Linc (A Cocky Cage Fighter Novel Book 3)

by Hart, Lane

  I run my palms over the wide expanse of his smooth, muscular back, holding him close to me as our tongues dance around each leisurely. My thighs part to make room for him and I realize his jeans are in the way as his legs wedge their way in between. “Take your pants off,” I say against his lips.

  “You don’t have to tell me twice,” he responds. From the hallway light spilling into the dark room, I watch as he stands up and sheds the jeans. Heading into the master bathroom I assume he’s going to take off and throw away the old condom, but I’m impatient and want him to hurry up already! Finally he returns, stopping at a tall dresser and pulling out a sleeve of condoms. That and the smile on his gorgeous face tell me we’re not going to be sleeping anytime soon.

  Chapter Twelve

  Linc

  I wake up to the smell of…coffee and bacon? In my own house, after the most amazin’ night ever. Eyes still closed I can see Claire laid out before me, beautifully naked in my bed, her back archin’ as she comes apart for, was that the fourth or fifth time? Can’t remember, and it doesn’t matter. The fact is, when she snuggled up to me, restin’ her head on my chest with her sexy leg thrown over mine, both of us sated, it was by far the best part. Bein’ with her, I forgot about the sex tape and everything else. None of it matters anymore now that everything is right between me and Claire.

  Claire.

  I’m fallin’ in love with a porn star’s sister.

  A woman whose real name I learned less than twenty-four hours ago. It just feels…right with her, and has since the moment she walked into that room at the strip club. Wow. That will make a helluva story for the grandkids.

  Okay, so maybe I’m gettin’ a little ahead of myself. All I know is I want to be near her every second of every day. I wanted her to be in my arms when I woke up, but cookin’ me breakfast is a close second.

  After stretchin’ my arms over my head, I finally climb out of bed, take a quick shower, and head downstairs in a pair of boxer briefs to see the incredible woman again. I skid to a stop on the hardwood floors when I find her, dark hair wet and pulled up off of her neck after her shower. She’s in one of my black cotton Havoc tees that barely covers her ass as she stands in front of the stove. Now I have to know if there’s anything on underneath. God I hope not.

  Even more significant, seein’ Claire standin’ in my kitchen with my shirt on causes this unfamiliar sensation of…I don’t know, protectiveness or possessiveness maybe, to well up in my chest and steal my breath. Over the course of only a few days she somehow became mine, fillin’ me with this sudden, overwhelming worry. I hate how upset she was about the tape, and can’t stand knowin’ how many men have now seen her naked all because her sister needed the money. It makes me crazy wonderin’ how far she’ll go to bail Mandy out. I want to be the one to make her happy, take away her burdens, be her everything if she’ll let me.

  Glancin’ over her shoulder she finds me standin’ stock still, starin’ at her. She gives me a stunnin’ smile before she shyly tugs down the back hem of my shirt she’s wearin’, and says, “Good morning.”

  “Heck yeah it is,” I say before I go to her, wrappin’ her in my arms despite the fact that she’s holdin’ a spatula. “Mornin’.”

  “I was hungry, so I hope you don’t mind…”

  Damn, I'm a terrible host. “Sorry. I should’ve got my lazy ass up and made you breakfast.”

  “No, it’s my fault for keeping you up so late,” she says with a teasin’ smile.

  “No excuse for me being slack,” I say with a kiss to her cheek. Then I can’t resist slidin’ my palm up the back of her thigh to answer my burnin’ question. Squeezin’ a handful of her perfect ass I groan, realizin’ she’s not wearing any panties. “How long until the food’s ready?” I ask.

  “Oh it’s done,” she says with her breath hitchin’. “Just-just grab a plate.”

  I reach and turn the oven off and move the pan of bacon to a backburner, noticin’ there’s also a coolin’ pan of biscuits. Food will have to wait. After I remove the spatula from her hand, I pick Claire up and carry her to the dinin’ table.

  “What are you doing?” She laughs when I sit her bare ass down on the edge of wooden surface. I yank her shirt, my shirt, over her head before pullin’ out the chair at the head of the table to sit down in front of her.

