I shrug. “Turns out I like it up there in the woods,” I tell him honestly. “It’s quiet. I can keep my head clear.”
“You've had a hell of a year, haven't you?” Teddy says, looking at me with understanding. “You lost your friend.”
“I did, sir. Jordan was a good man. One of the best I ever knew.”
“And losing him is why you retired?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You don't miss it?” Maria asks.
I swallow, run my hand over the back of my neck. “I didn't say that. I think I pushed those thoughts away. Told myself I didn't miss it because it'd be too hard to get back there after everything I'd been through, but then this morning, when I was in that cage with Johnny? And I felt… hell, I know it sounds crazy, but I felt more like myself again. I felt like Jordan would understand why I was there.”
Teddy nods. “I think I do understand what you mean.”
“I’m not saying I want to fight again,” I tell him, looking at Tink.
“But maybe you could,” Tink cuts in, “Titus, if you want to fight, I wouldn't stop you. You have to follow your heart and maybe that's fighting again.”
“Maybe,” I say, “I’m not quite sure yet, but I do know this, sir,” I say looking at Teddy, “I love Tink. Hell, I just met the girl, but I know.” I pull the ring out from my pocket. “Will you give me permission to marry her?”
Tink covers her mouth and Maria gasps.
“Titus!” Tink says shocked. “You have the ring and everything?”
“Look, after losing Jordan, I figured one thing out. Life is fucking short. It's precious. There's no reason to waste time. If you know what you want, you go after it.”
Teddy clears his throat. “I couldn't agree more, son. You love her? Really love her?”
“I do,” I tell him.
“Then I don't know why you're talking to me. You gotta do what you gotta do.”
He's right. I push out from the table and I walk over to Tink. I pull her to stand and I get down on one knee. “Marry me, Tink, be my wife, my partner, my champion.”
“Yes, I’ll marry you. I’ll be your biggest fan.”
“And I'll be yours, baby,” I tell her, sliding the ring on her finger. “I swear you must have poured a gallon of pixie dust on me last night because I feel like I would follow you to the ends of the Earth.”
“Good,” she says with a smile, tears falling from her eyes. “Because I'm a little feisty. I need to be sure you can handle that.”
“I love feisty,” I tell her, standing and pulling her into my arms. At the table, Maria and Teddy smile up at us, their approval obvious.
“And I love that you were willing to fight for me,” she says. “Twice.”
Epilogue 1
Tink
One year later…
I kneel before him just like I did a year ago when we met. Only now when I bandage his hand, it's not because it's bloody and bruised from a fight where he was defending my honor.
This time it's to prepare him to go back in the ring. It's been eighteen months since he's had a real official fight. He hasn't been to a Ground and Pound since Jordan died.
But time heals all wounds and I'm proud of him for taking a chance on himself.
“I just don't want to do anything to fuck up what we got,” he says as I place his MMA gloves on his hands. “I don't want to ruin anything. Our daughter Rose needs me. And so do you.”
“You won't,” I tell him confidently, kissing his hands, his knuckles. I move into his lap and sit on his knee. “Baby, you're the toughest, strongest, most unstoppable man I know. And you’re going to kill it in there.”
“When I proposed, you said you'd be my biggest fan and I swear, girl, you've never let me down.”
“I love you,” I say. “And so does our baby girl. Rose may be only two months old, but I know what she's thinking when she looks up into your eyes. She's thinking she's the luckiest girl in the world to have a daddy like you.”
“Hell, I'm the luckiest man to have you too.” He kisses my neck and I close my eyes, breathing him in. He smells so good, the same way he smelled when I met him. Sex and sweat, but there's also a tinge of sentimentality mixed in there and it makes my eyes water.
“I’m so proud of you for going back in the ring,” I tell him, knowing he's scared.
He wanted to protect himself from the harsh elements of the world. It’s the same way I wanted to protect myself by not falling in love with a man whose heart belongs to the ring; even though it's the same place my heart always belonged.
Ever since I was a little girl watching Grandpa Teddy at his gym, it's where I felt most comfortable, most at home, and now the fact that I have a man to share that love with, it's more than I could've ever imagined.
“Now, listen,” I tell him. “Focus on your opponent when you're in there. Okay? Don't get distracted by me or by Rose. Do your job.”
“Is this called tough love?” he asks with a grin.
“It's called me wanting the best for you.”
“You're too good for me, baby,” he tells me as I lean in to kiss him.
“I love you, too, Titus. Now go make me proud.”
We stand and I give him one last hug. Grandpa Teddy enters the locker room and he gives me a nod.
“He'll be okay,” Grandpa says, and I give him a quick hug, pressing my cheek against his chest.
“I know, after all, he's got you in his corner, doesn't he?” I leave the private locker room, calling Grandma Maria on FaceTime as I walk toward the arena.
“She’s asleep,” Grandma tells me. “She's out like a rock. I gave her a bottle and she didn't even fuss.”
“Good, I just haven’t left her before and I'm nervous.”
“I know, Tink, but she's okay. You don't need to worry about us.”
I breathe a sigh of relief — and gratitude. “I’ll see you in a few hours then. Okay?”
“No rush,” Grandma says. “Celebrate the victory.”
I laugh. “The fight hasn't even started yet.” I hang up the phone, then I find my ringside seat.
I'd be lying if I say said I wasn't anxious, but when Johnny comes up and takes a seat next to me, he tells me to relax.
“Seriously. Your husband is going to kill it. The guy he's fighting doesn't stand a chance.”
“I thought this was supposed to be an even match?”
“It is,” Johnny says, “but I know Titus. He's a fucking force to be reckoned with. There was a reason he had a reputation before he retired.”
