by Anne Martin
“Not feeling guilty for anything?”
I looked up at him white-hot anger stirring in my stomach. “What do I have to feel guilty for?”
He held out his phone, and there was a picture of me in the bar with Horse. “Someone sent a few of these. I got the one where you slapped him, too. He likes that kind of thing.”
“That’s what he said. I was actually asking him what kind of Christmas present you’d like. Unfortunately, he only had lewd comments to make. Next time, I’ll ask Trix.”
He exhaled and leaned back. “Christmas present? Leave me your car.”
I blinked at him. “What?”
“The sunshine mobile. When you’re dead, I want your car.”
“You think I’ll be dead by Christmas?”
“No, the deed will be my present. I’m not rushing your death or anything, but the idea of your aunt driving her makes me all shivery.”
“Like when Horse undresses me with his eyes.”
“Not exactly like that, but close enough. What do you say, Kitten?”
I gave him a small smile. “I’ll have to think about it.”
“No hurry. This weekend is going to feel like an eternity. Are you all packed?”
I nodded because I was. We were leaving first thing in the morning, apparently after his cage fight tonight. He’d probably leave another note on the pillow in case I woke up. How many nights had he been gone fighting? How much did he make to let someone punch him in the face? A lot.
That night, I went to bed right after dinner, but my alarm went off at eleven. He was already gone. I took the note in my hands and crumpled it up without reading it. I got up and got dressed in the skanky outfit he’d bought for me. I worked on my makeup for a long time. My eyes kept watering, like I was going to cry or something, but who had time for that? Definitely not Mrs. Death-Hammer.
I walked to the place having the match, walking down the sidewalk with a bunch of drunk tourists, some of whom felt like they might like to get friendly with me. Most were easy enough to ignore or push away from me. When I got to the place, it was sold out. I walked around the building looking for a service entrance. The side entrance was guarded by an enormous guy with beefy arms and a neck that went down straight from his head.
“Sold out, honey,” he said with a grin as he took his time looking me up and down.
“Horse said he’d leave me tickets in the lobby, but it seems he’s forgotten.” I smiled at him, as flirty as I could.
“Horse? Hold on.” He lifted his phone and made a call. He lowered it and said, “Name?”
“Kitten.”
He raised his eyebrows then said my name into the phone. He got a funny look on his face and then closed the phone and reached out to help me up the steps, which I kind of needed in my spiked heels on the metal grating.
“Sorry Mrs. Hammer. He’ll be along shortly. You’ll sit in the VIP section, of course.”
“Kitten,” Horse said. Weirdly enough, he didn’t undress me with his eyes when I was dressed slutty. I found that really irritating.
“Mr. Horse.”
He held out his hand and I put mine in it, letting him escort me down the black back halls of the fight club. “I promised to leave you tickets? Must have slipped my mind.”
“It was either you or Trix. He doesn’t know I’m here. I’m not sure if I want to keep it that way or not.”
He chuckled. “I get it. You’re angry at him for lying so you’d like to see him get the tar kicked out of him.” He lifted my hand and kissed the back of it.
I glanced at him but I didn’t pull away. “You make me sound positively vindictive. Maybe I am. More likely, I want to see for myself.”
“Of course. You’re a lady. You’d never stoop to vengeance.”
I sighed. “I suppose I should ask if it would bother you too much to be seen with me.”
“On the contrary. You know perfectly well that I’d love Nix to see you with me. You can tell that I have a vindictive streak wide enough for both of us.”
His smile was charged with something and his eyes glimmered dangerously. I was too tired for this, but my own anger was still burning pretty hot.
We sat in the booth above the crowd. We made it right before the fighters came out. Nix wore shorts and nothing else. He looked so good, all greased and shiny. I put my hands on my pounding heart.
“Are you all natural?” Horse asked me.
I glanced at him. “Excuse me?”
He gestured down at my body without actually looking.
“One hundred percent organic. Is that a problem?”
