by KL Donn
She would act stupid and foolish. Pull all the wrong moves and likely push him away. When Levi had literally knocked her on her ass, she had. He’d tried flirting with her, and she’d become offended and run off. She did it the second time, too. Third time, he was the dick and hurt her.
Ryder’s words, we hurt the ones we love, even before we love them, flashed through her mind as she thought about his reaction to her age. She hoped it were true. She would give anything to have Levi feel even half of what she did for him.
Levi saw Brett arrive with the girls, but because of the crowd and their short statures, he hadn’t actually seen Hayes. He wanted to go out there and bring her back to his locker room, but he knew if the crowd had seen him, they’d go crazy.
The night was louder and busier than normal, and Casper was having a field day trying to take bets without the MMA sponsors seeing him. Even if they chose to sign on with Levi, they’d never take Casper because of it.
Not that Levi planned on bringing the man anywhere he went.
Casper was becoming a clingy weasel, out for money or blood, and not necessarily in that order.
“You ready, Knuckles!” Casper called as he entered the locker room.
“Would you quit with that name already?” he growled. He’d hated it from the first time he was called it.
“Fans love it. Gives you a good rep.” The man wasn’t even paying attention as he began naming all the bigwigs there, all of which went right over Levi’s head. He didn’t care.
He wasn’t after some fancy contract or title match. He wanted out. It’s all he’d been able to think about for days. He wasn’t stupid. It wasn’t enough time to wave the opportunity away, but it was sure time for reconsidering things.
When he started fighting, Levi had a void within him. He needed something to fill his soul and hadn’t known what. That was why it had been so easy to get into the ring. He wasn’t just fighting an opponent, he was fighting the urge to settle with his life.
His family was everything to him. After his dad had died, they had to rally around their mom. Make sure she was taken care of. But each of them had been left an empty shell.
Nox began rebuilding cars, connecting with their father that way. He and Loch had followed suit and been left hollow. Unfulfilled.
Now, Nox had Soph, and the man practically glowed with peace.
Levi wanted that.
With Hayes, he felt like the opportunity was there. If only he could hold onto her and grab it. Bind her to him.
When she’d asked him about spending the night, his gut reaction was no. After a fight, he had so much pent-up aggression and testosterone running through his system that he didn’t think he’d be able to keep his hands off of her.
His heart and mind screamed yes. He wanted Hayes in his home, for her to belong in his life outside of the ring. He wanted to see her red hair splayed out on his bed in the throes of passion. To see her back arch high in the air as he brought her more pleasure than she’d ever imagined before. He wanted to mark her as his and his alone, so no one could ever mistake her as single again.
“It’s time!” Casper yelled to him.
Shaking Hayes from his mind, he shook his body loose. Rolled his head from side to side, cracking it and loosening the muscles.
The crowd cheered.
Casper announced his opponent.
Booing ensued.
“Levi ‘Knuckles’ Hogan!” was screamed, and the crowd went wild.
Game time.
Just the sound of his name being announced sent shivers down her spine. Hayes watched as Levi left the back room, his body bouncing as he moved towards the ring.
Not wanting to distract him, she kept her cheering to herself, but his steely gaze found her anyway. Roaming her body, she felt it like a caress. His smirk as he saw the reaction, elicited one of her own. Blowing him a kiss, she winked as he entered the ring. His eyes heated, and she knew she’d made the right decision about demanding she spends the night with him.
The fighter’s tapped knuckles, and the bell was rung. Levi started out what she assumed was weakly, letting the much bigger man back him into a corner until Brett explained to her it was so the other guy would exhaust himself.
Once the opponent was worn down, Levi sprung like a snake in the grass waiting to strike. Just watching for the right moment, and then he had the other man on his knees with four solid hits to the kidneys and temple. One shot later, and it was announced a total knockout, and Levi was the winner. Her screams of victory couldn’t be contained as their gazes met. She cringed at the bruising around his eyes and jaw but knew he would be alright.
