Dirty Brawler: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (with bonus novel!)

by Teagan Kade

  “Thank you,” she murmured. She straightened up when I offered her my arm.

  “You ready to do this thing?”

  “I’ve got your back,” she said with a small smile.

  The crazy thing about it was I knew her words were absolutely sincere. I didn’t feel like I had to hide or be someone else with her. I could just be me and she’d make sure nothing bad happened. I never realized how much I missed being able to trust someone like that until that moment.

  She seemed to float beside me as we entered the grand hall. There was a quartet playing music in the corner. Several couples were already dancing, but I led Tori toward the bar. I wasn’t a dancer, so I hoped that wasn’t a planned part of Tori’s itinerary for the evening.

  I really wanted a drink, but Tori had advised against it. She said I had to be sharp and quick on my feet—two things I never had a problem with before, but I wanted her to see I could follow directions. I wanted to please her.

  Tori navigated us expertly between the groups gathered around the room throughout the entire evening. I wasn’t the only one who found her to be a captivating dinner partner, either. Everyone we spoke to seemed to key into her light and energy, and I felt a swelling of pride that she was there with me, even if it wasn’t as an official date.

  I said my rehearsed lines over a dozen times as I told different people about my sister’s fight with cancer. I found it wasn’t as brittle and false as I expected. I told them how I had canceled practices and even a few fights because I wanted to be there with her when she was in the hospital fighting infection after infection following chemo. My sister was ten years younger than me. Every instinct was to protect her from the pain, but I couldn’t. I learned a lot about how to hang on despite insurmountable obstacles by learning from her.

  I even choked up once, which surprised me as much as it did the people witnessing it. Tori deftly covered for me and distracted them until I regained my composure. I didn’t feel a flinch of guilt or anxiety about writing a check for ten-thousand dollars to the charity, and I promised the organizers I would lend my support to future events.

  I was pretty proud of myself by the end of the evening. I could tell Tori was relaxed and happy on my arm as we stood in line waiting to gather her wrap from the coat check. The air had taken on a chill, and although I had offered my jacket to her several times, she politely declined.

  “So, how’d I do, Coach?” I asked, leaning down to whisper in her ear. I heard her breath hitch. I loved how my proximity affected her. It gave me all sorts of ideas about what her expression would be if I sunk my cock deep between her legs. I could practically feel her thighs wrapped around my waist. I never even missed the alcohol. I was drunk off a million fantasies—each one involved Tori’s naked body in my bed.

  “You did all right for a rookie,” she said, voice low.

  “Actually, I’m ready to show you my A-game. All you have to do is say the word.”

  “Shaun, I can’t.” Her whisper sounded pained. As she looked up into my eyes I saw the desire there. She wanted it as badly as I did. What would it take to push her over the edge? Her eyes flitted away from mine then. She cleared her throat.

  I felt the frustration of the week starting to catch hold again. A romp with Tori would have been just the thing to take the edge off, but she was putting me squarely back in the client zone yet again.

  “You know what I can’t do?” I asked. Her eyes returned to mine filled with curiosity. “I can’t act like I’m not attracted to you. I can’t pretend I don’t dream about tasting those lips or hearing you scream my name when you come.”

  “Shaun!” her low whisper held a note of warning, but I couldn’t stop. I stepped closer to her. There wasn’t even an inch of space between us.

  “Tell me you don’t want me and I’ll stop,” I growled into her ear. She started to shake her head, but I settled my hand on the curve of her hip. Her body tightened like a coil. “Tell me you don’t want me to rip this dress off your body with my teeth and suck on your nipples until you beg me to take you.”

  Her breath came in short gasps. “I don’t,” she whispered.

  Then it was our turn to step to the counter. Tori wiggled away from me to give the attendant her number. My cock was hard as diamond, and now I had a new sense of frustration to add to the mix. With Tori’s back to me, I ran my hand through my hair and tried to control the caveman urge to throw her over my shoulder and drag her away.