He shrugged and leaned back and opened a beer. “Problem? Only if a man was trying to say no to you. I would never say no.”
I shook my head and ignored him. It wasn’t hard because Nix was walking around looking like a tiger, a caged animal that would rip the audience apart. He was so fierce, so hard, so vicious looking.
When he saw me, he went still. I knew that stillness. His eyes went dark, harder than hard and then he purposefully turned his back to me and didn’t look at me for the rest of the fight.
It was brutal. Nix was brutish indeed. He hurt his opponent and then hurt him some more, barely leaving him with enough strength to fight back so the fight wouldn’t end too soon. The five minutes dragged out forever. I sat there, unable to move, to blink, to breathe while my temporary husband displayed feats of acrobatic athleticism that didn’t seem possible.
“He’s very good,” Horse said, like I couldn’t tell. “Don’t tell him I said this, but he’s the best. It’s a perfectly respectable sport. You don’t have to look quite so disgusted.”
I blinked rapidly when the five minutes ended and the fighters separated, Nix’s opponent stumbling into the wall like he didn’t know what was happening. I didn’t answer Horse.
Nix walked around, raising his hands and getting the crowd insane all screaming and jumping while he intentionally didn’t look at me. I pressed my lips together and gripped Horse’s arm.
He exhaled and patted my hand. The next round was even more brutal. It didn’t seem possible. How was it possible? Nix was clearly only playing with his opponent.
After the third round, I got up and worked my way through the crowds who all cheered and screamed. I pushed through them until Horse put his arm around me and shoved through the crowds. The reaction of the crowds to him was interesting, well, it would have been interesting I’d been able to feel anything at that point. Fear and respect, exactly what I wanted in a companion. He walked with me back to the hotel without saying anything or trying to touch me. I actually appreciated that. He waited with me at the elevator.
“You going to be okay?” he asked, his dark blue eyes possibly worried.
I blinked at him. “No. But that’s normal for someone who has six months to live.” Why did I tell him that? I shook my head and got into the elevator and pushed the button to close it. A hand came kept the doors from closing. When they opened there was Nix in his shorts and boots with nothing else.
Chapter 14
Nix Death-Hammer
I expected some screaming, maybe some crying, but instead, she kissed me like she didn’t want to stop, like she didn’t know how to stop, and I’d never been able to say no to my Kitten.
The night was long, spent in bed with no rest, and by morning, I wasn’t sure how to say what she needed to hear. She got out of bed and walked across the room wearing nothing besides the remains of last night’s makeup. I stayed in bed watching her.
“Get dressed, Mr. Hammer. We’re going to miss our flight.” Her voice was sharp beneath that soft drawl.
I sighed and grabbed my pants.
“Yes, ma’am.”
I dressed and put our bags by the door. After she showered, she put on a lovely dress and kitten heels with a strand of pearls that made her look even more ladylike than usual, a lot like my mother.
“Can you carry the bags?” she said, but she didn’t wait for me to answer. I picked
hers up along with mine.
“As a matter of fact, I can. I could carry you as well.”
“That’s not necessary.” She didn’t deign to look at me. Oh, she was an angry kitten. Would she make a scene at my mother’s house? I hoped so.
I settled in for a cold and miserable flight. Kitten didn’t disappoint. She sat so straight in her seat neither looking right nor left while I relaxed next to her. I closed my eyes and pretended to sleep, but I kept seeing her sitting next to Horse in that get-up that made her look like just another groupie. Well, to be fair, she had better posture than most.
When we got to the airport, I followed her, getting our bags out of the overhead bins before heading after her. The driver was waiting for us. He didn’t have a sign. I took Kitten’s arm and escorted her towards the car. She pulled away after a few steps and ducked inside the car without acknowledging the driver.
I shook my head while I walked around to the trunk, stowing the luggage inside and trying to think of something that would calm her down. She was a woman of her word. She’d said that she’d come here for Thanksgiving. After that, she’d probably head back to Gladson and live with Aunt Willie for a very short time. I punched the back of the car, leaving a good size dent. Peter shot me a look of disgust that he didn’t try to hide. I smiled at him.