  “Gettin’ ready to have you for breakfast,” I tell her. After admiring the amazin’ view, I grab both of her thighs to spread them wide, openin’ her to me.

  “You’re gonna…oh God!” she exclaims after I lean down and swipe my tongue right along the center of her pussy lips. I tug on her legs, bringin’ her ass to the very edge of the table. Her palms slap down on either side of her to keep her balance when she lifts her hips, silently beggin’ for more.

  I kiss, lick and suck on every inch of her pussy while she moans urgently above me. Even after she comes on my tongue I don’t want to stop. Fuck bacon. She tastes even better.

  “Huuh! Huuh Goddd! Yes!” Her moans turn into wordless panting as she comes for me again. “Please, Linc,” she moans, with her head still thrown back. “Fuck me…now.”

  I groan from her words that are drippin’ with need, and then seein’ the pleadin’ look in her heavy lidded blue eyes. Standin’ up I push the chair out of the way and shove my boxers down, quickly steppin’ out of them. My cock is painfully hard as I guide it to her soakin’ wet entrance. And that’s when I realize all the condoms are upstairs. Goddamn it. “Need a condom,” I tell her, but as I step away from the table she yanks on my arm.

  “Pull out before?” she asks, her normally light eyes darkened by lust. A small voice in my head says it’s not smart, but my cock screams at me to just get the fuck inside of her already!

  Grabbin’ her ass with both hands I lift her hips until I’m lined up and slidin’ in deep. She’s so warm and tight and…fuck this isn’t gonna last long. Claire wraps her arms around my neck, urgin’ my mouth to hers as I pound faster and faster into her pussy, unable to take her hard enough for the greedy beast roarin’ inside me.

  When I have to let her go to pull my cock out and jerk it off to finish she sits back on her elbows, pressin' her fingertips to her clit to stimulate herself over. With my free hand I shove two fingers inside of her pussy, pumpin’ them in and out until she constricts around them and I come like a geyser all over her stomach.

  Conveniently, there are napkins sittin’ in the center of the long table, so I grab some and clean her up while a satisfied smile stretches across her beautiful, flushed face.

  “Ready for breakfast?” I ask her with my own grin, stickin’ the two fingers that had just been inside her into my mouth and suckin’ them clean.

  “Sure,” she answers with a laugh. “I made some coffee, but didn’t know if you’d rather have it or orange juice?”

  “Definitely orange juice,” I say since it reminds me of her taste and smell.”

  Helpin’ her sit up, I can’t stop grinnin’ like an idiot at how nice and easy it is bein’ with her, talkin’ about somethin’ so domesticated as breakfast beverages while she looks like a goddess sittin' naked on my kitchen table.

  “I love your house, and the view,” Claire says softly, her head still turned toward the lake when I grab her waist to guide her feet back down to the ground. “It’s like a beautiful painting come to life.”

  “It is now.”

  “Do you ever go out on the lake?” she asks.

  “Yeah, I’ve actually got a double decker pontoon boat docked further down the path at the landin’,” I tell her. “It even has a motherfuckin’ water slide.”

  “No way!” She laughs. “You’ll have to take me out some time to show me actual scenes I can paint.”

  “I may also have a beach house,” I brag to her with a grin.

  “Get out!” she exclaims with a smack to my arm. “You lucky bastard. Can you see the ocean from it?” She asks the question and then waits with an incredibly childlike, wide-eyed awe of anticipa
tion on her face, like if the answer is yes it would be the equivalent of tellin’ her Santa Claus really exists. I can’t fuckin’ wait to blow her beautiful mind.

  “Ah yeah, sort of,” I hedge. “The dunes obscure the view from the ground level, but it’s a pretty clear shot from the second and third story decks.”

