“That’s true. But he’s a known name. People will pay to see him fight.”
“Release the security footage and they’ll pay.”
“What?”
“There’s got to be footage of me kicking Thiago’s ass in the hallway. Put it online and announce that we’ll be continuing the fight in the cage.”
He grins as he looks at me. “And you think you can beat him?”
“I know I can. I’m fighting for my girl. Her future is in my hands and I’ll do anything for Hope.”
He’s thinking about it.
“I’ll kick that smirk off his arrogant fucking face.”
His grin widens. That’s exactly what he wanted to hear.
“What did you say your name was again?”
“Nate Cross.”
He reaches across the table and offers his hand.
“All right. You’re in.”
Chapter Ten
Hope
Nathan steps into the lit-up steel cage and my heart is pounding so hard that I think it might explode.
He’s got a look of pure concentration on his face as he shuffles around the octagon. His stern expression only cracks when he spots me—sitting ten rows back on the floor—and only then, it’s for a second.
The crowd is booing him, which I find strange since they don’t even know him. I guess they’re all fans of the current champion, Thiago Velasquez. I hate that they’re booing him and I want to scream at each one of them individually. I guess I’m a little protective of my man like he’s protective of me.
The lights go off and the crowd cheers as Thiago’s music starts playing. I get a bad feeling in my gut when I see him running through the crowd on the way up to the octagon.
Nathan is glaring at him. He can hold his own against anyone—he already proved that outside in the hallway earlier—but I’m still nervous. I don’t want him to get hurt and Thiago looks terrifying.
The referee checks him and the crowd erupts as he runs into the steel cage. I’m so nervous. I can’t think straight. Nathan is in there with a killer.
I just want to close my eyes, cover my ears, and have Scott come and get me when it’s over.
Everything happens so fast. The calling of their names, the tapping of the gloves, and then the bell is ringing.
I’m not ready for this…
The two men charge at each other and the fists start flying. They continue right where they left off outside, but this time, Thiago is ready for him.
He blocks Nathan’s first three punches and then hits him hard in the stomach and quickly follows it up with a kick to the leg.
My stomach is churning as my eyes are glued on the fight.
“Yes!” I shout when Nathan throws two punches and lands one. He hits Thiago hard, but the champ is tough and they keep going.
They move in blurs, each landing hard shots and staggering each other. The crowd is loving the fight and they cheer and scream with every punch and kick landed.
Thiago starts to get the best of Nathan and pins him against the cage as he lands punch after devastating punch.
“No,” I whisper as I watch him. I’m urging him on. Begging the universe to let my man win.
But he doesn’t need the universe to win. He only needs me.
He catches sight of me through the chain-linked fence and then starts to stand back up. Thiago lands four hard punches to his chin, but Nathan looks unstoppable as he pushes him off.
He looks possessed. He’s a man on fire.
Thiago rolls his big shoulders and comes rushing in, but Nathan is ready. He fires a hard right hook that lands with a crunch that I can hear from my seat in the tenth row.
It’s over.
Thiago’s body stiffens and his eyes roll in the back of his head as his swinging arms fall to his sides.
The whole place is deathly quiet as Thiago falls backward and lands hard on the mat. His arms fly up over his head and his legs go straight.
I don’t know much about fighting but even I can tell that he’s out cold.
The referee immediately leaps down between him and Nathan who’s lunging on him to deliver more.
“It’s over!” the referee shouts as he waves his hand in the air.
All of the tension in my body releases and I start screaming in happiness and gratitude as Nathan leaps into the air with his fists raised.
The crowd cheers for him now and it’s deafening. I can’t even hear my own screams as they pay homage to their new champion.
He paces around the octagon like the badass alpha he is and only stops when he sees me. He points at me and all I can do is drink in the moment, hoping I remember this amazing feeling forever.
Suddenly, he climbs up the cage and leaps over it just like he did a few days ago at the gym. He jumps down from the ledge out of my view. Everyone is standing up and I can’t see a thing.
“Hope!” I hear him shout as he pushes his way through the crowd. He’s climbing over chairs and pushing past people as they slap him on the back and take quick selfies with him.
He’s not focused on anything but finding me.
His jacked body pushes through the couple in front of me and he breathes in relief when he spots me.
“Hope,” he says as he looks at me with pure love in his eyes. “I did this for you. This belt is for you. For our future together.”
I’m about to answer, but he just grabs me and throws me over his shoulder.
“Nathan!” I scream as I put a hand on his muscular back. “What are you doing?!?”
He’s like a caveman as he carries me back to the octagon and brings me inside it. The lights are so bright and I start to panic as he puts me back on my feet. This time there’s over twenty-five thousand people watching me and cheering.
“I love you, Hope,” he says as he cups my cheeks and looks into my eyes. “Do you love me?”
It’s so hard to speak with so many people looking at me, but I manage to for him. “I do. I love you so much, Nathan.”
