“1, 0!”
Rob lurched forward and snatched Dallas’s arm to draw her away from me. She screamed and clawed at him, even though she knew it was pointless. I expect she just needed someone to rage against.
Wes and Preston took up spots opposite me. Preston rolled up the sleeves of his black designer dress shirt with a wry grin. Wes stood like a statue of granite and hate.
“Shall we?” Preston asked.
I dropped into a fighter’s stance and gave him a short nod. The crowd roared their approval.
Preston was in his forties, but he was a good fighter in his day, and I suspected he would make a formidable opponent. I already knew that Wes was strong, but he preferred to let other people do the fighting for him, which meant he was probably insecure about his ability. One of them was overconfident, one of them was under-confident. My best bet would be to play on Preston’s confidence to make him sloppy and try to humiliate Wes into anger.
Before I knew it, Preston and Wes had both lunged at me. As they knocked me back with powerful punches to my face and stomach, I began to wonder if I’d get the chance to use any strategy at all. They were relentless.
A humming in my eardrum soon drowned out the sound of the cheering crowd. Preston’s jeering snarl filled my vision, and then he punched me so hard in the jaw that my head cracked back. Distantly I heard a woman screaming.
Dallas.
Blood pounded in my ears, and my aching body longed for a rest, but I knew I had to power through. She was relying on me. She needed me. If I failed today her life was over, and I couldn’t live for even a second with that on my conscience. Rather than spend my afterlife in agony, I decided to finish this the right way, right now.
I kept my second wind to myself as Preston continued to pummel me. He jockeyed for space in front of Wes, blocking his son from being able to hit me. I’d never seen Preston with such joy before, like he was simultaneously experiencing a thousand Christmas mornings. But it wasn’t Christmas.
It was Saint Patrick’s Day, and Saint Patrick’s Day was for the fucking Irish.
Preston wound up for a long cross, and I nimbly ducked it and tackled into his stomach, lifting him from the ground and tossing him back over my shoulder into the gravel. He landed with a hoarse gasp. I didn’t give him a second to breathe, hopping on him and punching left and right across his face. Blood spurted from his nose. His hands scrambled at my back to pull me off, but it was too late.
It felt like a lifetime, but I was only on top of Preston for a few seconds before Wes’s body slammed mine to the ground. I rolled across the driveway as we both fought for dominance. He straddled my chest and landed a solid hit on my nose. A loud pop echoed through my skull. I roared with anger. I couldn’t feel the pain, not yet. I grabbed Wes by each arm, but instead of pushing him away, as he expected, I pulled him close and head-butted him hard in the nose. He fell to the side, cradling his injured face.
Preston was struggling to get up a few feet away, but he kept falling back to the ground.
“Wes! Get the fuck up!” Preston raged, blood and spittle flying from his mouth.
Wes stood shakily to his feet at the same time as me, though he didn’t attack straightaway. He hung back. His eyes darted around the circle as if looking for an escape, which made me smile.
Wes was afraid.
I slammed my left fist into his gut and knocked his jaw with a powerful uppercut that sent him staggering backward. He moaned and fell to one knee. Blood streamed from his mouth and nose.
“Do you yield?” I asked.
“No!” Preston yelled.
I turned to see him still clambering upright. Wes would have to wait a minute. I stalked up to him and with a solid, decisive punch, decked him out back to the ground, stone cold unconscious. The crowd gasped.
I turned back to Wes. “Do you yield?”
Wes’s chest heaved with the force of his breath, but the nod was unmistakable.
The crowd went completely silent. Nelson and another guy raced forward to Preston and crouched around him. I caught eyes with Paul across from me, whose lips twitched into a tiny smile. He nodded at me. Rob let go of Dallas to attend to Wes, and she came barreling toward me.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “Please tell me you’re okay.”
“Better than I’ve ever been.” I wrapped my arm around her shoulders and nuzzled into her hair. The sweet smell of her hair mixed with the tang of my blood and created a scent that perfectly encompassed my love for her.
