“So do I still have a job or have you killed Frank?” he asked me.
“Unfortunately he’s alive and well, so it’s back to work tomorrow.”
“Not that I have anything but disgust for the fucker, but I’m glad to hear it.”
“See you tomorrow then,” I said.
“I’ll be there,” he replied. Looking briefly in Em’s direction, he added, “I hope she’s okay.”
My stomach turned over slightly at the thought she might not be. “Me too,” I replied, knowing I couldn’t promise anything else.
When he’d gone, I locked up, took a quick shower, and after grabbing some clean boxer shorts, walked over to the bed. She looked like a goddamn angel lying there, and I wanted to wrap my body around her, protecting her in the most basic of ways, so I did.
She stirred, her behind brushing against my cock, and immediately I was rock hard. I twisted slightly so she didn’t feel it, knowing that she didn’t need that shit from me after what she’d been through tonight. She turned over restlessly to face me, and I felt a pang of guilt at disturbing her. A part of me willed her to wake up because I was fucking needy enough to want to know whether I had her forgiveness. I held my breath as her eyes fluttered open.
“Are you all right?” It was the first thing to come out of her beautiful mouth. Frank had attacked her again, and it’s me that she was worried for. Lifting up one of her tiny hands, I ran her fingers through mine, playing with them. “I know I’ve made you some promises that I’ve done a piss poor job of keeping, but that don’t mean I ain’t gonna keep trying for the rest of my life. So don’t give up on me okay?”
“What happened?” she asked, her body tense as she waited for my confession.
“We went to his house, and I roughed him up. He pushed me into losing my temper and I held a knife to his throat.”
“You didn’t…” She sobbed, grabbing me tightly, like she was afraid I was gonna be dragged away from her. “I wanted to, so fucking badly. It would be over then, and you wouldn’t be afraid anymore. But you’d lose me too, and I couldn’t have that. So I didn’t. We’re gonna get a restraining order, and I’ve warned him what will happen if he comes back. Don’t think he’ll listen, but if he likes being my punching bag, then I’m happy to keep my fist well exercised.”
She closed her eyes, rested her head against my bicep, and sobbed some more.
Grabbing her, I hauled her into my chest, wrapping my arms around her. “Shit, I’m sorry, baby. I’m so fucking sorry. Sorry for leaving you when you needed me, sorry for not being there in the first place. I didn’t think you’d want me to kill Frank but I can’t have you living in fear. Tell me if I did the wrong thing?” I begged earnestly. She was my fucking compass, and I needed to know what she was thinking. When she finally stopped crying, she wiped away her tears and held my face between her damp hands.
“You’re a good man, O’Connell. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel any different. You did the right thing not killing him. I don’t want that. I don’t care about Frank. I care about you, and I don’t want you to have to live with that. But I don’t want any life that doesn’t have you in it either. One day he’s going to mess up and land himself back in prison. But from now on, we put all this shit behind us. We have an amazing life ahead of us, and I want to start living it. Okay?” she told me.
“Okay, baby. We’ll be careful. I need to make sure you’re protected, but we look forward and not back.”
She gave me a wobbly smile as she turned her back on the last few shit-filled months. Looking at that gorgeous face, her cheeks soft from the tears, I couldn’t help moving in for a kiss. I should have known that once would never be enough. Her lips parted slightly on a gasp and I thrust my tongue into her mouth, her sweet taste making me even harder.
Weeks of not being able to make love to her came crashing over me. I wanted her everywhere. In me, over me, under me. I wanted her so fucking badly I could barely see straight. Running my hands up her silky thighs, I could feel the heat of her core long before my fingers reached their destination. I pulled one leg to wrap around my waist, leaving a gap in her shorts just big enough for me to slide my big fingers through her crease into her core. She cried out, her spine rigid, as she clenched and tightened around me. Needing both my hands I stripped her to expose her fucking gorgeous breasts. Her nipples puckered expectantly, and I lifted one breast to my mouth, sucking at the nub as she twisted and moaned at my touch.