As he was about to leave the ring, two men in suits approached him, so she waited on the sidelines with Brett and Lys as the crowd got rowdier. Being pushed all around like a beach ball, it didn’t take long for her to lose sight of Levi. Brett grabbed hold of her and Lys, but that didn’t last long before the hold was broken, and she was inundated by a sea of bodies.
The farther Hayes was tussled around within the crowd, the greater the panic that seized her heart as she was lost to the angry mob. An elbow in her back had her crying out as she crashed into another person. His angry glare made her wish she could back away. When it turned lecherous, she wished she’d never come at all.
“Well, hello, sweet stuff,” he slurred, spittle flying everywhere.
Hayes flinched away from him just as she thought she heard her name being called. Turning, she tried to spot Levi, but because of her short stature, she couldn’t even find the ring. A hand on her shoulder made her entire body freeze like ice. Spun around, she slipped, and the drunk guy pulled her into his body. His greasy hands touched her everywhere he could. When his mouth began to descend on her, her instincts took over, and her knee came up, making him howl with pain.
The pure rage directed at her, made her scream, “Levi!”, as loud as she could.
It took only a moment for bodies to be pushed out of the way as he tunneled his way through to her. He took in the scene at a glance, connecting her panic with the man in crippling pain on the floor, and he had the guy flat on his back, snarling in his face. “You fucking touch my girl?”
The stranger’s eyes leapt from rage to fear in the flash of an eye, and she didn’t feel an ounce pity for him.
“No, Knuckles didn’t touch her,” he stammered.
“Then why are you on the floor, and she’s looking scared as a rabbit in the lion’s den?” Levi’s voice turned deadlier than she’d ever heard it. Her insides flashed hot as his animal instincts took over his entire body. He was showing the world she was his and not to be fucked with.
“I didn’t know she was yours,” the man sputtered.
Levi stood and walked over to her. His eyes possessed a feral-like quality, unlike anything she’d seen in anyone before, so it was no shock when his arms wrapped her into him, and his mouth devoured hers.
The kiss was vicious, erotic, teasing. Everything she needed to make her temperature spike. He owned her body and soul. Their tongues dueled for supremacy. When she submitted to him, let him have the control, a savage growl vibrated through him.
Her lips were bruised in a matter of minutes from his claiming. Pulling back, he smirked at her dazed look before placing a mask of wrath on his face and looking back at the man. “You know it now?” he snapped.
Not letting the asshole answer, Levi guided her back to his dressing room, his body crowding hers so it couldn’t be mistaken who she belonged to as he pushed them through the crowd.
Once inside the locker room, the door slammed shut behind them, and he had her against the wall in seconds. His arms, sweaty, and muscles rippling with emotion, braced Hayes in on either side of her head.
“I could have fucking killed him.” He ground his body into hers completely. Her fingers glided up his sides, making him shiver in the warm room. “He fucking touched you.” His gaze was glued to a red mark on her shoulder from the man’s grip.
From some
where deep inside her soul, she said to him, “You’ll make it go away, right?” Her voice was low, husky. Seductive.
“Fuck yes, I will,” he groaned.
Grinding his hardness into her belly, his mouth took her over again, dissipating the fear with the swipe of his tongue, not letting her dwell on anything but what his body wanted. What her body was screaming she give him.
“Take me home with you, Levi?” Her voice was breathless.
He tensed but didn’t stop kissing her neck. His hands travelled down her body. Gripping the backs of her thighs, he lifted her into his arms. With her legs wrapped tightly around his waist, he plunged each hand into her hair and bit her neck. The move possessive.
“The fucking things I want to do to you, Hayes,” he growled out, pushing his hardening erection into her core. “I want to bury my cock so far into your pussy you’ll never forget me. Forget where I’ve been.” He kissed the shell of her ear. “I want to fuck you from behind. Hold your sweet little cheeks in my hands, show you just what you do to me, become the animal I feel like.”
