“You know, most people would say I’m stupid for walking into a place like this with you.”
“I know, I was just thinking the same thing,” I said. I hadn’t realized just how foreboding the place looked until then.
But, as we turned a corner, she gasped, and I knew that I had won her trust. It was impossible to tell that this little restaurant would appear out of the dark corridor. It was all brick wall and candlelight, and nothing like what you’d expect an MMA fighter to own. She turned to face me. Her smile was even bigger than usual.
“This is absolutely beautiful,” she said.
“I’m glad you like it.”
I took her to meet the owner. We’d had a few fights together when I’d first started in the business, but he had since retired. Blaire knew of him and looked flustered when meeting him. We took a seat while the waiter poured us each a glass of wine.
“I can’t believe I just met Mark Scholld!”
I chuckled. “I can’t believe you’re excited.”
“What do you mean? He’s amazing. Why wouldn’t I get excited?”
“He is amazing. But I’m assuming people are usually this way around you. Getting excited to meet a famous actress. I just wouldn’t expect you to be the one getting excited to meet a fighter. That’s all.”
“Oh, I’m not a famous actress. I just act. That’s all. But he’s a legend.”
“And you are by far the most interesting woman I have ever met,” I said.
“I like how easy you are to please,” she said. “So, have you ever dated a woman that’s into fighting before? Not that we’re dating,” she quickly said, and if it wasn’t for the darkened room, I could’ve sworn she was blushing. “I’m just curious.”
“I’ll be honest; I don’t date much.”
“Now that I find hard to believe.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been with plenty women,” I said and then cringed. “Well, that didn’t make me sound like a nice guy. But all I’m trying to say is that I just haven’t dated many women. I don’t see the point in dating if I don’t see any potential in it. And, to answer your question, no they haven’t been into fighters. They always seem to be, but after a while, I realize that they know nothing about it at all.”
“They probably just want to date some guy with big muscles that’s been on TV.”
“You think I have big muscles?” I teased.
“I should hope so with the amount of fights you’ve won.”
“How about you?”
“Me? I don’t have any muscles.”
I laughed. “No, I mean have you dated much? Do you generally only date other actors?”
“I guess I’m a bit like you. I don’t date much.”
“How come?”
She shrugged. “I guess I just haven’t found the right guy. Not like Katie. She’s happily married to a guy that is so obviously perfect for her.”
“Poor Nick, he was so hoping she was single.”
She chuckled. “Really? Oh, she’s been married for ages.”
“Nice guy?”
“The best. The two of them are nauseatingly perfect. It’s actually really nice, but I just don’t understand why it’s so easy for some people and so hard for others.”
While she talked, I got the feeling that there was more going on than she was letting on, but I didn’t know her well enough to dig too deep.
“Yeah,” I said. “I don’t think the dating world is easy at all. I prefer the fighting world.”
“Have you always wanted to be a fighter? Is that what you grew up around? Oh, I just remembered that your brother is a rancher. Wow, those are two very different career paths.”
“Tell me about it. Actually, I’m one of five brothers, and we have all gone in a different direction.”
“FIVE! Wow. So, what do they do?”
“We have Brady; he’s the rancher. The one you met. He’s a cool guy. I’m probably closest to him. Then we have Reed; he’s a neurosurgeon. There’s Ian; he’s a motorcycle fanatic. He works at the bike shop my father runs. And then there’s Grant; he’s a retired SEAL and now works as a firefighter. He actually lives next door to Brady, but he wasn’t around much when you guys were filming.”
“That’s quite some family you have. No sisters?”
“Nope, just us boys.”
“And, who is Shotgun?”
I laughed. “Where did you hear that name?”
“I overheard Sloan saying the name once to Brady. It sounded like she was addressing him. Maybe it’s her nickname for him,” she said and giggled.
“Actually, we all have nicknames,” I said, and I explained how we were once part of the motorcycle group that my father and Ian now ran. “We were all given names when we joined based on our personalities or career paths. Some of them have stuck. I sometimes still call my brothers by those names.”
“Oh yeah? So, what’s your name?”
“I’m not sure if should tell you?”
She laughed. “Why, is it bad?”
“No, but you might just start calling me that.”
“I won’t. But I won’t let it go either. I need to know now.”
At that moment, the waiter came to take our order. Neither one of us had even looked at the menu, so we both went with what the waiter suggested. For a while, we talked about the food, and I thought I had gotten away with not answering me. Then she fixed her deep brown eyes on mine and smiled.
“So, what’s the nickname?” she asked.
I groaned. “You’re not going to give up, are you?”
“Nope!”
“Fine. It’s Knuckles.”
Her eyes widened in excitement. “That’s the best nickname!”
“You think?”
“Hell yes. Hey, it’s better than ‘The Prowl.' I’d rather back up a fighter called ‘Knuckles’ any day!”
I chuckled. “I knew I’d invited you out for dinner for a reason.”