“No, we can’t,” she groaned as she arched her back to bring her body closer to my mouth. “The ban,” she said on an exhale.
“Fuck the ban,” I told her. I focused my attention on her neglected breast while moving my finger up inside her. She struggled to talk, and I knew she wanted to argue with me so I moved it in and out of her slowly. Her body knew what it needed, and her hips moved to ride me. I want to be buried deep inside her so fucking badly but patience and discipline made me wait. After all the shit I’d put her through, I needed to make her feel good before I came.
“No, really. We can’t. You have the biggest fight of your career in a few weeks. I can’t jinx it,” she protested, pulling away from my kiss. I moved my hand away from her again and gripped her hips tightly as I bent to rest my forehead between her breasts. Danny had made her so fucking superstitious about this stupid sex ban. It was all bullshit, of course. She was all the motivation I needed to beat this guy, but if there was one thing I knew about Em, it was how stubborn she was when she made up her mind about something.
“You’re going to fucking kill me. You know that, right?” I told her.
“I’m pretty sure that no one ever died from blue balls,” she giggled.
“They have. It’s just that the victims’ families’ are ashamed of it so they tell people it was a ‘heart attack’ or some shit like that.”
“Well, if you do die of blue balls in the night, I promise I’ll tell people the truth, maybe set up a blue balls support group,” she joked.
“I can show you lots of ways to support my blue balls,” I told her as I nibbled at the corner of her mouth. Working my way down her jaw, I buried my head into the crook of her neck and inhaled, the scent of vanilla making me even harder. A thought occurred to me, and I braced myself up on my forearms to look into her eyes.
“Is this really about the fight? Because if you need some time after what Frank did, then that’s fine, Sunshine. You just tell me, and we can wait until you’re ready,” I reassured her.
“It’s not, O’Connell, believe me. I want nothing more now than for you to bury your cock deep inside me and let me ride it until Christmas,” she said “But Danny believes that the ban helps you fight better, and I believe in Danny.” I dropped my head back into her neck with a groan.
“What?” she asked.
“Two things. One, don’t say “cock” anymore. My dick twitches every time that word comes out of your pretty pink lips. And two, please don’t mention Danny in the same sentence as my cock. You can’t know how fucking wrong it feels to have that old codger’s face pop into my head when I’m hard as a fucking diamond.”
She collapsed against me in a fit of giggles, and I laid my head on her chest as she played absentmindedly with my hair, letting the sound of her laughter seep into my soul. However much I might regret not taking Frank out, I know I would never have this amount of peace with Em in my arms if I had.
That alone made it the right decision. I was a violent man. Throwing punches and taking hits would always be part of who I was. But for her, I had to choose a different path. Because at the end of the day, I’d be walking toward Sunshine. And that was a journey always worth taking.
* * *
We slept late into the next morning, and nobody came to wake us. If Frank had given me up, the police would have been beating down the door long ago.
“Shouldn’t you be at the gym?” mumbled Em, her hair sticking up all over the place adorably.
“I think we should call off the Temple fight,�
�� I told her.
“Why?” she asked sitting bolt upright in bed.
“I’m fighting in a matter of weeks, and I’m nowhere near ready. Plus Frank isn’t going anywhere, and I know we agreed to move forward from that,” I said putting my hands up in surrender. “But I still need to keep you safe and I can’t do that from the other side of the world.”
“No,” she said decisively, climbing out of bed.
“What do you mean, no?” I asked, pulling my T-shirt over my head.
“I meant exactly what I said. You are not calling off this fight. This will make your career, and if you drop out at the last minute, you’ll destroy it.”
“That’s exaggerating a bit…” I was six feet five inches but she stopped me in my tracks as she looked at me, stark naked with her hands on her little hips and one eyebrow raised. She didn’t say anything, but knowing she’d made her point, she carried on walking to the bathroom. Jeez, my stubborn woman made me all kinds of fucking hot.
