The questions flew around and I ignored them all and focused on putting one foot in front of the other. Len wrapped an arm around me as if to shield me from the horrible words and snarled a few choice words of his own at them.
A few seconds later, we made it through the doors and into the seeming sanctuary of the gym. A big blonde guy that looked like an ex pro wrestler walked towards us. His hand extended to Len.
“Hi, I’m Mike Torrens. This is my place. Glad to have you here.”
“Len Todd.” The men shook hands.
Then Mike turned to me. “And this is Alexander’s girlfriend, Eden,” Len introduced. Mike took my hand and gently shook it.
“Pleasure to meet you both. I was wondering if we’d see you two down here. Sorry about all that.” He nodded his head towards the press out the front. “They’ve been haunting my doorstep ever since Xander arrived in town.”
“Vultures. I find it hard to believe they actually get paid for that.” Len shook his head in amazement.
Mike just chuckled a low deep rumbly sound. “Well, your son is just about the biggest news in Vegas right now.”
“Apparently,” Len said unimpressed.
“Can I offer you two a cold drink or coffee?”
“Coffee, would be good.” Then Len looked at me. “Actually, make it a cold drink. I can’t say I’ve got a taste for the way you Americans make it yet.” I knew immediately that Len had changed his mind on my account.
“Eden?”
“Water, or something like that, would be great, thanks.”
“I’ll be right back. Then I’ll show you to a little area where you can watch.” Mike turned and headed off.
“Thanks, Len.” I said quietly.
He just grinned. “No problem. I haven’t had a decent coffee here yet anyway.”
We both laughed.
“I don’t currently have that problem.”
“Might be wise to avoid it for a bit longer,” Len suggested.
“Noted.” I was fast getting the feeling that Aussie taste in coffee varied to American taste!
Mike returned with bottles of some sort of flavoured water and showed us to a little seating area off the gym floor. Xander, Dane and Seth were all involved in some sort of intricate sparring. Reed was watching on and yelling instructions from the side.
We sat and watched for a few minutes.
“What are they doing, Len? I don’t understand.”
“Dane’s strength is strikes. So Xan is working those with Dane. The intent is to get through the strikes and get Dane to the ground or get a knock out on him. Although it won’t be a real one here.” I watched Xander throw a combination then step in and do some sort of throw.
“Now Seth on the other hand; his strength is the ground. Alexander’s aim is to either pin him to tap out or get up. Reed’s using the strengths of both of the guys to hone Xander’s.”
Xander’s was continually fighting either Dane or Seth, whereas each of them got a break while the other one was fighting Xander. What I was watching was intense and none of them seemed to be going easy on him.
“Xander hasn’t said much about his opponent, Len, and I haven’t wanted to ask, but his name kind of terrifies me,” I admitted in a low voice.
Len chuckled. “That’s exactly what his ring name is supposed to do—incite fear. He’s known for winning by a knockout; that’s why he’s called “Lights Out”. The only one he hasn’t managed to do that with so far is Alexander.”
That had me thinking. “So if ring names are supposed to incite fear, why is Xander called Pretty Boy?”
Len let out a little snort and shook his head. “That was all Reed. Reed was always riding Xan to get into the fight more. Xander has always been more of a calculating fighter. He likes to think about it, set up his opponent and make every move count. The name was more about getting Xander riled up than anything else.” I guess that made some sense when Len explained it like that.
“So it’s more a mental game for Xander?”
“Yeah. Xander’s skills are almost perfect. Whether he wins will depend on if he has the right mental attitude. Previously he was rock solid.”
Alarm ran through me. “Are you worried, Len?”
He ran a hand over his face. “I’m not going to lie to you, Eden, Xander’s been out a long time. He’s coming back from something horrific and he’s never had a fight this big.” With every word he said, the dread in my heart got heavier. “But I’ve never seen him look hungrier or more focused. His condition is spot on and I’m not going to tell him this, but he’s got faster and stronger, if I’m any judge. Plus he’s got a point to prove. Don’t worry; the fight will be pretty even. It’ll come down to who wants it more and uses their head. Alexander’s always been a thinker when he fights.”
“I hope you’re right. I’m starting to feel really nervous,” I admitted.
“Don’t tell him that. But yeah, I know. He’ll be fine. My boy’s as tough as they come. That’s how I raised him.”
There was pride in his voice and it was well founded. “He’s pretty special Len.”
“As long as you think so.”
The guys called a halt to the exercises. Seth and Dane towelled off and got a drink. Xander picked up a rope and started skipping. He looked spent and half dead on his feet. His body was now looking gaunt and depleted. Xander looked like the picture he’d showed me that night.
“Doesn’t he need to rest?” I asked concerned.
“Today’s crucial; he needs to drop the final weight.” I wondered how he could do this. The three guys just looked on as he tortured himself. “He’ll rest this afternoon. Then see where he’s at, weight wise. Tomorrow morning he’ll be up really early to see what he has to do to make weight.”
That sounded really ominous. “What happens if he’s over?”
“He won’t be, but if he’s tight to the weight limit he’ll exercise all morning in a sweat suit or sit in a sauna or both.”
