IRISH: a Bad Boy Fighter Romance

by Olivia Hawthorne

  The announcer began the intro to the fight and the octagon girl strode through on her ridiculous high heels holding the round number up for the audience.

  They went crazy, the energy in the arena was palpable and they were all chanting the same thing over and over.

  “Knox! Knox! Knox!”

  They were all there for me, to see me take down the young upstart.

  I didn’t want to let them down, but I didn’t want to miss out on the birth of our first child. Lennon might forgive me but I would never forgive myself.

  The girl walked past me, winked and I glared at her. She grimaced and looked away.

  I began to unwrap my hands, to take the gloves off and rush to Lennon’s side.

  Jake stopped me.

  “She wouldn’t want you to walk away from him,” he told me, holding my shoulders and looking me in the eye. “You know how tough your wife is, she’d want you to finish this before you got to the hospital.”

  “What if I miss the fekking birth, though?” I asked, desperate to calm the anxiety that was building in me gut.

  “Believe me, it takes a lot longer than you think,” he told me. “I need you to get out there and kick Robert’s ass, you hear me?”

  I nodded and focused to get my head back in the game.

  I looked across the ring at Robert and felt that familiar focused heat rise behind my eyes. My vision tunneled and I saw red with Robert’s face in the middle of it.

  He was the one thing standing between me and Lennon and our baby and he was going down.

  I walked slowly to the center of the octagon, punched my fists against Robert’s, waited for the bell to ring and waited for the fight to start.

  The second it rang, the referee stepped back and I dodged Robert’s meaty fist as it flew towards my face.

  With singular determination I let my tunnel vision find his face. I leapt forward, lifted my foot and hit Robert in the face with a spinning back kick.

  He wobbled and I followed through with a fierce left hook to the face. He went down hard and I dropped next to him to continue my onslaught of punches to his face.

  The ref pulled me off and the crowd was insane with screaming energy.

  Robert didn’t get back up, his eyes rolled back in his head and he was out like a light.

  “Total knockout!” the ref screamed and lifted my hand above my head. “We might have a record tonight!”

  The fans screamed even louder and chanted my name so hard the arena shook from the force.

  The officials had their heads together and were all discussing something. I ran around the octagon with my hands in the air as Robert’s people helped him out.

  The announcer strolled to the center of the ring, took a breath and said, “Tonight we have a world record knock out punch. Eight seconds! This fight lasted eight seconds! I give you the continued UFC heavyweight champion of the world ladies and gentlemen…Knox King O’Connor!”

  He took my hand, raised it above my head and I wanted to get the hell out of there and get back to Lennon.

  Without warning I jumped from the ring and jogged to the dressing room. I heard confused voices behind me, but I was gone. I was going to meet my baby.

  As I exited the building, leaving Jake behind to handle the press, one reporter managed to find me.

  “Knox! We have to know why you’re leaving so soon after that amazing victory!”

  I turned to look at him, grinned widely and said, “My wife is having a baby! I’m on my way!”

  “Congratulations,” he said and let me go.

  It was a blur to the hospital. I didn’t trust myself to drive so I grabbed our car service and told him there would be a thousand dollars in it for him if he got me there as fast as possible.

  He did and I ran through the doors yelling for Lennon. I must have looked like a crazy man but everybody recognized me and knew why I was there.

  I pushed open the doors of the birth suite and saw the most amazing sight of my life.

  Lennon in labor, her face scrunched up and red, her hair hanging in limp tendrils around her sweaty forehead and her body working to bring our baby into the world.

  She was a goddess…a queen…the most incredible person I knew.

  “I’m here, kitten,” I said as the nurses led me off to the side to wash up and get ready.

  “Knox, I knew you’d make it,” Lennon exhaled in a long, guttural moan of pain.

  The hair on the back of my neck stood on end and I knew I was in the presence of greatness. There could be nothing greater than the power of a woman giving birth.

  I took her hand and talked to her like we’d been taught. I gave her ice chips when she needed them and rubbed her back when it was time.

  It took hours and Katie ducked in from time to time to check up on the progress.

  Jake had been right, childbirth was much longer than I’d imagined.

  After hours of Lennon laboring, the moment finally arrived.

  I held her hand and told her how amazing she was as she gave one last screaming push and our baby slipped into the world.

  The cry from his mouth was the sweetest sound, and meeting him for the first time brought tears to me eyes.

  Bloody Knox O’Connor, crying like a wee baby himself over the birth of his son.

  That’s one for the record books.

  They let me hold him and cut the chord and I didn’t think I’d ever stop staring at his perfect face. He looked like his mother, the lucky little guy, and her tears flowed freely as I put him in her arms for the first time.

  “You were right all along,” she said quietly. “It’s a boy.”

  “I’d like to name him for me dad,” I told her and stroked her cheek.

  “What is it?” she asked and looked up at me and I fell in love all over again. She was so magnificent in that moment it was all I could do to not drop to my knees and thank her for this, the most incredible gift of all.

  “Ronan…Ronan O’Connor.”

  “I love it,” she said and turned back to our son. “Hey Rone, welcome to the world.”

  I watched her in the quiet hours of the morning with our son. She fed him from her breast and sang him to sleep and finally fell asleep herself with our baby on her chest.

  I slipped into the big bed with them, curled my arm around her and Ronan and let myself slide off into sleep.

  We slept for a couple hours, a family sharing their dreams and their love for each other.

  It was the beginning of the next stage of our lives together and my heart sang with the joy the future promised.

  Lennon and I were going to be amazing parents and would grow old together, our love sustaining us until the end of days.

  And I wouldn’t change a thing.

  About the Author

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