Fight for Me: The Complete Collection

by Jackson, A. L.

  “Thank you,” I muttered.

  Ollie only answered with a tight dip of his head. His entire demeanor was rigid as he climbed into the driver’s side and started the old, rambling engine.

  I swore, that old truck only shook us up more as we traveled the short distance back to his building.

  My lungs squeezed almost painfully when I attempted to draw in a breath.

  Everything sharp and too tight.

  He pressed the button to open the sliding door that led to his garage. Slowly, we entered into its darkened depths.

  The garage door dropped behind us, and it felt as if it closed off the rest of the world.

  We disappeared into it.

  Into a place that was only Ollie and me.

  Anger and attraction and regret.

  God. It was so hard sitting at his side and feeling like that was exactly where I was supposed to be and knowing those thoughts were nothing but foolish.

  I couldn’t allow him to affect me like this.

  He parked in the mess of all his metal, his collection of cars and motorcycles just as powerfully beautiful as the man.

  He came around and helped me down.

  I said nothing, just headed for the old warehouse elevator that had been restored with the rest of the place.

  I felt as if I was stepping into a cage as Ollie slid the restored metal gate closed.

  Prisoned.

  Oh God.

  His brutal energy hammered through the confined space, radiating from the walls, slamming back into me. Fed by the flashes of light that blipped through the bars as the elevator clanged and churned and rose.

  The elevator jerked as it came to a jolting stop at the top floor, and I stumbled. Ollie’s hand darted out to steady me.

  Burning on my hip.

  Fire flashed.

  I sucked in a breath, pinned by that sapphire gaze.

  His exhale was close to pained as he opened the gate where it dropped us right at his door. We moved out into the enclosed hall, and he unlocked the door to his loft, stepping in behind me.

  Sunlight streaked through the big windows and poured into the rambling space, stretching for all the darkened, shadowy corners.

  Anxiety clawed across my chest.

  I wasn’t ready to answer his questions about Brenna, even though I could feel the weight of them from the harsh pants he exhaled through his nose.

  Dropping my head, I started for the hallway that led to the bedrooms.

  Needing to escape.

  “You gonna tell me who you were sitting with?”

  His voice came from right behind me.

  Heated chills streaked across my skin. As hot as the sun.

  “A friend,” I told him.

  “A friend?” It was all a challenge, and I whirled on him, ready to put him in his place. Because I didn’t owe him a damned thing and he sure as heck didn’t have any right to question every single person I spoke to.

  Ollie was right there, dipping to get in my face. I swallowed around his blistering potency.

  “That girl was terrified of me, Nikki, and I’m pretty sure I know your friends, considering all your friends are mine.”

  “I don’t owe you an explanation.”

  “Bullshit,” he spat. The force of the word pinned my back against the wall. He only backed me further into it by taking another step forward.

  Towering over me, his teeth ground as he issued the words a breadth from my lips. “Tell me what the fuck is going on. I know whoever that girl was is linked to what happened at your apartment.”

  I tipped my head up so I could meet his stare.

  Black sapphire. Hard as steel.

  “I already told you, there are some things you can’t know, Ollie.”

  He tugged at his hair, agitation thick, eyes pinching before he loosed an uncontained growl as he flew around as if he couldn’t stop himself.

  A punch landed against the opposite wall.

  I shrieked and flinched.

  Fear tumbled down my spine.

  Not for my physical safety. Just for the sheer ferocity of the man.

  Ollie unhinged.

  Losing it.

  Hanging on by a thread.

  He roared and whirled back around before his words dropped so low they seeped from between clenched teeth. “I know you’re hiding something from me. I know it because I know you.”

  He slammed that same fist into his chest, right over his heart. “And I can’t protect you if you don’t let me in.”

  I shoved at him, unwilling to allow him to do this. Unwilling to let him look at me as if I was the center of his world.

  His gravity.

  The only thing that kept him anchored when he continually kept me adrift.

  “You don’t get every part of me, Ollie. Not anymore.” Hurt bled with the words.

  I stormed for the bedroom I’d so stupidly begun to think of as my own. I had to get the hell out of there. I couldn’t stay a second longer.

  Seth had told me to stick close, but I didn’t know how to do that, not with Ollie affecting me this way. I had no clue what I was going to do or where I was going to go.

  All I knew was I had to leave.

  I banged into the door.

  The breath jerked from my lungs in another shriek when one of those big hands snatched my wrist and tugged until I was spinning around.

  Before I could make sense of it—before I could process it—he had me pressed against the dresser that sat against the wall.

  Both of those big hands had me by the face.

  A war flashed through his expression. A battle that raged.

  It only lasted a second before his mouth crashed against mine.

  Crushing.

  Devouring.

  Overpowering.

  And oh God, did it ever feel good.

  I whimpered, and my lips parted.

  He took it as an invitation.

  Or maybe he was just breaking in.

  His hot tongue slid against mine, and a ball of want so huge I could barely breathe around it built in my center.

  Desire and need.

  Old, old love.

  If only it wasn’t encased in a shell of bitterness. Gelled by jagged, broken hurt.

