“No.”
“I want in,” she stated louder and headed toward Sammy McSleaze.
Steel grabbed her arm none too gently, stopping her. “And I said no. There are no females here to fight.”
“I can beat these guys. It’ll be good practice for my fight with Jayne.”
“No, you can’t. They fight dirty.”
“I can fight dirty.”
“You saw the size of the guy I just fought. You could pull someone like that.”
“I’ll ask for someone smaller.”
“You don’t get a choice.”
“I thought you asked Sammy for the biggest guy?”
“Sammy?”
“The organizer.”
“His name is Sammy? I thought it was Tommy.”
“Tommy. Sammy. Who cares?” She tugged at her arm, but he didn’t let her go. “I want to fight.”
A growl escaped his lips and continued throughout his next words, “No, Kat. Let’s go.”
If it was possible, she would have shot daggers from her eyes at his hand holding her back. Since that wasn’t possible, she lifted her narrowed ones to his. “I’m staying. I want in on this action. Wasn’t it you who said that I can’t protect myself and can only fight in a controlled environment? Let me prove you wrong.”
“You have nothing to prove.”
“What about you?”
His head jerked back, and his frown turned into a menacing scowl. “What about me?”
“Why are you here? You don’t need the money. I know what Berg is paying you. Or, really, what I’m paying you. What do you have to prove?”
“Nothing. I like a good fight without limitations. And to relieve my... frustration.”
Ah, yes, his frustration excuse. “You could relieve frustration with a good run.” She set her jaw. “Come on, I want this.”
“Kat,” he growled.
“Steel, I need to do this.”
“You’re going to get hurt.”
She shrugged. “Then I get hurt. I’ve been hurt before.”
“You don’t have a mouthguard, no gloves, nothing. It would be bare fists. And, for fuck’s sake, their fists are bigger than yours.”
“I don’t care.”
“You get off on getting hurt?”
What? “No. Do you?”
He leaned close and growled in her ear. “Yeah, sometimes I do, Kat. Sometimes I fucking lose to punish myself for all the shit I’ve done. Sometimes I purposely lose to remember what the fuck it feels like to feel something. I have a feeling it’s the same for you.”
“No.”
“Bullshit,” he grunted. “I saw it those two days you sparred with someone other than me. I’ve seen you take a hit when you could have avoided it. But you won’t try that bullshit with me because you know I won’t tolerate it.”
“You’re imagining things.”
His fingers on her arm tightened to the point of pain.
He suddenly let her go and jerked his chin up toward the organizer. “Go. But don’t expect me to watch.”
Chapter Nine
Go. But don’t expect me to watch.
As soon as that came out of his mouth, he knew that was a big fucking lie. He was her paid bodyguard, he had no choice but to watch.
But the fuck if he wanted to.
He did not want to see a man beating the shit out of Kat. In fact, if that happened, nobody could stop him from entering the ring to save her.
And if he did that, she would hate his guts.
Then he’d be kicked out of her bed and the opportunity to take her where he wanted to take her would just disappear.
Poof. Gone.
No more giving her explosive orgasms, no more feeling her hot little mouth around his cock, no chance at getting in where he was dying to go.
But even so, there was no fucking way he could watch her get fucked up.
After talking with the organizer, she came back to him, bouncing on her toes, and grabbed his tank, shaking it. Her eyes were lit up when she said, “Next fight.”
Great. “Kat, you can back out.”
The light in her eyes extinguished and she planted her feet. “I’m not backing out. I just got in.”
He closed his eyes and sucked in a long breath in an attempt not to grab her and drag her ass out of there.
Patience.
Fucking patience.
Just like he needed when it came to wanting to have sex with her.
Jesus fuck. Right now, he had zero patience. But he dug deep. “Remember, there’s no ref, no rounds, no breaks. It goes until someone taps out, gets knocked out or dies.”
She responded with more snark than he had patience for. “Are you saying I shouldn’t die if I want to win?”
He ground his teeth, then muttered, “That would be ideal.”
She smiled, rose up on her toes and pressed her mouth to his. “For luck,” she said when it was over.
He cocked an eyebrow. “You need luck?”
“Fuck no,” she echoed his earlier response, her smile even wider now.
Jesus, he never saw someone so excited to get their ass kicked. Because in this room, with these fighters, that was going to happen. Then he was going to totally lose his shit.
Another roar went up and Steel knew exactly why. When he looked over her shoulder toward the ring, he was right. The current fight was over.
The visibly stunned, but still conscious, loser was being helped away by two other men as he shook his head, probably trying to get rid of the stars he was seeing.
Fuck, it was time. “Kat...”
“I’ll be fine,” she said, her eyes on the ring as she patted his stomach.
Patted his fucking stomach. Like that was going to make it all better. “Most of these guys are not professional.”
“I’ve seen that.”
“They’re not going to care you’re a woman.”
“Good.”
Good! He didn’t know if he should laugh or cry at that answer.
Then she was kicking off her flip-flops and was about to rip her T-shirt up and over her head when he grabbed her wrist.