  Tori was entirely composed when she returned to my side a few minutes later. The professional shell was once again firmly intact. It was really starting to piss me off.

  “I suppose you aren’t planning to walk out with me,” I said. It wasn’t a question.

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You came alone. You leave alone.”

  “How about meeting somewhere for a drink?” I asked. I wasn’t ready to let the evening end. Not by a long shot.

  “Shaun, I appreciate you find me attractive.” Her voice dropped low as her eyes moved around me to see if anyone was close enough to hear. “But this is a strictly professional business relationship. It has to stay that way, so if you can please stop, that is what I want.”

  “You don’t even know what you want,” I growled. “This is fucking bullshit.” I turned on my heel and headed toward the doors. I wasn’t interested in pounding my head against a brick wall. If that was how Tori wanted to play it, fine.

  I escaped into the night air and immediately saw bursts of light from the cameras. I had forgotten all about the press outside, my mind occupied with thoughts of Tori.

  “Shaun! Shaun! How was the event?” one of the reporters shouted.

  “Great,” I replied, the sarcasm strong.

  “Couldn’t find a willing date to take home? No one must have let you get close enough to their drink.”

  I wasn’t sure which asshole shouted the smartass question at me. The flashes were constant, but I felt the rise of anger. I couldn’t control it. I moved right up to the barricade. Several photographers backed up.

  “You guys are pieces of shit! You don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about!” I shouted into the crowd. I heard several gasps rise in the air, but I didn’t care. I was wound up and frustrated as hell, and it was all their fault. These were the goddamn cockroaches that wouldn’t leave me alone. “If I want pussy, I don’t have to drug someone to get it. Quote me on that, motherfuckers.”

  I felt a hand on my elbow. A familiar sea-breeze scent wafting over me even as she started to shove me toward the waiting car.

  Reporters chuckled nervously amongst themselves and I reared forward, intending to grab the nearest camera and smash it to the ground. How Tori managed to squeeze between us and push me backward, I don’t know. She was stronger than she looked.

  I was in the back of the limo before I knew it, but all I could see was red.

  “What was that about?” she said after several long, silent moments.

  I stared out the window. “This is supposed to be getting better. That jackass basically questioned my ability to pick up a woman without drugging her. I wasn’t going to stand there and take that kind of bullshit.”

  “So you cursed at them and gave them a quote that includes the word ‘pussy’ in it? Goddammit, Shaun. Are you trying to commit career suicide?”

  I rounded on her, but she didn’t shrink back one bit. Her arms were crossed over her chest. Her eyes flashed with anger.

  “They are spreading lies about me.” I bit back the string of other obscenities that crawled through my mind as I thought about each one of those assholes.

  “You play right into their hands every time you get in front of them,” Tori said. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath. I could see she was still angry when they opened again, but she was far calmer than I was. “Let’s get that drink after all. I think we need to talk.”

  I sat back in the seat and turned my attention to the window as she gave an address to the driver. I managed to
keep the small smile off my face. I may have made a mess of the evening, but Tori the Impenetrable was going to have a drink with me. Suddenly, my cock wasn’t the only thing looking up.

  Chapter Seven

  Tori

  There was something else going on with Shaun I had missed during my initial review. I never would have expected his outburst when I suggested keeping things above board and professional in my relationship with him. The man was a time bomb waiting to explode, despite his protests he didn’t have any anger management issues.

  That wasn’t the part that had me off-balance the most, though. I wanted to get a drink with him. He was right. I would have died and gone to heaven to have him rip off my dress with his teeth. It was as if he could sense my barriers were weakening with every encounter, and now he was staging a full-on assault to breach them.

  My attraction to him grew by the day. I found it incredibly difficult to concentrate on simply doing my job, especially the more I got to know him. Watching him talk about how protective he was of his baby sister was endearing. It made him relatable and human. My plan worked like a charm, but I wasn’t immune to Shaun’s charms any more than the people we met, which was the problem. I found it harder and harder to resist him.

