He looked at the helmet in my hand and frowned. “I need to find someone.”
Ty stepped out in the hallway and stood in my path as I walked his way. “Hold on, hold on. Who?”
“That prick Alexis used to date.”
“You don’t even know if he did it.”
“I’m going to find out.” I shoved him out of my way, heading straight to the elevator.
“And how do you plan on finding him?” he shouted after me.
“I’m going to the bar that asshole always hangs out at.”
“Ryder, you can’t get into a street fight right now. You have to defend your belt in a couple months. No bad press.”
“I’m just going to talk to him.” Ty didn’t look convinced. “We’re just going to talk,” I repeated as the doors slid shut.
I grabbed a seat at the bar where I had a vantage point of the entire place. On quick inspection, I didn’t see Logan, but I knew he’d show up.
“What are you having?” The bartender looked at me impatiently. I’d seen him here the last time I came with Lexi. He’d whispered something into her ear, and I hadn’t liked it. From the scowl on his face, I was positive he had a thing for her.
“Nothing right now.” He turned to walk away, but I called out to him. “Wait… you know Lexi, right?” He narrowed his eyes, then nodded with a cautious look on his face.
“Have you seen that little asshole that’s always hanging around her?”
“Logan?”
“Yeah, have you seen him?”
“He was here, had a couple drinks, then went out back with some chick.”
“Out back?”
“There’s an exit down behind the restrooms. Your boy Logan may be obsessed with Lexi, but he’s not lonely for company.”
I nodded as I got off the stool. “Thanks, man.”
He shrugged and walked off. The exit at the end of the long hallway was obviously an employee exit. The door was propped open with a brick. I heard voices murmuring as I stepped out into the small alley.
Logan was almost concealed by a huge dumpster, but I could still see his head. I rounded the dumpster and found him with his pants down to his ankles, being serviced by a woman with long blond hair. “I think Lexi would just love to hear about this,” I said, surprising them both.
“What the fuck?” Logan shouted as he rushed to cover himself. The girl was clearly embarrassed. She jumped to her feet and scurried back into the club.
“What do you want?” Logan growled, roughly pulling up the zipper to his jeans.
“Did you leave that message on the windows at my gym?”
“What? What message?”
“The spray paint on the windows at my gym? Did you do it?”
“Look, I don’t know what you’re talking about. And besides, I don’t owe you any answers.” He tried to walk off, but I grabbed him by the collar and slammed him into the wall.
“I’m just going to tell you this once. Stay the fuck away from Lexi. And if I find out you had anything to do with what happened to her car or my gym…” I smiled. He didn’t like it. “You’ll regret it.”
“Are you crazy? Get the fuck off me.” He struggled but couldn’t break my hold. I let him go with a little shove that made his head bang into the wall. He glared, nose flaring, fist clenched. I challenged him with my eyes and with my stance to make a move. I was so willing to finish this tonight.
“You’re just angry because you know when she’s done playing around with you, she’ll need a real man to take care of her. She’ll come back to me.”
“And how long has it been since you’ve been with her? Three years?” His smirk turned into a frown. “And I’m the crazy one?” I walked back into the club, leaving him behind.
As I rode back home, I replayed the whole conversation in my head. My instinct told me he didn’t vandalize my gym. And if that were the case, it would mean I needed to pay Leah a visit.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Alexis
The phone rang, pulling us out of our sex-filled daze. I pulled the cover off my head and reached for it, but Ryder was quicker, pushing the phone off the nightstand and onto the floor before disappearing under the sheets. “Ryder¸ the phone keeps—ohh.”
I forgot what I was saying as he ran his tongue over my over-sensitized clit. He parted me with his fingers, his hot tongue caressing my lips. He rolled the warm, wet tip over my clit, and heat radiated up my spine, hardening my nipples. He sucked on the aching bud, then slid his tongue over it, achingly slow. My hips began to move, but he grabbed me and held me in place, burying his face farther between my legs.