“So good to be home.”
I climbed into the back seat and on top of Kitten, kissing her like Peter didn’t exist.
She kissed me back, pulling me too hard against her as she tangled her legs in mine so her skirt slid up her thigh. I tried to pull away, but she wasn’t having any of that. I heard the window between us rise as Peter took the opportunity to prove how good he was at his job and how little he wanted to watch me with some wild girl.
I pulled away and gazed at her bright blue eyes. “Kitten, I’m sorry.”
Her eyes lit with thunder and she kissed me again, biting me that time. When she pulled away she said, “You know that I’ll probably never trust another word you say. You can save the niceties.”
I ran my hand up her leg. “Good. I never was very good at them.” I kissed her and let her anger match mine. I couldn’t be too angry when she was wrapped up in my arms. When the car slowed and wound around the familiar drive, I reluctantly pulled away.
She straightened up and started smoothing her hair and dress. While she freshened her lipstick, I got out and went to get the bags.
My mother was waiting for us in the front parlor of the enormous plantation manor. “I’m so glad you two were able to make it!” She smiled her most delighted smile at me and then turned her dangerous alligator eyes on my Kitten.
Kitten stared at her. “We’ve met. In the hotel. Did the stars align?”
My mother’s smile grew wider. “As a matter of fact, they did. Why don’t the two of you freshen up? You must have had a tiring flight.”
“You’re too kind.” Kitten rose to her feet and walked gracefully towards the door without giving my mother a second look.
The way my mother watched her made me feel all kinds of creepy crawly. I shot her a look to warn her not to play games, before I went after my wife. I caught up to her on the stairs.
“Don’t you want me to show you to our room?”
She didn’t look at me, just kept marching up those stairs like she was on autopilot. “As a matter of fact, no. I’m sure I can find a bedroom and collapse on it like a proper belle. No one would dare say anything to mama Hammer’s precious son’s wife. You come from money, so why do you fight?”
Finally, we were talking about it. “I like fighting.”
“That’s true. I could tell that you enjoyed the execution of physical punishment.” She did look at me then. Her eyes were cloudy. “What I don’t understand is how you could be so gentle with me and so rough with others.”
“I run to extremes.”
“Would you ever hit me?”
I laughed. “That’s a no, Kitten. I fight for pleasure, not out of anger.”
“I don’t believe you. You’ve never lost your temper fighting?”
I hesitated. “Not for some time. You can’t lose your temper or you stop thinking. That’s when you lose. I don’t lose so much. I did lose to Horse recently. That was pretty bitter, particularly seeing you on his arm like that afterwards.”
“You didn’t like me with him or you didn’t like me at your work watching you fall off roofs?”
I wanted to take her hand and pull her around to face me, but not yet. She’d pull away. I didn’t want her to pull away from me, not here. “You can watch my work all you want, I just didn’t think you’d enjoy it.”
“You didn’t tell me about it. Why’s that?”
“Not that you’d believe me.”
“Not that I’d believe you.” She gave me a hard smile that made my heart pound anyway. Her smiles were the prettiest things.
“It’s not what a proper girl like you would want in a husband.”
“You kept a motorcycle in your bedroom and looked thoroughly disreputable before I gave you a haircut.”
“Indeed. You wanted me to be that haircut. I’m not Daniel. I’d neither sleep with your best friend while professing to love you nor be so shiny and perfect in every other way.”
She whirled around on the stairs. “Don’t talk about Daniel. He’s been trying to get me to marry him ever since I was twelve. At least he didn’t lie about that. Why did you want to marry me? Was it my life insurance? What was it?”
I took her and kissed her, be damned if she tried to pull away. She didn’t. She went soft in my arms and I picked her up, carrying her to the bedroom. When I put her down on the bed, she put her hands on my chest.
