Impact (The Fight for Life #2)

by K. A. Sterritt

  I laughed. I couldn’t help it. It might have been the tequila causing me to react in a way I knew would be highly antagonistic, but this guy was a first-class fuckwit. I was aware I was no fighting machine in my current state, but I knew one thing for sure. This guy could be shut down with one punch.

  “Pull your head in, Stuart.” Maeve moved between us and stood directly in front of him. “No one cares about your stupid moves except you and your equally stupid mates. Where is King Dick, by the way, anyway?”

  “What’s going on, Stuart?”

  I turned around to see another guy walking towards us. Fuck.

  “None of your damn business,” Stuart said. “I’ve got this covered.”

  “Go home to your wife, mate.”

  “Excuse me?”

  “You heard me.”

  I was now desperately wishing I were sober. I could see the rage pulsating through the throbbing vein in Stuart’s neck, yet my body was sluggish and groggy. There were a whole lot of dots floating around in front of my eyes. I just couldn’t quite join them.

  “How dare you try to tell me what to do,” Stuart spat.

  I really didn’t need to be in that alley, but I wouldn’t leave Maeve alone with these two fuckwits. I tried to get her attention and beckon her over to me, but she was focused on Stuart, whose face was now on fire, and I could see his fists clenching.

  “He’s right.” Maeve stepped forward and put her hand on his arm again, trying in vain to calm him down.

  I saw what was about to happen too late. In what felt like slow motion, Stuart’s arm swept up and slammed into her shocked face. Horrified, I rushed to help her.

  “What the fuck?” I stumbled forward to get to Maeve. I hunched over and gently prised back her hands covering her bloodied face. “You’ll be okay, darlin’. I’ve got you.”

  Stuart hadn’t done any serious damage to Maeve, but she needed to be cleaned up and I was about to help her up when I heard Jules’s voice. I glanced up just in time to see Stuart circling her. The second guy was nowhere in sight and I felt immediately sober.

  Maeve was sobbing against my chest, but I had to prise her from me and prop her against the brick wall. “Stay here. Okay?” I whispered to Maeve, who nodded her head, choking back further sobs. I jumped up and started running.

  “Well, well, well. Aren’t you a pretty thing?” Stuart said, and I saw red.

  I was going to kill him.

  When he made his move, I panicked, knowing I was too late to stop him from touching her, but she expertly sidestepped, pulled her arm back and punched him in the face. Grabbing him by the upper arms, she then slammed her knee into his balls. He hit the ground, writhing in pain, and Juliette stood over him, cradling her fist.

  “Are you okay?” I pulled her away, turned her to face me and held her face. “Are you okay, Jules?”

  She nodded, smiling.

  “Greedy, aren’t we?” Stuart’s snide laugh made us both turn to face him sitting up on the ground, cradling his bloodied nose.

  I grabbed Juliette and pulled her behind me. “I told you. Maeve and I are friends, you son of a bitch, and you were hurting her. This is my girlfriend, and if you touch her I’ll kill you.”

  “Let me go, Leo.” Juliette struggled to release herself from my grip and move around me. “I can handle myself.” She was so strong, and I was unable to hold her behind my back in my drunken state.

  “What is going on out here?” The manager of the bar appeared next to us with Maeve, holding an ice pack against her cheek.

  “Stuart was hurting me and these two helped me out.” Maeve pointed at Stuart, still a groaning heap on the ground.

  “This guy is always in here causing trouble,” the bar manager said. “I’ll sort this out.” He was clearly used to this kind of mess. “You two get out of here.” He pointed at Jules and me. “Thanks for coming to Maeve’s rescue.”

  “Can you grab me an ice pack and some bandages, please?” I asked the bar manager.

  Hesitating only briefly, he disappeared back into the bar and returned a minute later holding what I’d asked for.

  “Thanks, mate.”

  I turned to Jules and gently picked up her right hand. She’d been cradling it, so I knew it hurt. I placed the ice pack over her knuckles and kissed her forehead when she let out a small yip.