His lethal tongue flicked me fast, then stroked me slow. Ripples of electricity ran from my pussy to my aching nipples and short-circuited my brain. My temperature went from hot to inferno. My legs trembled, my hips bucked, and my back arched as the tension in me burst and surged. I screamed his name. I cried out to God. Then I saw stars and floated in ecstasy as he continued to lap me up.
I felt him shift, kissing his way up my belly under my breast, and then latching onto my nipple, the pleasure intensified by the lingering effects of my orgasm. He moved to his knees, wrapping my legs around his waist and shifting my hips until I was tilted up. He rocked his hips, his hard cock gliding over my wet pussy. The stud at the tip of his cock rubbed over my clit, cold and hard, yet shooting fire through my core. I moaned. He responded with a groan as he gazed down, transfixed by how wet and open I was for him. He watched the way his cock slid over my sex with a look of hunger mixed with something else—something hot and animalistic.
He paused at my entrance and glanced at me. He pushed the head in. I gasped. He pulled out and did it again. I groaned in frustration, the vague ache in my core growing quickly. He slid a little deeper. I shifted my hips to force him to give me more, but his hold on my hips was steadfast. He pulled out, gave me a little more on his descent, while watching my face. I clenched my muscles down on him, sucking him deeper within me. He flinched, hissed a breath, and thrust deep.
A sharp cry escaped me, but I smirked triumphantly. He glared at me, but I didn’t care. I was full of him and glad I got my way. He reached up and pinched my nipple. The pain turned into delicious pleasure as he softly caressed it. He leaned his body over mine until his mouth was at my ear.
“You think you’ll get your way with that little trick? Huh?”
I nodded, running my hand over his back.
“What do you want?” His voice caught on a husky note.
“I want you to fuck me.” His dick jerked inside me, and I rotated my hips, causing him to groan.
“How?” His hand moved down the side of my breast, over my side, to stay my hip movements.
“I want you hard and fast.” I tried to bite him, but he avoided. He looked into my eyes, a smile playing at the corner of his mouth.
“You can have me.” He pulled out, then pushed back in. “But I’m taking my time in this pussy.”
I felt every inch of him as he pushed his hard length slowly in, then dragged out. Warm skin against slick flesh. He pulled all the way out, then sank so deep he must’ve hit the end. His hip fluctuations were nothing less than expert.
He hovered over me, an arm under my back and his face a fierce guise of carnal concentration. I ran my hands over the strong muscles of his back as they tightened and moved beneath my fingers. He latched onto my nipple, sucking it while his jewelry at the tip of his cock nudged against the bundle of nerves deep inside me. He rocked against it repeatedly with his unhurried thrust while still managing to brush against my throbbing clit.
My sex pulsed; the ache turned into a spasm as a series of shocks washed over me. My orgasm grabbed me by the throat and knocked the wind out of me. It was good. No, it was spectacular. Ryder grunted, and his muscles tensed under my hand. I looked up at him as his neck strained and he gritted his teeth.
“That’s right, baby. Come for me—come all over me.” He looked like a god, all corded muscles, tower
ing over me as he took his pleasure from my body. He growled, trembled, and spurted his hot release into me. I caressed his neck and ran my fingers through his hair as he dropped onto me. I accepted his heavy, sweaty body over mine as I absorbed his strength and love through soft caresses and light kisses.
“Jesus,” he whispered against my skin. He looked up, smiled, and let out an exhausted laugh. “You’ll be the death of me.” He dropped his head back down, and we lay that way for long minutes before we pulled ourselves out of bed and showered.
When I came out of the bathroom, I stepped on the phone Ryder had dropped on the floor earlier. I picked it up, and as I went to put it on the nightstand, it rang. Leah’s face flashed on the screen, and I stared at it. Long after it stopped ringing—I stared at it. I pushed my trust issues and insecurities aside and put the phone down.
Ryder’s with me, and I have to trust him.
