She steadied her breathing as the FPW announcer came on and a few warm-up matches were played out by lesser celebrities in the wresting world. Men who yelled and pointed and played like tough guys and made total idiots of themselves with their antics. She drew a deep breath and nodded. Okay. She could handle the phony stuff. So far, so good. One blond man broke a flimsy chair over a brunet’s back and it bent in half like it was made of tinfoil. Fake prop chair. Okay. No problem.
About thirty minutes into the program and after six commercials, the announcer put on his excited voice again to introduce the main event. She wondered if she should go get some popcorn. But she didn’t, sticking to her perch on the bed, her pillow clutched to her chest protectively.
Then the crowd was on its feet, shrieking and yelling, and she watched an incredible pyrotechnic lead-in as one huge, utterly scary-looking man jogged down the ramp into the arena, his face contorted with what appeared to be maniacal rage as he approached the ring and hopped up the metal stairs at one corner. The monster had to weigh over three hundred pounds. He was about seven feet tall and he shouted obscenities at people in the crowd who booed him.
He was announced as the Wolfman and Sam’s heart dropped to her feet as she realized this was the brute David was going to have to fight. But in the next breath, the crowd was roaring even louder and she saw the tall, massively powerful figure of her dream lover stepping out of the entrance and coming down the ramp at a jog as another light show and explosions roared through the arena.
Oh. My. God.
He was as gorgeous as she remembered and she ached at the sight of him.
She couldn’t take her eyes from him. He was dressed in snug-fitting black and silver spandex that left absolutely nothing to the viewer’s imagination, and matching ring boots. His body was gleaming in the light, as if he’d oiled those rippling muscles for effect. As if he needed oil smoothed over that body to make women hot and shivery. Hah!
Her mouth went dry as she recalled how she had enjoyed that marvelous body so thoroughly just a couple of weeks ago. His bronzed, delicious body had been damp with a sheen of sweat. His muscles had rolled like velvet steel against her body as they lost themselves in the sheer pleasure of a night of nonstop lovemaking. Seeing him half-naked was enough to bring that night back with a clarity she certainly didn’t want or need at this moment.
He also wore the same heavy gold chain around his neck that she had felt pressed into her breasts when he had driven her mindless with pleasure. The ornate cross that hung from it rode over his breastbone and the memories flooded back, making her close her eyes in reaction. Oh Lord. She shivered with each memory that assailed her. And when she found herself touching her own body intimately, she blushed hotly and clutched the damn pillow in a death grip.
She opened her eyes as the announcer told the audience that they were about to lower the cage. A massive metal cage descended on chains from the ceiling, blocking any possible escape from the ring, and she swallowed as she watched David Chance leap onto the corner ropes, raise one fist and shout to the crowd, “Who’s the best?”
They shouted and chanted his stage name and as he turned to face his opponent, the wild look on his handsome face was as scary as that on the face of the hulking brute who was charging him in an attempt to surprise him. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hands as she watched the behemoth slam into him and then pick him up and slam him onto the mat onto his back. David’s handsome face contorted with pain and as the giant sought to win the match by grabbing him behind his knees and rolling him up onto his shoulders, he suddenly slammed his leg into the man’s face and rolled away and onto his feet as quickly as a cat.
She shook her head. This wasn’t the same. Those other men had seemed to be play-fighting. But that huge monster was going all out to kill his opponent. The fake fighting seemed to have vanished. She cringed as David floored the behemoth and strained to hold him immobile while the ref clapped a hand on the floor. The giant with the vicious sneer elbowed him in the face-hard. She covered her eyes and gave a strangled moan, then looked to see if he was still alive.
The crowd was roaring and screaming as the bigger man once again attempted the move that had landed David on his back. But this time, David made a flying leap and his legs were somehow around the giant’s neck. Both men slammed to the mat, with David rolling clear and wheeling around to fling himself onto the bigger man’s chest with a crunching downward elbow that caught the giant across the throat as the crowd came to its feet and raised the roof. Cool move. Okay, this was much better.
A split second later, David was climbing the ropes onto the corner post and she gasped as he launched his body at the other man in a flying leap that was obviously intended to crush the other man into the mat. But the bigger man rolled away and David hit the mat hard, with a sound that made her stomach roll. She put her hands over her eyes and moaned, then peeped between her fingers to see David being held aloft and slammed to the mat once again, his face a grimace of agony as the man wheeled and dragged him up a third time. She caught sight of the blood on the side of his head and she gave a little cry of shock.
That beast was going to kill him!
But this time, when he was poised over the man’s head, he suddenly swung his body outward and the bigger man went crashing down sideways like a fallen log. She watched in shock as David returned to his feet by flipping himself up and then leaped into the air to slam a knee down onto his opponent’s massive chest.
The crowd was absolutely rabid as they screamed and yelled and then the match climaxed with David hoisting the massive body of his opponent over his own head with a Herculean effort and falling backward to drop the huge man with a resounding crash to the mat. Then it was over as David rolled him up instantly and pinned his huge shoulders to the mat for a three count. The steel cage was raised from the ring.
She fell back against the pillows and calmed her ragged breathing as the man she had spent the most amazingly romantic night of her life with leaped onto the ropes and raised his fists as the crowd went wild.
“Who’s the best?” he roared. His body was gleaming with real perspiration and she saw the bulging blood vessels on his neck and arms as he bared his teeth like a savage beast and his eyes widened to look like he was berserk.
“You are,” she breathed softly, staring at the not-so-fake blood that was freely running down his face onto his perspiring chest. He ran the back on his hand across the blood on his cheek and held the bloody fist up again as he crossed the ring to jump onto the other ropes.
She didn’t want to see any more. She had seen all she could bear. She closed her eyes and buried her face in the pillow and wept softly. She had seen him do what he did and she had seen the very real blood. She realized that he must be amazingly athletic to do it, but even a man as powerful and vicious in the ring as her dream lover appeared to be at risk of injury. And she couldn’t watch as someone hurt him. Not for all the money in the world.
Then she heard his voice.
“This is for you, Samantha Hastings!”
She jerked the pillow off her head and sat up with a jolt. He was hoisting a very heavy-looking, ornate belt with a huge oval metal center. His eyes were directly on her face, or so it seemed as he looked straight into the camera.
She swallowed hard as he lowered his voice and said almost in a purr, “You can run but you can’t hide from me forever. I’ll find you again and next time it won’t be so easy for you to walk away.”
The crowd roared as her photo suddenly appeared on the screen.