“Oh,” Hayes gasped at his words. She felt herself getting wetter the more he spoke.
“I want to wrap my arms around you and love you like the fucking treasure you are.” The words sounded like they were torn from his soul. “But Hayes,” he pulled back to look into her eyes, “I want you to be sure. I want you to be ready to spend your life with me. I won’t take you unless I know we’re it for you.”
She melted.
In a puddle on the dirty floor.
“Oh, Levi,” she moaned, claiming his mouth in a kiss of her own. Showing him without words that she was already his. That when he took her home, she would give him her entire heart and soul. “I’m already yours.”
“Fuck yeah, you are.”
Chapter Nine
You’re someone worth fighting for.
As they drove home, Hayes practically sitting in his lap, all Levi could hear was something his father used to say—Love is hard, love is blind, in the end, she’s always mine—whenever speaking of the road he took to marrying their mom. He couldn’t help thinking of the way he and Hayes had been pushed together. He’d tugged and pulled as much as he could, and in the end, she was his. There wasn’t a thing on earth he wouldn’t do for the woman in his arms.
“Levi?” Her whisper was a caress against his neck.
“Yeah, sugar.” His own words were savage. He was fighting the urge to claim her right there.
“Did you mean it?” She may have been trying to hide the uncertainty, but it was recognizable to him all the same.
The “it” being his claim that when he took her, she would belong to him.
“I did.” Chancing a look down at her, he saw the slight grin. “Why?”
“It feels surreal, I guess.”
“What does?” He looked from her to the road and back again waiting on an answer.
She was quiet for so long, he didn’t think she’d answer. “I know I’m young, and I shouldn’t be so worried about the future, but when I was in that hospital waiting to find out my fate, it was all I could think about.” He remained silent as she spoke. “I realized I would never get my shot at the Olympics. I fought that fact for so long, but deep inside, I knew it was true. Whenever the nurse would come in to clean my bandages or when they would tell me I had to go for another surgery, all I could think about was who would want me? A scared girl with broken dreams. Damaged beyond belief. I was reduced to nothing.”
“You’re not nothing,” he growled.
Sitting up, she looked at him and smiled. “I know that now. Then, not so much, and it was hard to look past the ugliness.” Tears hovered in her eyes as she continued. “Then you came along, tackling me to the ground. I was so damn mad at you. The impact was brutal on my hip. Then you spoke and made it so much worse.” He couldn’t help but chuckle. “I looked for you again after that. I had always hoped to run into you, but you never showed.”
“Hayes.”
She simply smiled at him. “I figured I’d scared you off with my attitude. Then that weirdo showed up. I don’t know what his plan was, but after I plotted my escape and nearly ran you down, my foolish heart sang like a canary. Then you spoke again.” She casually laughed while he felt like a tool for insulting her so much. He knew it wasn’t her intent. “When I saw you at the fight, I didn’t know what to think. I was shocked; amazed at your power. It was hypnotizing.”
“That so?”
“Yeah. When you saw me, and your reaction as you dragged me out… I’ve never felt so alive as I do when I’m in your arms, Levi.” Her soft admission had his chest puffing out with pride. “Then Dustin ruined everything.” The snarl that left his mouth at another man’s name crossing her lips was involuntary. She grinned. “I wasn’t going to keep it a secret or anything. It would have been hard to hide, but your rejection hurt worse than the accident. It stung like a thousand wasp bites.”
“I was shocked as fuck,” he admitted. “What I feel for you, Hayes, it’s anything but innocent. This need driving through my veins to devour you consumes me in a way I’ve never known before. It’s new for me, too.”
“What changed your mind?” Her words were husky, and he was glad to have finally pulled into the driveway of his small bungalow.
