Dammit, he never should have let Marcus leave with her last night. What would she think when she woke this morning and found herself at her uncle’s house instead of his? Fuck. Cole wrapped a towel around his waist and headed back to the bedroom. Wanting to hear her voice, he grabbed his cell and called her. He felt like a pussy for being so needy. This wasn’t like him. In fact, Cole had made a point of needing as few people in his life as possible. Yet somehow, in the matter of a few short weeks, this woman had climbed to the top of the list.
Cole exhaled a frustrated sigh and dragged his hand through his wet hair as he stood there, waiting for her to pick up. She was probably still asleep. When the call rolled over to voice mail, he disconnected and shot her a quick text instead.
Hey.
It surprised him when his phone buzzed a return text before he could toss it on the bed and get dressed.
What?
“What?” Really? The little niggling in his gut that told him something was wrong stepped up and hit him tenfold. This wasn’t like her. He shot off another text.
You awake?
Yes. What do you want?
What did he want? He wanted to fucking see her, that’s what he wanted. Why in the hell was she acting like this? Because she’s pissed that you left without her last night, asshole. He typed a quick response, testing the waters of her anger a little more.
I want to see you. Have breakfast with me.
You know I don’t eat breakfast.
Still want to see you.
Will see you at the gym.
Okay, wow, she was really pissed. All Cole could think of was crash and burn, and he did not want to be the match that lit her fuse. The last thing she needed was him pushing her and making things worse. He knew from experience how someone reacted, or overreacted, was a direct result of emotional stressors, and Katie had more than her share going on right now.
Common sense told him to back off, let her cool down, and they’d discuss what was bothering her later. He’d explain that Marcus had insisted on bringing her home with him last night, and that the old guy didn’t know how close they’d become. Cole hadn’t told him because he wasn’t sure it’d been his place to do so. Uncle trumped coach, and Cole wasn’t sure how much Katie wanted Marcus to know about their relationship.
But head knowledge was not heart knowledge, and Cole was a fighter. He didn’t play games, dance around issues, or walk on eggshells with anyone—and he sure as hell wasn’t about to start now. Although he knew it was probably relationship suicide, a part of him wanted to go over there right now and confront this head-on. Before he could respond and send her a text that he was coming over, his phone vibrated again.
I’ll be at the gym in one hour.
Let me come get you.
Getting a ride with Uncle Marcus.
Shit. She was super-fucking-pissed. Okay, it was only one hour. He could wait that long to see her. Maybe by then she’d cool off a little.
“What the fuck, Kat?”
She looked down at him with innocent doe eyes he didn’t believe for a minute and purred with saccharin sweetness, “What’s the matter, Cole? Too rough? I thought that’s how you liked it.”
Unfortunately, his cock was deaf to sarcasm, because it was standing tall, screaming, Bring it on! Only this soldier wouldn’t want any of what Katie was throwing down right now. When he’d gotten to the gym, she was already there waiting for him. He’d tried to talk to her then, but she was busy stretching, and coolly informed him they didn’t have time for anything other than training and therapy. Apparently, Marcus had dropped her off before heading to a meeting with the CFA commissioner, and told her he’d be back as soon as he could to get Cole sparring.
“Holy fuck!” Kruze yelled from the other room. “Easton just got matted by a chick!”
Aaaand that was why he’d insisted they work on Katie’s self-defense sparring before his PT. Unfortunately, the guys had shown up earlier than usual to begin training for the day. He’d forgotten Kruze had a big fight coming up, so of course he’d be going at it from dawn till dusk. And although Kruze and his team were excited as hell to see him, Cole wasn’t arrogant enough to think for one minute he was the cause for all the stir in the gym this morning.
If Katie noticed she had a half-dozen CFA fighters dragging their tongues across the mat, she gave no indication of it. From the moment she stepped onto the mat, she’d been solely focused on her self-defense training—and kicking his ass. It’d been a cheap-ass shot, and she knew it. There was zero play in this woman’s eyes as she stepped down harder on the base of his cock, digging her toes painfully into his sac.
