I toss Becca to the mat over and over and each time I do she gets more and more pissed. Over the past week I’ve come to learn she’s very hard on herself. Several times I’ve had to pull her aside, telling her to knock that shit off.
I’m curious to know what her dad and her ex-coach used to say to her that would cause her to beat herself up like she does. She pops back up but I can tell she’s exhausted. “Let’s call it a day.” I turn to look at Gio. “What do you think?”
“Hit the showers, Becca.”
She shakes her head. “No. I can keep going.” Becca does a leg sweep and with an oomph I hit the mat hard. She smiles down at me and it does some weird shit to my chest. “See?”
I strike fast and now she’s on her back with me leaning over her. My dick twitches in my shorts, but I ignore it. “We’re done.” After hopping up, I hold out my hand, helping her off the ground.
Becca catches me off guard and grabs both of my arms and takes my ass down…again.
“Okay we’re seriously done this time,” I say as I hop up. She shoots me a cocky grin before strutting toward the locker room.
“Uhh…yeah, so what was that?” Gio says from his spot next to me.
I look at him, confused. “What do you mean?”
“I mean I’ve never seen her smile like that during training, I’ve never seen flirting in the form of takedowns.”
Flirting? I was not flirting with her…was I? “I don’t know what you’re talking about. Half the time today she was pissed off about me taking her down.”
“That may be so, but you’re the only one I’ve seen that can pull her out of it.”
I shrug. “I told her to knock that shit off, that’s it.”
“Yeah, but she likes that. People telling her how it is and whatnot. Clint is a good guy, but he babies her a lot. You don’t, and it shows in the intensity that she works out at now. That’s because you don’t sugarcoat anything with her.” Gio disappears down the hall toward the kitchen.
I take a quick shower then throw on a clean t-shirt and basketball shorts. I slip my trainers back on and grab my bag. In the kitchen, I find Becca eating a banana and suddenly images assail me of my dick in her mouth. I turn away before I embarrass myself and grab my protein shake out of the refrigerator.
I drink half of it down before I turn toward Becca. “Is it okay if we stop by my office before I take you home?”
“Sure, I don’t have anything going on.”
We head out a few minutes later and head toward Rogue. “Do you have work to do? I mean, it’s not really my business, I was just curious.”
I glance at her from the corner of my eye and her cheeks are an adorable shade of pink. “My sister wants to move here with my niece. Jack was looking into the paperwork.”
“Are you older or younger? How old is your niece?”
“I’m older by three years, and Joanna is five years old. You’re an only child, right?”
She stares out the passenger window. “Yes and no. I actually had a brother who was born at twenty-two weeks, but he died when he was a week old. Mom couldn’t get pregnant after that. Neither of them were ever the same.”
We reach Rogue. I pull into the parking garage and hop out. Becca climbs out and meets me at the front of my car. She’s quiet as I lead her toward the elevators, and once inside, we take it up to our floor.
Carrie’s sitting behind the front desk and smiles when we walk toward her. “Dalton, how are you?” She turns to Becca. “Hi Ms. McNeal.”
“Please call me Becca.”
I place my hand on the small of Becca’s back. “I’ll be right back.” She nods and I head through the sliding doors into the back, ignoring the way she stiffened when I touched her this time…for now.
I haven’t talked to Marcus in a week and find his office empty when I poke my head in. Cobi stops me in the hall. “What’s up, bud?” He’s been having a hard time lately.
A psycho anti-fan was harassing Jack’s wife, and Cobi discovered that it was the husband of their prime suspect too late. The man had first beat his wife before he got Harley alone at her book signing, stabbing her in the gut. Cobi still feels guilty, and has been spending a lot of time with Sarah, the wife—or ex-wife—of the man who stabbed Harley.
“Nothing. Just on my way to check in on Sarah. She had her first therapy session today and is hopefully graduating from a cast to an air splint.”
I tell him to give me a call later if he needs to talk. He gives me a chin lift and disappears. I think Jack is going to have to talk with Cobi. Speaking of Jack, I stop at his office and find him behind his desk with Reece in one of the chairs in front of it.
“Hey Jack, you got a minute?” Reece goes to stand up, but I stop him. “You don’t have to leave. Jack, just wondered if you got those papers for me?”
He pulls a manila folder out of his desk. “These are papers to get her green card. She can get it because you’re a citizen. What kind of work does she do?”