“Fine! So my career would take a hit, but what do you propose we do about Frank? I leave for training camp in the US in a couple of weeks. You’ve got exams in two. How am I supposed to fight when I’m worrying about you here all alone?” She turned on the shower, drowning out my voice.
“Emmm…?” I pleaded, and she kissed me then climbed into the shower.
“Trust me, I’ve got an enormous brain. I’ll think of something. Now get dressed. You’ve got a lot of work to do, and I need to have a word with Danny.”
Rolling my eyes, I did as I was told. Despite all my protests, I knew she was right. Em wanted me to fight, and I wanted to win. Having made my peace with the part of myself that needed revenge, I was ready to show the rest of the world what I was made of.
* * *
The guys were all congregated in the office eating bacon sandwiches when we arrived.
“Here you go, darlin’. I saved you one,” Danny said, handing Em a wrapped sandwich.
“Where’s mine?” I asked.
“You’re in training,” Earnshaw pointed out, “or are you?”
“I am,” I replied with a smile.
“So what’s the plan?” Kieran asked with a mouth full of food.
Em took charge. “O’Connell’s fighting this guy, and he’s going to win. For the next couple of weeks, he lives here unless he’s sleeping, and the same goes for me. I’ve got exams in two weeks, and I’ve missed a lot of school lately. So if it’s okay with you, Danny, I’m going to use the office to study while O’Connell’s training. Heath, do you think you’ll be able to pick me up in the mornings on the way in? I know O’Connell won’t want me walking in alone, and I don’t fancy coming in at the crack of dawn with him,” she said.
“Happy to,” he answered, licking sauce from his fingers as the soggy meal started disintegrating into his hands.
“What about your shifts at Daisy’s?” I asked her.
“I’m going to ask Mike and Rhona to share my shifts between the other waitresses until the fight is over,” she answered.
“Honey, he wins this fight, you won’t ever need to waitress again. You could be a kept woman,” Earnshaw said. He grinned, oblivious to the slashing across the throat gestures Kieran and Tommy were making, telling him to quit it.
My little hellion turned to him, her hands on those cute-arse hips of hers and informed him, quite matter-of-factly, that she had no interest in being any such thing. “Besides, we don’t abandon out friends. Mike and Rhona have been good to me. I’ll keep waitressing as long as it takes them to find a replacement, even if we don’t need the money.”
“Em never thought too seriously about what I could potentially earn in the future. We never had anything, and we were doing just fine. If Earnshaw made a little money for us from sponsorship, so much the better. But it wouldn’t change who we were, and I fucking loved that.
“What do we do about Frank?” Tommy asked. “He ain’t just gonna disappear ’cause Con gave him a scare.”
“Keep your eyes peeled,” Danny replied. “If you see him, take a picture on your phone, or make a note of the date and time. I called the copper this morning who helped us find Em. He’s one of the good guys and would love to nail Frank to the wall. Don’t think he’s a big lover of dirty coppers either. So as of now, he’s putting together a harassment case so we can try and get a restraining order. Everything goes to him.” We nodded in agreement, the boys too busy stuffing their faces to say much.
“Well if that’s decided, then you’d best get your lazy arses out into that gym and do some work. Con, you’re a feckin’ long way from where you need to be, and we’ve practically no time to get you there. So what are you waiting for, feckin’ Christmas? Get to work,” Danny barked. Leaning around him to give Em a quick kiss before he slapped me, I legged it to get changed. I was hungry like I’d never been hungry before, and today was a brand-new day.
Chapter 22
I was doing one-handed press-ups when the iconic trumpets sounded from the speakers of the gym. Some of the other kids had stopped at the music, but hearing what it was, they laughed and carried on training, only harder. I smiled at them. You couldn’t help it. “Flying High Now” was fucking electric because it made you root for the underdog. Made you think you could do just about anything if you worked hard and were focused enough.
