by Alexa Davis
“No, thank you.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “Why not?”
“I just don’t want to encourage you, Nick. I’m not looking to date a fighter.”
“Wow, now who’s being arrogant?”
“Me? Arrogant?”
“I wasn’t asking you out on a date. I was having a little barbecue for Kevin, to welcome him to Vegas. I was going to invite your dad, too. I’m just being friendly is all, Karli.”
She looked embarrassed, and I felt kind of bad again. But not so bad as to take back the offer. “Oh, okay… I guess.”
“Great.” I bent over the desk and picked up a marker and a notepad. I wrote my address and number on it and said, “How does seven sound?”
She looked at the time. It was already three-thirty. I was just praying I had what I needed at home and wouldn’t have to go to the store. I was going to be cutting it close. Plus, I still had to invite the guest of honor. “Um…okay; I’ll try to make it.”
I smiled at her, making sure my dimples came through loud and clear just in case she wasn’t immune to them. “Try hard.”
I left the office without a commitment, but pretty sure she’d come along if her father and houseguest decided to come. I’d rather have her in my house without Daddy as a chaperone, but at this point I’d take what I could get. For the first time in a long time, I was intrigued by the woman and not just the pretty face.
I backtracked to where Shrek and Charlie were still working on the bag. “Hey, guys, I was thinking about throwing some steaks on the grill when I get home. A few of the guys from the league will be there. I thought we’d make it a welcome party for Kevin, if you’re available?”
I looked at the big kid. He looked interested. Then I said, “My friend’s dad owns the Red Herron Inn out at the state line. He’s bringing a few of the girls that work in the club over there, too.” I said that casually and watched as the look on Shrek’s face went from interest to blatant enthusiasm. You can always count on nineteen-year-old hormones.
“Sure, that sounds like fun,” he said. “What do you think, Charlie?”
“I’m a little tired,” Charlie said, “But you go ahead, Kevin. It’ll be nice for you to meet some of the guys if you decide to stay in town.”
Yes! Perfect! “I gave Karli the address if you want to get it from her,” I told Kevin. I didn’t want Charlie to think I’d gone behind his back to invite Karli. He scowled slightly, but didn’t say anything.
“Good! Maybe she and I can ride together.”
“Yeah, maybe. I’ll see you later. Charlie, if you change your mind…”
“Thanks,” he grumbled as I walked away. Now I had to get home and get this shit set up.
********
I went home and then I had to leave again and go to the store. I filled a grocery cart with everything I could think of, half of which I probably didn’t need. On my way home, I called Jonah. “Hey, stranger, what’s up?”
“I need people at my house at seven for a party.”
“Okay, I can make it.”
“No, I mean, yeah, you can come. But, I need a lot of people and some of the girls from your dad’s place, too if you can get them to come on short notice.”
“Okay. What’s this party for?”
“To introduce a new fighter in town.”
“So what’s the rush?”
“I don’t have time for twenty questions; I have to clean the house.”
He laughed. “All right, man, I’ll bring a party for you, but you’ll have to tell me what it’s really about later.”
“Yeah, later.” I hung up. I wasn’t about to tell Jonah what it was really about. He would tell the other guys and I’d never hear the end of it. Or worse yet, one of them would shoot off their big mouths and Karli would find out this was all about getting her to my house. I was not absolutely certain, but I didn’t think she’d be impressed.
I washed the dishes and straightened up the house before I swept off the patio and cleaned the grill. Then I showered, changed, and had just finished shaving when the doorbell rang. I had actual butterflies in my stomach on my way to answer it. Fuck, what has this girl done to me in one day?
I pulled open the door to Jonah with a girl on each arm. “Hey, ugly and ladies, come on in.” I looked out behind them and Jonah said,
“Don’t worry, there’s more coming. Why don’t you girls go get a beer or something to drink out of the refrigerator on the patio and I’ll be out in a few,” he told them.
I noticed that he didn’t even bother to introduce them, which was rude – and sadly, something I would do. I have no idea why suddenly all of these things mattered so much to me. It had to be more than Martin and his Reyna. Maybe Ethan was right and I was finally maturing. I didn’t want to think this was all about Karli, because how pathetic would that make me?
Once the girls were gone, Jonah looked at me and said, “So, what’s going on?”
“I told you, we’re welcoming a new fighter. He’s this kid from Philadelphia.”
“Save that crap for someone that doesn’t know you.”
The doorbell rang and, at least for the moment, I escaped his inquisition. He went out to get a beer with the girls and my house started filling up. By seven fifteen, I was ready to throw the steaks on the grill. Glenda, one of the fighter’s wives, was making a salad in the kitchen and I had Micah and Les, two more of my friends from the MMA league, wrapping potatoes in foil to bake on the grill. As I carried the meat out to the patio, I saw Briana, Micah’s girlfriend.
“Hey, Bri, would you mind getting the plates and utensils out of the pantry for me and bringing them out to the patio?”
“Nope, I’m on it, Nick.”
