The other guy shrugged. “The Warehouse. There’s a fight tonight.”
He rattled off the address, and Lila, Trix, and I climbed back into the car. Lila plugged the address into the GPS app in her phone and we headed off again.
“Did you have to say I was pregnant?” she said when we were on our way.
Trix shrugged. “It worked.”
Lila grumbled but said no more.
It only took fifteen minutes to reach our destination, and I was vibrating with nervous energy by the time we got there.
“Holy shit,” Trix said when we drove into the large gravel space in front of The Warehouse—an actual warehouse, all concrete and corrugated iron. There were cars parked and bikes, so many bikes. More than I’d ever seen in one place.
“You don’t have to come with me,” I said to my friends. I didn’t want to drag them into a situation that could possibly be dangerous. I mean, I didn’t want to put myself in a situation that was possibly dangerous. But there was no stopping me. I needed to see Dane. Needed to. There was no waiting. I was done waiting.
“You’re not going on your own,” Lila said. “We’re in this together.”
“We’ve got your back.” Trix pulled a can of pepper spray from the glove compartment and shoved it in her bag. “Let’s do this.”
We all climbed out and made our way to the main door. There was a young guy there in a Ramblers vest wearing a prospect patch.
He smiled at us, giving us a once-over before he stepped aside. “Come on in, ladies.”
“Said the spider to the fly,” Lila muttered under her breath.
Trix chuckled and I would have, too, if my nerves hadn’t reached an all-time high. We all stumbled to a stop when a cheer rose, so loud it rattled the windows. We moved farther in. The place was packed with people. There were seats set up in rows surrounding a ring, but most people were standing.
Lila’s hand latched on to my arm, and I followed her gaze.
Grifter was in the ring, eye swollen, blood smearing his mouth guard as he grinned and smashed his fist into a guy who looked like he weighed twice as much. When the guy went down with a thump that could be heard before the next wave of cheers, it was easy to see he wasn’t getting back up anytime soon.
Another guy lifted Grifter’s hand in the air, and there were more cheers as the big unconscious guy was dragged out.
“There’s a spot over there,” Trix said. “We’ll give Riff a minute to get cleaned up then hunt him down.”
I nodded as I scanned the massive space, searching for Dane. There was no way I’d see him with all these people filling the place. We squeezed through gaps in the crowd, hanging on to each other, making our way to the seats Trix had pointed out close to the front that some guys had just vacated.
We finally got where we wanted to go as more fighters came out and climbed in the ring—
My breath got stuck in my throat. Dane was one of them. “Oh God.”
My heart stalled in my chest, and Lila and Trix, who were on either side of me, both grabbed my hands.
Grifter was back, still shirtless, his inked skin splattered with blood, and apparently not caring. He was in Dane’s corner, talking in his ear, thumping him on the shoulder.
Dane looked…I didn’t recognize him. His eyes were hollow, so far away.
Something was wrong with him. Seriously wrong.
The guy in the opposite corner was big—bigger than Dane. I wanted to rush over to him, tell him not to do it, and drag him out of there. I started to stand, but Trix stopped me.
“If he sees you now, he’ll get distracted,” she said, looking worried as well.
She was right. I forced myself to sit back down.
The fight was about to start, and I couldn’t stay in my seat. I stood again. Trix and Lila did the same, still gripping my hands for support and I knew holding me back as well.
A bell went, starting the first round, and they moved to the middle of the ring, dancing around each other for a bit before the other guy took the first swing. The sound of leather hitting flesh made me flinch.
I clutched my friends’ hands tighter as they went at each other. I couldn’t take my eyes off Dane, not for a moment, terrified for him because something was definitely wrong.
I’d seen Dane fight when he and Tanner had sparred at the gym. Dane wasn’t fighting like he had that day. He got in the odd blow, but he was taking a lot more. It was almost like he was letting the guy hit him.
Like he was purposely letting himself be beaten.