Xander took a couple of small sips from the bottle beside the guys. Reed and Xander had both been monitoring his water intake like hawks the last few days. Apparently, that and his diet were the key to stripping the weight off him for the weigh-in while still leaving him rock solid with muscle. Five days ago he was drinking so much water he seemed to be always carrying a bottle or in the bathroom. Now he was drinking so little he was looking at his water bottle like a guy dying of thirst, which effectively he was, from what I could gather.
A few minutes later the guys headed over towards us. Xander looked exhausted. There were dark rings around his eyes and he looked sick. I wanted to go and hug him, but didn’t know if that’s what he wanted here amongst the guys.
The ride back to the hotel was a fairly quiet one. The driver pulled up to the delivery entrance in the underground carpark that was closed to regular guests. Xander wasn’t really in any mood to be fronting the media at the moment. He was liable to say anything. Both Seth and Dane were very subdued around him compared to their normal banter and razzing.
We rode the service elevator to our floor and everyone got out.
Seth and Dane turned to head to the opposite side of the floor to our room. As he was walking away Seth threw over his shoulder, “Make sure you take care of him, Eden. He could use a good rub down.” Then he winked. I felt Xander stiffen beside me, then his mouth tightened into a slash.
“Fuck off, Seth. I’ve still got enough energy left to flatten your arse.” It wasn’t so much what he said, but how he said it. None of us missed the double meaning. Xander very rarely swore around me, but it was the steel edge in his voice that was really telling. He was hurting bad and I suspected he just wanted a shower and to lay down.
Seth merely grinned and walked on.
“Just ignore him, Xan,” I soothed.
He nodded and like I thought he would, he headed straight to the bathroom.
The next twenty four hours were going to drag.
* * *
Xander
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The fight promoters had organised a meeting room in the hotel for this afternoon’s conference. If I had to sit through another one of these meetings, then I was damned glad it was in the same hotel and I didn’t have to go anywhere.
There was no getting around it.
I felt like shit.
I had no energy, I was so thirsty, it seemed like I had tunnel vision and I couldn’t wait for weigh-in to be done so I could drink and eat some carbs again. My weight was coming off fine and we were happy I’d make the weight easy but I wouldn’t slack off now. Better to be well under and have leeway than be stressing because I was trying to get it off in the morning. Exercise was the last thing I felt like doing in this state. My preferred option was to be lying in bed with Eden in my arms. That was about the only thing that could take away the discomfort.
Reed was already there when I walked in and he had a dark look on his face. That wasn’t unusual for Reed, and in my current state, I wasn’t sure if I was even alert enough to read his mood correctly. I was so damned irritable and grouchy; I couldn’t stand to be around me, let alone anyone else but Eden.
He nodded at me as I sat down.
“How are you doing?”
“Okay. I’m here.”
He nodded. “Not much longer now.”
I gave him a sarcastic little snort. It was always easy to say stuff like that when it wasn’t you going through it.
The door to the room opened and Tina and Simon walked in. They both had that slick over groomed look about them. Tina was all gleaming dark hair, flashing white teeth, and fake tits in a suit. Simon was the male version of it. I’d detested them both on sight when I met them last week when we’d first arrived. My views, unfortunately, hadn’t changed.
After a round of big flashing teeth smiles, the pair quickly hooked up a laptop to the data projector in the room and pulled up some sort of presentation they wanted to go over.
“This is what we want to focus the final press conference on. It’s the last real chance we’re going to have to get out to the masses. Tickets for the event are sold out, but there are no limits on what we can take in pay-per views so that’s our focus in the last twenty-four hours. The campaign will be focused on social media mainly with good coverage in the TV space as well. We want as many people to click that sign up link as possible.”
Yeah, it all made sense and I’d heard it all before. Nothing new there.
“So the press conference needs to really focus on this grudge match between you two. We need to whip up as much excitement as possible. No topic will be off the agenda and the more controversial the better.” My stomach turned. If I hadn’t already been feeling sick before, then I definitely was now. “We’ve planted questions with a lot of the press people in the room and we want you and Luke to play up the tensions.”
“What sort of questions?” I snarled. I didn’t like the feeling I had about this at all.
Tina shrugged a little and looked to Simon as if trying to decide who was going to answer.
Simon suddenly didn’t look quite so sure of himself, but covered it with a big cheesy smile. “Oh, you know the usual about The Cobra, how you feel about that, why you’ve stayed away for so long. That sort of thing...maybe a few around your relationship with the scarred girl.” His voice had trailed off so the stuff about Eden was much quieter, which made me hellishly suspicious. The fact that he referred to her as the “scarred girl” pissed me off beyond measure.
“Her name’s Eden,” I gritted out, my fists clenching under the table. Simon looked to Tina and it was if they shared some sort of personal joke. “And I don’t see why my relationship has anything to do with the fight.”
I glanced over at Reed. His face was impassive, but I thought even he looked a little pissed about this.
“Well, it’s news. The world wants to know how a girl with a disfigurement like that gets a hot guy like you,” Tina cooed at me. “I mean they were speculating on whether or not it was even true until those photos of you kissing her when she arrived surfaced.” Simon was sitting back in his chair looking smug and I had no doubt who had set up all that. The desire to get up and wipe that smile off his face was running hot through my veins. There was absolutely no point talking to these people. They didn’t give a shit who they hurt along the way.