“Bookkeeping and office work.”
“We’re expanding over the next year, and as we grow responsibilities will change, especially for Del, Shayla, and Carrie. If she’s worried about employment I could talk to her or Delilah can, and she could come work here if she thinks she’d be a good fit.”
“Really? That’d be brilliant. I’ll talk to her and see when would be a good time to talk to you.” I pick up the folder. “Thanks for this.”
“We’re family, and that’s what we do.”
I tell them we’ll talk later.
Back out front, I find Becca behind the desk sitting with Carrie looking at something on her computer. “Are you watching porn?” I ask.
Carrie shakes her head. “I’m showing her pictures of Leif, you big pervert.”
“He’s a handsome lad.” She smiles up at me. Sometimes being around all of these adorable little ones makes me want to have children of my own. I just haven’t met someone who makes me want to settle down.
“Thank you. He knows it, too.”
Becca stands up and comes toward me. “Thanks for sharing those pictures, and it was nice seeing you again.”
We get in the car and head toward her apartment. We’re both quiet, but it is definitely a comfortable silence. I pull up in front of the building and we go through our routine. This time when I walk through her apartment, something feels off. I can’t put my finger on it, but I’m getting a strange vibe. I check every nook and cranny but come up with nothing.
Back in the living room, I find Becca right where I left her. “Is everything okay? That took you a lot longer than it usually does.” She worries her bottom lip with her teeth.
“Everything’s fine. It doesn’t hurt to do a thorough search every once in a while. You did really good today and didn’t give up. Tomorrow Gio wants us to just work on some weight training and cardio. I’ll see you in the morning.”
She nods, and I head out, waiting to hear the deadbolt locked from the other side. I pull out my phone as I reach the elevator, sending a quick text to Egan.
He answers immediately.
Egan
We’ve got access to all the tenants so Egan can scan the list, with the faces on the footage. I’m not sure how he does it, but the guy’s a genius.
Hopefully we find nothing and it’s just me being paranoid.
I step into O’Shea’s and grab a seat at the bar. I’m on a mission tonight—a mission to get laid. I haven’t had sex since I started working with Becca. My hope is that burning up the sheets with a lady tonight will drive the sexual thoughts I’ve had about Becca lately right out of my head.
Tomorrow is Sunday and my only day off from training, so this is the perfect time to go out and have a little fun. A part of me wonders what she’s doing, but I push thoughts of her out of my head.
One thing I’ve noticed is that she doesn’t have a whole lot of friends. We’re together a lot, and her phone never rings and she never gets text messages. Well, except when someone from her team, mainly Gio, calls.
The bartender stops in front of me and I order a club soda with lime. He sets my drink down in front of me and I glance around the bar and yes, there are lots of beautiful women here tonight, but nobody that stands out.
I take a sip of my drink and start watching the game on the flat screen above the bar. A floral scent wraps around me and I feel someone sit next to me. “Hi.” I turn to the woman who just sat down.
She’s stunning; her hair is platinum blonde, and from what I can see it hangs down her back in loose waves. She’s got bright blue eyes and her face is heavily made up. “Hi there. How are you?”
“Better now.” I don’t miss the way she eyes me up and down. “I’m Heather, by the way.”
I stick out my hand. “I’m Dalton.” She places hers in mine. “It’s nice to meet you, Heather.”
We make small talk while she drinks her martini and I stick with my club soda. She’s a flight attendant based out of New York, which means she’s only here temporarily…score. “What do you do?”
“I’m the sparring partner for an MMA fighter.” It doesn’t make sense to go into the whole deal about what I do. It just leads to a lot of questions I don’t want to answer. When I go out to meet women the key is to…Keep. It. Simple.
“Wow, that’s exciting. I don’t really follow the sport. So you do karate?”
I shake my head. “No, I do Krav Maga and Brazilian jiu jitsu.” She looks confused. “There are all different forms of martial arts.”
Heather gives me a bright smile. “So you could kick anyone’s ass in here?” What is the deal, why do people always want to know that? It makes me think of Becca and when some dickhead who thought he could kick her ass tried to fight her.
“Only if I had to. I don’t make it a habit of fighting people just because I can.”
Her smile widens. “Oh my God, I just realized you’re British. That’s so cool.”
Bullocks, is it even worth it to tear up the sheets with this woman? Am I that desperate? “Excuse me I’ll be right back,” I tell her and head into the bathroom. I use the loo and then wash my hands. My phone vibrates in my pocket and I pull it out. It’s a text from Becca.
