Trick (A Cocky Cage Fighter Novel Book 7)

by Lane Hart

  The guys and I get a round of beers from the bar, and I lead them to a high top table with two barstools on each side. I take the one in the corner so that my back is to the wall and not the room.

  “I don’t even know where to start. There are too many choices,” Luke says as he runs his fingers through his blond hair while looking out into the sea of dancers.

  “At least women don’t run when they see you,” Ace, our heavyweight, replies while tipping the bottle of beer up to his lips. “They all take one look at me and think I’ll break them.”

  The man is a giant. I’m pretty sure I can still hear his stool groaning underneath his massive weight.

  “Fear would probably be better than always landing in the fucking friendzone,” Luke mutters.

  “Amen,” Alex says with a clink of his beer to Luke’s. “I might have to relocate to Cary since I’ve befriended all of the women in Maryland.”

  “What’s your story, Trick?” Luke asks me.

  “Friendzone,” I answer simply before downing my beer.

  There’s no way I’m gonna rehash what went down with these guys who have probably already heard all about how Nate and I were fighting over Alyssa, and she picked him. The kicker is that there was never really a competition. She never had any interest in me. It was all idiotic delusions on my part, like I just could step into their family and replace Austin.

  Tonight, I want to let go of the guilt, forget Alyssa, and get the fuck over the embarrassment of putting myself out there with her and getting turned down. For weeks I’ve been licking my wounds, and it’s time to move the fuck on. Soon, she and Nate will probably be getting hitched, and I’ve played the pathetic loser for long enough.

  Half an hour later, I’m not drunk but feeling pretty damn good. For the first time in twenty months, I have money in my pocket and a possible career in front of me, even if it is using my fists. I’m on top of the world. All I need is to get laid, proving that there are plenty of other pretty women in the world besides Alyssa Grant. My best friend’s wife is being taken care of by another man, so I need to let her go and focus on taking care of myself for once. Just for one night, I want to lose myself in a beautiful woman, forgetting everything else, all the shitty memories of war, death, and the agonizing loneliness since coming home.

  To say I’ve had a dry spell would be like saying the Sahara is hot. My dick hasn’t seen any action since…

  Right. I don’t actually remember. Between serving my country, dealing with my best friend’s death, and trying to be there for his wife, who I stupidly started having feelings for, women haven’t been on my list of things to do. Tonight that’s gonna change.

  Shoving aside all the bullshit that’s been weighing me down, I finish off my fourth beer and tell the other guys who are all still sitting on their thumbs, “Watch how it’s done, boys.”

  Landing a woman was never a problem for me. The trick was keeping them around for more than one night.

  Leaning my forearms on the balcony rail, I look down on the main floor in search of an available female. One without a guy all up on her ass. I’ve brawled enough for one week, and an assault charge would probably cost me an IFC contract. It takes a few seconds before I finally spot the woman who is gonna end my drought with a literal bang.

  There.

  On the far side of the room, there’s a sexy as fuck chick who is begging for male attention in her minuscule, sleeveless red dress. Her hands are holding up her silky, jet-black waves, revealing her ivory neck that’s in serious need of my beard abrasions. There are several other girls dancing around her, forming a cockblocking wall, which is fine. Call me a wrecking ball, because I’m about to bust right up in there.

  Heading down the stairs, I slip through the sea of sweaty bodies. From there I wait until just the right moment when a space between the women opens up before trying to sneak through their perimeter. The blonde girl on the right catches me just as I’m about to make a move. Instead of a rebuff, she winks at me and steps aside. “Go get her, tiger.”

  Okay then.

  With a nod of thanks, I move up behind the dark beauty and lean down to shout, “Hey, gorgeous,” right next to her ear so she can hear me over the crowd. I wait for her reaction before I even dare put my hands on her perfect, swiveling hips.

