He looked like the scariest bouncer she’d ever seen.
When the second fight ended, he turned partway to face them and nodded toward the ring. “Let’s move forward. Leo’s next.” He set his hand on Alena’s lower back and grasped Katie’s bicep.
It took several minutes to make their way through the crowd.
By the time they settled in a spot a few yards from the cage, Katie felt the nervous tension rolling off Ivan in waves. He had one hand on each woman constantly. If he wasn’t grasping her bicep, then he was squeezing her neck or reaching for her forearm or setting his hand on her lower back. It wasn’t sexual like it was with Leo, but protective.
She lowered her gaze to watch his palm currently on the small of Alena’s back, his fingers spread wide, his pinky stroking her ass. Now that was sexual. No one had mentioned a relationship between Ivan and Alena, but it was obvious to Katie that both of them were into each other. No way in hell would she point it out to Leo or anyone else, though.
Alena’s eyes twinkled when she looked up at him. Her smile was warm and genuine. She leaned into his contact often.
The announcer’s booming voice jerked Katie from her pondering. She lifted her gaze to find one fighter already in the ring and Leo stepping into the fenced area.
She did a double take on his opponent. Wasn’t he the same man who had fought Dmitry the first time she’d come to one of these venues?
“In the right corner we have Joe ‘Hothead’ Mantoba…”
Yep. Same man. Dmitry had beaten him with an injured kidney. Hopefully Leo would fare similarly. Joe was broad in the shoulders and certainly buff, but he didn’t have the height Leo had, nor the same level of bounce in his feet.
The announcer moved on to introduce Leo, who spun around so the entire audience could see him. He lifted one hand in the air to wave as the man in the black shirt and pants called out his stats.
Within moments of the start of the fight, the crowd started shouting his nickname, “The Master.”
Katie smiled to herself. How ironic. She had somehow never known that. He’d never told her. She shivered when she remembered the way he’d looked at her the last moments they were together in the locker room. “You want to call me master, I’m good with that, but don’t ever do it in that sarcastic tone.”
The tall, built, sexy man with the sexy Russian Cyrillic on his back was hers.
Wasn’t he?
How had she come to think of him as hers in such a short time? Or maybe she had already thought of him that way before he climbed into her heart and took over her soul last week.
They’d been friends. Hadn’t they?
And now?
Wetness leaked between her legs, and she had a renewed awareness of the plug lodged inside her tight rear hole. She wanted this man with every ounce of her being.
Women all over the room were fanning themselves and screaming his name. They leaned forward, inching closer to the cage with every passing moment.
None of them had been in the small locker room with him, pressed against the cold metal, feet spread, back pulsing with the marks he’d made on them earlier that evening. Suddenly, she loved the dull ache. It reminded her whose hands had been on her skin.
She squeezed her legs together in a delicious attempt to rub her clit and give herself some relief. All that accomplished was to make her more aroused. It wasn’t as if she could get off from rubbing her thighs against each other. But the increased arousal felt naughty enough to make her bite her lower lip.
Leo would never approve of her stance. And Leo wasn’t there to witness it.
She yanked her gaze from the shouting crowd to the ring as Leo and Joe bounced around each other in a sort of choreographed dance. They took a long time to size each other up. And then Joe swung out with a right hook that barely nicked Leo in the jaw.
Leo bobbed out of range and returned the hook with a jab to Joe’s upper arm.
Joe ducked his head and slammed his entire body forward into Leo’s chest, probably hoping to throw him off balance.
But Leo was too stable and weighed too much to be affected. He wrapped one arm around Joe’s neck and held him in a clinch.
Ivan leaned forward to speak into Katie’s ear. “Leo is most known for that clinch. He can hold his opponent’s head for long enough that the guy never has a chance. Occasionally he’s taken out the other fighter in less than a minute. Joe should have known better than to try to ram Leo with his head.”
Katie nodded. She lifted onto her tiptoes to watch closer. Leo still shuffled his feet, but he kept a tight clinch around Joe’s neck, dragging the man in a circle as he bounced.