  Her jaw drops open for several long seconds. Then she asks the last thing I expect, carvin’ out a slice of my heart to go with it. “Do you have pictures? Because that would be so cool if I could use them to paint from. I’ve only seen the ocean once and that was right when we moved down here four years ago.” She starts talkin’ faster, ramblin’ in a cute, excited way. “Mason, Mandy and I drove all the way to the coast early one morning, walked on the beach and then were back home in Durham that night since we didn’t have money to spend on a hotel room. It was way too short, and somewhat crazy, but the three of us just wanted to go because we’d never experienced something so amazing before, you know? It was the middle of January, so we couldn’t exactly go swimming, but the road trip and day was still a lot of fun,” she says with a smile of reminiscence.

  “Baby, I can do better than pictures,” I tell her. Arms around her waist, I hug her to me tightly rather than let her know how so many of the things she absently mentions about herself and her family break my heart. “We can go to the beach anytime you want.” Most of the year I rent the house out through a realty company, because I train so much and only use it a few weeks in the summer, but I will personally throw whoever is stayin’ there out myself if I have to for me to take Claire whenever she says the word.

  Claire lowers her eyes to her palms restin’ on my chest, but not before I see the moisture wellin’ up in her eyes. “My mom never got to see the ocean,” she says softly. “And there’s something about that…everyone should be able to stand with their toes in the sand at least once before they die to experience the feeling of knowing there’s nothing but the ocean on the horizon. If that’s not a truly religious experience, then I don’t know what is. And I hate that she missed it.”

  “I’m sorry you lost her so soon, and that you never got to go with her. You’re right, it’s somethin’ everyone should get a chance to do,” I tell her placin’ a kiss on her forehead. “Seein’ the ocean for the first time is like lookin’ at the very essence of life. Creation even. There’s somethin’ pure and overwhelmin’ about it that takes your breath and fills up your soul with a piece you didn’t know was missin’.”

  “Exactly,” she says with a stunnin’ smile that’s more powerful than anything Mother Nature has to offer. The woman has to be the eighth natural wonder of the world, and here she is, standin’ naked with me in my kitchen. How did I get so damn lucky?

  “I’m really glad you came over last night,” I tell her again. In those moments before she pulled up it felt like everything was goin’ to hell. She managed to turn it all around, givin’ me one of the best nights of my life.

  “I’m really glad I did, too. And I’m glad that was your sister,” she responds, still beamin’ up at me.

  “I want you to meet my parents and Hailey sometime. She knew there was so much shit going on last night that she thought it would be best to get out of our way and not add any more drama.”

  “Things don’t seem nearly as bleak today,” she says while watchin’ her fingertips trace over my abs. “Why don’t we eat breakfast and then take a nice, long, shower together before I have to go to work?”

  “Best fuckin’ idea ever,” I agree, wishin’ I could recreate this mornin’ routine with her on a daily basis.

  …

  Claire

  “Hey, Mandy? I’m heading out.” I knock on my sister’s closed door with my purse and overnight bag on my shoulder, and car keys in my hand.

  “Gotta work?” she asks, sounding groggy. James’s black sedan was in the parking lot so I assume the bastard’s in there with her. I try not to think of what they’re doing.

  “It’s almost eleven, so I just got off work,” I tell her.

  After my extremely long eight hour shift, the soles of my feet are killing me, and I’m exhausted and ready to pass out, especially after last night and this morning’s exertion at Linc’s. But when he walked me out to my car, he looked down at me with those warm navy blue eyes and asked me to come back over and stay with him again tonight, regardless of the late hour. I quickly agreed at the same time my heart did a little jump for joy. I will gladly make the half hour trip to his place again.

  “Oh, I didn’t know it was so late,” I hear Mandy mutter softly before her door cracks opens. My heart sinks at the dark circles under her eyes and how frail her collarbone looks jutting out from her robe. “So then where are you going?”

  “Um, to Linc’s, so I won’t be back until the morning.”

  “You really like him, don’t you? You seem…happy,” she remarks.

  “Yeah, I do and I am.”

  “Good. I’m happy for you. You deserve a decent guy.”

  “So do you,” I say despite the fact that there’s an asshole within earshot, lying in her bed.

  “Have fun,” she says with an attempted smile that falls too quickly.

  “Are you okay?” I ask. “Everything all right?”

  “Yeah of course. Your rich boyfriend’s paid off all my debt with the snap of his fingers. You’re gonna make a shitload of money for a video everyone thinks is the new, improved me. So what’s there to worry about?”

