White & Black
Page 6
Then she caught sight of Marcia standing around the other side of the cage. She ducked back out of sight looking for somewhere better to watch from. There really was nowhere, just the spectators stands and the walk area around the cage. She decided to brazen it out and actually walk around in front of her. She watched Marcia suddenly spot her out of the corner of her eye. She was not pleased… furious more like it. She’d be feeling the fury of her tongue a little later, she was sure. She had not taken heed of her two warnings. Stay away from her and Dev, and there they both were, less than twenty feet away from her at this exact moment. She’d be coming out in ginger hives soon, she thought with a wicked smile on her lips. She might as well go the whole hog… she gave her a little wave, a wink and smiled too. There, that should do it.
She had 15 minutes left before she had to dash back. She could see a round or two maybe. She sat herself down on the side of the stairs. The fight began and she was immediately enthralled by it all. It was so different watching real live people, one of whom she knew, albeit very recently and vaguely, compared with seeing a bunch of unknowns brawling with each other on TV. This was a world apart. There was a lot of tension and excitement in the air and the buzzing crowd and intense lighting added an extra dimension to the experience. If she was sitting there with her mouth agape she wouldn’t be surprised.
They seemed to spend a lot of time rolling and wrestling each other over the floor. But the kicking, punching action in between is what really set her alight. She had to physically stop herself from jumping up and down, she was so involved and excited. She rushed off after the second round. She had another four rounds card carrying in the ring next door with bald ugly brute, then maybe she’d have time to see the end of Dev’s fight, if he hadn’t already destroyed Mr England by then. She got back less than 20 minutes later with the fight still on.
Another three rounds of nerve jangling excitement went by before Dev the Destroyer took him down and the referee called a technical knock out. She had to forcibly restrain herself not to overreact. She noticed Marcia high clapped him, so she did a little high clap copying. She then went inside the cage and kissed and hugged him… she wouldn’t be copying that any time soon. That would start World War 3 for sure.
The fight over she rushed back to her post in the other room before Marcia got her claws stuck in her back. She found her next ring task was another half an hour after the interval. She found Sara and asked her what she could do.
“Oh well, if you actually want to do something, just mingle and that. Talk to the contestants if they’re hanging about, go to the bar up top, chat with anyone you fancy, you’re kind of a hostess really. But you should stay in this arena, where you’re assigned, don’t wander off again…” Sara picked up a magazine and started reading it.
She spotted a large family group sitting a little way up and decided to try her hostess mingling skills on them first. She climbed the stairs and started to chat. “Hey guys, are you having a good time?” They looked at her in amazement. “Did I say something wrong?” She asked.
“Oh no, it’s just a surprise, we’ve been coming here for months and never once has any of you girls come up here for a chat before” the teenage boy sitting in the chair next to her piped up.
Why not? She wondered. She was starting to have doubts about what Sara’s ‘mingle’ might have meant… chatting up men perhaps? Not being friendly with families by the sound of it. “So who’s your favorite fighter?” She asked the same young man, smiling at him. He looked to be about 14 or 15, Jake’s age group. She could relate to him… well maybe… actually no, she hadn’t got a clue what was going on in Jake’s head to be honest.
“Martinez, Garcia, Black… they’re the coolest. But I like the foreign guys too… some of them are great, especially the Russians!” The boy was very enthusiastic about the sport. Ella told him she did kick boxing herself and asked if he had any interest in doing MMA sports… the conversation went on for a while before she finished up and moved off finding a nice looking young couple to chat with. She moved on again and plucked up the confidence to have an all male chat too with a bunch of three guys sitting in the second row. They seemed to be quite pleasant. One of them even offered her his seat while she did her mingling with them. After a short while she realised he wanted to stand next to her looking down for a reason other than politeness and consideration.
She wasn’t aware of other people watching her with interest. Lucy was most impressed with her people mingling skills. None of the other ring girls bothered. They mostly sat and did their nails, played on their cellphones and read magazines in the intervals.
Well, well, Ella was a real find…
There were things they could do with her, not only did she have a certain glowing presence, and an obviously natural social side to her nature, she was beautiful enough to model. Definitely glamour with her figure, maybe even fashion, and beauty too with that amazing hair and those lovely eyes… They could give her a special contract, manage her… lots of other ideas popped into Lucy’s head. Marcia was too full of herself these days, the MMA promo team needed a new look and a new image… and there she was, the Arena Archangel. Wow…that was a hot new name, thought Lucy having a fit of excitement as it popped into her head. Ohhh yes! Arena Angels…. She rushed off to find Tony…
Lucy wasn’t the only one’s watching her. Dev came down the entrance corridor into Arena Two. He didn’t usually go this far to look for women to hit on but he’d wondered where she’d got to after he unintentionally dedicated his fight to her. He stood at the arena entrance and looked around for her and there she was, her sizzling whiteness was sitting just a few yards away in the second row smiling and laughing with a bunch of guys… Well fuck that, it hadn’t taken her very long to get into the swing of things here, had it?