  The incredibly sexy girl turns around to face me; and while it’s hard to see much in the dark club, there’s no way I could miss her piercing, icy blue eyes, highlighted by long, dark lashes and heavy black makeup. She’s young, several years younger than me, yet I can’t seem to care. If she’s in here, she’s legal. That’s all that matters.

  “Hey, gorgeous,” she repeats, or at least I’m pretty sure that’s the two words her red, plump lips mouth.

  Looking me up and down appraisingly, I apparently pass inspection since she steps forward and swivels her hips so that those sexy, soft curves of hers brush against the front of my jeans and black Havoc tee. Her full breasts press against my hard chest when she grabs my shoulders to grind her stomach against my dick. That’s all it takes for me to start getting hard. Knowing I now have her permission, I slip my hands down her sides and let them come to a stop just above the swell of her ass.

  The bass of some hip-hop song I don’t know keeps thumping around us while we dance like we’re fucking with our clothes on.

  “What’s your name?” I lean down and shout against her ear on the second song, feeling like I should at least know that based on how I want things to progress tonight.

  “Mina,” she says, standing on her toes so that her lips are pressed to my ear. She’s a lean little thing, and tall for a woman. “What’s yours?” she asks, but her lips linger next to my ear, her warm breath making me shiver.

  “Trick,” I tell her, using the nickname my teammates use. It’s the only name my best friend Austin ever called me. Then, I give her ear the same lip treatment she gave mine, followed by a brief nip of my teeth to her earlobe and swirl of my tongue over her flawless neck. I feel and hear her breath hitch before all the tension in her body evaporates. If not for my arms tightening around her waist, she would’ve melted to the floor. Without knowing anything else but her first name, that’s how I know I have her.

  Tonight, Mina is gonna be mine.

  Chapter Two

  Wilhelmina Hightower

  Who the hell is this guy?

  He came out of nowhere, busting right through the tight group of my concerned friends trying to keep me out of trouble tonight. Those little bitches. Of all the men they could allow to penetrate their protective circle, why did it have to be him?

  This here is a man among boys, grinding his bratwurst of a cock against me. Standing at well over six feet, he’s built like a brick shithouse, wide, muscular and so insanely hot that just looking at him has me melting. I’m not sure if it was his cocky attitude or his amber eyes that sealed the deal, but now the damage is done. It’s only a matter of time before we’re in a closet or secluded corner tongue fucking. Trick, as he referred to himself, is no doubt only looking for a good time tonight, the quicker, the better, and he came to the right place.

  Up until hours ago, my life had a plan. I was so close to finally making my escape. It only took me three years to figure out a week before my wedding what a piece of shit my fiancé is. The man who’s supposed to want only me for the rest of our lives said he needed one last fling before our big day. He basically said we’re so young that he needs to be inside a strange woman before he can be sure that he’s worked all the temptation of forever from his system.

  Fuck that, and fuck him.

  Instead of having my bachelorette party tonight, Cassie and her two best friends insisted that I came out with them to celebrate my freedom and how lucky I am to have figured out what an asshole my fiancé is before marrying him.

  For the past three years, I haven’t even looked at another man, much less had the urge to sleep with anyone who wasn’t my boyfriend. Tonight that will change. Whether you call it a r
ebound or whatever else, I need to prove to myself that Derek the dickhead is not the only man who wants me or can give me what I needed from him all along. And honestly, sex with Derek wasn’t all that great. If anyone was gonna suffer through forever with a shitty lover, I was definitely gonna be the one getting the short end of the stick. Literally. And the selfish bastard didn’t even have the decency to ever go down on me to make up for what his dick was lacking.

  I deserve to be thoroughly fucked by a man of my choosing for the sacrifice I made in the name of love. Yes, I did love the bastard, and yes, I was gonna marry him because I could live with a mediocre sex life if he could love and protect me. Maybe this is a blessing in disguise that I’ll look back at in a few years and thank God I found out a week before the wedding that Derek wanted other women before we said vows in a church full of our friends and family.