The big guy smashed his fist into Dane’s jaw and his head shot to the side, blood spraying on the mat. Grifter was up yelling at Dane from his corner, obviously seeing what I was. But it didn’t work. Blow after blow came, with Dane barely fighting back, getting knocked down before he got back up.
God, he just kept on getting back up.
I wanted him to stay down, but he didn’t.
Wouldn’t.
The bell finally rang again and Dane stumbled to his corner. Grifter got in with him and was in his face, yelling something at him.
I started toward them, and instead of holding me back, Trix and Lila helped me shove and push through the crowd. Grifter was back out, talking to another guy fast, looking worried. As soon as there was a space clear, I ran toward him.
Grifter saw me and grabbed me, stopping me from getting to Dane.
“I need to talk to him. Let me talk to him,” I said, tears threatening to spill over.
I thought he wasn’t going to let me, but then his jaw tightened and he took my hand, held the ropes open, and I climbed into the ring, rounding on Dane.
He was staring blankly ahead.
“Dane?”
Nothing.
“Dane,” I said more forcefully.
His eyes finally shifted to me, locking on. He jolted.
I dropped to my knees in front of him, taking his face in my hands. “What are you doing?” I said. “Why are you letting him hit you?”
His gaze shuttered. “I hurt you. I scared you,” he rasped.
He was punishing himself. Oh God, he was doing this to punish himself. I shook my head. “No. I was angry, not hurt. And I wasn’t scared of you. I was scared you’d be taken away from me, that I’d lose you again. Don’t you understand? I can’t lose you again, Dane. I can’t. You don’t need to protect me from you as well. You don’t. Staying away from me, cutting me off will only break us both, will tear our hearts out all over again. That’s not happening. I won’t let it.”
He made an agonized sound, and his arms came around me suddenly, his gloved hands at my back, locking me against him. “I’m sorry, Eves. I’m so sorry.”
I lifted my head and pressed a gentle kiss to his split lip. “I’m not losing you again, do you hear me?” I cupped his face. “You’re going to finish this fight and you’re going to kick that fucker’s ass, then you’re coming home with me to the ranch.”
His eyes were so dark I barely recognized them, the intensity so strong I shivered, then he nodded, planted another kiss on me, and released me.
Grifter opened the ropes for me and helped me down. Then he was back with Dane, talking to him, putting in his mouthpiece.
The bell rang a moment later and the fighting started again.
This time when Dane moved to the center of the ring there was determination in his eyes. He jerked his head from side to side, shaking out his arms and shoulders like he was shaking off the fog he’d been in.
He went at his opponent then, and there was no holding back, no letting the other man get in a hit. Dane fought like a man possessed. A man fighting for something.
He was fighting for us, for me.
Grifter tugged me in for a quick hug. “Good work, babe.”
He looked relieved, but not as relieved as me. The fight didn’t last much longer, and with a powerful punch to the other man’s jaw, Dane knocked him down. He was out cold. The crowd went wild.
The ref had barely lifted Dane�
��s hand in the air before he was climbing out, coming straight for me.
I moved toward him, and as soon as my front hit his, his arms came around me, one sliding under my butt. He lifted me off the floor, carrying me from the room to the sound of the place erupting with more cheers.
I saw Grifter with Trix and Lila before we rounded the corner.
Dane strode down a concrete hall, kicked the door open to a room at the end, and slammed it shut behind us. “Lock it,” he bit out.
I did and he stood there watching me, gloves still on, bleeding, chest heaving.
“Dane…”
“You on the pill?”
I nodded.
“Never fucked anyone without a condom, but if you—”
“I want you.”
His nostrils flared. “Panties off,” he ordered.
I nodded, and with trembling fingers, need pounding through me, I shoved them down under my skirt and off. They were barely past my feet when he snatched me up and pressed me into the door, his gloved hands hooked under me.
“Shove down my shorts,” he said, voice so deep and rough I shivered again. “Need inside you, Everly. Fuck, I need it. I need you.”