Jonah bugged me some more while I tossed the meat and potatoes on the grill. I stuck to my guns that the party was for Kevin. As I was rinsing off the meat pan in the kitchen sink at seven-forty, the doorbell rang again. Jonah answered it and when I looked up and saw Kevin and Karli, I automatically smiled. That was when my stupid friend looked right at Karli and said, “Oh! I get it now!”
Fucker.
CHAPTER EIGHT
KARLI
Kevin rode with me or I would have left almost as soon as we got to Nick’s house. The place was crawling with fighters and girls in Band-Aid bikinis, neither of which I was interested in. The booze was flowing freely, so I didn’t doubt that pretty soon those bikinis would be coming off and some of these fighters would be looking to go a few rounds with each other.
There was also the fact that Nick’s friend had looked right at me when I came in and said “Oh! I get it now!” It gave me the feeling that I’d been tricked and I wasn’t happy about it.
I didn’t say anything to Nick about it, though, for two reasons – number one, he’d just deny it and call me arrogant again, and number two, Kevin was so excited that Nick was doing this for him. He didn’t strike me as the kind of guy who made friends easily and I hated the idea of him learning that he was being used from me.
Nick glared at his friend and shooed him away before making a big production of introducing Kevin and then me to everyone before showing us through a huge living room to a set of glass doors that took up half of the wall and out onto a tiled patio with built in barbecue pit, bar, and seventy-inch television. The green grass stretched out into a park-like setting, and in the center of it was a pool with a waterfall along the side of it.
It was incredible and so obviously meant to impress. He must sink every penny of money he made into this place; either that or he had a rich mommy and daddy. I was not sure why I cared enough to even put so much thought into it.
He was at the barbecue pit now with his back to me, and I glanced over and took him in while he wasn’t watching. He was so tall that he towered over just about everyone, except Kevin. His friends were all in good shape, but Nick’s body actually looked sculpted. His biceps were thick in all the right places and where the sleeves of his t-shirt ended, all of that delicious ink
began.
I hated that I found him so incredibly attractive, but God I’d have to be blind not to. I’d be willing to bet in an anonymous poll, even the other men here would have to agree that where looks were concerned, he was absolutely perfect. He turned to the side and I watched as he smiled at someone and those dimples came out. They ought to be illegal.
The dimples made me think of Ethan and I told myself that was good. Think about Ethan. I have a date with Ethan. I do not need a man like Nick in my life, not even a little bit.
Just as I had that thought, Nick’s friend Jonah passed by with a girl on his arm.
“Excuse me?”
He stopped and the busty blonde made a pouty face when he said, “Go on to the pool, baby. I’ll catch up with you.”
I think she may have even stomped her foot a little. Once she was gone, he smiled at me. Like Nick, he was hot, but also like Nick, it was obvious that he knew it. “What can I do for you…Karli?”
“Yeah, I have a silly question for you.”
“What’s that?”
“Was this party really for Kevin?”
Jonah’s eyes cut first to the big guy standing a few feet away from us. Kevin had found a girl to talk to and he looked like he was in seventh heaven. Then he cut them over to where Nick was taking food off the barbecue. He still had his back to us.
“Well, that’s what Nick says, and it’s his house,” was his answer.
“So, what did you mean by “Oh! I get it now!” when I came in the door?”
“No telling really,” he said. “I mean, you just never know what I’m going to say. Half the time, I don’t even know what I’m talking about.” It was obvious he wasn’t going to give up his friend, but between the way he was acting and the look in Nick’s blue eyes as he turned and saw us talking, it was obvious there was something he wasn’t supposed to tell me.
“Okay, thanks. Where is the ladies’ room?”
“Down the hall, second door on the left.”
“Thank you.” Nick was still looking at us so just to make him worry, I glared at him and then smiled at Jonah. I turned and made my way through a sea of bodies and back inside. I was almost to the bathroom when I heard Nick’s voice.
“You okay, Karli?”
I turned and looked at him and almost forgot that I was mad at him again. Jesus, he’s too freaking hot. “I’m fine. I just don’t like being tricked into doing something you clearly knew I didn’t want to do.”
“What are you talking about? What did Jonah say to you?”
“He didn’t say anything. He wouldn’t; but I heard what he said when Kevin and I walked in. You didn’t throw this party for Kevin out of the goodness of your heart. You threw it to get me in your house, and in your egotistical mind, that probably translates to getting me into bed. That is not going to happen – ever – just so we’re clear on that.”
“Wow, you’re really something, you know that?”
“Me? You’re the one going completely out of your way to get a woman to come to your house. Are you that hard up?”
He laughed. “No, baby, I’m not hard up at all. And you can think whatever you want to think in that pretty, little, narcissistic head of yours, but this,” he held his arms out, “was all about welcoming a new brother into our fold, and nothing about you.”
“I don’t believe you,” I said like a fifth grader. I had no idea what it was about this guy that seems to bring out the worst in me. I cursed my melted insides as he said,
“That’s because you’re as full of yourself as I am. You think I threw a party for fifty people just for you. Wow.” He grinned, and I felt my face color. He was right. Who did I think I was that a man who looked like Nick Storelli would go through all of this trouble for me?
“Maybe you’re right,” I said. He looked surprised, but to his credit, he kept a straight face as I said, “I don’t know what it is about you, Nick, but you seem to bring out the worst in me.”