  “It’s fine,” she said, scrunching up her nose.

  “You just decked a guy with your bare hands, Jules,” I waited until she looked me in the eye. “Let me take care of you.”

  She nodded and allowed me to wrap her hand in the bandage.

  After saying goodbye to Maeve, I gently encouraged Jules to walk back up the alley, my arm firmly around her shoulders. “We’ll grab a cab and I’ll come and get your car in the morning. Neither of us should be driving.”

  Chapter Eighteen

  Juliette

  We sat in the back seat of the cab in silence. I was on such an incredible high, I was past the point of speaking. I was ready to jump Leo right there in the back seat if the next set of lights was red. He probably thought I was on the brink of some kind of internal meltdown after what had just happened, but I couldn’t summon the energy to tell him otherwise. I would show him soon enough. We just had to get to my god damn apartment.

  When we finally arrived, I got out, not waiting for Leo before heading for the lift. I was a woman on a mission.

  Hurry up. I mentally willed the lift doors to open. I could feel Leo’s eyes on me and I looked to my left. When I locked eyes with the hottest man on the planet leaning against one of the columns, my mind went completely blank. Besides, there were no words that could adequately express how my body reacted to Leo.

  “Hey.” He was a few feet from me, but I could feel the electricity that always crackled between us. His eyes were dark and I wanted to take away the evident pain.

  I gave him my most seductive smile and beckoned him with my pointer finger. His eyes went from dark to lust-filled as he took one long stride, closing the distance between us and pulled me to him. His lips crashed against mine and my arms flew around his neck, frantically pulling at him to get him closer.

  My whole body was on fire as the desperation fed our frenzy of lust. Groans of pleasure escaped both of us.

  I bunched the front of his shirt and dragged him through the opening doors. We practically fell into the empty lift and I reluctantly had to deal with my security pass to make the lift ascend. Leo took the opportunity to kiss my neck and caress my whole body, and I thought I might die of sexual need. “You are the sexiest woman in the world.”

  As the lift made its way north, I was slammed up against the wall, my arms raised above my head and held in place with one of his strong hands, while the other ventured under my t-shirt. When he cupped my breast, I groaned loudly, but the sound was quickly muffled by his mouth and tongue. I lifted my leg and hooked it around his. He grabbed my thigh and pulled it higher, thrusting his hips into me exactly where I needed him. The lift doors opened on my level. Leo picked me up so I was straddling his waist, and he strode purposefully for my door.

  I had my key ready and managed to get the door open without skipping a beat, our mouths locked together, refusing to be parted. The fireworks exploding behind my closed eyes were breathtaking as he carried me directly to my bedroom, falling on top of me as we landed heavily on my bed.

  Pinning my hands to the bed on either side of my head, he propped himself on his elbows. “I need you now.” He growled, making my own need for him explode.

  “Hurry up, then.” I was desperate to feel reconnected to him in the most intimate way possible, and he was wasting time verbalising his need that was currently stabbing me in the thigh.

  The next thirty seconds were a blur of clothes as we both yanked and pulled each other’s clothes from our writhing bodies. Punching that arsehole in the face and watching Leo take care of his friend had been more than enough foreplay. He thrust into me and our simultaneous groan was that of
relief and pent-up sexual need.

  When I had expected him to start pounding into me furiously, he slowed down and caressed my face. The gentleness of his touch contrasted his massive, cut physique. It was one of the things I loved most about him. The love he was capable of showing with the simplest of gestures was just as powerful as the physical blows he could throw in the cage or the ring.

  “I want you so damn much.” He scrunched his face up as if in pain. “I always want you so damn much.”