“Brute, answer me. Why did you marry me? Does it have something to do with your mother, a will or something that says you have to stop messing around and marry a nice girl?”
I snorted. “I wish it was so easy to get out of my mother’s will. The truth is, I did take up with you because my mother insisted I spend a year living a wholesome life, or she’d do terrible things that innocent ears like yours shouldn’t hear, but that’s not why I married you. You’re not going to like it, so I’d rather not say, but I suppose it’s time to come clean.”
I brushed her hair away from her face while I hovered over her delicious body.
“Yes? I’m all breathless with anticipation.”
I grinned at her. “Are you? From the moment I saw you, I felt better. I’ve always struggled with anxiety, with feeling like I belonged. I couldn’t ever feel at peace. Something about you was just so nice. I liked you.”
She stared at me. “That ain’t gonna cut it. A man like you doesn’t marry no girl he just met ‘cause he likes her. Try again.”
I sighed and rolled off her to stare at the white ceiling. If her grammar was going, she was really upset. A slow fan was going around and around, how I felt. “How come it’s so hard to confess to your wife that you’re in love with someone?”
She shoved me off the bed with her feet. I hit the floor with a thud. “You married me to make someone else jealous? Is it Trixie? I could have done a better job if you’d let me know.”
I lay on the floor laughing until she glared at me from above.
I grinned up at her. “You are such a silly Kitten Princess. I love you. This much.” I stretched out my arms while she stared at me.
Her eyes narrowed. “You’re lying.”
I shook my head and let my arms stretch even wider. “Only on the floor. No, this much. To the nth power. Honey, I love you.”
That’s when she started screaming and throwing stuff at me. I rolled to my feet and ran for the door, dodging lamps and books, and expensive ceramic statues that crashed satisfyingly when I slammed the door behind me. I took deep breaths and felt horrible, but relieved at the same time.
It was the ultimate betrayal as far as she was concerned, loving her before she was going to die, but sometimes betrayals were necessary. I’d betrayed myself when I’d loved
her as well. She’d asked for it the first time she’d bounced off the porch like a kitten chasing a butterfly. She’d only punctuated it when she grabbed my nose, saving her friend from my untoward advances.
At dinner that night, she came down dressed in a belle dress that made her look more delicate and doll-like than usual. She had such a tiny waist.
“How did the two of you meet?” my mother asked before taking a sip out of her crystal goblet. Too bad there hadn’t been any of those in her bedroom earlier. They’d shatter beautifully.
“Nix, why don’t you answer that,” Kitten said, not looking at me.
“Women remember that kind of thing better than men.”
She looked at me, fire in her eyes. “I see. So, you don’t recall. Interesting.”
I licked my lips. “I saw you on the porch and it was love at first sight. How about you?”
She frowned and lifted her chin. “I noticed you moving in and thought I should bring over some cookies. My Aunt Willie and I went over and we visited for a bit. Poor thing didn’t have a stick of furniture.”
“He’s quite a savage,” my mother said pleasantly.
Kitten looked at me again and mouthed, ‘Brute’, before she refocused on her salad.
I wanted to take her right there, drag her up the stairs to the bed and really show her my softer side. I’d never hurt her. She couldn’t know that, but I did.
“Are the two of you going to continue living in a hotel?” my mother asked like it was any of her business.
Kitten drew her brows together. “Las Vegas isn’t any kind of town to settle down in, much less start a family.”
My mother’s eyes gleamed. “A family?”
Kitten smiled demurely. “It is the natural course of things, I believe. Your home is lovely.”
My mother went into a long lecture of the house’s history and that was the topic of conversation for the rest of the meal. I stretched my foot and nudged Kitten’s. She kicked me back. I wiggled my eyebrows when her eyes happened to dart towards me. She gave me a hard smile and pulled her legs back so I couldn’t touch her.
After dinner, Kitten stood up. “Thank you for the lovely meal. I’d love to stay up and chat, but the flight put me out of sorts. Enjoy your evening together.” She walked out without waiting for my mother’s dismissal.
