Love TKO

by Selene Chardou

  Chiara bent down as he raised his head slightly and when their lips met one another, it was perfect. Sweet and gentle, a kiss made for intimate lovers who knew one another inside out.

  Torin suddenly sat up and stood like his ass was on fire.

  “What’s the matter?” she questioned in a worried voice.

  “I won’t ruin this for you or me. We can make love but not tonight. This has been the perfect weekend and I won’t ruin it. I want to see you again and I know you feel the same. No sex until we see each other for who we really are and don’t hate me because I want you more than you can ever know but…you’re no longer just a hot piece of ass. You’re the woman I adore.”

  Chiara tried to blink the tears away and failed as she stood and strolled with him to her front door. “Listen, I had the best time with you this weekend and I know you have to train but I really hope we can get together sometime this week.”

  Torin turned toward her, grabbed her by the waist and planted another sweet kiss on her lips. “Yes, we will see one another again this week. I don’t honestly think I could go more than a couple days without that gorgeous smile, generous heart or beautiful body. You really are so much more than meets the eye, you know that, right?”

  “You’re only saying that because you have fallen head over heels for me.” Her smile faltered a bit and her brown eyes looked around before they settled on his face again. “I’m falling for you too and…please know it has nothing to do with money or who you are. You’re a wonderful human being with a wounded heart but that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to be loved and adored.”

  “Darlin’, that is something I’m not lackin’—”

  “Not like that.” Her hands reached out for his hair and smoothed down a few strands. “I mean to be seen as you truly are, not because you’re some prize fighter or some groupie skank is looking for her next hot fuck on the horizon. I mean the real you—the one you keep hidden away from everyone. He deserves to be acknowledged and seen too.”

  “I don’t have to worry about the world viewing me because I have you.” Torin kissed her forehead softly and embraced her.

  She felt so small and helpless in his arms but he innately understood her fragile façade kept her safe and secure. No man would ever hurt her, not if he could help it.

  They separated reluctantly and although they didn’t exchange any words, their gazes toward one another said it all. There was a connection there, so deep, true and real that he couldn’t believe they could feel so much in three days. It wasn’t possible to fall for someone so profound or so fast.

  He waited until she waved and closed her front door before he strode to his Harley.

  Chiara was the one, he could just feel it. He didn’t believe in only one person being right for another but he knew for certain that there was something unique between the two of them and perhaps they could help heal one another’s broken hearts.

  Chapter Ten

  Chiara

  THE FRAGILE HAPPINESS I’d survived on all weekend came to a rather abrupt crashing halt Monday evening.

  Over the years, I’d become good at keeping a diary on my MacBook Pro and I wrote in it almost every day, religiously. It was never meant to be my memoirs or anything that morbid; besides, what would I have called it? Diary of a High Priced Escort by Anonymous?

  Good luck with that one.

  I never named my clients and used their initials only but since Friday and my “date” with Torin, which had begun a sexual discovery even I couldn’t fully explain, it helped me to sort out my emotions.

  I knew what I felt for him was more than any other man I’d ever been with but that didn’t mean I would ever want to share what we had with anyone. Not for all the money in the world. He’d pieced together the tattered remains of my life and I loved him for that. What he’d provided me with over the amazing weekend we spent together was hope.

  I was more than what I did for a living, and I was worth more than the ten thousand a night starting price I had, which steadily went up. He’d given me back my humanity and I could never thank him enough for that.

  All the words I couldn’t, and wouldn’t, dare speak to him I could write down in my diary and knew it would be for my eyes only. When I was finally settled in France and I felt lonely, I could pull up these passages of a love so organic and pure, it made me cry for not trying to do something else than what I’d chosen to do as my profession, if only to give us a fighting chance, pun intended.

  I listened to Big Sean’s “Marvin & Chardonnay,” drinking an expensive glass of the pale wine that tasted like ice cold piss no matter how much this bottle had cost. I hated Chardonnay with a passion but my wine supply was dangerously low thanks to not being able to shop on the weekend. I had Torin to thank for that but I wouldn’t have traded the time we spent together for all the Pinot Grigio in the world. His time was worth so much more than sacrificing my favorite wine, and being able to spend a quiet evening in with my ice cold glass of nasty Chardonnay piss.

  My cell phone began to play The Verve’s “Bittersweet Symphony” and my heart almost froze in my chest. I’d chosen that ring tone for one man only, and I hadn’t heard it since I settled in Vegas, like he’d demanded.

  I watched as my hand shook slightly, reached for the phone and answered, “Hello?”

  “Chiara, it’s Raymond. How are you doing, my dear?”

  His syrupy yet masculine voice carried its own weight of menace even if it couldn’t be heard. I laughed and hated the way I sounded because it was my fake, phony, and contrived “laugh.” “I’m doing great. I haven’t heard from you in a while. Are you trying to talk me into staying past my contract?”

  Raymond chuckled on the other end as if I’d asked the most ridiculous question known to man. “Of course not. No one likes an old whore, my dear, and your expiration date is coming just in time.”

  The comment was like a stab through my heart with a rusted icepick. The man knew how to be succinct and to the point.

