by Ash, Nikki
Gavin chokes on his laughter, his fist coming up to fake a cough and Mila glares daggers my way. “You’re such an asshole. Good thing you’re sleeping in your own room.”
She stomps away and a few seconds later, her door slams shut. “I don’t think that was the right answer.”
Gavin chuckles. “Good luck, man.” He pats me on my shoulder. “I think she’s upset because I was supposed to keep Alec this week but now I can’t. I have a huge client, and he needs me to travel up to San Francisco with him to look at a bunch of properties.”
“So, what’s the issue? She usually has him during the week.”
“It’s spring break, so he has no school. She asked me to help pay for his camp, and instead I offered to take him all week. Now it’s too late to get him into camp. My mom would normally watch him in an emergency, but she’s out of town.”
“I can watch him.”
“Really?”
“If that’s okay with you…I train during the week, but Alec can come hang out with me while I do. One of my friends is fighting in UFC Fight Night in two weeks, so I’ll be mostly working with him. It’s all good.”
“Thank you.” Gavin pats my arm. “And I’m sorry about all that.” He nods toward Mila’s room. I should tell him it was most likely not about him, but more about the fact that I went to my room instead of Mila’s, but I don’t. It’s not his business, and I’m going to fix it anyway.
“No worries.”
Gavin says bye to Alec and takes off.
“Hey Mason! Wanna play?” I debate whether to go speak to Mila now, but decide to give her some time. Yeah, yeah…I’m a total wuss.
“Sure, Bruiser.”
We play the PlayStation for a little over an hour before Alec complains that he’s hungry. “Why don’t you go jump in the shower and I’ll go talk to your mom?”
He groans, so I add, “You’re coming to the gym with me tomorrow. That means you need to be up at six in the morning ready to go.”
“Really? I’m spending the day with you?”
“Not just the day; the entire week. Now go get in the shower.” He jumps up and runs down the hall to the bathroom and I follow him, stopping at Mila’s door.
I knock once and hear her say, “Come in.”
She’s lying on her bed, reading a book on her kindle. She puts it down, but when she sees it’s me, she rolls her eyes and puts the kindle back up to block her view.
“Can we talk?” I lay across her bed, taking the kindle from her hand.
“I guess.” She shrugs.
“Remember the part where I said I was going to fuck this up, and I asked you to take the lead?”
She nods, biting down on her lip, and I can’t help but bring my lips to hers, pulling the flesh away from her teeth. Then I kiss her softly before I pull away. “That means telling me what you need.”
“We agreed to never go to bed angry.”
“Yes, but that didn’t mean going to bed in the same room.”
“I want you in the same room as me.”
“Then I’ll be in the same room as you.” I kiss her forehead.
“I don’t want to divorce.”
“Then we don’t divorce.” I kiss her nose.
“Really?” she asks, her voice sounding adorably hopeful. “Because I don’t want to tell Alec we’re together if you don’t want to stay together.”
“I would never agree if I wasn’t serious. I would never do that to Alec. I was raised in a home where my mom had strange men in and out of our house, so I know kids need stability.”
“So, we’re going to do this whole marriage thing for real?”
“Yeah.” I kiss her soft lips because I can’t get enough of this woman. “But you have to talk to me.”
“I’m done!” Alec yells, running into the room and jumping onto the bed with us.
“Done with what?” Mila asks him.
“Showering! Mason said I had to shower now because we’re leaving too early tomorrow.”
Mila turns her head toward me. “Where are we going?”
“You’re going to work. Alec is hanging out with me all week.”
Mila’s shoulders slump in relief. “You’re going to watch him all week?”
“Yeah, we have a fight to help Jake get ready for. With Tristan gone, we can use the help.” I give her a wink, and she grins.
“Thank you. And you know, I can take the bus or a Lyft to work so you don’t have to drive me around.”
“Not happening. I’m borrowing Tristan’s truck while he’s out of town, and you’re using mine until we get you a new vehicle. Problem solved. Now, what’s for dinner?”
