by Cindi Madsen
“I’m so sorry.” Liam wrapped his arms around my waist. “I’m going to make it up to you, I swear. I might not be home by five every day, and some days I’ll come home beat up. There will be a couple months at a time when we hardly see each other. But I know you better than anyone else. I know what wine and novels to buy you to help make up for the times I can’t be there, and I’ll gladly go to every book-to-movie adaptation ever. I’ll brush your cat’s teeth. I’ll do whatever it takes. Including move halfway across the country to be with you.”
More of that intoxicating, happy-laced warmth wound through me. “I appreciate that. But I also decided that I wasn’t going to let some guy determine whether or not I went for a job.”
“Some guy?” The scowl was back.
I reached up and ran my fingertips over his stubbled jaw. “Well, I tried to convince myself that you were just some guy. One I’d eventually get over. My heart totally suspected I was lying, but my survival instincts kicked in, and I had to tell myself that so I could keep going. So, as I was saying, you’re too late if you had your heart set on moving to Denver, because I took the job Carlos offered me. But as for all the other stuff…” I dragged my hand a few inches lower, to where I could feel his heart steadily beating against my palm. “You’re not too late. I forgive you, and I love you, and I’m in love with you. I want to be more than friends. A whole lot more.”
“Thank God,” Liam said before crashing his lips to mine. After a week without kissing him, it was like that first breath after you’ve been underwater too long. Then he was pulling me closer, running his hands over me as our mouths and tongues got reacquainted.
He turned us and walked me backward to the bed, and George lifted his head, perturbed at being awakened.
“Later, you and I are going to need to have a talk about how your catnip addiction is tearing this family apart,” I said to my kitty. “But for now, you might want to find somewhere else to sleep.”
The light nudge didn’t do anything, so I had to give him another to convince him to jump off the bed. He took his sweet time walking across the room, the haughty twitch of his tail making it clear he’d be expecting generous compensation for his efforts, but he finally gave us our privacy.
And Liam took full advantage, stripping me of my clothes and getting started on his promise of making everything up to me.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Liam
For a moment, I was afraid to move, speak, or breathe for fear I’d wake up and discover I was dreaming. And since Chelsea was standing in front of me in nothing but her underwear, I didn’t want to wake up and find out it wasn’t real.
“Did you need help with your pants?” She moved closer and slipped my belt out of the buckle. “Because I’m definitely willing to help you with that.”
I swept her hair off her face and cupped her cheek. “Just checking that you’re real.”
“Hmm. I see what you mean.” She yanked off my jeans and then eyed me, her gaze running up and down me and turning the desire firing through me to liquid-hot need. “Looks too good to be true, but I better check for myself.”
Her hands drifted up my arms, her fingers moving across the hard lines that’d come from hours in the gym, along with eating a bunch of boring food. She moved to my pecs and gave them a squeeze, then felt her way down to my abs, going lower and lower, before tracing the line of my obliques to where they disappeared into the waistband of my boxer briefs, making those endless hours of work worth it.
“So? What’s the conclusion?” My voice came out tight, my body silently screaming for more of her touch. “Real or fake?”
“One hundred percent real.” She slid her arms around my waist, bringing her warm skin to mine. “The guy.” She raised on to her toes and kissed me. “How much I love him. This moment.”
My heart, my chest, every inch of me filled with how much I loved this girl. “Well, you’ve had your turn. I think I’d better conduct a more thorough examination of you now.” I reached around her and, with a flick of my wrist, unhooked her bra. “If you’ll have a seat on the bed.”
The bra slipped to the floor as she moved to the foot of the bed and did as instructed. Then she leaned back on her palms, giving me an eyeful of her awe-inspiring body. I knelt in front of her and ran my palms up her shins, up the insides of her thighs, her gasps spurring me on.
I slid her panties down and off her legs and replaced my hands with my mouth.
“Have you made your conclusion yet?” she asked on a shaky breath as I licked the spot where her thigh met her hip.
“Yeah. I’m one lucky bastard, and I don’t deserve you.”
Chelsea pushed her fingers into my hair, then she gripped a fistful and jerked my head back so our gazes could collide. “You do. You’re a good man with a big heart.”
“One that’s all yours.”
She smiled and tugged me toward her, and I gladly crawled over her, pressing her into the mattress and sealing my lips to hers.
The sweet taste of her mouth was like coming home after a long day. “I love you so much.”
“I love you, too,” she said. “And my body really missed yours, so I need you inside me like, right now.”
“Let me just grab a condom.” I reached for my jeans, but she caught my arm.
“I’m on the pill. I decided to start taking it a little over a week ago. Right before…”
Before the worst week of my life, one I didn’t want to dwell on. I cupped her cheek and brushed my thumb over her soft skin. Just when I didn’t think this night could get better. I recaptured her lips with mine and then pushed inside her, groaning as her slick heat enveloped me.
She arched her hips, meeting my thrust. “I thought we’d already perfected this, but it feels even more amazing, having nothing between us.”