  I set my laptop to the side and breathed lightly. “What can I do for you then since I have less than six months left. I would hate for you to get the reputation of having old whores on your payroll.”

  “Well, Yvanka called and she seemed a bit worried about your state of mind. I thought she was just being paranoid as usual. She was a former sex slave so you never know what to expect from those types—”

  “I’ve been working for you for over nine years and have given you some of the best years of my life. Get to the point—you at least owe me that much.”

  “Well, like I said, I didn’t take her seriously until my wife happened to be looking at People Magazine online and guess who she spotted leaving an upscale restaurant with one of the top MMA fighters, Torin Duffy?”

  I swore my heart stopped beating at that moment though it in fact thundered in my chest like wild horses. “I can only imagine what you must have thought—”

  “Well, I didn’t think much of anything until I spoke to Karl and realized he’s not on our books, which means that was an actual date and not an appointment.” Raymond paused for the sheer purpose of melodramatic nuance. “What did we say about you dating while you’re still on my payroll? It’s obvious the man is smitten about you.”

  “I won’t ever see him again. It was…a lapse in judgment on my part.” The tears streamed silently down my eyes at a promise I wasn’t sure I could even keep but anything was better than getting him into the sordid world I happened to call my own.

  “It’s too late for all of that, Chiara. Besides, the decision’s already been made. Karl, Mr. Abandonato and I would like to meet you two at the Vogue Hotel, Casino and Spa on Friday. We have…a proposition for Mr. Duffy. Believe me, everyone comes out on top and it’s a win-win situation. There will be no more tricks to turn in your future—in fact, I will allow you to terminate your contract early and pay you the remaining proceeds of what you would have earned if you worked for the next six months.”

  “No.�
��

  “No?”

  “Hell. No.” My hand shook as it held my phone against my ear. “I can’t do that to Torin.”

  “Ah…true love. It makes my heart all warm and cuddly. You will be at that meeting or your lover boy will end up with two broken legs and you’ll end up with a face that you won’t want anyone to see…especially small children or men.”

  I let out a sob I couldn’t bury in my chest. “Why?”

  “Because I can. Friday, ten in the morning. Have a great week and enjoy your lover. He might not want to see you again after Friday.”

  The phone clicked and I looked at the screen. He’d ended the call and all I had was his photo and the duration of how long our conversation had taken. My heart hurt but I steeled my spine and took several deep breaths before I dried my eyes with the heels of my hands.

  I was stronger than a weeping, blubbering mess. I could handle this and still come out on the winning end. Or I could allow my emotions to get the best of me and cost myself the one relationship that had ever given my life any true meaning in my adulthood.

  The choice was all mine.

  MY CELL PHONE rang again and I emerged from an awful sleep with a terrible hangover. I’d finished the whole bottle of Chardonnay and then had a Xanax chaser to send me off to dreamland after my conversation with Raymond.

  I reached for my cell phone and answered with a quiet, “Hello?”

  “Hey, babe, did I wake you?” Torin greeted, his Irish accent slightly pronounced. “I wanted to take you to lunch but I’m at the gym and I was wonderin’ if you could meet me here.”

  “What’s today?”

  He laughed on the other end. “Tuesday, darlin’. You feelin’ okay?”

  “Yeah, I’m fine.” I tried to swallow but the sallow taste in my mouth and my own morning breath made my stomach slightly queasy and do a few flip flops that signaled I would be holding the toilet bowl in about ten minutes.

  “Cool. I’ll text you the address. Is one o’clock okay?”

  “That’s fine. See you then, sweetie.”

  “I’m looking forward to it, ceann álainn,” he murmured in my ear.

  The sound of him talking Gaelic to me instantly soaked my panties and all I wanted to do was curl up next to him and allow him to have his way with me, all day and all night.

  “Talk to you later and…be careful. See you soon.”

  “You too.”

  I ended the call and held my phone to my heart before I set it on the bedside table and made a run to the bathroom.

  Chardonnay and I were not the best friends going down but we despised one another coming back up. I cursed myself as I made it to the toilet in time and vowed never to drink that ice cold piss again if I could get past this massive hangover.

  AFTER THE BATHROOM incident, I took a long hot shower and followed up by throwing my damp hair in a bun, putting on a pair of flannel pajamas, and nursed the perfect cup of coffee from my Keurig while I looked through the latest episode of Society Magazine.

  The usual suspects were there: Fiona Duffy, Taylor Parker, Chyna Bleu, members from some popular Beverly Hills wives reality show and others who were known to cause trouble or just managed to get their photos taken while coming from the gym looking like stir-fried shit.

  Every time I thought about my conversation with Raymond, my stomach lurched and I didn’t think I would be able to tell Torin until the last minute. It would definitely have to wait until after we had mind blowing sex again because once with that man hadn’t been enough and I wanted all of him this time, not just his cock and his mouth.

  I wanted those blue eyes to see me for who I was and what we meant to one another.

  Which meant what, exactly?

  Yeah, my inner Freud was having a field day with my new obsession over Torin. That’s all it was because we couldn’t possibly know one another well enough to have formed some kind of real emotional attachment. It was my pheromones and his frying each other’s brains, giving us a sense of euphoria and that feeling we were meant to be when, in fact, we were what each other should run from if we were smart.