  He started moving slowly, still refusing to break eye contact. As his speed increased, I closed my eyes, unable to withstand his gaze any longer. I felt his mouth against my neck, feathering a light kiss in time with every hard thrust of his hips. His mouth made its way to my chest and up the swell of my right breast. I could barely stand the sweet agony, and my back arched of its own accord, pushing into his caressing lips. His answer was to suck my hard nipple, flicking it with his expert tongue. Without any shame, I cried out his name, knowing I was so close to what my body was screaming for.

  “I want you on top.” His demand was coupled with my body being flipped, and I quickly found myself straddling his rock hard body. He was sitting up and had his arms wrapped around me, his mouth immediately finding my neglected left breast as I found my own rhythm to drive us completely insane.

  “God, Leo. I love having you inside me,” I panted out as the white light took hold of my vision.

  I felt his grip around me tighten, and his lips found mine and we both surged to climax.

  “That was…” Leo couldn’t finish his sentence when I climbed off him and lay down on my back, my arm over my face, exhausted.

  “Mind blowing.” I finished his sentence with the only words I could summon.

  “Mind blowing,” he confirmed.

  When we’d regained our composure and our breathing had returned to normal, we both turned to face each other. Leo ran his finger down my arm then across the dip of my waist and over my hip. He was tracing the line of my body, leaving goosebumps in his wake.

  “You are so fucking beautiful, Jules.”

  I blushed. However many times he complimented me, it still made me blush. They were never throw-away comments. He spoke with such intensity and emotion, and he spoke directly to my soul.

  “I’m so sorry about tonight, Jules.” He stroked my face then kissed the palm of my hand. “I should never have been at that bar. I can’t seem to pull my shit together since I saw her again.” He closed his eyes briefly. “I put you in danger again.”

  “I’m so used to crazy, I don’t even know what normal would feel like. Maybe crazy is our normal?” I lay on my back and covered my face with my hands, trying not to laugh.

  “What?” Leo poked me in the side. “What the hell are you laughing at?” He pulled my hands away from my face and held them down.

  I bit my bottom lip. “I really liked punching that guy.”

  Leo flopped down on his back next to me. “Oh God, Jules.” He laughed a little. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “Stay with me.” The words tumbled out of my mouth before I gave them any conscious thought.

  “Always,” Leo whispered.

  We were both quiet for a few minutes.

  “How did it go at your parents?” Leo asked, yawning and clearly struggling to keep his eyes open. “The normal kind of crazy?”

  “Dad told me about the night you confronted Dick.”

  He glanced at me with a concerned expression. “I didn’t want to worry you and I took care of it.”

  “You should’ve told me, you know.”

  “There’s a lot of things I should’ve done differently, but that’s all in the past now, so—”

  I cut him off. “You told me you loved me. Then the next morning you broke my heart.” My eyes filled with tears. “I know I jumped to conclusions and I have to own that, but you should’ve told me what happened.”

  He was lying on his back, rubbing his eyes with the heel of his palms. “It was a fucking mess.” He removed his hands and turned on his side to face me. “My only goal was to keep you safe, so I won’t apologise for that. I had to give your dad a few days to ensure your mother’s threats were empty.”

  “Information you could’ve shared, Leo.”

  “Jules.” He sat up and rested his back on the headboard. “I had just had a gun in my face, thanks to your mother, with a message to stay away from you or you’d be hurt or worse.” He winced. “Forgive me for not thinking clearly.”

  “No more secrets. Okay? My mother might’ve been the villain in all of this, but you broke us. I trusted you and you took that away too.”

  “I know, baby. It kills me to think you left feeling that way. It killed me that you left at all, but I did what I thought was right at the time, and protecting you will always be my number one priority.”

  It wasn’t lost on me that neither one of us had said ‘I love you’ since I’d been back. There was no doubt our connection was still there, and I did love him. I was confident he loved me too, but a part of me didn’t want to hear those words again for a while. That part of me was still a little broken.

  I could barely keep my eyes open. It was after midnight and it had been a marathon weekend. We had a lot to talk about, but sleep soon dragged us both into its clutches.