I meant to verbally agree, but all I could do was groan. I gripped her hips and tilted her body up so I could hit that spot that drove her crazy. I thrust into her again and again, basking in the keening noise that encouraged me to take us higher and higher, until both our bodies were covered in a sweaty sheen and the room was spinning around us. I clung to her, my center of gravity shifting until it was entirely made up of her.
“Liam, I…” She held on to me as she came apart, her walls gripping me tighter and sucking me deeper, and the last thread on my control snapped. I rode the wave and then collapsed beside her. In spite of my jelly limbs, I managed to pull her to me, and then I held on tight. Somehow both our dreams were coming true, and I knew that as long as she was by my side, I could take on any problem, any situation, any anything.
I swept her hair aside and kissed the back of her neck. “Move back in with me.”
“Well, I did have an apartment picked out already. It’s not near the beach, and the oven’s yellow, and it’s tiny and smells not quite right. Honestly, it’s kind of a shithole…”
“So you’re saying you want me to move there with you?”
She laughed. “I suppose only one of us should have to move, and since you already have everything you own at your place… Plus, we already know all the best spots to have sex there, although this whole childhood-bedroom-thing is hotter than I expected. Maybe we’ll have to try mine sometime.”
“Deal.” I squeezed her tighter to me. “Did I mention that I love you?”
“You did. But I don’t think it’s something I’ll ever get tired of hearing.” She rolled to face me. “Speaking of, though, I believe I was promised that I could talk for hours.”
“Bring it,” I said, and then she smiled and started talking, and I sank deeper into the mattress, thinking that life didn’t get more perfect than this.
Thinking about what my dad said about love lasting longer than belts and fame.
Since I’d loved Chelsea in one way or another for more than a decade, I knew that in this case, it’d be forever, and I couldn’t wait to get started.
Epilogue
Chelsea
He’s my best fri
end, and my boyfriend, and my soul mate, and I swear if you hurt him, I’m going to climb into that cage and kick your ass.
“You, uh, okay?” Brooklyn asked, putting her hand on my shoulder. “Liam always says you can’t hold a dirty look, but if looks could kill, his opponent would drop dead.”
“I don’t want him to drop dead, but I’d totally be okay if he just dropped right now.” I winced as one of his swings landed, glancing off the side of Liam’s face.
Liam swung back, and his hit connected with his opponent’s nose, far more solid. I jumped to my feet. “That’s it, baby. Hit him again while he’s dazed.”
The bell rang before he could follow my advice, bringing the fourth round to a close. I sat back in my seat. “Five fucking rounds. I could hardly survive three.”
When I glanced at Brooklyn, her eyes were wide.
“I swear sometimes,” I said with a shrug. “Especially when someone’s beating up my boyfriend.”
Brooklyn wrapped her arm around my shoulders, pulled me into a side hug, and rested her head against mine. “It’s okay. Your boyfriend is going to take him out this round.” Not that I had any doubt Liam would win, but the fight had been brutal. Back and forth, big hits landed on both sides, and fairly evenly split rounds as far as the judges were concerned, too. “Carlos said that he sold more tickets faster than he ever has before and that it was mostly thanks to you.”
I should be proud. A distant part of me was. That part would be prouder after the fight when I could focus on something else. As much as I wanted to take all the credit, the place would’ve sold out eventually. It was the Roth name and a title fight and… Omigosh there’s so much on the line.
Liam glanced my way, and my heart tugged. I’m okay, he mouthed, in spite of the bleeding and how labored his breaths were.
I blew him a kiss, keeping my gaze on him and forcing a smile as I spoke to Brooklyn out the side of my mouth. “I know I said I was strong and that I could handle this, and I can, but right now I don’t feel very strong.”
“I completely understand. It’s hard when it’s my brothers.” Brooklyn gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and her eyes flicked to Shane, who was seated on her other side, before they returned to me. “But it’s a whole different level when it’s the guy you love.”
I nodded, glad she got it. Over the past month, she and I had grown even closer. In fact, I’d gotten closer to the whole Roth clan. I’d spent a lot of hours at the gym, including doing some promo work for their new classes. While I’d told them I’d help for free, they’d insisted on paying me, so Liam and I had worked out a bartering system that was light on the monetary compensation and heavy on the sexual favors. Pretty sure I was getting the better part of that deal.
Team Domination still had a way to go to regain their former powerhouse glory, but slowly but surely, it was getting there. Between their last three fights—Shane’s, Finn’s, and the one unfolding in front of us tonight—they were getting a lot of good buzz. And their newer fighter, the Tautolo Typhoon, was coming along nicely now that Brooklyn and I had friended his girlfriend. Now she felt more comfortable visiting, and since he saw her more often, his focus on his training had improved.
Instead of calling us distractions, Blake now called his fighters’ significant others lighthouses. We were what kept the guys steady in the storm.
Which was why, instead of throwing my hands over my face and peeking through my fingers like I wanted to as Liam and his opponent went to the middle of the cage to tap gloves, I forced myself to remain steady. “Come on, babe. You got this.”
Sitting became impossible, and if I was blocking the view for the people behind me, they’d just have to get to their feet, too. Five minutes could be an eternity in the cage, and as the clock hit the two-minute mark, Liam’s features changed, his attention shifting.
His opponent was tired, his fists dropping lower.
