The Champ: Bad Boys Book 5 (The Bad Boys) (4 page)

Yes, I grew up in a happy home with a mom and dad, who were crazy about each other. But I’ve been out there and I knew that that shit’s not the norm. So just what the fuck was she doing to me anyway? How could she tie me up in knots when we hadn’t even fucked yet? Didn’t there have to be more before a man felt like he was sinking fast? One hour, that’s about as long as she had taken to turn my shit upside down.

She fidgeted about and tried to escape my hold a time or two but the third time she did it I wrapped my arm around her middle and bit into her neck. She stopped all movement and sat frozen until I released her flesh, which I did only when I was sure that I had left my mark.

She clapped her hand over the spot and glared over her shoulder at me. “Stay still, you try getting up again I’ll give you more of the same.” She huffed and turned back to the others while I left my arm where it was and nuzzled her. She tensed up until she realized I wasn’t about to maul her again, and then I felt her relax.

Conversation was flowing easily at the table as the new acquaintances got to know each other. I wasn’t interested in that shit anymore than I was interested in the looks being sent my way from the other women in the room, all my focus was on her. My every sense seemed tuned into her and I wondered if she knew, if she was feeling the same high voltage currents running through her that were zapping me.

“So tell me about yourself, you live around here?” I had to shake my leg to get her to answer. “What do you want to know?” She seemed a little more relaxed as she took sips of her fruity drink. I’d all but forgotten my beer. Any woman who can make a man forget why he came to the bar in the first place was one dangerous fuck. “Everything.”

So I sat there like a fucking chump and let her reel me in as she told me about her childhood, growing up in a town a few hundred miles away, before coming here for college. It was then I learned she was only three years younger than I and that she was studying to be a lawyer.

“Any men in your life?” I felt the change in her but held my peace, giving her the opportunity to tell me herself. I wasn’t sure why, but the thought of her being with anyone else made me feel murderous. Chances are at twenty-two she’d already had a relationship or two, and I myself have had my share, but it pained my gut to think that someone else had had her. Had ever tasted those lips or held her naked flesh against theirs.

I had to cut my thoughts off when I found my body tensing for the fight. Just what the fuck? Really? You’re gonna be one of those Wyatt? Fucking caveman? I hate guys like that, always thought they were weak little insecure assholes, especially when I was the guy on the receiving end of their girl’s supposed adoration. Please don’t let this shit be poetic justice I’d lose my fucking mind.

In that split second, I thought of what our lives would be like, me having to go off and leave her while I travelled the world fighting to keep my title. How the fuck was I gonna do that shit if I turned into an asshole? And why the fuck are you thinking about this shit? You just met for fuck sake. Even as I thought it I knew I was just fooling myself. Whatever this was time didn’t seem to matter a damn.

“No.” That’s all she said but it was enough to loosen the knots in my gut and relax the fists I’d formed in readiness. What an ass. We exchanged small getting to know you talk after that and before long she seemed to be getting used to my touch; at least she’d stopped trying to escape me and her body was no longer so stiff. That could be because I never stopped touching her in some way.

If I wasn’t running my hand through her hair it was a finger trailing down her arm or around her ear, and still my other hand stayed close to that ass that had so tempted me from the start. There was laughter and cheap shots flying around the table as my boys and her girls settled down for a nice pre-holiday night out. I wonder if they noticed that neither of us participated? Too caught up in our own little drama.

The gorilla and his friends were long gone but I knew my boys, like me, were still on the alert just in case. Still it had been a while and it didn’t look like they were coming back for more. That’s why I was surprised when this guy came in and just walked right up to us and grabbed her arm. What the fuck?

“Let’s go.” He tried pulling her off my lap but I was holding her around her middle, it was just reflex. She’d told me there was no man in her life, but in that split second I didn’t care, no one else was going to have her, not after I’d seen her, not after she’d made me feel.

Still, I glared at her for deceiving me, why else would this asshole be pulling on her arm like he owned her? For the first time in my life my ethics took a nosedive. I was never one for poaching, never even flirted with another man’s woman, but I knew I wouldn’t let her go.

I was pissed the fuck off though and the terrified look on her face wasn’t helping her case any. “Are you married to this fuck?” What the fuck was she doing sitting here with me if she was already taken? Before she could answer one of her girls did it for her.

“No she’s not, get out of here you piece a shit before I call the cops. She doesn’t want anything to do with you why can’t you get that through your thick skull?” It was only after that outburst that I was able to relax. That’s good, that’s real good, she’s not his, I’m not about to become a home wrecker. I’ll have to think really hard about the fact that I was willing to walk down that road later, but right now there was a more pressing matter at hand.

I kept my eyes on hers and the stark fear I saw there made my gut turn over. There’re only a few reasons for a woman to react that way to a man and I didn’t like any of them. “Give me the condensed version, make it quick.”

“This has nothing to do with you mister.” I ignored his ass until he tried pulling on her again. By now, my boys were on their feet waiting for my next move, before they made theirs. I wasn’t worried about the asshole, only how much damage I was gonna have to do to him according to what she told me in the next five minutes.

“Talk.”

“We went out once a while ago, I didn’t…” I didn’t let her finish she didn’t need to. I just stood up, passed her off to my brother who was closest to me as usual and punched the fuck in the face sending him to the ground. “Get her outta here.” This idiot wasn’t as big as the one I’d just taken down but he had mean written all over him.

“Get up you fuck.” I kept seeing the fear in her eyes, hearing the tremble in her voice as she told me about their one date. I knew this story all too well and could see why the fuck would lose his shit over her. Too bad for him she was off the market.

Like all cowards, when he got to his feet he didn’t come at me. Instead he wiped the blood from his lip, looked around as if searching for her and threw me a withering look before heading for the exit.

