by Ally Vance
Viper slips it into his pocket and glances in the direction of my cabin, then returns his attention to me.
“I hope she’s worth it, Hawk.”
“She is.”
He gives me a tight smile and holds out his hand. I shake it.
“I expect you back at work within the week. I’ll email you with the criteria I’m looking for.”
“Another Red,” I say with a smile.
He stares at me in mock horror. “Dear God, no. Don’t do that to me.”
I laugh, the tension that’d ridden me since I spotted his car ebbing away. We walk back to the house and Viper gets in his car to leave. I wait until his car lights disappear, then go inside. Calla gets to her feet and wraps her arms around my waist.
“Is everything okay?”
I flick her hair over her shoulders and bend to kiss her. “More than okay, my sweet girl. In fact, it doesn’t get any better than this.”
Thank you for reading Claimed, part of the Stalkers’ Anthology. An extended version of this story will be coming soon, so if you’re interested in hearing more from Hawk and Calla, be sure to sign up for Sin Cave Publishing’s newsletter at - https://landing.mailerlite.com/webforms/landing/v9k5a3
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About C. Firecox:
C. Firecox is the SINful pseudonym for an International Bestselling Romance Author, part of the duo writing under Sin Cave Publications. She enjoys exploring the delights of pure erotica and erotic romance.
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For His Eyes Only
Abigail Davies
Prologue
Nixon
Darkness covered many sins.
It was where I was the most comfortable. Hidden away in the shadows where no one could see me.
I hadn’t always been that way. There was a time where I wanted all of the attention all of the time. But that had passed after my first big fight. The unknown had become known, and now all I wanted was to slink away into a place where no one knew who I was.
Which was what I was doing—what I did every night.
I wasn't sure what possessed me to follow her home. Maybe it was the way she looked right through me—as if she hadn’t got a clue who I was. Or maybe it was the pain echoing in her eyes; the turmoil threatening to rip her apart while also holding her together.
Something about her called to me in a way I’d never experienced before, so instead of walking to my car outside the gym, I’d followed her here.
She had no idea I was behind her, and the thrill of her obliviousness drew me to her even more.
I halted across from her apartment as she pushed the key in the front door, and without turning back, she entered, unaware of the path she’d just created.
Chapter One
Nixon
Several hundred sets of eyes were pointed my way.
Eyes that were expecting something from me.
Eyes that were here to see the blood spatter across the canvas of the cage.
I pulled in a breath as I bounced on my toes, listening intently as the man with the microphone called out my name.
“Nixon ‘the destroyer’ Deacon!”
Roars echoed throughout the venue, music blasted through the speakers, and then I was making my way to the fight I’d been working toward my entire career. A fight that could mean the start of something incredible, or the end of everything. Several minutes would change the way my life would play out. It was just a matter of which way it would turn.
Wrestling had been my first sport of choice when I was a teen. That had naturally progressed into MMA when I was a year into college. And now, at twenty-five, I was at the top of my game, ready to fight for a title and belt so I could get a contract that would set me up for life.
All I had to do was win.
Easy enough, right?
I didn’t lack confidence as the lock on the cage shut, or as the ref told us to fight fair, but it was the roundhouse kick to the head from my opponent that knocked me off my feet. My back slapped against the canvas, my vision blurred, and my ears rang.
Fuck.
I felt rather than saw him jump on top of me, and it was all I could do to throw my arms in front of my face and wait for the bell to ring for the end of the first round.
He rained his fists down onto me. Each one harder than the last. I bucked my body, but I knew I was still feeling the effects from his kick, so I half-assed it. Waiting…
Then finally the bell rang, and I was stumbling my way to my corner, trying to shake off the after effects of his punishment.
“You got this, Nix,” Len, my coach, said, wiping away some blood from my eye. “Keep focused. Do what you do in the gym.”
I nodded, not saying anything as the bell rang again. Then we were both in the middle of the canvas, staring at each other like this was a fight to the death. And maybe it was. For me anyway.
I bounced forward then to the side, jabbing him in the eye with my right hand and following with my left, then ending the combination with an uppercut.
He stumbled to the side, and I knew then that this was my shot, so I didn’t hesitate, I did what I would have in practice and threw my fists anywhere they would land, finishing off with a forearm to his head and a final punch to his temple.
He went down, but I didn’t move from where I was standing, not until I was sure he wasn’t going to get back up.
Cheers rang out.
Someone grabbed my arm and pulled me away.
I was the champion. I was the lightweight champion of the world.
I’d done it. I’d fulfilled my dream.
So why did it feel so...lackluster? Why did it feel like...nothingness?