The rest of the date went by just as well as the last one had gone. Blaire was so easy to speak to, and I often couldn’t believe that she was an actress. There were no airs and graces about her, and she was much more down to earth than any of the other girls I’d ever taken out to dinner. After dinner, I drove her back to her place and wondered if this time she was going to give me more than a kiss on the cheek. We got out the car, and I walked her back to her door.
“Thank you so much for the dinner, Ryan. I had the best time. And that is now my new favorite place in the world.”
“Really?”
“Oh yeah. It’s the best restaurant I’ve ever been to. I love the fact that most people don’t know about it. It’s like being part of a secret club or something.”
I chuckled. “I’m glad you liked it. Look, I know that you’re going to just deny my advances again,” I teased. “So, how about we do this again?”
“You think I’m going to deny your advances?” she asked.
I raised my eyebrows at her. “You aren’t?”
“Aren’t you even going to try your luck?” she teased.
“Well, I . . .”
“I’ll make this easier for you,” she interrupted and pulled me inside.
Chapter Twelve
Blaire
I decided going into the date that I wasn’t going to do anything with Ryan that I didn’t want to. If I didn’t want to have sex with him, I wouldn’t. If I didn’t want to kiss him, I wouldn’t. But I knew the moment that he took me to that underground restaurant that something would happen. Perhaps he took all the girls there, but I had a feeling that he didn’t. Ryan had a way of making me feel special, and it was something that I hadn’t felt in a very long time. I was both frightened by it and intrigued.
Of course, it didn’t harm that he was one of the best looking men that I’d ever seen in my entire life. I pulled him inside my house before I had a chance to change my mind, and I kissed him, and he returned my kiss with an unmatched passion and an intensity that I found slightly surprisi
ng but utterly arousing. Ryan didn’t even bother to start off slow, and I liked that about him. There was no messing around. I could feel that he wanted me and that just made me want him even more. I turned around.
“Unzip me,” I said.
Ryan pulled down the zipper and my dress fell to the floor. I was still wearing my heels, but because I was so much shorter than he was, I kept them on. Also, there was something exciting about standing naked with just my shoes on.
He smiled at me. “No underwear?”
I chuckled. “The dress was too tight for it.”
“I’m starting to really like that dress,” he said.
I walked to the bedroom, trying not to make a fool of myself by tripping on my heels. I could feel his eyes on me as I walked, and when I turned around, he was still looking at me.
“Come on,” I said.
He followed me into the bedroom. I took off my shoes and climbed onto the bed. I sat with my back against the wall and told him to take his clothes off. I had no idea where I was getting my confidence from, but I rather liked this side of me. As he took off his clothes, I examined his body. He was tall and muscular, and his body was almost completely covered by tattoos. I knew that he had tattoos, but I hadn’t realized quite how many. I liked what a contrast it was to my own body.
He got onto the bed on all fours, and pulled me down from my seated position so that I was now lying flat underneath him. He looked down at me and grinned. Ryan had the most mischievous smile that I had ever seen on anyone. I grinned back.
I wrapped my legs around him and pulled him down. He kissed my neck, sucking gently, the sensation both ticklish and erotic, and then moved down so that my breasts were in his mouth. He licked my nipples, kissing and sucking until the stimulation was so intense that I couldn’t take it anymore. I opened my legs, wanting him inside me.
“Do you have a condom?” I whispered. I hated asking such a serious question in the heat of the moment, but being safe was important to me. I’d had a close call before with a man that I hadn’t even loved, and I was always so careful to doing that again.
Thankfully, Ryan nodded and quickly got off the bed to grab it. His eyes locked with mine as he slid the condom on, and I shivered with the anticipation of what was to come. I was still so wet that when he moved on top of me, he slid inside me with ease. I groaned loudly as I felt him inside me. He pushed against me, leaning down to kiss me in between thrusts. Suddenly, he stopped and rolled us around so that I was now on top of him. I sat up, my hands on his chest as I swiveled my hips, teasing myself as much as I was tantalizing him. He lifted his hands toward my breasts, holding them as I rocked my body on top of him. I liked the way he looked at me, and the more desire I saw in his eyes, the more I wanted him.
It wasn’t long before I felt myself completely losing control. I looked at him, and I closed my eyes and gave into him entirely. He gave into it too, right at the same moment. The feeling was unusual for me. My past sexual relationships had never ended with us both coming at the same time. It was weird to be so in sync with someone that I had just met.
I expected him to get up immediately afterward and go back home, but he didn’t. He pulled up the covers, and the two of us lay together talking. I asked him about his tattoos, and he told me how each one signified something important to him. A lot were based on his fighting.
“Soon you’re not going to have space for any more,” I said.
“Do you like tattoos?”
I grinned. “Oh yeah. Huge turn on.”
He laughed. “You know, you’re a very interesting person. You come across as incredibly sweet, and yet you’re a bit of a maniac in bed.”
I giggled. “Really? Well, that’s good I suppose. I think?”
“Oh, it’s very good. It’s every man’s dream to be with a girl like you.”
“That’s a very nice thing to say, Knuckles.”
“I knew you were going to call me that. You see, that’s why I didn’t want to tell you.”
“Okay then, give me a nickname. Then we’re even.”