Jace had hung back as I knew he would, that was part of the bro creed; we never left anyone alone in a situation like this. “Where is she?” I kept my eyes on asshole number two as he left and all the while my only thought was for her. What the fuck had he done to cause that fear in her and what was it gonna take to erase it?

“Chad and Cole took her to the truck. You cool?”

“Yeah let’s go.” I dropped enough bills on the table to more than cover our drinks and a tip before we left. It wasn’t lost on me that I’d just met this girl and already had to lay two motherfuckers on the ground over her. Not sure if that was a good thing or not, but I knew it was through no fault of hers.

I’m gonna have to do some serious thinking before the night was over. Things were moving fast but not in the way I’m accustomed to. I knew five minutes after putting her on my lap that she was going to be more, mean more than anyone ever had before. The longer she sat there the more I knew she was going to be there for a long fucking time. Now it looked like I was going to have to decide real quick how long that was going to be.

I think in my gut I already knew, it was a feeling that couldn’t be put into words, just something I felt down to my soul. But it had come from so far out of left field, blindsided me actually, that it was almost hard to grasp, to accept. Shit like this just didn’t happen in real life, not for me anyway.

How could you not know in some way that you were about to meet your destiny? I had no clue when I got off that plane earlier this evening that at the end of the day I was going to meet the woman who was going to tie me in knots. Even thinking about her makes me feel like I’d won and winning never felt this fucking good. Fuck I am so screwed.

Outside in the parking lot there was no sign of the asshole and my brother and friend had the situation under control. The girls were all piled into the truck with Chad and Cole, with Traci sat in the middle of the guys up front so they could protect mine. Looks like they already knew too.

I opened the door and looked in past Cole. “You okay?” She nodded her head yes but I could see that she was still shaken up. I should’ve kicked his ass. Once I was sure that she was just scared and not hurt I turned my mind to other things.

“How did you ladies get here?” I looked in the back where her girls were huddled.

“We drove, our car’s over there.” Her mouthy friend, Christine I think was her name, pointed out a dark colored SUV across the lot. “Come on we’ll take you home. Cole you drive them, where we headed ladies?”

“What do you mean?” Traci found her voice as she climbed out of the truck behind Cole. “I mean we’re following you home.”

“Why would you do that?”

“Because whatever that was in there is not going away anytime soon and I won’t be the man I am if I let you leave here alone.”

“I’m not alone.” She pointed to her friends who were in the backseat taking in every word. “Ladies, go with Cole we’ll follow you home. You live alone?” I turned my attention back to her.

“Why would I tell you that? For all I know you could be just as…” I cut her ass off right there. “Don’t even think about comparing me to that fuck, get back in the truck.” Her girls climbed out the back and she excused herself so that they could have a little huddle in which I guess they were trying to convince her that I was safe.

She was right in a sense, she didn’t know me and I could be as big an asshole as the one who’d just left, but that’s something she’s gonna have to figure out on her own and soon. I pulled my wallet and gave Christine my ID. Next, I asked for her number and called her phone so she’d have my number as added security for her friend. “That’s gonna have to be enough for now, get in the truck.”

She looked at me like I was nuts as I helped her back in the truck where Jace and Chad were waiting with one of her girls who decided to stay with her. That was good, it showed that these women had their heads on straight, and from the way they’d reacted to the asshole, the way they’d rallied around her, I knew she was in good hands.

She gave me shit about the address but Cole had already pulled out so I guess Christine was on the ball again. I understood her position, there was no way she could know I’d already lost my fucking mind and was already thinking of her as mine. I’m about to rectify that shit right quick though. I hope she can keep up, if not, oh well.

I settled in next to her and took stock of the situation. I wasn’t going to get the pussy tonight the whole program had changed. This one was gonna take a hell of a lot more work. Funny thing is, I no longer cared, she made me want more. A few kisses and that ass of hers coupled with her shy sweetness and I was hooked. She probably did that shit on purpose.

We sat in the very back with her friend and Jace in front squeezed in next to Chad. I kept my voice low so no one could hear what was being said. “Did you know when you put that dress on tonight that you were gonna snag the father of your children?” She started to grin but when she got a look at my face in the dim light of the car and saw that I was dead fucking serious, that shit died on her lips.

“Why are you doing this to me?”

“What am I doing to you?”

“You know.” That head went down again and she tried hiding from me. “I just got away from a very ugly…”

“Not here, we’re gonna talk about that but not here not now.” No, when we have that particular talk I wanted her attention only on me because as I told her, I was sure that shit wasn’t over.

Whether or not he would back off now that there was a man in the picture remains to be seen, but either way I wasn’t done with him. “Like I was saying, I don’t know what plans you had for your life, but I can tell you I plan on being a big part of all of them.”

“Is this your usual ammo? Do you always meet strange women in bars and sell them pipe dreams? I might’ve been stupid once but I learned that lesson.”

“I don’t believe for a second that you’ve ever been stupid a day in your life, and whatever lesson you learned ain’t had shit to do with me. I’m me, whoever the fuck you dealt with before is not my problem so get that shit out your head.”

“I’m more than willing to hear your life story and help you work through whatever and heal whatever scars are left behind, but I’m never gonna cash somebody else’s check. Whatever you learned, whatever you thought before forget it. I’m me you deal with me got it?”

She didn’t have anything to say to that so I just took her hand and raised it to my lips as the car ahead of us turned into a parking lot. “You live here?” I looked around at the surroundings taking in the dark spots and the wooded area around the building.

She lived in a condo complex with three buildings to a row. There was no real lighting to speak of in the parking lot and the walk to the door was a good fifty feet. Not acceptable. I pulled my phone as the rest of them went ahead. While she dragged her feet her friends seemed more sure and relaxed as they led the guys inside.