  It had taken every bit of my willpower not to open the box he had sent to my office for the event. Kevin would probably never let me live it down. He thought I was nuts for rejecting the sexy-as-sin boxer who, as he said, clearly had a boner the size of Texas for me.

  As if I wasn’t already fantasizing enough about Shaun’s cock. My vibrator had been getting quite the workout ever since the magazine shoot. Things were going opposite to what I wanted, and it seemed the same could be said for Shaun. I hoped I could do enough damage control to save some of the goodwill we’d built before Shaun attempted to singlehandedly blow it all to hell.

  Although there had always been rumors around Shaun’s temper since Rio, I just witnessed how quickly he could be set off with the right set of circumstances. If someone wanted to mess with him or stir up trouble, it wouldn’t be terribly hard at all.

  It was a theory that had been rolling around in the back of my mind ever since my run-in with Nigel. I kept looking over the press from the last six months and comparing it to what Shaun told me happened every time. Each encounter seemed to start innocently enough, but there was a spark of something that hit just the right button to light Shaun’s temper. He might not have gone to the extremes that each story said he had, but from what I had just witnessed he was cruising for something big to happen soon. Even if none of the previous stories were true, one was about to be if Shaun couldn’t control his temper. I had no doubt.

  We arrived at the K Klub—a quiet, exclusive bar I knew to be discreet. The staff got paid well to be unobtrusive and to keep their mouths shut about whatever happened inside those four walls. Shaun needed to cool off and I needed to make sure that my presence wasn’t linked with Shaun any more than it already had been. I started rehearsing the story in my head of what I was going to tell my boss when the pictures of Shaun’s shouting match and me dragging him off surfaced in tomorrow’s news.

  Shaun seemed to have regained some level of composure by the time we sat down. He ordered a scotch and water, double, and seemed to be daring me to say something. I couldn’t help but comment “It’s not like keeping you sober helped anything tonight.”

  “That was your fault,” he replied.

  I gaped at him. “My fault?”

  “What do you expect when you keep telling me no? I was pissed.”

  “So you throw a tantrum like a child? You’re a grown man, Shaun. Surely you’ve had a woman tell you no before.”

  Shaun slid across the side of the booth until he was uncomfortably close.

  I played out if I should move or not, but my body, the betrayer it was, refused to obey anything coming from my brain.

  “Everything about your body is screaming yes. From the way you have a hard time catching your breath when I do this,” he leaned into the crook of my neck, and I felt my eyes slide closed, “to the way you arch your back as if you’re offering up your body to me. I can see it in your eyes even if I couldn’t feel it from each and every move you make.”

  His lips brushed the sensitive skin on the side of my neck and I almost screamed. My body was so hungry for him. I brought my hands up, palms flat against his chest intending to push him away. But when I felt the lightest pressure of his lips skim on my collarbone, I clenched the lapels of his jacket tight in my fists instead.

  His hands gripped my hips and dragged my body into his, pressing my softness against his lean hardness. His hand cupped the back of my head under my drape of hair, and I felt his lips begin their ascent to mine. My brain said I needed to stop him, but I couldn’t make myself do it. I felt as if he was lighting a fire up the side of my body, pussy clenching in need for him.

  Shaun stopped with his lips just a hairbreadth away from mine. I opened my eyes and saw him watching me intently. “Tell me again you don’t want this.”

  God help me. It was as if he wanted me to beg, and fuck me, but I wanted to do it. The heat in his eyes mirrored every emotion I felt inside of me.

  But I had to resist him. I had to, if for no other reason than to save my career. I couldn’t let him destroy everything I worked so hard for the way he seemed so intent on destroying his own.

  “Shaun, I can’t,” I stammered.

  He pushed away from me with an expression that made me want to shrivel up in my seat.