Becca
This woman just saved my night and she doesn’t even know it.
I look at the time and quickly pull up the closest theater to her place.
I know who I’d pick, but I’ll be a gentleman. It doesn’t even take long before she answers.
Hell yeah. I knew she was my kind of people.
I head back out to the bar and find Heather where I left her. She smiles as I approach her. “I was beginning to think that you left me.”
“I actually have to get going. It was really nice meeting you, though.”
“Oh, um…yeah. You too.”
I make my way out of the bar and walk the block and a half to my car. Traffic is heavy and it takes me a little bit longer to reach her place. I love living downtown, but sometimes it’s hard to get around when you want to get somewhere quickly.
I pull up in front of her building and she comes out. Becca’s hair is in a thick braid and hangs over her shoulder. Her skin looks dewy and flawless. She’s in a simple red t-shirt but it skims her lean muscles and curves. Her legs look never ending in her shorts and I immediately fantasize about them wrapped around me…wait, what?
With quick movements I hop out of my car and come around to the passenger side, opening the door for her. “Aren’t you supposed to wait for me to come get you?”
“Sorry, I couldn’t sit up there anymore tonight. I was careful—promise.” She climbs in and I shut the door behind her.
Once inside I notice a light fruity scent and realize it’s coming from her. Does she think this is a date? I glance at her and see she’s staring out the passenger window.
Neither of us speaks as we make our way toward the theater. When we pull into the parking lot, Becca hops out and waits by the front end for me.
Inside Becca tries to pay for her own ticket, but I don’t let her—I should let her pay just in case she thinks it is a date, but if my mum were still alive would throw a fit.
At the concession stand she buys us our snacks—Raisinets for me and Skittles for her. She looks up at me. “Don’t tell Gio.”
“I won’t. I promise.” I make the motion of crossing my heart.
She’s like me and likes to sit up front and in the middle. We get settled and wait for the movie to start.
It ends up being really funny, but what entertained me the most was her laugh. Once she got going she began to snort, loudly, but it was really adorable. I think I enjoyed watching her more than the movie, and that’s probably not a good sign.
We stand to leave and I follow behind her. My eyes immediately go to her ass. Fuck, it’s a great ass.
I look up and freeze, in front of us is a mirrored wall, and she just caught me staring at her ass like it was my next meal. When I focus on her face, I expect to find her looking disgusted, but instead she’s covering her mouth while she giggles, yes, I said giggles—it’s cute as fuck.
I hold the door to the outside open for her and she shakes her head as she passes by. It’s awesome that I’m starting to see her personality shining through. It’s easy to see why her team loves her so much. Yes, she was cold and standoffish at first, but here I came, some stranger taking over for someone who’d been with her for a long time.
We head toward my car when I hear someone shout from behind us. “You’re that fighter, aren’t you? The Beast.” I turn to find a group of guys walking toward us. I feel really uneasy about this.
“Ummm…yes?” Becca says from next to me. It also isn’t lost on me that she moves in closer to my side.
“You’re gonna wipe the floor with Jordan Maxwell. We got our tickets for our flight and the fight. We can’t wait to see it. Good luck.” They turn the other direction, leaving us be.
We stop next to my car. “That freaked you out?”
“I know it shouldn’t, but I never know if they’re going to try and fight me or what. It’s worse when there’s a group of them because usually there’s one who starts acting like he wants to see if I can take him.”
I bump her with my hip. “I’d never let anyone hurt you.”
Becca looks up at me, and the way the light shines down on her makes the silver color of her eyes sparkle like diamonds. The desire to kiss her hits me and hits me hard, but using an inner strength I didn’t know I had, I back away and go around to the driver’s side.
When we get back to her apartment, I park the car and climb out. Becca meets me on the sidewalk and I lead her inside. I take her keys from her, using them to let us through the back to the elevators. We reach her floor and I let us in.
“Stay here.” I do a quick sweep and luckily I don’t find anything or get that bad feeling. Earlier Egan had emailed me the footage from Becca’s place and nothing was out of place. He still had to run a scan to see if the video had been manipulated at all. I come back to where Becca waits.
“Everything okay?” she asks while kicking off her tennis shoes.
“Yeah, it’s good. I’ll see you Monday morning.” Is that disappointment I see? No, I must be seeing things.