Chapter Two
Kloey
“Four ninety-nine,” I said, my tone bored as I waited for yet another customer at the burger joint I worked in to hand me the money for their order.
This place was a means to an end, to pay rent on my shitty one room apartment while I attended college. I wasn’t like most of the kids who went to my school; I didn’t have a daddy to pay for my tuition, or a mommy to take my dirty laundry home to.
No.
I was a kid of the system. One who was turfed out on her ass as soon as she was eighteen. Although, if I was honest, that was a good thing because my last foster home was by far the worse.
Some of the adults were nice and actually fed you, but others didn’t. They took advantage and were only in it for the money. Unfortunately, there was way more of the latter in the system.
A system that was designed to break you.
A system that threw you away as soon as you turned the magic one eight.
But I hadn’t let that stop me. I’d finished high school with a scholarship to college, and now all I had to do was keep my GPA up and survive the remaining three years.
Then I could get out of here. I could use my degree and finally start my life.
Cash slapped onto my palm, and I gritted my teeth from the sting. My narrowed eyes flicked up to the customer, and I bit down on my bottom lip so I didn’t curse him out like I was so desperate to do.
I tapped the button on the screen of my cash register and the bottom drawer popped open a second later. “Your number will be called shortly,” I told him, passing the receipt to him then slamming the drawer closed.
It was Sunday night and I had an early morning class, but that didn’t matter to the dick who wrote the schedules, which meant I was always on the shittiest shifts and left on my own most of the time. How the hell was I meant to man the register and package the food at the same time?
I rolled my eyes as the cook called my name. Us lowly front staff weren’t allowed in the back kitchen, not that I
wanted to be there anyway.
“Kloey?” he called a second time. “Need you to take the trash out.”
I huffed out a breath as I threw the burger and fries into a bag and tossed it onto the counter for my rude as hell customer, then strode toward the back kitchen.
“Why can’t you take it out?” I asked, glancing toward the back doors that were kept open a few inches by a brick. It was pitch black out there.
“Because I’m cleaning the damn grill,” Keith barked back at me. He held a spatula in the air, his white apron looking more yellow with the amount of stains on it. “You want to leave on time tonight?” he asked, raising one of his bushy brows. He didn’t wait for my answer because he already knew I didn’t want to be here longer than I had to be. “Take the trash out, Kloey.”
“Fine.” I stepped into the kitchen and grabbed the yellow tie handles then dragged it behind me toward the doors. I hesitated a second, my stomach rolling at the thought of being out there alone.
You can do it, Klo, you’ve walked into worse situations.
I closed my eyes for a snap second then opened them back up, pushed my shoulders back, and took a step forward.
The heavy doors were a nightmare to open, and I almost got trapped between them, but at the last second, I yanked the trash through it, sighing in relief.
The sliver of light coming from the burger joint was just enough to show me the path to our trash cans, but I still had to step into the darkness to get over there.
I turned my head left and right, making sure I was on my own, but when a pair of eyes stared back at me, I halted. My muscles tensed, my brain going into overdrive as they didn’t look away from me.
My hands gripped the handles of the bag tighter, my stomach flipped, and for some strange reason, I didn’t want the eyes to look away from me.
Shuffling echoed in the otherwise silent space, and I realized whoever this was was moving. I glanced down, my eyes adjusting to the dark, and saw a bent leg with a foot against a door. The door that led to the gym that backed onto the burger joint.
I’d never been in there, but I’d walked past it enough to know it was mainly guys, and not your average gym. I’d even spied a cage in there when someone had been leaving the other week.
I opened my mouth, not sure what I was going to say, but before I got the chance, a gruff voice asked, “Need a hand with that?”
Blinking at him, I waited. Did I need a hand with it? Not really, but...I couldn’t voice that to him as he pushed off the door and sauntered over to me.
“I…” I swallowed as his musky scent wrapped around me, causing me to lean toward him as he reached down for the trash bag.
His hand touched mine, electricity shooting through me, rendering me incapable of anything but watching as his lips quirked and he took ahold of the bag completely.
He was so close I was sure if I breathed too heavily that our chests would touch. A cut above his dark eyes had me wanting to reach out, but I clenched my hands at my sides to stop myself.
He was hypnotizing me with one single look, and my body and brain were helpless to it.
His gaze flicked down to my chest and to my name badge, his lips now pulling into a full smile. “Kloey.” He whispered my name like it would save him from whatever haunted his life, and for the first time ever, I wanted another person to touch me.
I’d been man-handled most of my life, but not once had I asked for it. Not once had I liked it. Not once had I wanted to be in the moment with someone.
Until now.
