After she ducked, the cameraman turned his camera back to the ring but the video footage they already had kept playing again and again at appropriate moments.
She imagined that David had to be aware of her presence by now. The whole damn arena was aware of her presence. She noted heads craning to see her and she groaned as Joe nudged her again with that sharp elbow. But David seemed to be too hard pressed by three opponents to acknowledge her in any way.
She returned her attention to the ring just as all hell broke loose around her and David came flying over the ropes as if launched from a catapult. People in the two rows in front all scattered as his heavy body slammed into the chairs right in front of her with a sickening crash.
Joe and Greg were on their feet as David struggled up from the bent and broken chairs and turned toward her. The pain on his face was very real but when his eyes met hers, a crooked grin replaced the grimace of pain as he flung two chairs aside and towered over her, much to the rabid, screaming delight of twenty-five-thousand wrestling fans.
Joe gave a whoop and shoved her to her feet and before she could blink or move out of David’s way, she was being dragged into his arms, against his perspiring, blood-spattered body and being kissed silly in front of the entire wrestling world.
Oh, how good he tasted. How good he felt. Her body melted as he dragged her against him, letting her feel every hard, rippling muscle from chest to thighs. He was sweaty and hot and the veins stood out on his face and body like rivers on a map. He was totally amazing. Totally beautiful. And he wanted her, Sam Hastings.
Her mind deserted her. Her glands took over again and she wrapped her arms and legs about him and kissed him back, taking the initiative as she swept her tongue into his hot mouth, seeking his. She heard the deep, rumbling groan that shook his chest, felt it in her mouth as he devoured her like a starving sailor trapped on a desert island without food or water. His large hands slid down to drag her ass closer to his hips and she whimpered.
It didn’t matter that she was on TV. It didn’t matter at all that the guys were shouting encouragement to David. All that mattered for that one, marvelous moment was that he was kissing her again like she had been kissed in her dreams, in his bed.
And then all hell broke loose again.
Powerful arms snaked around her from behind and she was dragged painfully away from him as he was dragged away from her by two of his opponents, who had apparently followed him out of the ring. She realized that the man holding her in midair and laughing was none other than the Wolfman, because the other two were dragging David back to the ring and flinging him back under the ropes.
Struggling to regain a footing as she was being held tightly in a pair of massive steel arms, she was too shocked to think lucidly-until she felt the wrestler’s hand give her left breast a familiar squeeze. A deep laugh and hot breath close behind her ear galvanized her into action. “Nice. Real nice.”
“Put me down, you jerk!” she yelled as she kicked backward. The heels of her boots found his shins and ankles and she slammed her head back into his face. She felt cartilage snapping and she was released instantly to fall on the floor as the huge wrestler put his hands to his face and gave a muffled curse.
The crowd roared as she was dragged up by her young bodyguards and she turned to see that she had broken the Wolfman’s nose. Blood was running between his ham-sized hands and she gasped, “Sorry. But you should know better than to grab someone’s breast!”
The enraged look on that bloody face made her give a little shriek of fear and she bolted through the mangled chairs toward the ring, nearly knocking the cameraman off his feet as the roaring wrestler behind her gave chase, flinging chairs every which way as he pursued her.
“Dear God, how the hell do I get myself into these messes?” she gasped as she dodged around the ring. He followed her, his eyes narrowed with anticipation. He would tear her head off. The second time around the ring, she dashed up the metal steps, flinging herself under the ropes and clambering to her feet, her eyes on the man who was now climbing the steps slowly, his face contorted into a blood-smeared, leering grin as he bent to step between the ropes.
She whirled around to see David being held down on the mat by the sumo guy while the other giant was climbing the corner ropes. Horrified, she wasn’t exactly considering that this was all just an elaborate act. She simply reacted instinctively and charged the huge man balancing on the ropes for a dive onto David’s body. She caught him at thigh level with her palms and shoved him backward as hard as she could, sending him sprawling into the outer area where he landed with a resounding crash on the announcers’ table, as both of those men bolted with yells of shock.
She shrieked as she was grabbed from behind again and she struggled helplessly as she was hoisted bodily over the sumo guy’s head by the seat of her pants and the back of her tank top and sweater. She gave a cry of shock and closed her eyes, expecting to be flung from the ring to land on top of the man who was trying to climb out of the mangled table.
But instead of flying out of the ring, she felt him turn toward the center and she looked wildly around to see David rising from the mat after having taken down the bleeding Wolfman. He shot her a quick, unreadable look, dragged the Wolfman up from the mat and, hoisting him overhead with a Herculean effort, flung the wrestler from the ring onto the floor, where the man lay moaning.
As David turned to face the gigantic man who was holding her over his head, she realized that he actually looked alarmed. She saw that he was shouting but couldn’t hear what he was saying over the roar of the crowd and her earplugs. She felt the man pull back to throw her and she automatically drew herself into a defensive ball as she felt her body being launched.
She screamed as she flew through the air in what seemed to be slow motion-until she slammed into a solid object that seemed to absorb most of the momentum of her flight and then she was rolling across the mat, miraculously unhurt.
She scrambled to her feet and turned to see the huge sumo guy go flying out of the ring to land on the staggering Wolfman, who had regained his feet just in time to catch the flying sumo. She saw David wheel around to face her across the ring and she realized he was saying something to her. She dragged the earplugs out and shouted above the roar of the arena, “What? I didn’t hear you!”
“I said, what the hell were you thinking?” He was bleeding from a cut above his left eye as he stalked across the mat toward her like some jungle cat after its prey. His face was oddly pale and his eyes were furious. “When you jump into the ring, you’re fair game. You’re goddamn lucky I caught you!”
She swallowed hard, taking a shaky step backward. “What? Didn’t you see that big jerk chase me up here?” Her voice was shaking as she backed away another step.
“He wouldn’t have hurt you. He was just playing the heel.” His dark eyes slid over her rumpled, disarranged top that had been dragged up to bare a large section of her midriff.
“Well, he didn’t look like he was gonna hug me after I broke his nose!” she yelled, taking another step back as he took another step forward. She tugged her top down jerkily.
“You did what?” His face changed from a black scowl to an amazed grin.
“He grabbed me where he had no business putting his damn hands and I head-butted him in the face.” She glared at him. “And it’s not all that funny!”
David stopped where he was and grinned broadly at her. “Maybe you should be the one who gets the belt.” He planted his hands on his hips and shook his head. “And what the hell are you doing here? I figured you’d be safely tucked away in the apartment.”