She suddenly noticed him and they had an awkward, antagonistic stare. She finally gave him one of her cold, disinterested looks and he threw her a highly annoyed one back. He turned and stalked off.
She was sure she would hear some more about this some time later.
He was quite put out she hadn’t hung around for a while after his little slip up dedication. He had planned to arrange something with her for later, first day on the job or not. He wanted to knock that cold look off her face for starters.
Of course it hadn’t helped that Marcia was hanging all over him like a rash again… fucking up his chances. He couldn’t wait to get rid of her. In fact he might as well just get it over with and do it now. He didn’t want her to upset Ginger any more … he could see the evil looks she was shoving her way. She was acting like he was hers to play with. Marcia really was a nasty controlling queen bitch of the ring and he didn’t want her in his any more. He’d tell Tony to move her out, pronto.
He arrived back at his private room to deliver the good news. He picked up his cell and text her. “Marcia, busy?” That was all he ever text her… those two words. “Be there soon” She text back. This would be the last time they ever text each other he thought in relief. He’d be a free man tonight.
Then he’d sort out that Ginger, because she really needed to be sorted, big time, by him.
She arrived in a couple of minutes with a big smile on her face. “Hey, are you all excited after your win… want me to celebrate with you honey?”
“No, celebrating is the last thing on my mind. Look Marcia, it’s not working babe… It’s over, sorry. Whatever kind of relationship you thought we had, it’s now officially ended.” It sounded cold, hard and nasty now that he had said it out loud. Her face crumpled and he felt a little bad about his fast and none too subtle delivery despite his earlier vent of negative feelings about her.
“You are just the worst thing that has ever happened to me Devlin Black. You are the number one fucking bastard in the whole wide world. I just hate you!” She stormed out the door too angry to even cry. He’d pay for this.
“Yeah ’bye Marcia, fucking love you too.” He called out after her.
That fucking Ginger bitch. The girl was gonna die! Figuratively speaking of course.
Chapter 12
Wednesday hadn’t been good for Ella. She had burnt herself badly at the diner and had a nasty stinging red mark on her wrist that throbbed and throbbed. On top of that she had to tell Paul that she just wasn’t feeling it after their first proper date. She tried to explain that their heated one night stand hadn’t meant they were now a hot item. She could see just how upset he was, and it made her feel so very bad. Still she couldn’t lie to him. What would be the point of that? It would be far more harmful and hurtful in the long run. She was a great believer in telling the truth, especially when serious matters were at stake. Sometimes it just wasn’t a nice experience to go through. He had become very irate and asked if Dev had something to do with it. This made her in turn very angry and she’d overreacted somewhat which made her look as guilty as hell. It hadn’t ended well. They weren’t speaking at the moment.
She’d got her appointment through from the hospital to discuss her dad’s brain problem with consultant, that was set for the next Monday morning.
She was glad it was Thursday now and that bad day was all over. She was looking forward to her new job today. It was less worrying now that she understood what was required, well most of it anyway. There were some amateur fights going on tonight, it should be less crowded, easier.
She arrived at the Arena and went inside, making her way to the dressing room. She immediately noticed a frostiness and strange atmosphere. It seemed like Marcia was well and truly pissed at her for disobeying her rules. She was getting pure daggers of hate coming her way. This was a little over the top, she felt.
On top of that she was given a rather brief pale beige colored sparkly bikini to wear. She looked at Kim in horrified understanding shaking her head. “No!”
He gave her an apologetic look and a wide eye flash and leaned in close to her…
“Sorry Ella Bella, orders from up high. You’ve got to wear it and I’ve been told to make sure you do… Someone well known here wants to see you somewhat exposed… “ He whispered quietly and flashed another meaningful eye look at her. “You’ve obviously upset someone important love.”
Her mind turned straight to him. She knew just who it was she’d upset. She should have spoken to Dev after the fight last night… Oh no… his privately dedicated fight and she’d walked off without a word. When she’d seen him later he’d looked really, really pissed at her and had given her an evil look. But it had been too awkward approaching him at all with Marcia hanging all over him. Now this was his comeback. He was sending her out there looking naked as a warning not to upset him again. She was feeling really angry with him for this. It was very personal, mean and nasty. He probably wasn’t going to be here tonight as it was an amateur fight night, so he wouldn’t even see her misery. Perhaps that wasn’t the point. He would just enjoy the ability to inflict pain on her from afar. She was starting to dislike him intensely. First spying on her very raunchy dancing, then getting everyone to call her Ginger, and now this. She fancied giving him a right fucking kicking. Preferably somewhere painful. She put the pale skin tone colored pieces of clothing on and gritted her teeth.
Marcia squealed with gleeful laughter as she looked at her. “Honestly Ginger, that’s so very brief. And that color makes you look naked. Even I wouldn’t wear that at a glamour shoot. Well, good luck!”
“It’s no big deal.” She lied, truly humiliated and hating Marcia even more for pointing out the painfully obvious. “I’ve got much tinier even more naked looking ones at home” She gave her a very well acted ‘who cares’ look. She tried to blot out the rest of the evening. The brief pale bikini went down a storm with the amateur fighter guys… she was absolutely livid with the lewd comments and looks she was getting from all and sundry. Thankfully there were no TV recordings being made tonight or she really would have died of almost nakedness.