  Sure, the guy I plan to take me to the elusive promise land will be nothing more than a distant memory in a few hours, but I have no doubt that this big man is not only well endowed but highly skilled when it comes to fucking. There’s no doubt about his size, especially the girth based on what I feel against my stomach. Good God, he’s packing a full roll of cookie dough in those jeans. You know, like the cocks you only see on Tumblr that would likely dislocate a jaw. Not that I wouldn’t be willing to try. Unlike my now ex-fiancé, I frequently went down on Derek like a good girl does for the man she loves. All I wanted in exchange was for him to want me too, and to finally whisk me away, out of the shitty life I’ve been stuck in for far too long.

  Ugh. I’ve wasted enough time tonight dwelling on the past and things that may never change. Tomorrow I’ll regroup. But now it’s time to take the first step toward the future, one where I meet a man who not only loves me and protects me but can rock my world in the bedroom. I refuse to settle for less this time around. And in the meantime, until Mr. Right comes along, I’m gonna have a little fun to help me cope with my hellish life, even if it’s with men like Trick who have “unavailable” practically tattooed across their foreheads.

  Trick makes it easy to forget everything else when his hand slips a little further down my back until it’s cupping my ass, pressing me into his erection even harder, as if I were unaware of his arousal.

  I hear you, buddy, loud and clear.

  For once in my life I’m gonna be the one to decide who touches me, not out of obligation, necessity, or to convince someone to marry me, but solely because I want him. I’ve never had casual sex before, but it can’t be any worse than regular sex.

  It could be said that I have…issues with intimacy. My unfortunate upbringing made it hard to trust anyone else, especially another man. It took a year before I finally let Derek in my panties. I was hoping he could erase all the god-awful past experiences and replace them with something warm and good. Instead, sex with him was pretty much more of the same --- uncomfortable, unemotional, awkward and extremely rushed. I blamed the first few occasions on Derek’s inexperience. Two years of being intimate on a regular basis later, and that excuse is pretty flimsy.

  Does the toe-curling, banshee screaming, incredible sex my friends talk about actually exist, or am I just too fucked up to enjoy any type of intimacy? Guess I won’t know unless I try. Sex with a stranger can’t be any worse than what I’ve endured too many times to count. Yet for some reason, I still religiously put down each and every occasion in my combination lock journals. There’s a different color leather journal for every tortured year, all five hidden in a shoebox in my closet. Tonight, I want to write about something good for a change.

  “You wanna go somewhere…quieter?” I stand on the toes of my red heels to ask Trick, weaving my fingers through his bronze hair and speaking with my lips right against his ear. His palm on my ass tightens in response before I feel his nod.

  Reaching for my hand, he grabs it in his much larger, warm one and easily breaches my line of friends.

  “You good?” Cassie shouts as we walk past. I give her a thumbs up, and then her and the rest of the girls whoop encouragingly to our retreating backs.

  I’m not sure where Trick is headed, but I have a feeling we have the exact same goal in mind. We weave through the slam packed bodies until we come to a long hallway. Moving through the place like he owns it and will nut punch anyone who tries to stop us, Trick pushes on the bar of the emergency exit. And then the cool night air is hitting my sweaty skin, making me shiver. I’ve barely taken in a deep breath to calm my nerves when Trick presses me against the wall and grabs both sides of my face to kiss me. He tastes like beer and mint, and his lips move without an ounce of hesitation. Good, he knows what I want from him and isn’t wasting any time dancing around the goal.

  My head falls back against the bricks from the force of his dominating tongue delving into my mouth, taking what he wants with a desperation that borders on my own. Not wanting to let him have all the fun, I run my palms up the bottom of his shirt and nearly orgasm when my fingertips rub over the indentations of his rock hard abs. Belatedly I realize I must have made some sort of whimpering sound because I feel the corner of Trick’s lips lift in a smile.

  “You okay?” he asks against my lips.