He drops to his knee and my mouth falls open. Everyone screams even louder as he takes my hand.
“Marry me,” he begs. “Please. I thought this belt was all I wanted, but I was wrong. You’re all I want. You’re everything to me. Please be my wife.”
I have tears streaming down my cheeks as I look down at him. My life has been nothing but perfect since he walked into it.
Of course I want to marry him.
“Yes!” I shout over the noise but I don’t think he can hear me.
So instead, I drop to my knees and kiss him hard.
Hard enough to tell him and all twenty-five thousand people that hell yes I’ll marry him.
And we’ll be together forever.
Epilogue
Nate
One year later…
“Will the bride and groom please head to the dance floor for the first dance of the night?” the DJ says through the speakers.
Hope looks through the crowd of new and old friends and spots me. I was already looking at her. My eyes haven’t left my gorgeous bride all day.
She looks stunning as she excuses herself from the couple she’s speaking with and heads toward the empty dance floor.
That dress…
I hope I can remember her in this moment for the rest of my life. My heart hurts to think that the cruel years will dull the clarity of it. I’ll forget the small details. Like rocks in the ocean, they’ll be rounded and smoothed out with the waves of time. The way one strand of her blonde hair has come loose and is tickling her cheek. The way the sequins on her white dress are shimmering with the lights above, making her look like an angel. The way those sweet luscious lips are curled up and smiling shyly at me with every step. I want to remember everything. I want to keep it all.
I take a deep breath and start walking through the crowd on my way to the dance floor.
Hand after hand slaps my back, sending words of encouragement and congratulations. I’ve met so many people over the past year
while I’ve been the GPC Welterweight champion. Many of them are friends and are here tonight, but no one comes close to comparing to the beautiful angel who’s waiting for me on the dance floor.
I love Hope more than anything and I can’t believe she’s my wife.
“I thought you might stand me up,” she says with a grin as I wrap my arms around her and pull her in close. The intoxicating smell of her perfume makes my heart pound. “I thought I might have to dance all by myself.”
“I’d never stand you up,” I say as I hold her as close as I can without hurting her. “I’d chain you to my side if you’d let me.”
“Maybe on our honeymoon,” she whispers with a sly grin.
I nearly get hard just from thinking about it.
The President of the GPC was kind enough to lend us his stunning beachfront villa in Kaui for a week. Not only that, he loaned us his private jet too.
Taylor Swift’s Lover starts playing over the speakers and all eyes are on us as we have our first dance as husband and wife.
I start to tense up and Hope puts a hand on my flexed forearm. “Relax,” she whispers.
I huff out a breath as I look around at the crowd. “They’re all looking at you,” I whisper back. “It’s killing me.”
“They’re supposed to look at the bride,” she says with a smile. “Otherwise, it’s insulting.”
“They don’t have to stare at your ass.”
“My ass looks amazing in this dress. Let them look.”
I groan.
“Are you going to take on the whole room?” she asks. “Because half of them are professional fighters.”
“I could take them if it meant protecting you.”
Her arms tighten around me and she puts her cheek against my chest. “I know,” she whispers.
It’s enough to soothe me. To calm my nerves.
I just close my eyes and focus on my new wife and the incredible way she feels.
We dance to the beautiful music and I let the gratitude sink in. It doesn’t matter if I forget every detail of today. I’m going to have this beauty with me for the rest of my life.
Every day there will be new details to study, to marvel at. The way she holds her coffee cup in the morning with her hair all wild, the way she taps her chin as she tries to decide which cereal to buy in the grocery store, the way she curls up around a pillow whenever she falls asleep on the couch—there will always be moments to be amazed by Hope because she’ll never stop amazing me. I’ll never get used to that feeling of being the luckiest man on the planet.
And I’ll never take her for granted.
She smiles at Scott who is watching proudly from the side. He’s my best man today and he’s starting to feel like my own brother.
I’m going to give him my old house when we move out. Which reminds me…
“Hey,” I whisper. She looks up at me and those blue eyes make me swallow hard. “I have a present for you.”
“You already gave me one,” she says as she glances down at the shiny new wedding ring on her finger.
“This one is better.”
“I doubt that.”
“I bought us a house. A big one.”
Her face lights up. “You did?”
I signed an eight-figure contract with the GPC and it came with a very generous signing bonus. I used it to pay for a downpayment on a gorgeous house with a waterfront view. Hope is going to love it.
“Does it have a lot of bedrooms?”
I nod with a hungry grin. “For all of the babies I’m going to stuff into you.”
Her cheeks go pink as she looks around to see if anyone heard. It doesn’t matter. It’s just us here. We’re the only two that matter in this moment.
“I have a present for you too,” she whispers as her cheeks get pinker.
“Is it under this dress? Because I’ll carry you into the closet and rip it off right now.”
She giggles. “Nathan… I’m pregnant.”
My face drops. My body stops moving even though the song keeps playing.
“You’re… pregnant?”