The man in the darkness was reeling me in, promising me things with his eyes that he had no right to.
“I—“
“What's takin' so damn long, Kloey?” Keith shouted. I snapped my head around at his voice, causing the strangers’ hand to no longer be connected to mine.
“One minute,” I croaked out, but when I turned back, he was gone.
Fuck. He was gone.
Chapter Three
Nixon
I stood in the darkness, my hood over my head to conceal me, not that she would notice me anyway. I’d been watching her for weeks, but tonight after my fight, I’d finally made myself known.
I’d found out her name.
I’d touched her silky skin.
I’d looked straight into her eyes.
She had no idea that I knew her routine. No idea that I followed her home every night. That I’d followed her for weeks.
But there was something different about today, something that had told me to let her see me for the first time. I wasn’t sure how she was going to react, but the way her breath had caught told me I was on the right path.
So as I watched her lock the front doors of the burger joint, I felt vindicated in what I was doing. I was looking out for her. I was making sure she got home safely.
It had nothing to do with the fact that if I waited long enough outside her apartment building that I could catch a glimpse of her—of the rest of her body.
She pushed her hair over her shoulder, looking left and right as if she could sense someone was there. There wasn’t though. It was just me and her. And as if she knew that, her attention froze on the spot I was standing in.
I knew she couldn’t see me, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t feel me.
My lips pulled up into a grin as she bit down on her bottom lip then turned away from me. She was slow walking down the street, slower than she normally was. Every so often, she would pause and look behind her, but she wasn’t panicked. Her chest moved faster, but I knew it wasn’t because she could feel someone behind her.
No.
It was because she knew someone was there and she liked it.
She liked the thought of someone in the shadows staring at her.
I groaned, reaching down to my sweats and grabbing my hardening cock. Every time I saw her, I had a visceral reaction, one that I felt like I couldn’t control.
Only, I could, because I’d made myself wait. I’d kept my obsession with her a secret, even from her.
But now it was time she knew. Now it was time she found out just who I was and what I wanted. I’d bided my time, and now all I had to figure out was how to not scare her away.
Chapter Four
Kloey
My breaths came faster as I turned the corner of my street. Every fiber of my being wanted to turn around again, but I knew I wouldn’t see anything. It was too dark for me to make anything out, and I cursed myself for forgetting my flashlight yet again.
At least if I would have had that I could have shone it behind me to see who was there—to see if anyone was there.
I shook my head. No one was there. I was overthinking and letting my mind run away with me.
I pulled my apartment keys out of my pocket, gripping onto them as tight as I could. I was only ten meters away now, and at the last second, I turned, spotting something moving under one of the streetlights.
I wasn’t imagining it.
“Who’s there?” I asked, my voice small.
I didn’t know what I was expecting—for someone to answer me—but I was greeted with silence. I shook my head as I turned and walked up the path to my apartment building. My mind had been on high alert since I took the trash out at the burger joint, so this was just me imagining things, right?
The key slipped into the lock, the metal scraping against metal. I turned it then stumbled into the entry way and slammed the door behind me. My breaths were gasps, as if I had just run a marathon, but I couldn’t deny liking the adrenaline pumping through my body. I liked it. I liked the thought of someone watching me.
My feet carried me toward my apartment door and once I was inside, I didn’t bother turning the light on. I needed the darkness to look out of the window. I needed to know if there was someone there.
Chapter Five
Nixon
She could sense me, feel me behind her. And for the first time since I’d followed her home, I wanted to make myself known. Too many times she’d been
oblivious to me walking behind her, but when she asked who was there, I’d nearly replied to her. I’d nearly given up the game I’d been playing.
I stood across the road to her apartment, seeing her shadow in the window of the front door. Normally this would be when I left, when I would go back to my place, or even back to the gym for a late training session to get some of my frustrations out.
But today I didn’t.
Today I waited.
Waited to see what she would do.
It didn’t take long for me to see movement in her first-floor apartment. It stayed casted in darkness, as if she couldn’t be seen. And maybe to anyone else she wouldn’t have, but I could just about make her outline out.
She came closer to her windows, her hair now down and not pulled into the tight bun she wore at work. And for some reason that I didn’t want to overthink, I felt myself moving forward. Just enough so she could see me.
I stared at her, not able to see her reaction, but when she backed away, so did I.
I’d gone far enough for tonight.
But I’d be back.
Chapter Six
Kloey
My skin prickled as I walked to the burger joint. I wasn’t working today, but I needed to pick up my paycheck so I could get some proper groceries and pay my gas bill. In reality, that was all it would cover, but I tried to imagine it stretching further, at least enough so I could buy myself something, even if it was from a thrift store.