This was not the Katie he knew. This woman was completely shut down and seriously pissed off at him. All right, he’d fucked up last night, and he was the first to admit it, but Katie better get her damn foot off his dick and balls—right fucking now—or they were going to have some serious words.
Cole turned his head to look behind him and growled, “Shut that fucking door, Kruze, or you’re next!”
He glared up at the cocky bastard leaning against the doorway, arms crossed over his unclothed chest, enjoying the show with a shit-eating grin on his face.
“Hey, if that means I get to go a round with her, then I’m in.”
“It means you’re going to go five with me,” Cole snarled.
Katie gave him a disgusted snort and lifted her foot, swinging it over his head in a graceful arch, before walking toward the table in the corner and grabbing her water bottle. Tearing his gaze from her, he glanced back at Kruze to find his eerie, dark amber eyes fixed unabashedly on her ass. A low, warning growl rumbled in his chest as he rolled to his feet and stomped across the mat. Kruze dropped his cocky grin mighty damn fast. Laughing, he held up his hands, warding Cole off as he stepped back from the doorway.
“Hey man, I’m just kidding. No need to get so testy.”
Aiden Kruze was one of his best friends, and he knew the bastard was just yanking his chain. He’d been fighting one weight class below Cole since he’d been accepted into the CFA a year ago. Kruze had a title fight on the horizon, but he had to make it through Mallenger first. It was going to be a tough fight, but not impossible. Before Cole had been injured, he’d been working with the guy pretty hard-core, getting him ready for the fight that was now . . . Shit, was already next week?
Meeting Kruze in the doorway, he growled under his breath, “FYI, that woman you’re eye-fucking is Marcus Miller’s niece. She’s my PT and my girlfriend. That give you enough reasons to stay hands-off? Or do you need five more?”
Cole curled his fingers into a fist, and his friend took another cautious step back and laughed. “Seriously, bro? That’s fucking awesome! About time you met a chick that could give you a run for your money.”
Kruze had no fucking idea.
“I was just givin’ ya shit, bro. Hey, a bunch of us guys are going out after the Mallenger fight next week. You in?”
Cole shot a glance over his shoulder and found Katie still turned away. He hesitated a moment before answering, then said, “You kidding me? Of course I’m going to be there. Who’s cornering you?”
“Marcus, of course.”
Over the years, Marcus coached a lot of fighters. Now that he was getting closer to retirement, he still hung on to a handful of his favorites, and Kruze happened to be one of them.
“I was kinda hoping, I mean, if you’re not too busy, that is, that you’d corner me, too?”
“Absolutely. It’d be a fucking honor.”
“Thanks, man. Listen, if you free up at all this weekend, let me know. I’d like you to watch me knock around, let me know if you can spot any holes.”
“Sounds good, just let me know when you’re coming in.” Cole turned to head back into the wrestling room.
“Great. Oh, and Cole?”
He stopped and turned back toward his friend.
“Glad to have you back, man.”
“Thanks.” Cole shut the door be
hind him and turned to find Katie watching him. Aside from a small section of the room cornered off for a few tables and a vending machine stocked with Powerade and protein bars, the room was empty, except for the mats covering the floor. Katie looked so freaking hot standing there in her black ass-hugging, flare-legged yoga pants with the hot pink waistband. Her bare feet and French-tipped painted toes peeked out from beneath the floor-brushing hem. Her matching pink spandex tank top outlined her narrow waist. The scoop neck showed off more mouth-watering cleavage than he’d have liked, considering where they were.
“Why did you do that?” Katie demanded, walking into the center of the mat, looking more than ready to put the hurt on him again.
“Do what?” He sauntered into the center of the mat, ready to take her on. If she was going to keep throwing cheap shots, though, he was going to have to put a cup on.