  I take an involuntary step backwards when her unusual bitterness catches me off guard. I’m not sure if I’m hurt or pissed. There’s also a little guilt that everything does seem right in the world for me. Everything except my sister, who desperately needs a really good long-term rehab program, and a hotheaded brother who is one more assault or drug charge away from serving prison time.

  You would never know it now, but the three of us were raised in a loving home by our single mother. She had me and Mandy with one man and then Mason three years later with a different one. You think she would’ve figured out the whole where babies come from thing after I was an accident, but thankfully she didn’t, or I never would’ve had a brother and sister.

  Our mom worked two jobs to do everything she could to give the three of us a normal childhood. She also smoked a pack of cigarettes a day and died of lung cancer when she was only thirty-eight years old. I was nineteen at the time, so Mandy was seventeen, about to turn eighteen, and Mason was only a lost and pitiful thirteen-year-old boy. They both became my responsibility from that day on.

  I successfully raised them both to adulthood, both graduating high school, without either getting knocked up or knocking someone up, so that seems like a partial success. I wasn’t, however, able to stop Mandy from going into the porn business when she turned eighteen, or able to stop Mason from fighting and getting caught smoking weed all the time starting at age sixteen. When the three of us moved to North Carolina, things only got worse as far as Mandy and illegal drugs, much worse drugs than Mason’s marijuana. Although, I'm not sure if Mason is still using regularly since it can't be good for his training, I’m pretty sure he’s selling it, since he somehow manages to have his own apartment and car without an actual job. Fighting for Vito doesn’t pay that well. Still, nothing he’s ever done is as bad as Mandy’s drug abuse.

  Maybe I feel guilty because I know how easily it could have been Mandy instead of me at the strip club that night with Linc. It should’ve been her. If she hadn’t been passed out, high as a kite, would our roles be reversed? Would I be the one still depressed and unhappy while Linc swooped Mandy off her feet? Honestly, I don’t see my sister wanting more from Linc than his money. Which reminds me…

  “Now that Vito’s paid off can we talk about you possibly going into another treatment program?” I ask Mandy, bracing myself for her reaction.

  “No.”

  “Why not?”

  “It’s a waste of money,” she says with an eye roll.

  “You mean it’s money yo
u’d rather be spending on more drugs? Do you realize how fucked up that is, Mandy?”

  “Drop it, Claire,” James says from inside the room.

  My teeth grind together in annoyance when the asshole butts in. “We’re gonna talk tomorrow,” I tell Mandy before heading for the front door. I’m too tired to argue now, and I’m in a hurry to get to Linc’s. There’s something about his beautiful lake house that is soothing and comforting to me, like painting. Or maybe it’s just being with him. He’s different from any other man I’ve known.

  During the half hour drive to Cary, I try to think back to the last guy I dated. Dan and I met in the grocery store checkout line and he asked me out. Within the first ten minutes into the date I knew I’d made a mistake. He was thirty years old and still lived at home with his mom. Which, if he’d had a good reason like to save money for a down payment on his own house, he was paying off student loans, or she was sick, would’ve all been perfectly fine. But nope, he actually said he still lived at home because he had it made. His mom cooked and cleaned for him while he sat around on his ass all day, not the least bit motivated to get a job and support himself.

  Before that date was Sam, eight or nine months ago. He was a decent guy, very smart, handsome, even hilariously funny. The problem came in the bedroom. There was absolutely no spark. Not even a single flair. Worst sexual experiences ever, not just the first time, but the second and third too. I was trying to give our relationship the benefit of the doubt as just being new. Nope. Sam didn’t do it for me, not like Linc does.

  Just being in the same room with Linc gets me hotter than when I was intimate with Sam or the other two unmemorable guys before him. I see Linc and there’s instantly a smile on my face. He’s a really great guy, and I’m lucky to have ended up stripping for him instead of my sister. Ugh. Just the thought of him with her makes me shiver, and I can't let go of the fact that he was there to see her that night, not me. He wanted the kinky porn star.