People chattered excitedly, and I looked over to see Nelson helping Preston to his feet. He stumbled as his eyes searched for me and his men caught him.
My arms stiffened around Dallas. “We’re going to go now.”
It was hard to read Preston’s expression under all the blood, but he soon gave a slight nod. “I’m a man of my word.”
The man holding Randall released him, and he ran forward and embraced his daughter, though his tear-filled eyes were on me.
“Thank you! Thank you so much!” he stuttered. “I can never repay you. This means so much!”
Dallas gasped and stiffened. I looked past Randall to see Wes standing with a gun held straight out in front of him. He cocked it.
Wes spat blood onto the ground. “I never gave my word for anything.”
I stepped past Dallas and Randall, moving to the side, so they were out of the line of fire, and raised my hands. “Wes, it’s over. You lost.”
“When you weigh the dice you never lose,” he countered. “That’s all I’m doing. Nobody here’s going to stop me.”
I glanced at Preston. He shrugged.
Ice spiked through my veins. I tried to think of what else I could say, what I could do to sway him. There was no way I could get to the gun before he could shoot it, and it didn’t seem like he was bluffing. This was an act of desperation, and a desperate man was the most dangerous kind. I should know.
“Wes don’t!” Dallas ran in front of me, throwing her arms out as a shield. “Please. If you ever felt anything real for me, you’ll let us go. You said that you love me. This is your chance to prove it.”
“I don’t need to prove anything to you!” Wes screamed. “Get out of the way!”
I noticed the hand with the gun was shaking.
“Dallas, for once I agree with him,” I whispered. “Get out of the way.”
“No!” she cried. “Wes. Please.”
There was a long, tense moment, where my eyes focussed only on the shaking gun in Wes’s hand. I wanted to move in front of Dallas, but I feared that any movement might spook Wes into shooting. So I stood still. And I waited.
Finally, Wes lowered his hand. His face screwed up in anguish, and he turned away. I wasn’t taking any more chances—we were out of there.
“Come on.” I slid an arm around Dallas’s waist. “Let’s go.”
Chapter 35
Dallas
The three of us were quiet the whole way home. I knew I should be celebrating, that I’d won the greatest fight of my life today, but I was too emotionally exhausted to tell between winning and losing. I mourned for the parts of me I left in that house. I wondered how our lives would go from here, and if we could honestly achieve our dreams now that we didn’t have Preston and Wes holding us back.
We each took our own bikes home, and Dad idled his in the driveway when we reached his house. Shane and I were halfway up the drive before we noticed he hadn’t followed us.
I turned to question him, but he beat me to the punch.
“I’m going to spend the night in my shop,” Dad said. “I think you guys could use some time alone.”
“Thanks, Dad. Are you okay?”
He grinned, and it was the first genuine smile I’d seen from him in a long time. “I’m great. Superb. I’ll see you guys tomorrow, and we can figure out what to do about all this.”
He saluted and rode off. Shane threaded his fingers through mine, and I looked up at him. He was smiling down at me, and even though his face was
caked in blood, I couldn’t resist the urge to press up on my tiptoes and kiss him.
He hissed as my lips grazed a cut on his lips.
“Wuss,” I mocked.
Shane’s arms circled my waist, and he hugged me tight against his chest. “You’re far too nice a girl to be using such language.”
“Bite me.”
His eyes sparked with lust. “Oh, I think I will.”
I laughed and pulled away from his grip, grabbing his hand and leading him inside. “Come on then. Let’s get you cleaned up.”
Moments later we were in the bathroom, stripping down to nothing as the steam began to rise from the shower. I inspected the bruises on Shane’s body with care, running my fingertips over them like I could brush them away. His muscles quivered at my touch. I traced up his abs, over the swell of his pecs, and to the powerful curve of his collarbone. His cock stiffened and brushed against my thigh.
“This is the first time it doesn’t have to be a secret,” I murmured.
Shane chuckled and held my face in his hands. “I expect there are going to be a lot of firsts in our future.”