Unbuckling her, he pulled her into his lap as he answered. “The way you touched me. The tentative graze against my chest, the heat in your eyes as you made me come. You have this innocent aura that surrounds you, and it’s fucking addictive as hell. I don’t know if there was any one thing that drew me to you, I just knew that going without seeing you for days was brutal. I missed the passion buried deep in your eyes; the emotions it created. This connection we have is not dissipating, and I was a fool for pushing you away, Hayes. A real fucking idiot.”
“Yeah?” she whispered, uncertainty shining brightly in her gaze.
“Give me a chance, baby, and I’ll show you the world. Make me your choice, and I’ll worship you for as long as you let me.”
Levi’s words rang through her veins like a symphony. They were perfect. His gaze as he held hers was spellbinding. Magical. The stars were aligning for them, and Hayes felt a buzz in the air.
Electrifying, magnetizing. Almost as though they were being dared to defy the universe after throwing them together time and again. She’d never been one to believe in love and happy endings. In fact, she’d have laughed in anyone’s face who had told her differently. Except with Levi, she felt like an entirely new woman. They clicked in a way she hadn’t even know was possible. His sincerity as he spoke of his true feelings, as he described just what she did to his body and mind. She felt those same things soul deep. She understood beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was her choice and would be forever.
“I’ll always choose you, Levi.”
His happiness radiating back at her was so intense, nearly blinding, that a tear escaped her eye. His joy immediately turned to concern upon seeing it.
“What’s this?” A finger swiped the tear away.
“Happiness, Levi. That is what my happiness is.”
Leaning his forehead to hers, his whispered words washed over her. “Yeah, it is.”
Finally exiting his car, Levi pulled her along behind him as they entered his house. Sports memorabilia lined every wall. Everything from trophies for school sports sitting on shelves to signed posters framed and hanging on the walls. Pictures of him and his brothers or parents were dotted on random surfaces as they walked throughout the rooms.
“Holy Batman,” she mumbled as they walked past the living room overrun by a massive television. Larger than she’d ever seen.
“She’s a beauty, ain’t she?” He beamed.
Tilting her head, Hayes asked, “She?” trying to hide her laughter.
“It’s what I call all my beautiful things.”
“If you say so.”
His smirk was her only answer as he continued pulling her up the stairs. Nerves began to rattl
e her bones as she realized what she’d asked of him. Her intent had been to get to know each other better, then all the drama at the fight fueled both of their emotions, and their libidos had taken over. She wasn’t even sure she was ready for this step in their relationship. Levi was a grown man and likely knew what he wanted and when he wanted it. She had no clue. The only thing she was knowledgeable about with her body was how to keep it in shape, to push past her boundaries.
“Levi.” Her word was hushed.
He spun around so fast that she didn’t have time to stop herself from knocking into his sculpted chest. No words were spoken as one of his hands went to her hip, and the other cupped her jaw in a firm hold. His gaze was pure heat as he slowly lowered his head to take her lips in a kiss. It wasn’t an ordinary melding of mouths, though, it was a meeting of soulmates. The thought was ludicrous, but that was all she could think of as their tongues dueled. Everything with Levi felt so right. The way he held her against his body; she fit like a glove. As if to prove her point, he pulled her hips flush with his, and her entire form was encased by him. He surrounded her completely. The strength that vibrated from his body was overwhelming to her senses. He controlled her every move and breath as his mouth owned hers.
“Hayes,” he chanted against her lips as one knee pressed between her thighs to rub tantalizingly against her sex. The small amounts of pressure he applied tormented her body in the most beautiful way. Kissing along her jaw, his hands let her go only long enough to wrap around her back. Pushing his way up under her shirt as he massaged her skin. “I want you, sugar.” He groaned when she shivered from his ministrations.
“I’m scared,” she confessed.
He sucked the skin of her neck into his mouth. She was sure to have a mark in the morning as one of his hands reached out from under her shirt to pull on her hair, forcing her neck back at an awkward angle.
“When you’re ready, you’ll beg me, just,” he nipped her neck, “like,” a tug of her hair, “this.” His thigh pressed firmly against her clit, making her moan without inhibition.