Below the Belt (18 page)

He tasted clean and hot, and he was very, very hard. She traced the head of his cock with her tongue, then flicked him again and again while working his shaft with her hand. He lifted his hips and made an encouraging noise as she took him all the way into her mouth, marveling at his length and breadth. He groaned. She could feel his belly muscles tensing as his desire built. Using her mouth and her hand in concert, she began to work him, laving the head of his cock with the flat of her tongue, then flicking it, then sucking him deep into her mouth.

“Shift up the bed,” he said. “I want to touch you.”

She obliged, angling her legs toward him even as she continued to suck and lick him. He found her knees by touch and pushed them apart. He slid a hand past her skirt and up her thigh. She swallowed a moan as his fingers found her folds, gliding into her slick wetness.

“Oh, man,” he muttered. She felt his body tense even more as he began to explore her with deft fingers, delving between her legs to plunge a finger inside her, then sliding out again to circle and tease and torture her clit.

She tortured him in turn, stepping up the rhythm as she responded to the increasing urgency gripping her own body.

She loved the way his whole body was focused on what she was doing to him and what he was doing to her. Closing her eyes, she felt her orgasm rising.

Her desire fed his, and he sucked in a breath, his body tensing as he came. Savouring his salty sweetness, she gasped as her own climax took her at last, crashing down on her and sweeping her away.

She rested her head on his thigh for a few beats afterward, her whole body warm and liquid.

“Take your clothes off,” he said. She lifted her head to look at him. His cheeks were flushed. She knew that if she could see his eyes they’d be dark and smoky with passion. In front of her, his cock stirred to life again.

An answering throb pulsed between her thighs.

Unbelievable.

She pulled her clothes off, then slid up his body, enjoying the subtle friction of his hairy chest against her breasts.

She found his mouth and kissed him hungrily, pressing herself against his hardness.

“I can’t get enough of you,” he whispered into her mouth.

“I feel the same way,” she said.

His belly tensed beneath her as he huffed out a surprised laugh at her echoing of her earlier comment.

While he was distracted, she grabbed his cock, positioned herself above him and slid home.

“Jamie,” he said as she embraced him in her slick heat.

“Yes.” She knew exactly what he was feeling and didn’t have the words to say.

Pleasure
that was so intense it was almost pain.
Desire
that was so demanding it felt as though it could never be sated.
Need
that was so overwhelming, she had no hope of ever denying it.

Bracing her hands on either side of his head, she started to ride up and down his thick shaft, circling her hips as she sought the friction and rhythm they both needed. She lowered her head and kissed him. Her tongue plunged deeply into his mouth, and his rose up to meet it. Her nipples brushed back and forth across his chest, stiff with arousal.

Inevitably desire built again. She broke their kiss to concentrate on where they were joined, her hips flexing and releasing. Her breath came in gasps as she closed her eyes and chased glory.

“I wish I could see you,” Cooper groaned, his hands sliding up her rib cage to find her breasts, his fingers teasing her nipples.

“Next time,” she panted. “And the time after that.”

As if the thought of all the
next times
they would have spurred him on, Cooper’s head dropped back. His fingers tensed around her waist as he pumped up into her once, twice, three times. She opened her eyes to watch his orgasm take him, infinitely turned on by way his whole body arched and his lips pulled back from his teeth in an animal snarl.

Then it was her turn to die a little. She slid down his shaft one last time and felt her body shatter around him, heat and sensation pulsing through her until she was left limp and gasping.

Flopping down onto his chest, she pressed kisses into the curve of his neck.

“I love you,” she gasped. “I love you so much.”

He withdrew from her and rolled her to one side so he could pull her tight against the cradle of his body. She lay in the shelter of his arms as her breathing slowed, her mind adrift in a formless ocean of sensation and tiredness and gratitude and satisfaction.

“I think you should move in,” Cooper said as their heartbeats returned to normal.

She stiffened instinctively.
Move in?
As in, live with him? In each other’s pockets day in, day out? In the same bed, night after night?

“I live with my grandfather,” she said.