The pep talk wasn’t working because I was still wondering what she wanted from him and if they talked regularly. Ryder came out wrapped in a towel, going straight to his closet. It was his last free day before the fight, and then he’d be eating, sleeping, and training. And hopefully finding some energy for me at night.
I sat on the edge of the bed, watching him get dressed. He threw me a few flirty looks as I devoured his body with my eyes. He knew what I was thinking. I was pretty sure he was thinking the same thing, but no matter how much I wanted him, I needed a break. After the workout in the bed, Ryder had taken me again in the shower, hard and fast, just as I had asked for it. I got my way after all.
“Leah called.” I wasn’t going to say anything, but it just kind of came out. He shrugged, then continued putting on his boots.
“Are you going to call her back?” I was pushing.
Stop pushing, Lexi.
He shrugged again. I hated when he closed up this way, but I knew it meant he was aggravated with the topic. I was about to ask him why she called him three times this morning when the phone rang again. My gut clenched at the sound, but then I realized it was my phone and not Leah calling again. Ryder looked nervous until he realized it was my phone. I expected him to be annoyed by the call, not nervous. His reaction made the jealousy bug hit me again, turning my stomach.
I picked up the phone without looking at it. “Hello.”
“Lexi, thank God. I came home and the place is deserted.” My mother sighed into the phone. “Where are you?”
I glanced at Ryder, mouthed to him that it was my mom, and left the room. My mom was going to read so much into my being with Ryder, and I didn’t want to have this conversation in front of him. “I’m with Ryder, Mom.”
“Oh, that’s great!” I could practically hear her smile through the phone.
“It’s not what you think, Mom.” But it was. She just didn’t need to know. “I was lonely at home, so I stayed with Ryder.”
“Oh.” This oh was more of a disappointed one and told me she bought my story. “Well, I’m here now, honey, and I missed you. Come home.”
“Okay, I’ll be there in a little while.” I hung up the phone as Ryder came up behind me.
“So I was just a cure for your loneliness.”
“No. I just said that because—” He bit my ear, causing me to yelp.
“I know why you said it.” He chuckled and licked the spot he just bit. “It’s fine. You tell her about us when you’re ready.”
“Us, huh?” I whirled around, wrapping my arms around his shoulder. “I like the sound of you and me being an us.”
“Good, because we’re a twosome now.” He smirked and cocked an eyebrow. “I mean, I wouldn’t mind a threesome if you would stop draining me sexually.” I smacked him on the arm and frowned. He laughed, leaning in to kiss me. “Fine, I’ll take you as long as you keep doing that thing where you clench down and suck me into your—”
“Hey!” I kissed his jaw. “Stop talking dirty to me. You’re making me hot, and I have to go home.”
“So stop teasing me with your tongue and let me take you to breakfast first.”
I reluctantly stopped teasing him with my tongue, and we managed to leave the apartment without ripping each other’s clothes off.
“So are you coming to fight night at the gym?” he asked as we walked down the hall.
“Sure, how does it work?”
“Well, we train a bunch of up-and-coming guys here, so every six months we throw a fight night. The guys get to compete, and the champion gets to fight me.” He was so excited and animated when he talked about fighting.
“Aren’t the scales a little unbalanced?”
“No, you’d be surprised by how good some of the guys are. When you’re young and hungry, you’d kill to defeat the champion. I should know; I was one of them once.”
I laughed as we stepped on the elevator. “And now you’re a veteran at the ripe age of twenty-five?”
“You better believe it.” He grabbed me, pulling me into his arms.
“That was no amateur who made you shout out his name this morning… and last night… and again tonight.” He dropped kisses along my collarbone as he talked. I had to pry him off me by the time the doors slid open.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Ryder
Vanessa was excited to see Lexi, excessively excited for only being gone ten days. I think it was more to do with seeing Lexi with me.
“You look so happy, sweetie.” She pushed Alexis back with two hands at her arms and beamed at her. She looked over at me and smiled.