I reached down between us, shoving down his shorts and underwear, took his hard, hot cock in my hand and positioned him. The head pressed against my opening, and there was no way he missed how wet I was for him.
He hissed and slammed up inside me, and I cried out, my head dropping back against the door.
“Fuck,” he growled.
He jerked his hips back and thrust back in, then again. He did that over and over, staying deep, fucking me so hard the door rattled, like he couldn’t get deep enough, couldn’t get close enough.
His eyes were locked on mine. “Missed you. Missed you so fucking much.”
I locked my ankles behind him, hanging on tight, struggling to form words as the base of his cock worked my clit repeatedly. The head was so deep it was stroking that spot inside me at the same time. My orgasm was already building.
“Missed you, too,” I managed on a sob.
“Couldn’t breathe without you,” he choked out, still slamming into me. “Don’t want to.”
His mouth came down on mine and his tongue thrust deep while his cock did the same. I could taste his blood, his desperation, his hunger and need for me, and I gave it back.
I tore my mouth from his and cried out his name, coming hard, gripping at his thick cock thrusting into me over and over.
He bit out a curse, his face going to the side of my throat, and then he was coming with me, pulsing inside me, filling me, hot and deep.
We stayed like that for a long time, locked together, until I felt him leaking from me. Dane didn’t seem to care. He kept me there, buried inside me, pressed into the door.
Finally, he lifted his head. “I’m not doing this anymore,” he whispered harshly. “You hear me, Everly? I’m not gonna fuck up like that again. I promise. I fucking promise.”
I cupped his face and looked deep into his eyes. “Baby,” I whispered. “We’re not in that room anymore. We’re not in that house. No one’s trying to take me from you. No one wants to hurt me.”
His eyes slid shut, and I knew I had it right. I thought I knew how our time living together had affected him, the way he’d tried to take care of me, protect me from the monsters who came through that house who would have hurt me if they got the chance, but I had no idea how deeply.
“Everyone gets taken away, Eves. Everyone always gets taken away,” he choked out.
My heart broke for him, for the agony I heard in his voice. “Not me. Never me.”
“Fuck, Eves.” He was shaking. “I just…I want to hold on so tight…I just…”
“You need to let go, Dane. For both our sakes, you need to let it go. You need to trust me that I’ll never let that happen.”
His eyes opened, and they were golden, and beautiful, and filled with pain. “I’m not sure I know how.”
“Then I’ll help you. We’ll find a way to help you.”
He nodded, and with his arms still around me, he carried me to a seat and sat, keeping me in his lap. I got to work on his gloves, undoing them for him and pulling them off.
When his hands were free, he cupped the side of my face. “I’ll do whatever it takes, Eves. I mean that. I love you so much. Shit, I don’t know how to describe what you mean to me.”
I pressed my forehead to his. “I know. I feel the same way. And we’ll do this together, okay?” He nodded, and I pressed my mouth to his. “Now I’m taking you home.”
“Don’t need to go anywhere,” he rasped. “When I’m with you, I’m already there.”
Epilogue
Dane
Three months later
“This place is kick-ass,” Cal said, looking around the big room.
I took a sip of my beer. “Not quite as kick-ass as yours, but we like it.” The living room was big, with an open-plan kitchen off to the side and a huge fire we’d be using pretty soon.
Cal’s dark eyes shifted from the large space back to me. “I know you don’t need this from me…you’re your own man, but, fuck, Dane…I’m proud of you.”
“Me, too,” Bull said, thumping me on the back, almost dislocating a couple of ribs. “Nice place, good woman…head out of your ass. Love this for you, asshole.”
I chuckled even as a lump formed in my fucking throat. “Got there in the end, thanks to you pricks.” And the counseling sessions I’d been going to, dealing with my fear of losing the people I loved most and my issues with anger. It had helped, was helping a lot.
And Everly, she soothed something deep inside me, smoothed my rough edges.