“Pizza!” Alec yells.
“No way, Bruiser. Do you want to be a fighter or not?”
“Yeah.”
“Well, fighters have to eat healthy, otherwise we’ll lose our fights.”
“Does that mean I have to eat my vegetables?” He groans, and Mila covers her mouth to hide her giggle.
“Yep! Now let’s go see what we can order.”
“Fine.”
Chapter Nineteen
Mila
“Night, Mom. Night, Mason.”
I give Alec a kiss good night, and Mason ruffles his hair before we close the door behind us. While we ate dinner from a local deli Mason orders from frequently, we told Alec about us being married. Of course, he was completely okay with it, and that probably has to do with the fact that Mason is practically his idol. We explained that Mason would be sleeping in the same room as me, and when Mason excused himself to shower, I made sure Alec was okay with all of this. For the last few years, it’s been the two of us here, and my son will always come first.
Mason follows me into my room, and as I’m standing in front of the dresser unbuttoning my shirt to change into my pajamas, he comes up behind me. My shirt drops to the floor, and his fingertips run up and down my arms. I look in the mirror and see his body pressed up against mine. “I was thinking tomorrow I could move my stuff in here.” He moves my hair to the side before he rests his hands against the edge of the dresser, caging me in, his face nuzzling into my neck.
“Okay.” His teeth nip at my flesh and I giggle, moving my head to push him away. “Stop, that tickles.” He stops nipping and starts suckling, and the feeling goes from ticklish to turning me on. He kisses his way down my neck and once he gets to where the top of my bra strap is, he moves it out of the way and places several kisses on my shoulder. My heart picks up and the butterflies in my belly flutter. The way I feel right now with Mason touching me, loving on me, I want to feel like this forever. Now that I know what it feels like to be wanted and desired, I never want to lose that feeling.
My backside rubs against his crotch, and he lets out a groan. “Have I ever told you how much I love your ass?” He grinds against my butt some more, and I can feel his hard bulge between our clothes.
“You’ve mentioned it...”
His lips work their way up and once they reach my ear, he murmurs, “Any chance of you letting me in the backdoor?”
It takes me a second, but once I figure out what he means, I crack up laughing. “How romantic,” I joke.
“I never claimed to be romantic.” He presses a kiss to my neck. “Is that a no?” He kisses my neck again, this time sucking on my skin.
“That’s a ‘I’ve never done it before.’” I let out a groan as he continues to lay kiss after kiss on me.
“How many guys have you been with?”
“Two… including you.”
He stills his kisses momentarily. “And you two never…”
“Did it in the backdoor? No. He never asked.”
“And what would you say if I asked?” He places a soft kiss to the sensitive flesh just under my ear.
“I…would say…you better not hurt me.”
His gaze meets mine in the mirror. “Hurting you is the last thing I would ever want to do.”
“So…tonight?”
Mason chuckles. “No,
not tonight. We have to get you ready first. Tonight, I just want to make love to my wife.”
“That sounds romantic.” I smirk, and he chuckles.
“Don’t worry, I’m planning to fuck you from behind so I can at least stare at your sexy ass. See? Unromantic.” I shake my head and giggle at his words as he finishes undressing me, and then he does exactly what he said he was going to do…several times, and believe it or not, even from behind, with Mason, it’s still romantic.
* * *
I’m at work, clocking back in from my lunch break and staring down at the pictures on my phone I received from Mason a few minutes ago. There’s a selfie of him and Alec. One of Alec fighting in the octagon. Another one of Alec hitting the punching bag. And the last one is of Mason’s abs. It looks a lot like the default picture on his Plenty of Fish account, which has me wondering if he still has an active account.
I pull the app up and click on his profile. It’s still active, but it says he hasn’t been on in a few days. Just to mess with him, I click on our message thread and send him a message.
Looking4Love: Hey there… I haven’t heard from you in a while. Are you still single?