  “Can’t or won’t?” he said. His voice rippled with undeniable tension and frustration.

  “Does it matter? It’s the same result in the end.” My voice was breathless and uneven.

  “For the record, I don’t force women into my bed,” he said. “Regardless of what the press says, every woman in my bed comes willingly... and often.” He picked up his drink and slammed it down in one gulp. He motioned to the waiter he wanted another. I realized the drinks had appeared during our mini make-out session, and it hit home again I was playing with fire in more ways than one.

  My brain felt as if it had been fried, but I needed to find a way to get through to him. He was angry with me, and although I understood the reason for it, we had far larger issues to deal with.

  “Shaun, I think Nigel might be part of your image problem.”

  He looked at me as if I had just told him that the sky was red instead of blue. “Nigel? What the fuck are you talking about?”

  “He and I seem to be disagreeing quite a bit on what’s best for your image,” I said, trying hard to pick my words carefully. “The incidents that have been happening look random on the surface, but a couple of them could only have happened if someone tipped the paparazzi off to where you were those nights. That narrows it down to only a few people on your team.”

  “So, let me get this straight. You think my manager, the guy who is the one fixing all the problems with my sponsors right now, is the one who is causing all the problems that are getting my sponsors pissed off to begin with?”

  “I know it sounds crazy, and I don’t understand why, but Nigel is either involved or looking the other way.”

  Shaun’s expression told me he thought I was crazy. “What proof do you have?”

  “My gut tells me something is off.” I knew it was lame, but it was the only explanation that made sense.

  “That’s not good enough, Tori. Not by a long shot.” As soon as the drink was down on the table, he’d swallowed it again. There was only ice there when he looked at me after that. It was the look that he used to plow down his opponents, and I recognized it. “Nigel has been my manager since the beginning of my career. He’s a good guy. I trust him. He’s had my back. You’ve been around for a couple of weeks and I’m still getting kicked in the balls every time I turn around.”

  He got up out of the booth and threw a hundred-dollar bill down on the table. “I’m on the road in three days. I assume you’re tagging along, but just sta
y out of my way, yeah? Oh, and unless this little dog and pony show you’ve been selling me starts to pay off, I’m firing your firm at the end of the month.”

  He stormed out of the room. I was left with my mouth hanging open. I couldn’t believe he would question my integrity just because he was pissed off I wouldn’t sleep with him. The entire ride home I alternated between being annoyed and sorely sexually frustrated as my body kept recalling what it felt like to be pressed up against him.

  “He’s an asshole,” I kept reminding myself, but I knew I didn’t believe it. I was an idiot for bringing up my suspicions right after rejecting him again. Shaun didn’t strike me as the type of guy who let those kinds of blows to his ego go lightly. And he wasn’t wrong about the fact that I was incredibly attracted to him. I just couldn’t sleep with him. I couldn’t do that to my career.

  I entered my dark apartment and stared out at the skyline. I had to get ready to support Shaun’s upcoming out of town fights. The idea of seeing him up close and personal in the ring gave me shivers of delight. I pulled off my shoes and started to unzip my dress as I headed for the bedroom. I was suddenly glad I’d remembered to recharge my vibrator. I needed to take the edge off if I was going to be able to continue working with Shaun Nichols.

  Chapter Eight

  Shaun

  The fight was rough. Despite the fact I’d thrown myself into my training and barely surfaced for air all week, I still got caught with my pants down. I was angry and bitter at myself as I left the ring for the last time. A tie wasn’t how I liked ending a fight, but I knew I’d gotten lucky. My opponent had me against the ropes fighting with everything I had almost the entire time. I was rusty.

  Hammer looked like he was ready to spit nails as we made our way back to the locker room. I knew he wanted to chew me out, but he couldn’t in front of the kids. When Tori pitched it to me, I didn’t think it was a good idea, but now I was grateful. It meant the ass chewing would come later, which was fine by me.