Bull thumped me on the back again. “Christ, brother, don’t start fucking crying on us.”
Funny, it was his eyes that looked suspiciously damp.
I shook my head and gave him a shove. The big bastard barely moved but tugged me in for a choke hold/hug, then released me.
“Right, I need the little boys’ room,” he said and headed off.
“You want another beer?” Cal asked.
I shook my head. “All good.”
He walked toward the kitchen, and I looked around the room. Music pumped through the speakers and the sounds of singing and laughter filled the cottage. My and Everly’s first place together. I might have been a fuckup for a lot of years, but I’d been saving since I got my first job. I’d had enough for a deposit on a house, and when I’d seen Everly’s reaction to it, I’d made sure I got it.
Eves had gotten some big rugs, and we’d found a couch and two chairs at a thrift shop that were big and comfortable. I already had a TV, and my bed looked cool in the bedroom with Everly’s sheets and quilts and pillows and shit. I was building a bookshelf for her birthday, somewhere for all her books, and it was almost finished. I was going to start on a table next.
Cal had offered us the guesthouse at the ranch, and Bull had tried to give me money to go toward the cottage, but we wanted to do this on our own. It was close to the ranch for Everly. And I didn’t mind the thirty-minute drive to Rocktown every day, so it was perfect.
Her laughter rang out, and my gaze slid to her. As soon as I had her in my sights, my heart raced faster. The woman always had that effect on me when I looked at her, heard her, fuck, thought about her.
She was with her girls. Lila, Trix, Cassy, and Quinn surrounded her, all talking a million miles a minute, laughing, and drinking. They’d arrived with housewarming gifts and all the love and support she could ever need. Good thing, too, since her aunt had cut her out of her life, for now anyway.
I didn’t plan on leaving it at that. Eves and her aunt had a complicated relationship, always had, but they cared for each other in their own way. Her aunt hated me, that was the truth, but I’d do my best to show her I wasn’t the man she thought I was, that I was good enough for her niece, and that I could give her everything she ever needed. I’d win her over. I was determined to.
&nbs
p; Everly smiled at something Cassy said, then threw her head back and laughed when Quinn whispered something in her ear.
Christ, my girl was beautiful. Inside and out.
Her head came up, and when her eyes caught on mine, her smile turned sweet, shy, and a whole lot sexy. I grinned back. The way she bit her lip, the hitch to her breath that I could see even from here, told me exactly what she was thinking about. The same thing that had been on my mind all damn day. The way she’d ridden my face this morning, then my cock so good I’d lost my shit, rolled her to her back, and fucked her until she came, then blew all over her gorgeous tits.
I wanted to take her somewhere private now and fuck her again.
She broke away from her friends and moved toward me, and I ate up the sight of her. Her auburn hair was free, wild waves down her back, and she was wearing jeans, cowboy boots, and a white shirt that hung off one shoulder and clung to her waist and chest.
My mouth watered. I’d never get enough of her. Never. She was the other half of my soul. I wasn’t whole without her.
She stopped in front of me. “What are you doing standing over here all on your own?”
I curled my arm around her waist and pulled her in close so her front was plastered to mine. “Admiring the view.”
“Is that right?” she said, wrapping her arms around my neck.
“I was also thinking how badly I wanted inside you again,” I said, voice husky with my need for her.
She blushed and her breathing quickened, but she smiled and it was wicked. “You’re going to have to wait until tonight, until everyone leaves.”
“I know,” I growled, getting harder.
“You also need to know that I want you so bad right now I can’t think of anything else, and when we shut the door on the last guest, we’re going to make use of the back of it.”
I hissed out a breath.
Her hand slid to my waist, up and under my shirt. Her fingers gave one of my nipple rings a light graze and then they were gone. “You do some of your best work against doors, baby,” she said.
I let her see exactly what she’d just done to me, let her see it in my eyes. “That pretty little mouth will pay later for making me so hard in front of all these people.”
Meant For You: Rocktown Ink, Book 3 Page 20