“Hey, Mila!” I look up, and Meghan, another nurse who works here, is waving to me. I close out the app and put my phone away as she approaches.
“How was your weekend in Vegas? Did you do any gambling or get drunken married?”
I choke on the water I’m taking a sip of, and she pats my back. “Whew! Jeez, it went down the wrong pipe.”
“You okay?” We walk together down the hall toward the back office where all the files are kept.
“Yeah, I’m okay. Actually, I did get married while I was there.” She stops us in our place.
“What? To who?”
“To my roommate.” I giggle at the absurdity.
“Wow! Any pictures?”
“Not from the wedding. We were kind of drunk… but I have a couple he sent me today.” I pull my phone back out and there’s a new message from Mason on Plenty of Fish.
GetHooked: Actually, I’m not. This whole time I was fishing I didn’t realize that I wasn’t catching anything because I was waiting to be caught. Then this hot AF MILF came into my life and reeled me in and now I’m hooked. Sorry, but I won’t be able to message you anymore. You see, my wife…she’s keeping me real busy at night between her legs. It was nice getting to know you, though. Good luck on finding your one ;)
Smiling to myself, I swipe out of his message and pull up one of the photos he sent me earlier.
“This is Mason.” I turn the phone around so she can see. She takes a closer look then frowns.
“Wait a second. Is that Mason Street…the UFC fighter?”
Oh, shit! I didn’t even think about the fact that most people know who Mason is. He’s probably not uber-famous like an actor or a football player, but I’m sure he has a following. I mean there were paparazzi photographing him outside of the clubs. Damn it! I hope I didn’t mess up by telling Meghan. Mason never said I couldn’t tell anyone.
Meghan types something on her phone and turns it around to face me. “This Mason Street?” I smile at the sexy fighter grinning in his Instagram photo. His eyes are twinkling like someone just said something he thought was funny. Then I notice the number of followers he has. 26.3 million. Holy hell!
“Yeah,” I choke out. “That Mason.”
“He’s like a UFC god! Every woman wants him and every guy wants to be him.” She clicks on the first photo on his account and I recognize it immediately. It’s the one he sent me of him and Alec. Meghan hands me her phone and I read the caption underneath:
Hanging out with my man Bruiser during spring break.
#nextgenerationchampion #UFCfighter #Manny
I click to view all the comments and there are already 5,400! It was only posted an hour ago.
Amber_brinne: You’re so sexy! He’s adorable.
Alexissurferchick: I can babysit for you.
LydiajadelovesMason: Ohh! So cute! I can’t wait to see your next fight!
MrsMasonStreet712: I can be your nanny!
The comments go on and on, and I’m pretty sure I’ve been stunned into silence as I hand Meghan back her phone.
“You look kind of pale. You did know who Mason was when you married him, right?”
“Yeah.” I nod slowly. “I just didn’t know so many other people knew who he was.”
Meghan grabs my hand and assesses my wedding band. “What I want to know is why you’re wearing this silver band? The guy is worth close to seventy million dollars, and I’m not talking monopoly money here.”
I let out a strained cough. I knew Mason was wealthy. He drives around in a newer-looking BMW. Hell, this morning after we picked up Tristan’s truck, I got to drive the BMW, and let me tell you, that thing drives like heaven on wheels. Plus, he and Tristan lived in that expensive condo in Downtown LA. But I had no idea he was worth that much. He was always just the fighter my son looked up to. I had no clue UFC fighters could even make that much money.
“It was a last minute thing.” I shrug, suddenly afraid to say anything else. Meghan and I get along and we’ve chatted a few times, but I don’t know her well enough to know if she’ll tell anyone.