“Tell that fighter I was your girlfriend.”
Cole tensed, sensing a trap. This wasn’t the first time he’d introduced her as such, but it was the first time she looked pissed off about it. Exhaling a sigh, he dragged his hand through his sweat-dampened hair. “I told Kruze you were my girlfriend because you’re going to be spending a lot of time here and I don’t want to have to worry about the guys hassling you. This is a fighter’s gym, Katie. It’s not fucking Snap. There’s a lot of testosterone that gets flowing in here and I don’t want you on the receiving end of it. Kruze is a great guy, one of my best friends, actually, but he’s got his own issues—one of which happens to be his inability to keep his dick in his pants.”
“Oh, so he’s like you?”
Where the fuck did that come from?
“Oh, that’s right,” she said, slapping her hand to her forehead. “I forgot, you were doing my uncle a favor, so that doesn’t really count.”
Oh fuck . . . this is not happening.
“Well, mission accomplished, asshole! You got me here—signed, sealed, and delivered.” Katie spun away and marched over to the table, snagging her purse and jerking the strap over her shoulder. “You’ll be relieved to know you can quit with the pity fucks, Cole. You’ve whored yourself out for my uncle enough.”
As Katie stormed past him, Cole grabbed her arm, jerking her to a stop. “God, Kat, it’s not like that. I swear—”
“Did my uncle ask you to bring me to Vegas?”
“Yes, but—”
“Did he or did he not suggest you seduce me to get me here?”
Oh shit . . . this was bad. Every second that ticked by, he could feel her slipping further and further from his grasp. He knew after what she’d been through, she didn’t trust easily, and she’d taken a huge risk on him. He also knew how bad this looked. Of course she would think he’d played her. That was exactly how it fucking looked!
“Kat, listen to me. That’s not how this is. I can explain—”
“Cole, let go of me.”
He should have listened to the warning in her deadpan voice, but all he could hear was the thundering of his heartbeat echoing in his ears, and the little voice inside his head screaming, You’re going to lose her, asshole! Do something! She jerked her arm to get free, and his grip instinctively tightened. He didn’t mean to hurt her, but the only thought racing through his head was, If you let her go now, you’ve lost her for good. But Katie didn’t give him a chance to respond. The moment his fingers bit into her bicep, she reached across her arm with her free hand, grabbed Cole’s wrist, and twisted it clockwise, just like he’d taught her.
Cole barked a foul curse and dropped to his knees, yielding to the pressure that would snap the bones in his wrist if Katie applied much more pressure. He could get out of the hold, but not without hurting her. A part of him was glad to see she’d been such an adept learner. Another part of him wondered if he hadn’t created a little monster. Perhaps he’d taught her a little too well, especially if she was going to be turning his knowledge around on him.
Glaring at Katie, the air fled his lungs when he saw the tears rimming her eyes and the heartbreak on her beautiful face—heartbreak he had put there. Not Carter—him. Unable to bear seeing her pain, he closed his eyes, dropped his head, and whispered, “God, Katie, I never meant to hurt you. This isn’t how it looks.”
“And yet it’s exactly that. Good-bye, Cole.” Katie turned and walked away—shoulders back, spine straight, her steps stiff and hurried.
“Goddammit, Katie! Don’t you dare walk out that door!”
Her hand froze on the doorknob, but she didn’t turn back around. “Why not, Cole? What could you possibly say at this point that could make me want to stay?”
“I love you.” The words rolled from his lips before he could bite them back. After everything she’d been through, words were not going to be what it would take to make this better. If anything, they were only going to make it worse. All Katie had heard from Carter was that he loved her. In her mind, those three words were probably the most damning thing he could have said. Actions were everything to a woman like her, and they were the only thing that was going to make this right. And her next words proved it, though it didn’t make hearing them hurt any less.