“Nice to see you again, Ryder.” I nodded. David was standing on the staircase, gazing down at the reunion but mostly staring at me. He made his way down to hug Lexi, then came up to me and extended his hand. God, I wanted to be an asshole and leave his ass hanging, but Lexi was looking at me with pleading eyes, so I sucked it up and shook his hand.
“Can I talk to you for a minute?” David asked. I glanced at Lexi, and she shrugged. I followed him to the kitchen, but I refused the seat he offered me.
“Ryder,” he began, running that familiar nervous hand over the back of his neck.
“David,” I responded. He flinched at my use of his name. It’s something I knew would annoy him.
“I wasn’t sure you would come in.”
“I wasn’t sure I’d come in, either.” Actually, I was dead set on dropping Lexi off and heading back to town, but she’d talked me into coming in with her.
David pushed his hands into his pockets and sighed. I knew exactly what he was thinking. Things had never been this strained between us when I was younger.
“How’s your mother?” he asked, his eyes trained to the ground.
“Don’t fucking ask about Mom,” I snapped. I thought I could handle coming here and playing like nothing ever happened, but this was a mistake. I didn’t want him to pretend to be concerned about Mom for my sake. I began to walk past him, but he grabbed my arm. I looked down at the hand holding me and thought of how easily I could make him remove it. How easily I could hurt him like he’d hurt my mom.
“I’m sorry, okay?” he said, letting go of my arm as quickly as he’d grabbed it. I took a step back and observed his nervous demeanor. “I don’t know what to say to you anymore.”
“There’s nothing to say. You made your choice. You have the woman you always wanted. All you had to do was crush my mother to get her.”
“This is not how I wanted everything to be, Ryder. You know how much you mean to me.”
“Oh, I know. It’s just Mom that never meant shit to you.”
“I wish there was a way to explain, but I don’t think you want to hear anything I have to say.”
“I don’t. I did what you wanted. I watched over Lexi, kept her happy, now keep your word and sign over the gym.”
“What?” Lexi gasped behind me. “This was all about you getting the gym?”
Shit. I’d been angry and said it in a way that made it seem like I’d used her, which wasn’t the case.
“No, Lexi, listen—”
<
br /> “No!” Her eyes glimmered with unshed tears. “You used me. Fuck, I’m so stupid.”
“Lexi, that had nothing to do with—” She put a hand up to stop me as I approached her.
“I don’t want to hear it.” She shoved me as I moved closer. “Is that why Leah’s still part of your life? Were you just waiting to get the gym before you went back to her? ‘Make Alexis happy and David will give me the gym,’” she said in a mocking tone.
“Stop! Just stop. It wasn’t that way. You’re twisting everything around.”
“Fuck off, Ryder.” She stormed away, leaving me wondering how the hell everything went wrong in one moment.
“Ryder,” David said, approaching me.
“It’s you,” I said, glaring at him.
“What?” He looked confused.
“You fucked this up for me. You and your stupid deal. If you would’ve just signed the papers, Lexi and I would be fine. Now I have to figure out how to make her believe I didn’t use her.”
“Look, I was just trying to help. You and Lexi were always close, and I thought by putting you two together…”
“Well, next time stay out of my life. Lexi and I would’ve found each other without your help.” I wasn’t sure if that was true, but I wanted David to stop trying to barge into my life.
I searched for Alexis and found her in her bedroom. The door was locked, and she wouldn’t open it for me. “Go away,” was the only thing she said. After an hour at her door, I decided it was better to let her cool off and come back later. David stopped me just before I pulled open the door to my car.
“Here,” he said, handing me two envelopes.
“What’s this?” I eyed him suspiciously.
“You can have the gym. It was Drew’s idea to add me to the deed. He thought it would bring us back together, but I don’t want to give you more reasons to hate me. Take it.” He waved the envelopes at me.
“Uncle Drew set this all up?”
He nodded. “Take the envelope. It will explain everything.”
I cautiously took them out of his hands as though they were laced with some sort of poison.
Fight for Me Page 14