I lean back in my chair, exhaling, knowing Johnny is right. Titus is the toughest man, and with his thick man beard, he is no longer merely a man — now he’s a mountain man, a beast who had gotten lost in the woods in order to find his way home. His way to me.
* * *
I find him in his private locker room right after his fight, my mind singularly focused: properly congratulating him for his win.
He’s slick with sweat and when I open the door, calling his name, he looks at me with a hunger in his eyes I've never seen before. And that is saying quite a lot because Titus knows how to take care of me, our need for one another is fueled with lust and desire. And when we make love, it's something so much more than fucking. It's out of this world.
He's in his tiny fighting shorts that leave little to the imagination. My pussy is getting nice and wet as he walks toward me. “Baby, thank God you’re here,” he says, wrapping me in his arms. His cock lies hard against my belly.
When he was in that ring, all the women in the crowd were looking at him like he was a thirst trap. But he's my thirst trap and I'm parched.
“You were amazing out there,” I tell him.
He chuckles. “Yeah? You like what you saw?”
I lock the door and step closer. His shower is on and the room is already hot and steamy. I run my hand down his bare chest, his ladder of muscles, and I push my hand past the waistband of his shorts.
I close my eyes, moa
ning with pleasure as I feel his thick, velvety rod. “You're so hard,” I tell him. “And lucky you, because watching you win got me all horny as fuck.”
Within moments, he has me stripped me of my dress, my heels. I wasn't wearing any panties. I came to this room prepared.
“Fuck me like champion you are,” I say, looking up in his eyes. “Fuck me.”
“It’s all I want, baby,” he growls, squeezing my ass cheeks, leaning down and kissing my breasts, circling his tongue over my hard nipples.
“I need you,” I moan as he lifts me up off the floor, my legs wrapping around his waist. He carries me to the shower, presses me against the wall, the hot water running down our backs, the steam creating a hurricane of heat.
“Fuck, baby, yes,” he says as I sink down on his hard cock.
I love fucking him against the wall like this. I love wrapping my arms around his neck because when he looks down at me, his eyes are filled with desire.
“Fill me,” I beg him as his big thick cock pushes deeper in my pussy. I'm so wet for him. I'm so hot for him. My fingernails dig into his back as I hold on for dear life. “Fill me up with your seed. I want to be pregnant.”
“You want to have another baby? Damn. Rose is only two months old.”
“I know, but I love having your child inside of me. I want you to breed me, I want to be your everything, Titus. I want to give you my body, make my pussy your domain. Please.”
He pushes the hair back from my face, kissing me hard. “Fuck, I love you,” he says. “I thought you were hot before, but when you're pregnant? You're fucking insane.”
I laugh, knowing he loved the way my tits filled out. The way my ass got extra curvy. The way my sex drive revved up to a ridiculous height.
“Fuck me, husband,” I say, and he does.
He thrusts his big cock deep inside me and I moan in pleasure as he gets me off. My clit a nub of heat, my cunt a well of pleasure. He fucks me hard and he fucks me good.
He fucks me like the champion he is.
Epilogue 2
Titus
Ten years later…
Never did I think, the night I met Tink at a bar that my whole world would be wrapped around women — but it is.
After we had Rose, Tink and I decided we wanted more children.
And we did.
Four little girls, all in a row.
Rose, Lily, Daisy, and Marigold.
We live in a brownstone next door to Teddy and Maria, and we’ve created the most beautiful flower garden in Boston – and I’m not just talking about our girls.
Just like Tink always wanted — she wanted flowers planted in the ground, rooted firmly. Just like our love.
“Okay, now keep your feet apart,” I say. I’m in the gym with a dozen elementary-aged girls, practicing our stances. “Yep, just like that, Daisy.”
I still fight in the ring to support my family — and I’m lucky enough to have a generous sponsor, but my passion has changed. As the girls kept coming, I realized I never want them to be in the position their mother was in all those years ago on the night we met.
Marco threatened her safety, made her vulnerable. And we were lucky enough that night that I was there to knock some sense into him. But I can’t take that chance again.
Now I volunteer at the gym, offering self-defense classes for girls. Tink helps as much as she can, though she is nine months pregnant at the moment, and I insist she doesn’t stay on her feet.
“I brought treats,” she says, following in her grandma’s footsteps. “Chocolate chip cookies!”
“Perfect time for a break,” I tell the girls.
“Thanks, Daddy!” my daughters shout as they join their friends for a cookie. They run over to the table for their snacks and I walk over to my wife, placing my hands on her belly.
“God, you look gorgeous,” I tell her, kissing her.
“You’re making me blush,” she says.
“That’s how I like you.”
“I’ve been having mild contractions for the last hour, Titus. I think today is the day.”
“Truly?” A grin spreads across my face as I drop to my knees, talking to her belly. “Am I gonna meet you today, buddy?” I ask.
“I can’t believe we’re having a boy; I won’t know what to do with him.” Tink shakes her head.
I stand, pulling my wife into my arms. “You’ve always known how to handle me. I’ll keep him in check.”
“You hear that, baby Teddy?” Tink says, talking to her belly. “You’re gonna need to listen to your papa.”
Every day I thank my lucky stars for giving me this life. I thought for a while there, it might be easier to throw in the towel. Now, of course, I’m glad I didn’t stay put in that cabin in the mountains. If I hadn’t been in town the night I met Tink, I may have missed out on my beautiful life.
“What are you thinking?” Tink asks, her eyes meeting mine.
“I’m thinking I feel like my whole damn life has been covered in your pixie dust.”
Tink smiles up at me. Our baby kicks and we both laugh. It won’t be long before we meet our son.
“It’s pretty magical, isn’t it?” she says.
I lean down and kiss her softly, knowing it’s more than magic. It’s a miracle.
More in the WORTH THE FIGHT SERIES!
Fighting For The Forbidden: Worth The Fight Series Page 6