  My hands flew to his wide, wide shoulders, and my fingernails sank in.

  I didn’t know if I was holding on or pushing him away.

  A needy moan escaped my throat, and I clung to him in a way I knew I shouldn’t. In a way I couldn’t. Yet, there I was, wanting to crawl right inside him. Wanting to stay there forever. Where everything felt perfectly right and there weren’t a million things wrong around us.

  I felt so small against him, every massive inch of his body covering mine.

  Eclipsing everything.

  He kissed me as if he’d gone mad.

  The man finally undone.

  Lost but searching for a way to break out of the labyrinth that held him hostage.

  Those big hands spread across my shoulders and rode down my sides until he was palming my bottom and tugging me against his hips. It elicited a pant, and my heart thundered in my chest.

  As frantic as his.

  I felt the world tremble around me when he rubbed himself between my thighs. His cock so big and hard where it pressed against his jeans. As daunting as the man.

  Heat spiraled. A vortex of dark greed. A need I couldn’t afford to feel.

  But it was there.

  I sucked in a desperate breath of desire.

  Ollie struggled to get me closer. He rocked and rocked. Creating this friction I could feel sparking between us.

  A match and gasoline.

  “Nikki . . . sweet girl . . . God. Why do you feel so good? So fucking good.”

  I could feel his torment slide out with every word. With every wayward thrust of his hips.

  I meant to push him away, but my fingers moved to the longer pieces of hair at the top of his head. I fisted two handfuls of it and held on while he consumed
my mouth and my knees buckled out from under me.

  Hiking me up, he wrapped my legs around his waist, holding me while his lips danced in a delicious push and pull.

  Tongue exploring.

  Teeth nipping and tugging.

  Delirium.

  I ripped my mouth from his and prayed it would afford me some good sense, gasping for air as I panted toward the ceiling.

  It only made things worse.

  Ollie kissed along my chin and across the exposed skin of my throat. He lapped up and down the sensitive flesh, nipping and biting as he continued to grind himself against my center, which throbbed almost painfully.

  God.

  I wanted him.

  I wanted him so badly, but sometimes it was the things we wanted the most that would destroy us in the end.

  “Nikki,” he rumbled again.

  A guttural groan of pleasure all mixed up with agony.

  So dark and needy.

  “Ollie.”

  It was a whimper.

  Hope and love and everything I’d ever wanted.

  He palmed my breast, and he brushed his thumb over my nipple that pebbled with his touch.

  I ached.

  I glowed.

  I pressed deeper into his hold, and he practically growled. “These tits. Fuck, Nikki, you drive me out of my mind. What the fuck am I doin’? What the fuck am I doin’?”

  Every fear I had came out with his own reservations that he rumbled across the skin of my neck.

  Sliding over me like a slow warning.

  Because I knew better. I knew better.

  I knew this was only going to end with my heart splattered all over the floor, and no one would be there to pick up the pieces because he was the one who’d made the mess in the first place.

  Even though it was weak, I nudged at his shoulders.

  “Ollie,” I cried. Softly. A prayer for him to stop doing this to me.

  Pushing and pulling.

  Taunting and ruining.

  “Nik,” he grated, moving back to my mouth. His lips were so plush and soft and smooth, the perfect contrast to the scruff of his beard that scratched at my chin.

  The promise of so much pleasure.

  Every rush of his hand across my body was fueled by rage.

  Softened by affection.

  God, this man would be my complete undoing.

  My beautiful beast.

  He worked his mouth against mine.

  Coaxing and demanding.

  His presence filled me.

  Heart and spirit and lungs.

  Toasted vanilla.

  Barrels of oak soaked in liquor.

  Just his presence was enough to get me drunk. His touch enough to desolate. But this kind of pleasure would only bring pain, and I was so not into that sort of thing.

  I pushed again and squeezed my eyes shut when I whispered, “Stop.”

  It was so low I wasn’t sure he could even hear it, but I knew he felt it.

  A harsh exhale ripped from his lungs as he set me on my shaky feet. His chest heaved as he reached out and gripped the top of the dresser behind me, locking me in while he pressed his body away.

  An earthquake shook, the man a rigid fortress that towered and loomed. Beneath him, my entire being trembled, the quivers starting somewhere in my spirit and rattling out.

  Uncontrollable.

  Both of us shaking and shaking.

  Trying to catch up with what we’d just let happen.

  Another mistake tossed in that mounting pile.

  I swallowed around the love and need and the hurt. “You don’t get to do this to me, Ollie. Not again. I refuse to let you do this to me.”

  I could feel the erratic boom of his heart, contending with rage and all the things he wouldn’t allow me to see.

  “Fuck . . . I’m sorry. I’m so goddamned sorry.”

  He eased back a fraction and shocked me again when he shackled me by the wrists. My hands locked between us, he dropped his forehead to mine. “You can’t leave, Nikki. I know what you were getting ready to do, and I can’t let you leave.”

  His voice was grief.

  A plea.

  He edged back and those blue eyes tangled with mine.

  “And I can’t let you keep taking pieces of me and discarding the rest. Not again, Ollie. My heart can’t take it.”