At the end of her fourth and final ring tour she decided enough was enough. She went back to wardrobe to change early and knocked on the door. There was no answer. She tried the door handle but the door was locked. Well that was bloody great! Kim must be on his break or something. There was an odd aroma in the air as she stood by the door … What on earth was that smell?
She remembered there were probably some things she could wear in the gym. She’d noticed some robes when she’d taken a quick tour around with Tony a few days before. So she made her way down the corridor to the gym room. She walked inside and turned sharp left to the women’s locker room. She quickly found a white cotton karate gi robe hanging on a peg. It was a bit short, but it did at least cover her backside. She felt safely covered everywhere else she needed to be too. She came out of the women’s locker room tying it up with its bright yellow belt. She took a few steps around the corner and was about to go out the door when someone caught her eye… on the opposite side of the room.
Oh, now just look at that… There was the man himself! The low life bastard responsible for all her miserable embarrassment tonight! Well here was an opportunity she didn’t want to miss. She took her shoes off in preparation…
Devlin was all alone working out with the free weights. He had his back to her as she approached quickly and stealthily from behind. He must have sensed something as he turned, rather fortuitously, at the precise moment she caught him in the jaw with her best left hook. It bloody hurt, as she didn’t have her gloves on, but she didn’t care. Next up was a sharp front kick… She raised her leg and whipped her foot up aiming for the tender full frontals… That one only just about made contact with his thigh as he caught her foot and tipped her up and on her back on the mat beneath them.
“Hell… what the fuck was that for?” He dropped the weight he was holding and shouted at her rubbing his jaw and looking down at her mini karate robed body lying prostrate before him.
“Yeah, as if you don’t know?” She shouted back from the floor. “You’re so mean…” She sprung up and had another go squaring up with a center stance, a one two punch and a roundhouse kick that he seemed to flick away with his fingertips. His brows shot up in surprise at her obvious knowledge and techniques and then he gave her a wicked little grin, just to add insult to injury. Not to be defeated she tried again with a low right cross to the body and a belter of a side kick all of which he swiped away with his arms as if she were a child throwing a tantrum. She tried everything she knew, again and again until she had almost exhausted herself.
What was she doing having a go at a martial arts star for crissakes… was she completely mad? She could never hope to land anything more on him now that the element of surprise had disappeared.
It was definitely making her feel better though, if nothing else.
“Had enough fun yet?” He asked with more than a flicker of amusement on his face as he grabbed hold of her arms and pushed her back against the wall next to them.
“Fuck you!” She brought her knee up in a jerk and kneed him where it hurt men most.
“Now that really did hurt! What the hell’s got into you?” His eyes threatened to water for a few seconds. If he hadn’t half expected something and moved back and up a little he’d be rolling on the floor in groin agony right now.
“You have, you bastard.” She screamed in his face.
“Well there’s far better ways of showing it…” He pushed her flat back against the wall again, this time trapping her hands above her head and squashing her entire body with his. Her breasts were heaving with the exertion of fighting and were pressing hard into him, her breathing was heavy and her white hot anger was still boiling away inside creating a wave of rising heat. She suddenly
felt small and weak compared with this muscular hunk holding her prisoner.
His face was just inches from hers. Her angry blue eyes sunk into his fathomless dark depths and her breath caught in her throat. His mouth hovered above hers for just a second and then he was kissing her. It was the softest and subtlest kiss. In fact, it was such a complete contrast to the heated and angry one sided fight she had just waged against him, that she was dazed. She finally recovered her half drowned wits enough to resist, squirming and struggling, trying to push him off in wild fury.
Who the fuck did he think he was?
He held on to her hands tightly ignoring her pathetic and feeble attempts to escape, kissing her some more in the same disarming soft and highly sensual style.
“Ella… stop that” he murmured softly against her mouth.
Heaven help her… Hearing the sound of her name on his lips broke down all her resistance in a split second. Not only was Devlin far too strong to fight off, she didn’t want to any more, the things he was doing to her mouth were just too gorgeous to be true. She shivered all over with the beginnings of desire.
She slid into complete overwhelm. Her insides were melting, a pool of hot lust forming, every inch of her body was becoming aware of his weight pressing against her. He must have sensed the change in her as the next instant his hands had released hers and were crushing her head and body against his. Her arms seemed to have fallen down and wrapped themselves very tightly around his neck without her permission. The soft and gentle kiss was elevating itself to a much harder and passionate deep tongue fight and it was above and beyond arousing. Her hands slipped around the back of his neck and up and down through his short dark hair, her fingertips probing in ecstatic exploration. One of her bare legs wound around his hard muscled one rubbing him gently… He was taking her over, oh so fast.
She breathed in the scent of him in a long deep breath through her nose. His wonderful musky masculine aroma with a top note of danger imprinted itself deeply inside her sweating brain. Her simmering anger had turned into pure molten lust which was streaming out of her in a massive unstoppable flow.