Slowly, she turned, tears rolling down her cheeks. “I really wish that I could believe that. But coming from the guy who professes never to have been in love, and who has lied to me from pretty much the moment I met him, I don’t think you even know what love is.”
One good thing about Vegas, there were taxis everywhere. As Katie burst out the door, walking at a determined clip, she hailed the cab getting ready to pull away from the curb. When the brake lights flashed, she quickened her pace, jogging to catch up with the car. She definitely wasn’t running away from Cole.
Liar . . .
Just as she reached the cab door, the gym doors crashed open behind her.
“Dammit, Kat, don’t do this!”
Her heart twisted in her chest at the note of desperation in Cole’s voice, but it was the note of warning seeding his undertone that made the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand at attention.
“When your uncle asked me to bring you here, I’d just met you. Is it so impossible for you to conceive that I could have fallen in love with you since then?”
Perhaps it was. And maybe that was why it had been so easy to latch on to the deception spawned by her uncle.
“If you run from me, Kat, if you run from this, you’re going to regret it. You want to know what I think?”
No, she really didn’t.
“I think you’re scared. You’re scared of what this is between us, and instead of working through it, you’re choosing to run the first chance you get. Well, I have news for you, Kat. I’m not going to chase you. And eventually you’re going to have to stop running, and when you do, you’re going to find yourself very alone.”
God, that hurt. Was that what she was doing? Was she looking for an excuse to push him away? No. She wouldn’t let him turn this around on her. He lied to her, conspired with Uncle Marcus to manipulate her. Steeling her nerve, Katie climbed into the backseat and slammed the door. “Drive,” she commanded the driver, her voice cracking with unshed tears.
The cabbie glanced at her from the rearview mirror, a worried frown wrinkling his black, bushy brows. “Where to, lady?”
“I don’t know, anywhere but here. Just drive.”
The man behind the wheel looked at her like she was crazy, and maybe she was, just a little bit. Who else would walk away from a man like Cole Easton? Answer: A woman who had trust issues and hated being lied to.
“If you don’t mind me sayin’ so, you look like you could use a drink.”
Katie frowned, grabbing her phone to check the time. “It’s nine a.m.”
“That don’t matter. This is Vegas, sweetheart.”
“Well, thank you . . .” She waited for the man to supply his name.
“Habib,” the fifty-something Middle Eastern man offered with a big rearview-mirror grin.
“Thank you, Habib. But I think I’ll pass,
” she replied distractedly, seeing she had a missed call from an unknown number. Dialing her voice mail, she entered her passcode and held the phone to her ear.
“Hi, this message is for Katie Miller. It’s Officer Wyatt, I’m contacting you to let you know that Carter Owens was arrested and booked today. I can’t give you the specific details of the arrest over the phone, but I do need to go over some paperwork with you, and get your signature on a few statements before this case goes in front of the judge. No date has been set yet, so I’m not sure if the judge will need to speak with you. Please contact me or stop in at your earliest convenience.”
“Habib, please take me to the airport.”
She made a quick call to her uncle and told a very unhappy Marcus she was heading back to Wisconsin. She decided not to tell him that she knew about his deception or the breakup with Cole. Instead, she kept it short and sweet, sticking to facts he couldn’t argue with. Carter was arrested and behind bars, so it was safe for her to return. Her father needed her. The arresting officer needed her to sign paperwork and possibly testify when this went to court. She finally had to face this, and in Cole’s ill-quoted words, she couldn’t keep running forever. When Uncle Marcus asked her about the fighter, pointing out that Cole needed her, too, Katie’s composure nearly cracked.
Despite her anger and disappointment that Marcus would be so manipulative, she still loved her uncle, and that was the only thing saving him from the royal ass chewing he deserved. She told him Cole’s therapy had gone fabulously well, and in the condition he was in right now, another good PT could take over and turn him out with the same result. She promised to contact the best physical therapist in Vegas, one who had experience working with fighters. She would forward Cole’s records when she contacted her uncle with the information.
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