She’s giving me the most beautiful smile as she nods up and down.
I hold her even tighter and kiss the top of her head.
“Thank you,” I whisper.
“For what?”
“For everything,” I tell her. “For being you. For giving me something to fight for. But most of all, for giving me something to live for.”
She looks up at me and I give her a deep passionate kiss.
Our friends and family cheer and clap around us and for once I want them to see.
I want them to see how lucky I am. How amazing Hope is.
And I want them to see that she’s all mine.
Epilogue
Hope
Ten years later…
“Go, Jake!” I shout as Nathan puts him in a headlock.
My firstborn is only ten years old and his adorable little head is being swallowed up by my man’s huge tattooed arm. They’re wrestling on the mats downstairs. They’re always wrestling on the mats downstairs. Jake can’t get enough of it.
Either can my other two: Nora and Ashton. Nora, aged eight, has her legs wrapped around Nathan’s shoulder and is grunting with her face clenched up as she tries some sort of complex submission move and Ashton, aged five, is punching Ashton in the back over and over again like a pesky mosquito.
If a stranger came down here they’d think we’re training a bunch of assassins.
Jake wrestles himself free and shoots me a proud grin before jumping back onto his dad. Nathan is amazing with the kids. They adore him.
He’s been training all three of them in Brazilian Ju Jitsu or BJJ since before they could walk. All three of them are naturals at it. They must take after him because I don’t have an athletic bone in my body.
I love watching them together. It’s how he’s bonded with them over the years and it makes my heart hurt to see how close they’ve become.
All three of the kids work together to pin him down. I laugh as Nathan falls to the mat and taps dramatically as he screams in pretend pain.
The three kids leap up to their feet and give each other high fives as they strut around the basement looking just like Nathan strutting around the octagon after his win against Thiago Vasquez. I was so utterly in love with him in that moment and my love for him has only grown with time.
He’s given me the best life ever. I haven’t gone hungry once since our first date. Well, to be honest, I’ve gone plenty hungry during my many diets, but that was voluntary…
“Your kids are killers,” he says to me with a grin as he crawls over on his hands and knees.
“Must have gotten it from me,” I say with a laugh.
He nods in agreement. “I’ve always said you have a killer smile.”
“Are you up for one more round?” I ask as I feel the heat of arousal beginning to swell within me. Seeing him on his hands and knees in front of me is reminding me how amazing it feels to have his mouth down there.
“You want to wrestle?” he asks with a sly grin.
“I was thinking more BJJ. Minus one J.”
His eyes turn from playful to hungry.
“Kids!” he shouts. His eyes never leave mine.
They stop their celebration and look at him.
“How would you guys like to go to the movies?”
“Really?” Nora asks with an excited smile on her face.
“Journey of the Spies?” Jake asks. It’s the latest computer-animated movie that he’s been itching to see.
“Sure!” Nathan says as his eyes roam over my breasts. My nipples get hard and start tingling just from having his eyes on them. “Go wait in the car. I’ll be right up.”
The three of them dart up the stairs, screaming in excitement.
When we hear the garage door open and close, he pounces on me.
His big strong hands tug at my clothes as his lips come crashing down onto mine.
I’
ve been waiting for this all fucking day…
It must be a new record how quickly he gets me naked.
“We don’t have a lot of time,” he says as he pulls his hard throbbing cock out. He’s already rock hard for me. “Those kids aren’t going to be very patient.”
That’s fine with me. The faster he gets inside me, the better.
He pushes me down onto the mat with his strong dominant hands and climbs in-between my legs.
I gasp when he sinks his big cock all the way inside my wet pussy.
I’ve never gotten used to how his thickness fills me up. Every time feels like the first time as his cock stretches me out and fills me completely.
“Oh, Nathan,” I moan when he starts thrusting in with hard firm strokes. “It feels so good.”
“Your pussy is like a fine wine,” he growls into my ear. “It gets better with age.”
I’ve enjoyed every year with this man. He was the GPC Welterweight champion for six years and defended his title fourteen times before retiring at the age of thirty-five.
Now, we just hang out all day in our big house and enjoy each other’s bodies. We’ll start a new adventure soon, but for now, we can’t get enough of each other.
The faint honking of the car’s horn travels down to the basement and we both laugh.
“Better wrap it up, champ,” I tell him as I feel the start of an orgasm rumbling forward. He looks like he’s close too. I can tell from the look on his face.
He ramps up the pace, thrusting hard into me and then rooting his cock in deep as we both let go.
I’ve barely recovered when he’s pulling out of me and throwing his clothes back on.
I can’t even move…
“I hope it was worth it,” I say with a grin as he throws on his shirt. “You’re going to have to sit through a crappy kids’ movie now.”
He shakes his head as he looks down at my naked body. I can feel his hot cum leaking out of me.
“It was worth it,” he says with a fierce look in his eyes. “I’d do anything for your sexy body.”
Fighting For Hope (Worth the Fight Book 1) Page 6