“Uh, no. Shirt on.”
“I’m wearing a sports bra.”
No shit. Her tits were flattened out like fucking lumpy pancakes.
“Shirt stays on,” he growled. “This is not The Strike Zone. This is not a controlled environment, Kat. I’m one fucking man.” He hoped the way he said that last part made his meaning clear. He could fend off a few of them but not a whole roomful of horny, drunk and violent men.
Though, he would die trying.
It surprised the shit out of him when she dropped the hem of her shirt and gave him a quick nod.
Thank fuck.
But then she was gone, working her way through the ropes into the makeshift ring.
Immediately the shouts, whistles and cat calls turned deafening. Just that alone made him want to throw her over his shoulder and carry her out of that ring and out of that building. He’d rather fight Kat than a whole crowd of men.
His eyes scanned that crowd as he reached into his pocket for his wallet and pulled out another toothpick.
After tucking it between his lips, he pushed past a couple of men to get closer to the ring, in case he needed to grab her and make a quick exit.
He kept scanning the mob surrounding the ring until the man slated to fight Kat stepped inside.
He was about six foot to her five foot nothing and had about sixty pounds on her, if not more, by the looks of the beer gut hanging over the waistline of his dirty and stained gray sweatpants. He wore no shirt and his hairy chest and belly was already slick with sweat.
The good news was, he appeared out of shape, so that was one thing Kat had on him. She had endurance, smarts and skill. Steel hoped the guy lacked all three of those.
While he should feel relieved with her opponent, he didn’t. The fighter she drew might not be in the best shape, but he also might be a mean son of a bitch and d
id outweigh her. If he got her to the ground, she could be fucked.
And not in the way Steel wanted to fuck her.
He shoved another guy, who tried to worm his way in front of him, out of his line of sight. When the guy began to bitch, Steel just gave him a look.
It was enough.
He turned his attention back to the ring. That was where he needed to keep it, that was where it needed to be. No one in that building, in that room, gave a fuck what happened to Kat. Only him. That meant it was his duty to make sure nothing happened to her. During the fight or afterward.
Someone yelled, “Fight!” and the man just stood there, waiting for Kat to make a move.
She did. Bouncing barefoot in her cat-like way up to him, she gave him a Cheshire cat smile, which caught the guy off guard, and then popped him a good one right in the nose.
Unfortunately, it didn’t even faze the guy. He returned her smile and then took a wild swing. Kat ducked and dodged before popping the guy again.
Once again, it didn’t affect him.
Steel knew the power behind her punches. For her size, she was strong. But for him to just shake off those hits? He started to worry. “Slow it down, Kat. Don’t tire yourself out.”
“Hey, no coaching from the peanut gallery,” came from the drunk asshole next to him.
Kat probably couldn’t hear him anyway since the room was so loud. Hell, Steel could hardly hear himself think.
Her opponent did a roundhouse kick that surprised both Steel and Kat. What the fuck?
He must know martial arts. Or at least took martial arts when he was a kid. Because he sure didn’t look like he’d kept up with it.
But the sloppy kick, if it had made contact, could’ve done some damage.
He took a couple more jabs at Kat, missing each time as she kept on her toes.
Thatta girl. You watch his moves; I’ll watch the rest of the crowd.
But he wasn’t watching the crowd when the guy did another roundhouse kick.
What the fuck! Was that the only martial art move he knew?
Kat skirted it, but then bounced right back in front of the guy. She wasn’t kicking at all and she wasn’t quick on the punches, either. Steel was glad to see that she was biding her time like he did during his own fight.
She’d lob a few punches just to keep the man moving but then she’d make sure she was out of the strike zone of his kicks.
The man was getting tired. Steel spotted it the second the man was about to launch into his third roundhouse. He wasn’t the only one who saw it coming, so did Kat.
Steel held his breath as she stopped dead, planted both feet and waited for the kick. And when the man kicked high, she ducked low, and as she quickly rose, she kneed him right in the nuts, dropping him instantly to his ass on the concrete.
The whole room collectively groaned, including Steel, who had to fight from covering his own crotch at that point and wincing.
Damn.
Steel spit out the toothpick that had snapped in two during the nut-busting move Kat did.
With the guy sitting on the ground unable to move, Kat did her own roundhouse kick, nailing him upside the head. That took him the rest of the way down, flat on his back.
Then she moved to his head and got him into an anaconda choke hold.
Steel could barely hear Kat demanding the guy to “tap out” over the yelling crowd as she tightened the hold around his neck, cutting off his air supply completely and slowly squeezing the life out of him.
With a purple face and, Steel was sure, purple as fuck balls, a few more seconds later the guy finally tapped out.
Kat released him and quickly moved out of his range, heading toward Steel, but keeping alert. She was wearing a big smile and once again her eyes were lit up. Her whole body noticeably wired.
As soon as she was within arm’s length, he grabbed her, helped her through the ropes and said, “Shoes on. Get your money. We’re getting the fuck out of here.”