Joe kicked forward with his feet, trying to dislodge the clinch Leo had on his neck to no avail. Finally, he swung his hand around in a jab to Leo’s side, knocking Leo off him.
Katie gasped. She craned her neck to see better, leaning back and forth to peer around the edge of the patrons in front of her.
Joe spun around and lifted his leg to kick Leo high in the chest.
Leo jumped back, flattening himself against the chain links of the fence. He ducked under Joe’s arm and bounced back into the center.
When Joe lifted both hands and drove three hard jabs with the right one into Leo’s jaw, Katie gasped. She lifted her fingers to half cover her eyes as if she couldn’t bear to see more but also couldn’t possibly stop herself.
“Don’t worry,” Alena yelled. “Give him a second.”
What if he lost? What sort of brooding mood would he be in if Joe Mantoba took him down?
She clasped her hands together between her breasts, her heart pounding. This was more than she could stand. Watching the man she loved get pummeled in the ring wasn’t her idea of a good time.
Suddenly, Leo leaped forward and wrapped his left arm around Joe’s neck again in another clinch.
Joe struggled against the grip, punching and pushing on Leo’s arms. But this time Leo had one hand free, and he used it to retaliate against Joe, jabbing him in the chest and face with as much force as he could while holding the man in a tight clinch.
“That’s the move,” Ivan stated. “Hothead is done for.”
Sure enough, Leo managed to drag Joe to the ground, flipping the man onto his back while still clinching him around the neck.
Joe landed with a loud thud that could be heard over the roaring crowd. And then Leo applied even more pressure, holding Joe down with a knee to his chest.
Joe squirmed, fighting to free himself and losing. Each kick or punch he swung flew with less force than the last.
Katie had watched this scene play out enough times to know there were no rules. The referee wasn’t going to step in and call the fight. Joe had to tap out or risk serious injury. But what Katie also knew about Leo was there was no way he could intentionally harm someone permanently. He had an enormous heart.
Nevertheless, she held her breath while Joe continued to struggle, not wanting to give up. Finally, he flattened his palm to the floor at his side, a nonverbal communication that he was calling uncle.
The referee announced the winner by grabbing Leo’s forearm and lifting it as he hauled Leo to his feet. Leo nodded at the crowd, scanning
around while he did so.
Katie’s chest pounded watching him look for her in the crowd. She knew that was what he was doing. And she felt his intensity before he spotted her.
When he did, he gave her a nod and a wink. He might have even smiled around the mouth guard.
When he turned to exit on the other side of the ring, Katie felt Ivan’s fingers around her wrist. “Let’s move around to the hallway.”
She nodded.
Alena tucked herself under Ivan’s other arm and clasped his fingers with her small hand. She set a palm on his chest as they worked their way through the crowd.
Suddenly, a loud boom tore through the air.
Katie threw her hands up to cover her ears while she ducked her head.
An explosion?
The entire speakeasy shook with the aftershocks.
An earthquake?
It was too intense and short to have been an earthquake.
The fans screamed, running in every direction toward the exits.
Ivan held steady, keeping a tight arm wrapped around Alena and gathering Katie into his side with his other arm. “Don’t move.”
She flattened her palm next to Alena’s on his chest as if that might ground her and keep her from being stripped away from her protector.
Her heart raced as she tried to think.
Alena’s eyes were wide with fear.
People pushed their way around the three of them, but Ivan held steady. Why?
As the patrons shoved their way out the front and side entrances, Leo burst into the room and pawed his way through the thinning crowd.
Katie spotted him over the heads of several people. It seemed as though he knocked them out of his way like dominos to get to her. He was taller than many of the others in the room, making it easy to keep her eye on his progress.
When he reached their side, he tugged her out of Ivan’s embrace and dragged her against his chest, holding her tighter than necessary. His fingers threaded into her hair and gripped her cheek against his pecs.
Clinch Page 25