“I have to say that’s the first time a woman has ever told me that.” He stepped closer. The bathroom door was open behind me. I could have stepped back into it…but I didn’t. I wanted to think of it more like standing my ground than aching to be close to him.
He reached down and put his fingers underneath my chin and tipped my face up to his. God, his blue eyes are so incredibly beautiful, and expressive. I could actually see desire in them…for me. As much as I didn’t want to like anything about this guy, I just couldn’t deny, at least to myself, how much he turned me on. “I want to kiss you so bad, Karli.”
That was my cue to step back. It was my cue to say no. It was my cue to run out of here and not look back. I’d only met him twelve hours ago, but I already knew him. I knew he was just like every other hot gym rat I’ve ever known – too in love with himself to have room for me. I’d buy that he wanted me for sex, but then he would be finished with me and once again, I’d be left with a wounded ego and aching heart.
Nick waited patiently while I stood there with all of that going through my head. Finally as if my body was tired of the indecision and so made it on her own, I felt myself press my body in closer to his. He didn’t need any more encouragement than that. He brought those full, sexy lips down to mine and kissed me.
Our lips and tongues seemed to move together like a dance that was perfectly choreographed. His lips were soft, and I could feel the tickle of his breaths on mine. He kept one hand in my hair and the other on my waist as he explored my mouth with his tongue. It was sweet and sexy at the same time. He kissed me until neither of us could go without a breath any longer and then he pulled his face up slowly and looked down at mine and smiled.
“Thank you,” he said. That simple expression of thanks caused anything in my body that wasn’t already singing with desire to go into overdrive. It was contradictory to everything I wanted to believe about him, just like the apology earlier.
I stared at him for a few seconds, willing the dizziness in my head and the shakiness in my limbs to go away. As soon as they did, the regrets began to sneak in. Nick Storelli was everything I didn’t need and everything I’d sworn off after my last disastrous relationship. I had a date in coming up soon with Ethan Grant – everything I did need. What the hell am I doing?
“Um,” I finally took that step back. “I’m going to use the ladies’ room.” I didn’t know if he said anything or not. I took another fast step back, closed the door, and leaned my back into it.
What did I just do? It wasn’t like kissing a guy at a club and being sure you’ll never see him again. I was going to have to look at Nick at least three days a week at the gym and he’d be looking back at me with those sexy, blue eyes that had seen how much I wanted him. Damn it, Karli!
CHAPTER NINE
NICK
“Hey, Nick! Is the food almost ready?” Jonah yelled at me on my way back out the door to the patio.
I’d taken the meat off the grill already and forgot about it when I went to follow Karli inside. I wished I knew what she was thinking now. She’d run into the bathroom and closed the door so quickly that I was sure she regretted kissing me.
But what she couldn’t deny, at least to herself, was that was one hell of a kiss. I’d kissed a lot of women in my life so I know a great kiss when I feel one, and every nerve ending in my body felt that one. For just a few seconds before she ran, I could see on Karli’s face and in her pretty eyes that she’d felt it, too.
“Nick?” Jonah walked up behind me.
“What?”
“The food?”
“Oh, yeah, it’s ready.”
He laughed. “Man, I never thought I’d see the day.”
“What day is that?”
“The one where Nicholas Storelli fell in love.”
“Shut the fuck up and go put the meat on the table.” I handed him the tray and he walked away laughing. Idiot.
I went inside and with a couple of the girls’ help, I brought out the rest of the food. The whole time, I watched the hall
way for a sign of Karli. When all the food was put out and I still hadn’t seen her, I went looking for her. The bathroom door was open and the bathroom was empty. I went back outside and searched the yard for Kevin. He wasn’t hard to spot.
“Hey, Kevin!” I waved at him and he jogged over. “Where’s Karli? Have you seen her?”
“Oh yeah, she just texted me. She asked me to tell you thanks for the invite, but she had to get home and work on her homework.”
Shit. The kiss scared her. “Thanks,” I told him. I started to walk away and then turned back to him and said, “Hey, Kevin, can you give me her number? I misplaced it. I just want to tell her goodnight.”
“Sure.” He took out his phone and rattled it off as I put it into mine. Once everyone was stuffing their faces, I went back into the quiet house and sent her a text,
“Thank you for coming tonight. I am sorry we got off to such a bad start this morning. I’d like to get to know you, Karli. Please don’t stress yourself out about the kiss either. I don’t want things to be awkward for you at the gym. But if you ever want to do it again, I’m game ;) Goodnight, beautiful.”
It was almost an hour later when I got a text back that simply said, “Thanks, Nick. Goodnight.” It was a start, I guess.
********
I had been doing my absolute best every day that I worked with Charlie in the days after our talk. I also hadn’t been out – no drinking and no partying and no women. The last drink I had was at the party I threw last Sunday night, and I had actually bought some of the things on Charlie’s nutrition list and cooked my own dinner three nights this past week instead of eating out. I was sleeping better and my body actually felt better.
The only thing I was struggling with was Karli. I saw her come and go most days. She’d go into the office and work or spend time cleaning the equipment.