He raised his eyebrows. “Okay . . . Blaire Sunny Kaplan.”
“Sunny?”
“First, you love the color green. But mostly, you’re the happiest person I’ve ever met. You’re always smiling. It was the thing I noticed about you first in Wyoming. You bring a lot of sunshine into people’s lives.”
“Thank you,” I said. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me. “But I think it has more to do with the fact that you’re used to surrounding yourself with people that want to fight you all the time.”
He laughed. “You’re a welcome change.”
We lay there for a while, just talking, and I realized how nice it was to have someone to share things with for a change. I hadn’t had a man in my bed in a very long time. But my reverie was broken by a knock on the door.
“Uh oh, is your husband home?” he teased.
I sat up. “Wow, this is a weird time for someone to be knocking.”
“Let me get it,” he said. He quickly pulled his clothes back on and ran down.
While he was downstairs, I put on a robe, as I couldn’t seem to find my dress anywhere. It was only once my robe was on that I realized the dress was still lying in the living room.
“There wasn’t anyone there. I could swear I heard someone knock though,” he said.
“It’s the second time that’s happened recently.”
“What do you mean? Someone has knocked on the door before and then disappeared?”
I nodded. “Yeah, it happened the other day too. Only that time it was at seven in the morning. I looked out, and there was nobody there. I didn’t think much of it. I thought maybe it was the kids across the road. But it’s a little creepy now that it’s happened again. I wonder if someone is trying to play a joke on me. Not a very funny one.”
“I don’t like that one bit. Do you have any ideas other than the kids across the road?”
I shook my head. “I honestly can’t think of who it could be. I haven’t done anything to upset anyone as far as I know. And I don’t have any friends who would find something like that funny. So I’m not sure.”
“Well, I don’t like it. And I’m not leaving you here knowing that there’s someone out there like that. Joke or not.”
“I don’t like it either. But don’t worry about it, Ryan. I’ll be fine.”
“I’m sure you will be, but I’m not taking that chance. I’ll just go home and worry the whole night, anyway. I’m staying with you tonight just to be sure.”
“You really don’t have to,” I insisted.
“I know. But I am,” he insisted even more.
I smiled. I liked the idea of him staying the night. The knock on the door had worried me a bit more than the first time, and I felt a lot more secure knowing that a big guy like Ryan was by my side. If anyone could make me feel safe, it was him.
“How about some coffee then?” I asked.
“Coffee sounds great. Oh, and any chance you have an Advil? I have a bit of a headache coming on.”
“Sure, I’ll bring some too. Although, I happen to know something that takes away headaches . . .”
He laughed. “Okay, I’m very glad I’ve decided to stay.”
Me too, I thought. Me too.
Chapter Thirteen
Ryan
Sleeping with Blaire had been even better than I had imagined it to be, which was really something because I had a tendency to blow things up in my head. I was used to disappointment because of my overactive imagination, but my night with Blaire had far exceeded my high expectations. It wasn’t wild, but my goodness, was it amazing. It had something to do with the way she had looked at me. For a movie star, she was very reserved, and definitely a lot more timid than I would expect from someone in her field. But in the bed, she was the polar opposite of shy. There was something about that contrast that really appealed to me, especially since I knew she didn’t show that side of her to the rest of th
e world. I’m not sure why she trusted me enough to show it to me, but I wasn’t complaining.
I spent most of the morning with her on Sunday too. It was my day off from training, and the two of us had a lazy morning together drinking coffee in bed. Afterward, I went home wondering how it could be so easy with someone I had just met. Usually, I wanted nothing more than to run away back home after sleeping with a girl. I would’ve actually been happy spending the whole day with her, but I decided not to push it too soon. I had no idea what was happening with us yet.
When Monday rolled around, I made my way over to the training facility. I always looked forward to it after a day off.
“Hey, congrats on the fight,” I said to one of the guys that was walking out. He had just been involved in his very first local fight, and he’d come out a winner. I was always glad to see people from my training facility do well. It reminded me so much of when I had first started out. It was still exciting to fight and to come out a winner, but there was nothing quite like the first fight or the first win. That feeling stays with you forever.
“Thank you. What a rush, man,” he said. “It’s mostly because of you and Nick, though. If you guys hadn’t pushed me the way you did, I’m not sure I would’ve had the guts to do this. I hated you guys while I was training.”
I laughed. “I know. I hate Nick most of the time too, but he knows what he’s doing. I’m glad to see I’m doing the same. You should never like your trainer while you’re training. I always swear at him and then want to take him for a beer afterward.”
“It’s a crazy relationship. Well, thanks again. I had so much fun out there. Now I see what you guys are talking about. There’s no going back once you get started.”
“Oh no, you’re in this for the rest of your life. That’s for sure.”
“I don’t doubt it. Well, I have to run. Enjoy your training today. Nick’s already in there.”
“Of course he is. Thanks, man,” I said and shook my head. Of course Nick was there. Nick was always there before me.
“I’m getting here an hour earlier next time,” I said when I saw him.
“And I’ll get here an hour before that.”
Dirty Roomie Page 51