  Chapter Nineteen

  Juliette

  “Do you have to go?” Leo asked after we’d made love the next morning. “Aren’t you tired?”

  “I’m fine.” I yawned, giving away my lie. “I’ve only been back a week. It’s poor form if I take a day off so soon, don’t you think?”

  Leo pulled me to him. “I just want to keep you all to myself.”

  “So what are you going to do today?” I asked as I buttoned up a sleeveless cream blouse and tucked it into a black pencil skirt.

  I sat down on the bed next to him to put on my favourite Bally heels.

  “I’m going out to Lilydale to talk to Nick,” he replied. “He wants to train me again and he’s offered me a job.”

  I dropped my second shoe to the floor, a little shocked, mildly unnerved, but mostly excited for him. “Really? Are you considering it?” I asked.

  He nodded. “I think I am. I might do some work at the farm today too, but I’ll be back this evening.”

  “Well I think that sounds amazing. I can’t wait to hear all about it after work.” I kissed him goodbye and left for work with a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. Was I worried he was going to leave me behind this time?

  As I walked across the footbridge, I couldn’t help reminiscing about the love locks that used to hang there by the thousand. My body visibly shuddered as I remembered my ex- boyfriend, Richard, presenting me with one, engraved with our initials. I’d known at the time our love hadn’t just been breakable; it had been a complete farce. Council workers had done me a favour when they’d taken to the padlocks with bolt cutters a short time later. My mother had taken metaphorical bolt cutters to Leo and my relationship, but ultimately they were rendered useless. I just hoped we could move forward now and no one else was going to get in our way.

  When I got to work, I shuffled through the endless paperwork piled up on my desk. Since I’d returned from my travels, I found myself questioning more and more what I was doing there.

  Heath walked past my desk on his way back from the morning meeting with his phone to his ear, not even acknowledging me with a smile or a wave. I was invisible. I was also replaceable. The temp who had filled in for me while I had been away had left things a little more disorganised than I’d kept them, but life had gone on. Heath was certainly happy I was back, but only because he knew I made his life easier than he deserved. I was in no way key to his success, and he wouldn’t blink if I resigned. It was depressing. I slumped over my desk, resting my head on my crossed arms, but was jolted upright almost immediately by the phone ringing.

  “Juliette Salinger. How can I help you?” I answered robotically.

  “Ju
les.”

  I closed my eyes when I heard Charlie’s voice. “Charlie.”

  “It’s so good to hear your voice.”

  “Yours too,” I said honestly.

  “Do you have lunch plans?” he asked.

  “I… um…”

  “Come on, Jules.”

  I bit the inside of my cheek and glanced around the office, not really knowing why.

  “Are you there?”

  “Why didn’t you warn me you were coming to Melbourne?”

  “It was a spontaneous business trip and I thought I’d surprise you.”

  I felt immediately remorseful for arrogantly assuming he’d come all the way to Melbourne to chase me. “Right. Okay.”

  “So will you have lunch with me?”

  I exhaled. “Yes. I’ll have lunch with you, Charlie.”

  ***

  I agreed to meet him at my favourite café, McQuillens, and as I turned the corner, I could see him standing outside waiting for me. He was looking sharp in a perfectly tailored charcoal suit, white shirt and dark silver tie. I’d only ever seen him in casual attire on our travels, so I was a little taken aback by the corporate Charlie. He looked damn good, I had to admit to myself. As I got closer, he turned and our eyes met. His shoulders dropped with what looked like relief, and he closed the distance between us in a few quick strides, enveloping me in a hug so full of emotion it made me want to cry. It brought back the wonderful memories I’d made with him, but also the guilt and heartache I’d felt whenever I’d thought about Leo.

  Two months earlier

  Standing in line outside The Book of Kells on Dublin’s Trinity College campus, I felt my whole body relax. I closed my eyes and revelled in the fact I was about to be in the presence of books dating back thousands of years. I enjoyed the feeling of infinite insignificance. My dramas were a blip in the overall scheme of things.