His eyes stood out, vibrant green against the rusty blood. A purpling bruise extended from his cheek to the bottom of his right eye. He couldn’t have looked more beautiful.
Shane kissed me. His mouth was gentle and soft as he explored mine, teasing with his tongue and massaging my lips. I leaned into him, the steam bringing back the dreamlike quality of our first time.
We stepped into the tub and pulled the curtain closed. I reached for the soap and directed him under the spray, then began to lather his chest, his arms, his powerful thighs. He held still as I washed the blood from his face and out of his hair. I didn’t stop washing until the water ran clear down the drain.
Shane took the soap from me, and we switched places. He rubbed the bar along my shoulders first, working down my arms to the tips of my fingers and in-between. It tickled my palm, and I giggled, but Shane gave me a stern look that told me to keep still. I held my breath as he guided the soap down the valley of my breasts, then passed it behind my back. He stepped close to me, pressing his hot body against mine as he washed my back carefully and with a kind of delicate touch that was hard to imagine coming from such a big, brawny man. At first, I thought he was going a bit overkill with the attention to detail since I wasn’t actually dirty, but then I realized what he was doing.
Shane was washing away the past three years. He was washing away Wes and Preston, and all the parties and burlesque shows and dinners. He was washing away the pain.
I tipped my head back, and the water pounded on my face. Nothing had ever felt so cleansing as this shower, and as strange as it sounds, I knew when I came out I was going to be a different person.
Shane worked all the way down to my feet, which he had to crouch to reach. When he finished, he put the soap on the side of the bath, and I expected him to come back up. Instead, he went to his knees and grabbed my ass in his hands.
I was instantly awake. His eyes carried a smoldering intensity, and he locked them on mine as he pulled my sex to his mouth and dove straight in.
I grabbed onto the side of the shower for support as Shane licked me, swirling his tongue in such a way that I thought the world would end if he stopped. I moaned and squeezed my breast, reveling in the heat of the shower. He complemented the pleasant slipperiness of his tongue by adding one rough finger. My knees nearly buckled right then and there.
His pursuit of my pleasure was primal in its intensity. He feasted on me, making little moans of pleasure that vibrated against my clit and made me see stars.
At times it felt like his firm hold on my butt was the only thing holding me up. Liquid heat pooled in my core and I dug my fingers into the back of his head, urging him to keep going. He growled seductively, and I threw my head back so hard I nearly slammed it into the tile. I wouldn’t have even cared. All that mattered was my imminent explosion. And I was, well and truly, about to explode.
My body quaked. Shane inserted another digit inside of me and began to twist and work his fingers expertly, and I squeezed my eyes shut as the wave crashed over me.
For a moment, everything turned black. Then it was an explosion of color behind my eyelids. My body pulsed and throbbed and I cried out in rapture, utterly lost. And then I opened my eyes and saw Shane grinning up at me, kissing the insides of my thighs, and I was found.
He stood and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me to him and supporting my rubbery legs. His erection throbbed against my belly. I leaned up to kiss him and undulated my hips to rub against it, timing each sway with a dart of my tongue into his mouth.
Shane groaned. He fisted his hand in my hair and mashed his mouth into mine in a bruising, dominating kiss that made my toes curl. I was still coming down from my orgasm, but my nerves sat up and took notice, ready for the next round of carnal delight.
He reached behind me to turn off the shower, then opened the curtain and stepped out, extending a hand to help me. I joined him on the bath mat and grabbed a towel from the rack.
Wordlessly, I began to dry Shane off. I rubbed the towel everywhere but the place he most wanted it, dragging the scratchy material up the insides of his thighs, just grazing the shaft of his cock before moving on to his belly. Shane bit his lip as he watched me but didn’t intervene. He loved a good tease.
After I finished his upper body, I moved back down and toweled his butt, the backs of his thighs, all the way down to his feet. I looked up at him with wide, innocent eyes and smiled.
Apparently, that was more than he could take.