He was relieved she didn’t argue, and kept a hand on her as she got her money from Tommy. As soon as she tucked it into the pocket of her track pants, he was steering her right back out of the crowd, pushing men out of the way when needed.
“Keep walking and don’t stop until we get to the car, got me?”
“Yes.”
Even though she agreed, he kept talking just loud enough for her to hear. “Both of us just took a lot of dough from these guys. We came in as underdogs and everyone was betting against us. They won’t be happy to lose that much scratch, so we need to split ASAP.”
She walked faster to keep up with him. “You have a gun?”
“In the car.”
That response got her jogging back to where Steel had parked the rental. He kept one eye on her and another over his shoulder to make sure they weren’t being followed.
Luckily, they weren’t, but he was still relieved when the Mustang came into view. He popped the locks as he approached, and Kat quickly climbed in. As soon as he got in the driver’s seat, he hit the start button and locked the doors.
He turned his head to look at her profile in the dark. “You don’t say a word of this to Berger, otherwise my ass is going to get fired from this job. Then I’m never going to hear the end of it.”
He wasn’t even sure she heard him when she turned to face him and yelled, “I did it.”
The excitement in her voice was hard to miss. In fact, it smacked him upside the head.
“Yeah,” he grumbled and shoved the gear shifter into drive.
“I did it, Steel. I fucking did it.”
“Yeah. I saw, Kat.”
“You didn’t think I could.”
He wasn’t going to argue that.
“But I did.”
“Yeah, Kat, I know.”
Suddenly she launched herself out of her seat and at him, grabbed his face and kissed him hard. He let off the gas since he couldn’t see shit and didn’t want to wreck. He pulled out of her grip. “Hey! I’m trying to drive.”
“I did it, Steel,” she whispered as she sank back into the passenger seat and pulled the seatbelt across her body, latching herself in.
Steel grinned at the windshield. “Yeah, baby, you did it. You did good.”
She was buzzing. What had happened in that room gave her a high like no other.
She had done it. And proved Steel wrong.
Proved that whole damn room wrong.
Her. Kat Callahan had won her first underground fight.
Against a man.
She could hardly sit still in the passenger seat as Steel pointed the Ford back toward Boulder City.
They needed to get back to the house because she needed to burn off some of her energy and she knew just how she wanted to do it.
“Starving. Going to hit an all-night diner.”
“No!” burst out of her before she could stop it.
His head twisted toward her. “Why not?”
“Because...” I need to jump your fucking bones. Like now. “Because we’re gross. We need a shower first. I don’t want to sit in a diner and eat as dirty as we are.”
“No one’s going to care. It’s like two o’clock in the morning. Nobody smells or looks good at two.”
“I can’t think of eating while I’m this disgusting.” Lie. She could, but that didn’t matter. What mattered was making the trip back to Boulder City as quickly as possible, otherwise she was going to have him pull over somewhere. And she didn’t want the first time she had sex with Steel to be in a rental car.
She also didn’t want to have sex for the second time in her life in a car, either.
She was sure with Steel it would be better than her first time, but still...
No.
And they were disgustingly filthy. Both of them.
“I’m hungry,” he grumbled.
“So am I,” she snapped, then reined in her impatience. “But we need to get back.”
His head twisted toward her again and she could fee
l him studying her. She faced front and ignored him, trying to keep her knee from bouncing a mile a minute. Ignoring her raw knuckles, she wrung her hands in her lap instead.
“What’s wrong with you?”
“Nothing. I’m just wound up.”
“No shit.”
Good thing the fight had been south of the city so the trip back to the house was only twenty minutes. Even so, she was climbing out of her skin that whole time. And it got worse as the garage door opened and he pulled the Mustang into its spot.
She was out of the car before he even had it in park.
“Kat!” he barked as she rushed from the car. “You don’t go inside without me.”
She wasn’t running to get inside. She was running around the front of the car and, as soon as he unfolded all six feet of him out of it and closed the door, she hit him full force with her body, slamming him against the Mustang.
His arms automatically went around her as she climbed up his body, her arms circling his neck and her legs his waist.
She took his mouth just as it opened. His surprised response was muffled and quickly turned to a groan as she swept her tongue between his lips and kissed him hard and long. His fingers ran up her spine until he grasped the back of her head, holding on as he began to kiss her back.
Yes, that’s what she wanted. Needed. But tonight she wanted more than last night.
Tonight, she wanted everything.
Her heart pounded and her blood rushed as he kissed her fiercely, the fingers on his other hand digging into her ass to keep her anchored at his waist.
It wasn’t long until she discovered how “okay” he was with her attacking him. His cock was hard and hot through his nylon pants as it pressed against her. And thinking about him being inside her made everything on her clench in anticipation.
She broke off the kiss. “We need to go upstairs.” Her voice was husky and breathy. Nothing like it was normally.
Her nipples ached for his touch, his mouth. And so did her pussy.
“We were supposed to go slow,” he reminded her.
She shook her head. “Fuck slow. I’ve wasted too much time.”
He pulled his head back and his dark eyes hit hers. “Is this all because of the fight?”
“Do you want to question it? Or just do it?”
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