“This is a four-bedroom house,” he said. “Next objection?”

She frowned as she thought furiously.

“I have no more objections,” she admitted after a small silence.

He stilled, then kissed her deeply. His hands slid into her hair as he drank from her lips.

“Give me half an hour and we’ll celebrate properly,” he promised.

W
AKING IN
Cooper’s arms the next morning only confirmed Jamie’s decision. She loved him. She wanted to be with him. She was still afraid, still cautious about exposing herself, of being vulnerable. But the love and desire she felt for him far outweighed her fear.

Her grandfather greeted the news with a sniff when she called him before lunch and told him.

“In my day, we married before we lived together,” he said.

“When was your day again, Grandpa?” she teased lightly. “Before or after the dinosaurs?”

He spluttered out a laugh at her cheekiness, then was suddenly serious.

“You sound happy, Jimmy. Is this really what you want?”

“I love him,” she said simply. “And he loves me. We want to be together.”

Her grandfather cleared his throat. “Well. You tell Cooper I’ll stop polishing my shotgun after what I saw the other night, then.”

“He’ll be relieved, I know,” Jamie said with a smile. She shot a look to where Cooper was eating a bowl of cereal at the kitchen counter.

“I’ve had a couple of phone calls for you while you were gone. The international news services must have picked up on your fight because one of them was American.”

“Yeah? Huh,” Jamie said, frowning.

“You want me to give them Cooper’s number if they call again?”

“Sure. Why not?” She might hate the press, but building a reputation for herself in the States would be good for her career.

She spent the rest of the day lounging around the house with Cooper. They did a crossword, then she succumbed to Cooper’s cajoling and finally read him the newspaper’s version of what had happened in Dubbo. They had two days’ worth of newsprint to pick over by then. Sunday’s paper was full of her win and the surprise revelation of her identity, and she skimmed over the story quickly, not wanting to dwell on the background material they’d dug up about her father. Jack’s fraud conviction and suicide two years ago were the stuff of journalists’ wet dreams, and she refused to read yet more column inches on a subject that had already caused her enough pain. Monday’s paper was focused more on the fight in the parking lot, going over Vandenburg’s fight history and briefly recapping the two professional bouts the two men had had in the ring. Cooper smiled broadly as she read him the journalist’s assessment that Vandenburg had resorted to “dirty tricks and thuggery” when it became clear that Cooper had beaten him yet again.

“They’re pushing pretty hard,” Cooper concluded. “Maybe he will get suspended.”

“Couldn’t happen to a better asshole,” she said.

A police officer from the local precinct came by in the early afternoon to take Cooper’s statement on behalf of the Dubbo police, and toward the end of the afternoon, she took him for a drive, just to get out of the house.

They wound up in bed after an early dinner. It was where they both wanted to be—where their hormones and emotions demanded they be.

Afterward, she lay with her head on his chest and a hand on his belly.

“Your doctor’s appointment is tomorrow,” she said after a long silence.

“Yep.”

She knew from conversations they’d had after she’d applied his eyedrops that he could discern light through his injured eye. A positive sign, Cooper said.

“Are you worried?” she asked. She was. He’d have to be superhuman not to be.

“There are a bunch of people who get by without any sight at all,” he said. “Even if the news is bad, I’ll deal with it. But I don’t think it will be. It feels good. Itchy as all hell, but good.”

The doctor agreed with his self-assessment the next day. While Jamie clutched Cooper’s hand, Dr. Samuels eased the pad off and examined his eye.

It was red and sore-looking, but Cooper quickly confirmed that he could see.

It took Jamie a moment to realize she was crying.

“I don’t know what’s wrong with me,” she told Cooper, sniffing the tears away. “I swear, before I met you I hadn’t cried for years.”

“My special gift to you,” Cooper said.

With a checkup scheduled for the following week, they drove home again. Cooper was quiet. She kept shooting glances at him as she drove. Sensing her scrutiny, he met her gaze and silently reassured her by taking her hand in his and smiling. Happiness washed over her. He was going to be okay.