Danny rolled his eyes and took a deep drag on his cigarette before barking out my numbers, “Seventy-eight, seventy-nine, eighty.” When I got to one hundred, I switched arms. Danny was working me harder than I’d ever been worked in my entire life, and I loved it. My body loved it. My days ended with a sparring session with Earnshaw. Fucker was getting quicker, but honestly? He couldn’t touch me now. I was the wind. Faster than anyone would believe in a guy my size. I was Ali, I was Tyson, I was Foreman. I was all of the greats, and it made me invincible. There was no one who stood a chance in the ring with me, not even Kieran who was the best sparring partner I’d ever had.
Danny had taken training back to basics, and it was working. Balaam Leisure Center got wind of the fight, and they let me use the pool for an hour every day between their swimming classes. The only condition was that the local kids, although they weren’t allowed in the pool with me, got to watch me do laps. I fucking loved that part of my day. I might have been Irish but I was local and doing something to better myself, and that made me their hero. Those kids worked me harder than Danny ever did. Eventually he gave up giving me orders and let the kids do it. They’d shout at me to go faster for just one more lap. Afterward I ran back to the gym through Canning Town Recreation Ground, and they almost always followed me. A few on the first day and more and more with each day that passed. The older ones ran but the younger ones came on their bikes. Rico Temple couldn’t possibly have anything near the fuckin’ buzz those kids gave me. And people got behind it. The shopkeepers and street cleaners just opening up and doing their jobs knew me from my morning run. Commuters using the railway bridge began to say hello to me on their way home from work. Even the kids from the pool attracted other kids and they hung around outside the gym, often watching me run. Canning Town was a community, and I was their adopted son.
In the afternoons came more bag and leg work. Technique, core training, they were all things we worked on, but in very different ways. While Temple would have used complicated machines, I bench-pressed Em again, which the lads at the gym always seemed to enjoy, and when Danny was grilling me pretty hard about not lifting fast enough, I put her down and used Danny instead, which had the boys in hysterics.
“Put me down, you feckin’ eejit. Right Feckin now!” he screamed at me. After two presses, I did as he asked, then legged it around the gym as he chased me. For an old fucker, he sure was fast. I felt powerful and motivated in the same way I had after I’d walked Em home that first night. Like I could take on the world. Knowing that she was in the office next to me was like always training with your talisman. She worked so fucking hard. Harder than I ever could with all that book-lear
ning stuff. Danny even let Nikki, Ryan, and Albie use the office to study instead of the library. Kieran lent her his laptop as well. Everything the guys could do to make her comfortable, they did. Mary even caught wind of what we were all doing and kept the baked goods in steady supply.
Every day I trained longer, harder, and faster. Tommy got us a tractor tire, fuck knows from where, and once the fight was over, I was gonna fucking burn it. For hours, Danny had me turning that thing over and over, up and down the lane behind the gym. When he’d finished torturing me with that, he had me pounding on it over and over and over with a sledgehammer. Every obstacle was a machine, every movement an exercise. Even the foot bridge up and over the railway track, which had a steep staircase on either side, became our training ground. I lost count of the number of times he’s made me run up and over that bridge. Thousands and thousands of tiny steps and every one of ’em counted.
It was a heady feeling to be a part of something so great. Things were going so well that I didn’t want to leave for the US, and I sure as shit didn’t want to leave Em behind. I was doing hanging sit-ups when she came to find me on our last day together. Just as she walked out of the office, a fresh mug of coffee in her hand, Tommy came running in, grabbed Em by her cheeks, and kissed her loudly on the lips.
“What the fuck…” I said, nearly breaking my leg in my haste to climb down and smack Tommy for getting fresh with my wife. At least that was the plan until he came running over and did exactly the same thing to me. He kissed me. On the motherfucking lips. I should ’ave hit him but I was too bloody shocked to do anything other than stand there. Em giggled happily, probably at the look on my face.
Tommy was like a kid at Christmas, bouncing up and down so much he could barely get his news out. “I did it. I fucking did it,” he screamed, pulling a letter out of his back pocket and waving it at us.
“What is it?” Em asked him.
“I passed the psychometric exams for the fire service. Thick as shit Tommy Rierdan passed the exams!” I couldn’t be more proud of the little fucker.
The Aftermath Page 18