Shane grabbed me by the arm and hoisted me up, kissing me passionately while backing me toward the door. We stumbled into the hallway, and I guided us down toward my old bedroom, which my dad hadn’t changed since I moved into Preston’s. We fell onto the bed in a tangle of naked limbs.
Shane kissed me everywhere. He sucked my nipples and trailed nipping kisses down to my ribs, then worked to my stomach, my thighs, worshipping my body with his tongue. We’d been so close to losing each other forever. Now we could lose ourselves in each other forever, and that was a more seductive fantasy than any other I could imagine. I just wanted Shane. Full stop. And he didn’t hold back from showing me how much he wanted me too.
We made love like two dancing flames. Sometimes we flickered quickly, others we took it slow and burned deep into our souls. His long, hard cock speared deep inside of me, rubbing along the most pleasurable areas of my body. Sometimes he kissed me, and others he stared into my eyes and smiled at my blissful expression as he claimed my body over and over again.
My second orgasm hit even more forcefully than the last. I couldn’t be sure if I’d screamed out loud or not. I fell into the abyss, and Shane’s powerful thrusts grew frantic as he lost himself to the pinnacle of lust, which demanded wild abandon and promised ecstasy.
Soon he pulsed inside of me. Then he collapsed, lying still until our breaths synced and the sweat and residual water from the shower began to chill.
Shane rolled onto his side and propped me up on mine. He looked deep into my eyes and smiled
“Dallas,” he murmured. “I love you so much.”
“I love you so much.” I reached up to kiss him, but he pulled back. My brows knitted in confusion.
Shane thumbed my cheek. “Dallas,” he murmured. “Will you marry me?”
I answered without thought or hesitation, and I meant it from the bottom of my very soul.
“Yes. God yes.”
We kissed, and the memory of my torment at the hands of Wes and Preston dimmed even further, receding into the back of my mind to wither and die.
Chapter 36
Shane
Two years later...
I rechecked my watch, tapping my foot. Around me, people chatted and laughed under the New York Theatre’s opulent chandeliers, which glittered brilliantly and filled the lobby with warm light. I stared up at the one above me for a while, trying to dist
ract myself from my impatience.
Someone tackled me so hard I nearly dropped the bouquet of roses in my hand.
“Oof!” I huffed.
Jake laughed, squeezing me in a tight hug. “Sorry I’m late,” he said. “I got lost on the subway. You’d think I would have that kind of thing figured out by now.”
I laughed and clapped him on the back. “You would think. Good to see you, man.”
“How long’s it been now?” he asked, releasing me. “I barely know what day of the week it is these days.”
“About a year, I guess. Since the wedding. Which is just enough time for me to forgive you for that horribly embarrassing best man speech.”
Jake cackled with delight, tossing back his scruffy ginger head.
“I thought you spent the last month in Singapore?” I asked, poking his cheek. “Why are you still as pale as your mom’s fine china?”
His smile flattened, and he narrowed his eyes in mock contempt. “I’m sure I can find more speech-worthy occasions.”
“Stick to web design. It works for you.”
“It does suit me, doesn’t it?” he replied. “Even my parents are happy for me. I’m heading back to Sitka Valley next to visit them, and they’re acting like it’s a visit from the queen or something.”
A tinge of pride colored Jake’s cheeks. I was glad to see him so happy. Not long after Dallas and Randall and I skipped town for New York, Jake threw himself into everything code. He soon founded a web design company, and it took off. He spent the last year working remotely from around the world, chasing his dreams on every continent.
The lights flashed.
“We better go in,” I said.
“Let’s.” He looked up at the chandelier as we passed beneath it with a dreamy smile. “I still can’t believe it. Broadway, man. Broadway.”
“I know.”
We took our seats and chatted idly as we waited for the curtain to rise. Once it did, however, my attention was fixed. I spent the next two hours entranced, utterly mesmerized. I was the first on my feet when the cast did their bows. Then I grabbed Jake and pushed through the crowd back to the lobby and toward the stage doors.
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