  I was a nobody; an attractive little nothing from a small town in Northern Nevada who couldn’t cope with a sister who’d I’d thrown in a mental institution so to assuage my guilt, I one-upped her and became our mother. That seemed a fitting punishment for the woman who was fine, mentally. I needed to suffer, craved it just to make me feel better about my sister who would be co-dependent on me for the rest of her life just like I was with her.

  What about France?

  Yes, I’d bought that apartment in hopes one day I would have a normal life but I knew in my heart of hearts that normal would never come because it wasn’t in the cards for me. I was a freak and no man would ever want me on his arm, let alone to be his wife.

  I’d been living in the perfect fantasy world for so long, my own little pathetic version of Pretty Woman, I couldn’t tell truth from reality anymore and it was downright sad and depressing.

  Between nursing the remnants of a passing hangover and my own self-doubt, it was amazing I made the effort to dress for lunch.

  I chose a periwinkle blue Chanel shift dress with a black cashmere wrap and a sky-high pair of black Louboutins’ to finish off my casually elegant look. I left my hair down and it flowed in loose waves around my shoulders down past the shoulder blades.

  Everything about me, including my car, was understated; it wouldn’t actually bode well to have my neighbors wondering what I did for a living. I drove a black 2014 Ford Explorer since I usually picked up clients in the back of a limo if that were required for my date. The Explorer was just easier to have and deal with now that Sienna’s children were older, and it was my responsibility to often haul them to and from doctor’s appointments.

  The last stop I made before I left was a quick glance in the hallway mirror. I looked like a million bucks and I knew Torin would approve. It was the least I could do before I ruined life as he knew it in a few days.

  Whatever Raymond, Angelo Abandonato and Karl had planned couldn’t be anything good and was probably illegal. How I’d fallen so easily into a trap they probably set for me was beyond my knowing.

  I instinctively knew Torin wasn’t in on it because no matter how much they insisted no one would get hurt, I knew in my heart of hearts that was bullshit. We would both be on the losing end and the only people who would stand to gain from this little game was Raymond, Angelo and Karl.

  They were all amazingly, disgustingly wealthy and worth multiple billions of dollars but it wasn’t even about the money. I learned the hard way people with that much money used it like they were playing Monopoly. It became a game of Chess and we were all just pawns.

  Even someone like Torin who did have money but not the kind the three men in that room would possess when we met them on Friday. They were worth well over twenty billion dollars if their fortunes were combined and they couldn’t be bought off or bargained with. They would want something and my pitiful life could possibly be put on the line but didn’t they know? I didn’t mean that much to Torin yet because we simply didn’t have time on our side.

  We hadn’t been sneaking around with one another for months or years. We’d merely known one another for days so what did he have to lose by not going along with what they wanted unless they threatened his family or his livelihood.

  In that case, it was a mistake on their part because Torin hated bullies and whatever they wanted him to do, he might agree but I would be damned if he didn’t do the opposite. He’d faced bigger monsters than them at home. When you’ve fought your whole life to have a fair shot, people like gangsters, the mafia and rich bored billionaires became less frightening.

  I surprised myself by arriving to the gym in one piece. My mind was all over the place, and I was damn lucky I hadn’t gotten into an accident. I got out on shaky legs and walked towards the large plain building. Kieran Duffy, Torin’s younger brother leaned against a shaded wall, smoking a cigarett
e.

  “Hello,” I greeted as I walked closer before stopping a few feet away.

  His sexy younger brother started at my feet and gave me a thorough once over with deep, penetrating blue eyes. “So, you’re the piece my brother has hidden away all this past weekend. All I can say is you gotta be dynamite in bed with a mink covered pussy because he’s never been this gung-ho about any woman in his life.”

  I smiled and couldn’t hide the knowing look in my eye. I was used to men talking dirty to me; where other women would have been put out and insulted by his frank behavior, he might as well be talking about the weather as far as I was concerned.

  “Your brother is a very interesting person too,” I merely responded.

  “You were at Jesse’s party, right?”

  I nodded my head wordlessly.

  “I wanted you but Torin beat me to the punch.” He shrugged his shoulders apathetically. “It’s probably for the best anyway. I mean, I know who I am gonna spend the rest of my life with…when the time comes. Tor has been lost for so fuckin’ long and he deserves some happiness. I’m glad you two found you had more than sex in common and hooked up.”

  “Your brother doesn’t know what I do,” I murmured before I met his cerulean gaze.

  “How could he not? Unless he thought you were some sort…organizer for the event. You do have that older, worldly look about you. God knows you don’t look like an escort, not even a high-priced one.”

  “Why haven’t you told him?” I questioned as I dug into a purse and lit a cigarette of my own from an emergency stash I kept on me at all times.

  “Truthfully? It’s not my place, darlin’, and unlike a lot of man-whores out there, I don’t judge either. How can I honestly say anything without sounding like a hypocritical prick? At least you’re not givin’ it away and you probably have provided for people other than yourself. You don’t have that selfish air about you at all. You seem like a nice person and I just want my brother to be…happy.”