  And God, he just kept turning everything upside down because he reached out and cupped one side of my face.

  So soft.

  So sweet.

  His thumb moved across the moisture I didn’t even know had seeped onto my cheeks.

  “You can hate me all you want. I deserve it. I’m a bastard, and I know it. But I can’t stand the thought of you out there by yourself. Can’t stand not knowing who broke into your place. Can’t stand the thought of knowing you’re in trouble and not being able to do anything about it. Please. Don’t leave.”

  “I don’t know how to stay here with you. Not when things are like this between us. It hurts too much.”

  He flinched before all that rippling muscle tightened. Every inch of him hard.

  “I need to take care of you. Tell me what’s happening with that girl at the ice cream shop.”

  I started to form the excuse, but he cut me off. “No more bullshit. I know you’re in trouble.”

  “I can’t tell you that.” It was the truth. I refused to break Brenna’s confidence.

  His voice somehow softened, and his head tipped to the side as he looked at me. “What have you gotten yourself into, Nikki?”

  For a beat, I hesitated, and then I gave him a little of my truth. “I just want to make the world a better place.”

  Minutely, his head shook. Anger was clear in the clench of his jaw. “World is nothing but corruption and evil and greed.”

  Like a fool, I pressed his hand closer to my face, savoring the warmth.

  For one more moment, I relished in this brute of a man I had no business taking comfort in.

  But he’d always, always been my safe place.

  “If I can help one person—just one, Ollie—then I made that ugly world better for them.”

  I wondered how long it’d been since I’d been that honest with him.

  Pain struck on his features. Worry and adoration.

  The last was always what nearly dropped me to my knees, but there was too much of that corruption piled between us for the last to count.

  His soul soiled and brittle and hard.

  There was no longer any place for me.

  When he looked at me like that, though, it made me want to believe I was wrong.

  He blew out a resigned breath. “I need to keep you safe.”

  I searched his face, my voice quiet but strong. Because for once, I wanted him to be honest with me, too. “You want more than that.”

  “No. What just happened was a mistake.”

  He might as well have punched me. That was what his denial felt like.

  How many more of them could I take?

  A smile wobbled on my face. It was so fake I thought maybe my face might crack. “Then you have to let me go.”

  “You know that’s impossible. I would kill for you, Nikki. Die for you.”

  Then why wouldn’t he live for me?

  Devastation crawled across my chest like a disease. Oliver Preston the infection and the cure.

  He took a lumbering step back. An agitated, tattooed hand roughed through his hair, which was sticking up everywhere from my desperate hands tugging at it.

  “You aren’t leaving, Nikki. Someone broke into your place, busted the door, trashed your stuff. You and I both know it wasn’t some stupid kids.”

  My brow pinched in disbelief. “What? Am I your prisoner now?”

  “If that’s what it comes to.”

  Tears pricked at my eyes. “You’re such an asshole.”

  He started for the door, mumbling under his breath, “Tell me something I don’t know.”

  A second before he stepped out, h
e paused and shifted to look back at me.

  The severity of it pinned me to the spot. “I’m just asking that you do this one thing for me, Nikki. One thing. All I’m asking is for you to stay.”

  Without saying another word, he turned and strode out of the room, shutting the door when he went.

  How was that fair when the one thing I wanted was the one thing he would never give me?

  Not when the only thing I wanted was for him to stop breaking my heart.

  14

  Nikki

  Fourteen Years Old

  Nikki’s stomach tightened. So tight she wondered how it was possible to breathe.

  Grating laughter rolled across the stagnant blaze of summer heat.

  She pressed her lips together and focused on plucking at the grasses beneath her that grew thick along the riverbank and not the girl Ollie had his arms around.

  They were hanging out under the big shade tree where Ollie, Sydney, and Nikki had played for all their lives along the winding river about a half mile up from the lake.

  Sure, Kale and Rex were there, too. They’d become a part of their group a long time ago. They belonged.

  But it felt like Meredith was invading it.

  Why would Ollie bring her there?

  And why did the fact that he had make her feel this way?

  It was stupid.

  Dumb.

  But she couldn’t stop the way her insides felt sticky and gross when Ollie picked Meredith up and fell backward with her into the water.

  His arms all around her as her screech of surprise ripped through the air.

  The two of them were splashing and laughing as they resurfaced before he was kissing her again.

  Nausea ran the length of Nikki’s throat.

  Ugh.

  Nikki was gonna throw up.

  Boys were so stupid.

  Fingers snapped in front of her face, and Sydney’s voice broke through the delirium. “Hello? Did you hear a thing I said?”

  Nikki’s head jerked up. “Yeah, I heard you.”

  Okay. Not at all. But she wasn’t about to admit that.

  Sydney’s eyes grew round. “So . . .” she drew out.

  “So, what?”

  Her voice became a hiss beneath her breath. “Did Billie kiss you? I saw you walking with him behind the locker rooms at the park.”

  Redness flushed to Nikki’s cheeks, and her face twisted in disgust. She hugged her knees to her chest a little tighter. “Eww. No way, Sydney. Don’t even put that vision in my head. I’m liable to puke right here.”