Cooper’s mind had turned to gym business by the time they pulled into the garage at his place. He was listing the calls he needed to make when they reentered the house. Absently he pressed the flashing light on the answering machine to retrieve his messages, and they both froze when they heard an American accent boom out into the room.

“This is Lewis White calling from the U.S. I’m looking for Jamie Sawyer. Jamie, if you want to call me back, I’ve got an offer to put to you.”

The caller reeled off a long number.

Cooper swore and reached for the delete button. Jamie caught his finger just in time.

“What are you doing? Lewis White is one of the biggest fight promoters in the U.S.,” she said. As though he didn’t know that already.

“He’s a lying, sneaky piece of crap,” Cooper said. “If he wants to offer you something, wait until we’ve found you another trainer.”

“I should at least speak to him, see what he’s offering.”

“No,” Cooper said, shaking his head. “Fighters who deal directly with promoters get done over. Trust me, I’ve seen it happen too many times to count.”

She frowned. “So I just don’t respond? What could it hurt to talk to the guy?”

“If you want to get a start on the U.S. circuit, leave it up to someone who knows to steer you right.”

Jamie bit her lip. The need to find another trainer was but one of many things that she’d shoved to one side while Cooper recovered. How long would it take before she had someone else lined up? And what would happen to the deal Lewis White was offering in the meantime?

“I’m going to call him back,” she said.

Cooper’s jaw tensed, but he didn’t say another word. He stood with arms crossed over his chest while she listened to the message again, jotting down the phone number before pulling out her cell phone.

Lewis White answered on the third ring.

“Mr. White. My name is Jamie Sawyer. You left a message for me,” she explained, very aware of Cooper hovering darkly at her elbow.

“I’ve been trying to get a hold of you for two days now. You’re a tough lady to track down,” Lewis White said.

“Sorry about that, I’ve been busy.”

“Ms. Sawyer, I’m going to cut to the chase since I’m in a bit of a time jam here. You ever heard of a fighter called Roma Williams?”

Jamie’s pulse quickened.

“Of course I have. She’s the world number five,” she said. She’d seen Roma fight a half dozen times at Ray’s place on cable. She was scary good.

“I’ve got a fight scheduled between Williams and an up-and-coming Philly girl by the name of Larissa Farnam in Las Vegas in six weeks’ time—ten rounds, a half-million-dollar purse. Problem is Ms. Farnam has gone and broken her leg in a training accident.”

“Right,” Jamie said.

“Which leaves me looking for a replacement. I won’t lie to you—you weren’t my first or even second choice. But I heard about what you did to Liana Nelson on the weekend and people who know say that you can fight. I figure we might get as many folks interested in seeing Jack Sawyer’s little girl strut her stuff in the ring as Ms. Farnam. So, are you interested?”

Jamie blinked. Her head was spinning.

Roma Williams.

She was being offered a shot at the world number five. If she won, it would fast-track her career and put her that much closer to a title fight.

“You still there, Ms. Sawyer?” Lewis asked, his American accent echoing down the line.

“Yes. I’m still here. And yes, I’ll take it,” she said.

Cooper’s eyebrows snapped together in a frown.

“What? What are you taking?”

She gave Lewis White her e-mail address so he could send through the pertinent details. Cooper put a hand on her shoulder.

“Let me talk to him,” he said, holding out a hand.

“I’ll speak to you soon, Mr. White,” Jamie said, ending the call before Cooper could snatch the phone from her hand.

“What did you just agree to?” Cooper asked.

“I’m fighting Roma Williams in Las Vegas in six weeks’ time.” She said it defiantly, challengingly, because she knew that Cooper was going to object. He flushed a dull red and thumped a hand down onto the kitchen counter.

“What the hell, Jamie,” he said. “Have you seen your face? That eye alone is going to take three weeks to heal. And you want to go into the ring in six? You’ve just taken a major pounding.”

“I’ll be fine. I’m a fast healer.”

“Roma Williams is a tough fighter.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “And?”

“She’s much more experienced than you. You’re not ready for her.”