Slam! His knee did a punching stab and hit my liver. I crumpled as pain ricocheted through my lower body. Gasping for air, I arched back just as he missed nailing me with a high left leg kick. I swayed around the ring.
Shit-motherfucking-hell.
“Fight’s over, English,” he taunted as he landed another jab to my gut.
Again.
Again.
Air whooshed out and the room spun. My bare feet fumbled around the ring and I tripped and fell to my knees.
Air. Needed fucking air.
Sirens reached my ears first. Then the screams of the spectators as they ran for the exit doors.
“Cops are coming,” a mummy screamed as he ran past and then climbed out one of the windows that lined the south side of the warehouse.
Now it was a madhouse.
Yeti did a crude gesture with his dick and then pointed his finger at me. “This isn’t over. You got lucky this time, English. Next time, I’ll kill you then I’ll fuck you.” He rocked his hips and laughed. As I watched him, he jogged over to his manager and then darted out a door that led to a myriad of offices in the back. I had no clue if there was an exit back there.
“Let’s get the hell out of here,” Max yelled as he grabbed my arm and tugged me toward the main doors of the warehouse.
“Wait,” I wheezed out and pulled loose from him. “Where’s Dax?” I scanned the room, looking for his build. “And Elizabeth? She’s here somewhere.”
“Don’t be an idiot. You’re the one they’ll arrest,” he yelled at me.
The sirens blared loud now, the flashing blue lights ricocheting into the cracked windows.
I turned to him. “Go on. I’m coming right behind you.”
He groaned and gave up on me and ran for the door.
I stood in the middle of the chaos. Most of the place had emptied except for the people who’d been on the top level and were trying to maneuver the rickety stairwells.
No blond hair. No Dax as far as I could tell.
“This way!” a voice called from across the warehouse, nearly thirty feet away.
Dax stood at a broken window, poised to crawl through. Elizabeth stood next to him, her eyes like saucers. She motioned with wild hands for me to come on.
The squeal of tires came to a stop outside the warehouse. Car doors opened. Voices yelled.
I sprinted toward them. Dammit, I was too far away.
“Push her out first,” I yelled. “Cops are right behind me.”
He got what I meant and hoisted her up, careful to avoid the jagged shards of glass. Her legs disappeared over the edge.
“Go, Dax!”
He shook his head, a pleading look on his face as he watched me run through a group of girls who’d had too much to drink and were trying to get out.
He sent me one final look and jumped through the window. Through the panes of the glass, I saw his shadow grab Elizabeth’s and run for a neighboring building’s ally.
I ran hard toward the window and dove headfirst through it. Hitting the ground, I rolled back to my feet and kept moving.
Shouts came through the window from the interior of the warehouse.
Shit. The cops had come inside.
Go, go, go, I told myself.
I turned the corner of the building and darted down the dark alley where I was hoping Dax had gone. They weren’t there, so I kept running between buildings and calling their names. My fear was the cops would spread out, but with five hundred people going in every direction, I hoped they had their hands full.
Where were they?
I turned down a small side street nearly a block over when I saw them waving at me as they waited next to a dumpster in an alley.
I jogged over to them.
Dax sent me a wild look. “Cops? What the hell? That’s never happened—and my car is parked over there,” he wailed as he bent over to catch his breath. “Fun times, bro.”
I moved my attention to Elizabeth, who stood frozen as she watched me, her chest rising rapidly.
Her eyes suddenly widened. “Your hands are bleeding.”
I looked down, realizing I must have cut them when I’d hit the ground running.
She picked them up to inspect them and dabbed at them with the end of her tank. “This is crazy. We need to get you to the ER.”
My first instinct was to pull away from her touch, especially since my hands were swollen from fighting, but I didn’t move, the heat of her body intoxicating. She smelled like lemons or something fruity and I wanted to pull her to me and inhale deeply. “I’m fine,” I said gruffly.
“You’re not fine!” she snarled. Angry.
God, I loved that fire in her eyes.
“Why do you care so much anyway?”
She puffed up even more, blue eyes flashing as she dropped my hand and took a step back. I took in the soft curves of her breasts as she crossed her arms, the way her throat moved when she swallowed. My body tightened, my cock hardening. I told myself it was the usual leftover adrenaline, where I felt like I could fuck forever, but it was all her.
I wanted her, my pride be damned. All the turmoil from the past few days disappeared, and she was all that mattered.
I turned to Dax. “Go get my car. It’s three blocks east of here in an open lot on Chester Street. Key’s on the top of the driver’s side tire.” I paused. “And give us a few minutes before you come back.”
He rose up, his eyes jumping between me and Elizabeth. “Okay,” he said uncertainly. “You guys good here in the alley? Elizabeth?”
I cocked an eye at her, letting her see the heat in my gaze. You are mine, it said. “You okay alone with me?” I asked, a twist to my lips, daring her to say no.
She nodded and Dax ran off into the darkness, but neither one of us watched him leave, both of us wrapped up in each other. She was still angry, and I was just horny.
“Declan—” she started.
“Come here.”
She licked her lips. “Why?”
“I’ve been fighting, my blood is practically boiling, and I need you … now.”
Her nose flared and the pulse in her neck kicked up. I wasn’t alone in this, and I was done rolling over and giving up on her.
If she wouldn’t come to me, then I’d go to her.
I wiped the blood from my hands on my shorts until most of it was gone, seeing that my cuts weren’t as bad as I’d thought. My bruises would probably be worse. I glanced up to see her watching me. I moved closer to her until I had her backed her up against the metal building behind her, but I kept a few inches between us as I propped both arms up on either side of her head.
“Now ask me to kiss you,” I said, staring down at her.
She panted, her eyes filling up with darkness, her pupils telling me the truth. Her top teeth bit into her plump lower lip, and my eyes went straight there. I was going to suck that mouth hard tonight, and she’d beg for more.
“Are you hot for me, Elizabeth? Did watching me fight get you excited?”
She closed her eyes and shuddered as if just the sound of my voice got her off.
“Are you?” I asked again. “Because I want you so bad I can’t even think straight. I see you walk across campus or on your balcony and I want to run to you. I see you in class and, shit, I want to scoop you up and kiss you until you can’t breathe. I think about you in your bed at night all alone and I want to slip inside, crawl in your sheets, and hold you. Fuck you.”
I ran my fingertips across her lips. She moaned, her tongue dipping out to taste my skin. “Would you like that?”
She nodded, her eyes still closed, her neck arching up to mine. “Kiss me, please, Declan.”
“No. You kiss me. I need to know you want this too.”
She made a whimpering sound in her throat and moved her mouth a whisper away. Blood pounded in my body as she looped her hands around my neck and arched up to press her lips against mine. She was tentative, like the first kiss she’d given me, but I wasn’t having any of that. Groaning in satisfaction, I gathered her closer using my forearms, my hunger rising with each stroke of her tongue against mine. The press of her breasts against my chest made my cock pulse with need. She sighed and gave into the deepness I wanted, her tongue rubbing against mine seductively, her breasts and hips pressed against mine as I rocked against her.