And Liam was making his move.
My heart stopped beating and time ground to a halt. Liam blocked the wild swing that came his way, then stepped forward and threw an uppercut.
It landed square on the other guy’s chin.
His head whipped back and he stumbled, no longer in control of his body as it swayed and then hit the mat.
“He knocked him out! He knocked him out!” I turned to Brooklyn. “He just knocked him out, right?” I’d seen it with my own eyes, but, like, I also needed the reassurance I hadn’t imagined it.
She beamed at me. “He did.”
Shane shifted forward in his seat, glancing from me to her. “Is this how you’re gonna get during my next fight, Bruiser?”
“’Course not, babe. I’m so sure that you’re going to win that I won’t bother worrying. I’ll just sit here like, that’s my man, and he just knocked your ass out.” He grinned, and Brooklyn mouthed to me, I’m totally gonna freak out.
“I saw that,” Shane said. “Not like I didn’t know already.”
The ref officially called the fight with twenty seconds left in the fifth round, and in that instant, Liam became the light heavyweight champion.
And the crowd went wild—but I was relatively sure I was the only one making a high-pitched squeal that only dogs could hear. Chaos always followed the end of a match, people cheering and a wave of movement going through the crowd, some surging forward while some surged for the exits. Luckily, I knew enough of the people working the venue that when I rushed toward Liam’s corner, they let me through.
Liam turned, and my breath caught in my throat as a jolt of electricity made a mess of my insides. Even slightly beat-up after five grueling rounds in the cage, he was still the sexiest, hottest, most swoonworthy dude I’d ever laid eyes on, and even better, he was all mine.
I launched myself into his arms and showered him with kisses. “I knew you could do it.”
He squeezed me so tightly I could hardly breathe, but oxygen was overrated anyway. “Couldn’t have done it without you.”
“Totally not true, but I’ll take it.”
He pulled back to look me in the eye. “I’m serious, Chelsea. Having you on the sidelines, knowing you were cheering for me, and even better, that I get to go home to you… Finn was right. Having you in my life gives my fights more heart.”
Our reunion was short-lived, people rushing in to congratulate Liam and conduct interviews and take care of all the other after-fight stuff. When Shane and Brooklyn retreated to the locker room, I went with them. We paced while we waited for Finn, Blake, and Liam.
Once they finally arrived, there were more exchanged congratulations and check-ins, and then one by one they left, until it was just him and me.
I twisted a strand of hair around my finger and aimed a flirty smile his way. “Remember the last time we were alone in a locker room after a fight?”
A secretive smile tugged at Liam’s lips, one that gave me hot flashes and dirty thoughts.
“You told me my first time couldn’t be in a locker room.” I batted my eyes and lowered my finger to the neckline of my shirt, dragging it back and forth. “But it’s hardly my first time.”
Liam backed me up against the wall, just like he’d done that night.
“Unless you’re too worn out from your fight,” I said, my concern for him overtaking my desire, although it was still tapping my shoulder, insisting it needed fed. “I’d totally understand.”
He dipped his head and placed a hard kiss on my mouth. “I feel a second wind coming on.”
“I’m feeling something you’ve got coming on.” I arched against him, pressing his erection tighter to me.
The next instant, I was in his arms. He locked the door, and then he showed me just how much stamina he had. And after adding one more location to our list of sexual escapades, he laced his fingers with mine, lifted my hand, and kissed the back of it.
“Let’s go home,” he said.
No matter how many times he said it, I never tired of hearing it. And I knew that regardless of where we went, as long
as I was with Liam, I’d always be home.
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Acknowledgments
Huge thanks, as always, to Gina Maxwell and Rebecca Yarros for the brainstorming sessions, for sprinting with me, for the chats and the laughs, and most importantly, for the unconditional friendship. You girls are my rocks, and I’m so lucky to have you.
To everyone at Entangled Publishing, from my editors Alycia Tornetta and Stacy Abrams to my publicists, Holly Bryant & Riki Cleveland, the marketing team, fellow authors, cover artists, and all the other people who help get my books from my brain to my readers, thank you so much. Thanks especially to Holly Bryant & Riki Cleveland for all you do.
Big shout out to Kerrie Legend for coming into my life when I was completely overwhelmed. Thanks for diving right in, sorting through my chaos, and making everything pretty and shiny, and for being such an awesome high-energy cheerleader. Huge hugs to my agent, Nicole Resciniti, for also coming into my life when it was extra crazy and I needed someone on my side. I still think you have a time turner, which is totally cool, as long as you let me use it once in a while. ;)
Thanks to MMA fighter Peter Straub from Easton Training Center for answering all of my questions. I carried a lot of those answers over from Until You’re Mine to this book. That interview and visit to the gym inspired me and solidified the Team Domination Gym in my mind. If I’ve made any errors regarding the MMA world, it’s totally on me. You know how we writers like to embellish for the sake of a good romance. Hehe.
Huge thanks to my readers for supporting my books and sending me messages that keep me going. My FB group, Cindi Madsen’s Banter Babes, is full of awesome people who are also some of my loudest cheerleaders. Come on over if you’d like to join us—we mainly talk about books and life and how books make life better.