I’d had enough. My temper was at its shortest when I felt as depleted as I did now.
I stood and walked out before I did something I regretted.
It didn’t matter what I said. These people would do what they wanted to anyway. They didn’t care how much they screwed with peoples’ lives because they were “just doing their job.”
Chapter 30
Eden
The phone alarm went off at the crack of dawn. Xander reached over and grabbed it from the nightstand obviously trying to get to it before it woke me. I rolled over and cuddled into him and kissed his neck.
“Morning, Gem,” he whispered in that rough morning voice that had all my nerves tingling.
“Hey,” I managed and snuggled tighter.
He pulled me into his arms. “Not long now, gorgeous.”
I knew he wasn’t only talking about the fight, but also about being “together” again.
“How do you feel?” I asked cautiously. I knew today would be the toughest day yet for him. He had to be so depleted from all the “cutting”.
“Counting the hours. I need to get up and see what the scales say. I should be fine.” I noticed he carefully avoided the question. I took that to mean he felt like crap. One thing I’d learned is that Xander never complained; he just got on with what he had to do. He’d worked so hard these last weeks. I hoped for his sake he was under his goal, because I knew he would do anything he had to do to make the weight.
He kissed my forehead and rolled out of bed. I studied his naked body as he walked to the bathroom. Every single muscle was defined but his skin looked pasty and dry. He looked like that photo he’d shown me weeks ago. Fingers crossed he was at the right weight.
A few moments later he was back with a smile on his face.
“A kilo and a half under.” He crawled back into bed and sent a text off to Reed, I assumed.
“Well done. That’s awesome. So you don’t have to do anything more?”
“Nope. Just not drink or eat.” He laughed cynically.
“I’m so glad you’re not going to do that bath thing again. I have to say that freaked me out. I was panicking you’d pass out and I’d have to fish you out of all that hot water. I still have no idea how you stood that water. It looked like it was almost boiling. I kept thinking your skin was going to peel off.”
“As hot as you can stand. The hotter the better. You did look pretty freaked when you looked in and saw me totally under except my nose.” He chuckled. “Sorry, Gem. I should have talked you through that one before I did it. It didn’t dawn on me that it might have been a trigger for you. I’m not as sharp as I usually am on this cut.” He looked remorseful. It had been confronting but I’d managed.
“Can’t say there’s much chance I’m going to join you but, I guess you know what you can and can’t do.” I had to be confident that he did. What he was doing was extreme and I knew inherently, it could be dangerous if not done properly.
He didn’t get to respond to my comment as the phone rang just then.
“Hey, man,” Xander drawled after answering.
“Yeah, all good weight wise. I feel like shit though so I’m going to hang in bed for a bit longer; maybe try to get a bit more sleep.”
Reed obviously said a little more and Xander replied, “All good I’ll see you then. I’m not doing anything at the moment. And no, I won’t be tearing one off. I’ll catch you later.” Then he hung up the phone and rolled over and snuggled into me.
“Reed?”
“Yep.” He sounded pissed off and it had to be something Reed had said. My guess it was something to do with us.
“Is there a problem?” I asked cautiously.
“Nope. Just that he thinks we’re here screwing each other senseless.”
That surprised me. “Didn’t you tell him we were abstaining, if he’s so damned worried?”
“No, I didn’t. It’s none of his business. I’m not a novice at this fight prep thing. I’ll just be so glad when tomorrow’s over and he stops sticking his nose into my life. I get that he’s my trainer and I knew what I was signing up for, but I’m just about done. So over him up in my business. Jesus, I’ll cuddle up to my girlfriend if I want to.” As if to prove his point Xander grabbed me tighter and nuzzled my neck. Yep. I’d guessed right. Reed had wanted to dictate terms in every aspect of Xander’s life and Xan wasn’t happy about it.
“He’s just doing what he thinks is right,” I said, trying to be diplomatic.
He just huffed and nuzzled closer. His hips pressed up against my backside. There was no mistaking he was aroused. I tried to stay still, when really all I wanted to do was wriggle my hips back into him and entice him more. But I knew Xander was committed to his course and right now he was at his weakest. I wouldn’t disrespect his wishes by trying to tempt him. This morning I needed to be strong for both of us because I knew instinctively Xander was struggling with tempation.
“I want you, Gem,” he whispered and pressed closer.
“I know, but you’re going to have to wait,” I said, and kept perfectly still. “You’ll only be annoyed with yourself if you break your own rules.”
“I know, but my dick doesn’t seem to agree with my thinking and my brain doesn’t have the mental capacity to argue at the moment,” he admitted.
“From what I hear dicks are like that. They have a tendency to get you guys in trouble. I’m not going to let that happen. As soon as the fight’s over you can have as much sex as you want.” I was talking a good game and a big part of me was really hoping he’d be up to having lots of sex. There was also a part of me that was terrified he wouldn’t be, but there was no way I was going to let him see, or know, my fears.
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