  “Uh-huh,” I answer between panting breaths. “I’d be better if you were naked.” The words fly out of my mouth without thinking, but they’re the truth.

  “I agree,” he replies with a chuckle. One of his hands falls from my face and caresses down my side, his thumb brushing my breast on the way. “But we’ll have to make do, won’t we, gorgeous? Now turn around and lift your dress for me.”

  Wow. He doesn’t want to look at my face while we fuck. Maybe because he wants to pretend I’m someone else? Or I’m just not attractive enough to look at while he gets off?

  My swollen lips part to protest since there’s no way he’s getting me in the one position that represents years’ worth of real-life nightmares I’ve been living in for far too long. Yet no words come out before Trick drops to his knees before me.

  “You need an incentive first?” he looks up and asks as both of his big hands raise the hem of my dress to my hips. “I can do that,” he says, lowering his eyes to the small, lacy, red triangle in front of him. My back presses into the bricks when I shudder, feeling his warm breath feather across my flesh. A second later he jerks my thong down my legs like it’s enemy number one. Lifting my matching red high heel, he pulls the thong off before throwing the same leg over his shoulder. Then, the tip of his tongue is fluttering furiously over my flesh.

  “Oh my God!” I moan, scraping my exposed upper back against the brick wall when my one planted knee goes weak. Trick’s strong hands squeeze the fronts of my thighs, spreading them wide to make way for his tongue to get to where it’s needed. The instant burst of pleasure steals my breath, allowing nothing but whimpers to escape as he tastes me like a starving man. Part of me knows that I should be embarrassed by the fact that a stranger is kneeling between my legs with his nose buried in my pussy, but the part of me that’s about to get off with a head spinning orgasm says fuck that, you deserve this one good thing in your life, Mina.

  Once my body stops convulsing, I expect the man to get to his feet and fuck me however he wants me; but instead, he keeps lapping at my clit and penetrating my opening with his tongue and fingers until I come apart again.

  Ah, multiple Os do exist! I always thought they were mythical creatures like unicorns. Not that a man’s ever purposely given me one. They just occasionally happened when Derek and I would dry hump each other. Isn’t that pathetic? The best sex I’ve had until this moment was with all of my clothes on.

  After encouraging me to lift my other heel so he can completely remove my panties, Trick finally stands back up in front of me. A sigh of contentment slips from my lips, along with a lazy smile as I watch him wipe off his glistening mouth on the bottom of his t-shirt. He raises the black cotton high enough for me to get a glimpse of the holy grail of masculine stomachs, complete with pelvic indentations thanks
to his low riding jeans.

  “Now will you turn around for me?” Trick asks with a cocky grin that he’s earned, and, God, I’m a sucker for dimples. I wonder how many other women have fallen victim to that grin. Or more accurately hit the lottery. But no matter how good he looks or how talented his tongue is, there’s no way I’m giving into that position. Tonight I want it to be different. I want to look this gorgeous man, Trick, in the eyes while he fucks me. And maybe, for once, I want someone to actually see me.

  “Do you even remember my name?” I ask him, aware that my words are slurred even though I’m stone-cold sober on alcohol, just apparently high on endorphins.

  “Mina,” he answers without pause before twirling his finger.

  I shake my head, causing my long, dark layers to partially shield my face as impending tears burn my throat. When I speak, I know my words will be full of emotion that I can’t manage to suppress. “I can’t. Not that way,” I tell him. My protested words are weak since they haven’t done me much good in the past. The fact is, we’re out here alone. And since he’s twice my size, he could do anything he wanted to me and I wouldn’t be able to stop him.

  “You okay?” Trick asks me with a frown. Sweeping my hair back behind my ear, he grabs my chin and forces my eyes to meet his golden brown ones that seem to glow under the lamp posts. “We don’t have to…”

  “I really want to,” I tell him vehemently when he misunderstands. “Just…not that way. Please?”