“Well, if I married a man like him, last minute or not, you better believe I would require a rock. Like five carats minimum.” I smile and laugh along with her, but my mind is still back at his twenty-six million followers and net worth of seventy million dollars. Not because I care how many people are following Mason or how much money he makes. No, I’m wondering why the hell he would marry me when he has millions of women falling at his feet. And why would he move in with me? The guy could buy my entire neighborhood without blinking an eye. Oh my God! No wonder he emailed his attorney so quickly. We got married without even signing a prenuptial agreement. But when I said I didn’t want to divorce, he agreed. Is he afraid I’m going to take his money? Is he trying to play nice until the divorce papers come through?
Not wanting to discuss any of this with Meghan, I excuse myself by saying I need to call the next patient back. As I’m walking down the hall toward the room, I send Mason a text thanking him for the pictures and for watching Alec.
Chapter Twenty
Mason
Alec and I have just finished some sparring and cardio when I spot Jake coming out of the locker room. “Hey Jake!” I call him over. Once he spots me, he jogs my way.
“Hey, man!” We fist bump and then he fist bumps Alec. “What’s up, kid?”
“We just finished working out, and we’re about to pick up dinner so Mila doesn’t have to cook when she gets home.”
“Oh, shi—” He looks at Alec and changes shit to shoot at the last second.
I chuckle and shake my head when Alec says, “I’ve heard worse.”
Jake laughs. “I saw the post on Twitter about you being married, but I thought it was a rumor.”
My body stills. When we went to Vegas for Tristan’s wedding, we managed to keep the partying under wraps for the most part. There were a few paparazzi around, but they didn’t bug us for the most part. We stuck to all the clubs we knew would give us VIP treatment, and when Mila and I left, I took her out a side door. I didn’t remember anyone following us when we went into the chapel, but just because I didn’t see them, doesn’t mean they didn’t see me.
I pull my phone out and click on Twitter, and sure enough there are thousands of comments on a tweet I’m tagged in.
@MeghanLovesLA: Congratulations to my friend @MomtoAlec and @MasonStreetUFC on your marriage! Ladies, time to find a new #UFCfighter to hunk on.
Jesus! I knew it would come out eventually but not like that. As I’m scrolling down the comments, my phone rings in my hand. Shit! It’s Kenny, my publicist.
“Hey,” I answer.
“Don’t you ‘Hey’ me. Up until this moment I felt like I was ripping you off with how much you pay me. You never do anything wrong. You stay out of the spotlight, g
o to charity functions without arguing, you keep your sleeping around discreet for the most part. Did you decide I finally needed to earn my money?”
Kenny aka Kenneth Norton III has been my publicist ever since I moved to LA. My former publicist couldn’t make the move from Las Vegas, so my PR company found me Kenny. Up until today, he’s right, I’ve been paying him to schedule my events, run my social media when necessary, and handle anything else related to the UFC. Over the last several years, Kenny has played the publicist-slash-assistant roll. I’m low maintenance and don’t require a lot. My life for the past ten years has consisted of fighting and the occasional fucking. It didn’t even cross my mind I would need to let anybody know I got married. I contacted the attorney when Mila said she didn’t want to stay married, but other than that, I don’t have anyone to tell. Tristan is my closest friend, and I figured I would tell him when he returns from his honeymoon.
“Well, you know me, Kenny. Go big or go home.” I chuckle and Kenny sighs.
“So it’s true? You really did get married.”
“That I did.”
“We’ve received several requests for interviews and photo shoots. Everybody is shocked and has no clue who this woman is. Her social media platforms are all set to private and all they know is she’s a mom based on her username. My advice would be to do an exclusive first interview and shoot with OK! or People magazine. Daniel West has already emailed asking, since you have a cover shoot coming out next month before your title fight, that you meet with the interviewer to add to the spread of the UFC magazine.”
My head is spinning with all of this. Daniel West is the CEO of the UFC and he’s all about using his fighters to gain attention to the UFC. I didn’t think about any of this before I married Mila. She had no clue what she was getting herself into, and I didn’t even prepare her for any of it. When I’m in her townhouse and we’re hanging out, it’s just the two of us and I forget about the outside world. The paparazzi rarely follow me because there’s nothing to see.
