Page 4 of The Fighter

That was the most I’d heard him talk yet, and I picked up on the way he shortened his words. “No, that’s usually all I do. But never a man who looks like you.” I gestured to the sheer size of him. He had to know he was physically intimidating.

He seemed to think about that for a minute, then he nodded. “He’d be right for calling you crazy.”

“Oh? Would you call me crazy?”

He licked his lips, a slight blushing staining his cheeks. Then he shook his head and looked at his booted feet. “Nah. I’d never hurt you, Con.”

It was on the tip of my tongue to correct him. To tell him that my name was Conrad. I never let anyone shorten my name. But I was struck by two things: First, I liked how Con sounded on his lips. And second, he’d somehow acknowledged that he could hurt me, but he wouldn’t, in six words.

“Youcouldhurt me, though,” I confirmed.

His jaw shifted, like he was biting the inside of his cheek. Finally, he lifted his gaze. “Everyone’s got a way to hurt someone, don’t they?”

TWO

Conrad

“Everyone’s got a way to hurt someone, don’t they?”

His words yanked at a thread in my soul, and I cut it off before any more could unravel.

The elevator doors opened, and we stepped out into the foyer in front of my door. I entered another code to unlock my door. The light inside flickered on automatically, sensing our entrance.

I held out my hand for his jacket, which he slid off his shoulders and handed to me. I hung his up alongside mine in the hallway closet and then beckoned him to follow me.

My foyer was tiled in large black and white travertine tiles, the same checkered pattern extending down the hallway. It was a little cold, a little sterile. But the coldness was more soothing to me than a warm-toned wooden floor. The kitchen was black and silver, with a royal blue tiled backsplash. I took down two glasses and filled them with ice water from the fridge dispenser, sipping one as I handed the other to Tav.

I only had sex sober, and that was one of my rules, that my partner was too. “How much did you have to drink at the club?”

Tav’s water was already halfway gone. “One shot.”

I nodded, content with that. His huge body had probably already metabolized that one shot.

I wanted him naked so badly, my hands shook with it, the ice rattling in my glass. A voice in my head, a very small, yet forceful voice told me that if I wanted to keep my simple, uncomplicated life, I’d send Tav home now. But those eyes were locked on mine, and I couldn’t look away, eager to see what happened to all those colors in his irises once I was inside of him.

I held out my hand for his empty glass, which he handed to me. As I placed both glasses in the sink, his head turned, peering outside the wall of windows which overlooked the twinkling lights of downtown Detroit. “You can stand closer, if you’d like,” I told him, pleased that even in his curiosity, he hadn’t moved without my permission. His eyes flicked to mine, then he moved to one of the windows. He looked out, bracing a hand on one of the steel frames. I stepped closer, admiring the veins in his forearm, the bunched muscles in his back.

“Take off your shirt,” I said softly, needing to see his body, wanting to know what he looked like when he stood at the window, as if he was king of the city.

He lowered his hand at his side and slid his eyes over his shoulder where I stood behind him. Then he faced the window and grasped the hem of his shirt, drawing it up and over his head in one smooth motion.

A weight descended on my chest, constricting my breathing. Shirtless, he looked even more massive, each muscle standing out in stark relief under his skin. He held his shirt in one balled fist, his arms tense. A large angel in flight was inked in black and gray across his back, her wings stretching from one of his shoulders to the other. One knee was drawn up, the other legstraight, as if she had just leaped off the ground. Her arms were outstretched on either side of her head, reaching up toward Tav’s neck. Her long hair and dress billowed around her.

I stroked her wings with a fingertip, tracing the outline. Tav’s muscles jumped and shifted under his skin as I made my way across the artwork on his back. Letting my hand trail along his bicep, I walked around him to see his front. It didn’t escape my notice that he had a lot of scars here and there. Some were old, some were new, and they were all varied. I hadn’t been mistaken when I assumed he was a physical man. I lifted my gaze and met his. He watched me as I studied his pecs and as I squeezed the muscle slightly, which brought out a grunt in him.

I ran the back of my hand over the ridges of his abs and traced the V-cut muscle along his hip. His tattoo was a work of art, but so was his body. Each scar told a story that I was dying to hear but knew it wasn’t my right to know. He’d promised me his body for a night, not his life story. All I could promise was that I wouldn’t add to his scars. I’d take care of him, give him what he needed, and then I’d send him back to where he came from.

I cupped the back of his head and lowered his face to mine. Nipping his lips, gently, I said, “You’re gorgeous.”

He didn’t answer, but his eyes fluttered, his long dark lashes brushing my cheeks. I released him and motioned for him to follow me down the hallway to my right. His booted footsteps were loud behind me as the checkered pattern gave way to all back tiles as we made our way down the hallway. I opened the last door on the end, which was my bedroom.

My California King bed was in the center. I used all white bedding, the rest of my room decorated in soft browns and tans. I didn’t bother turning on a light, instead letting the lights from the city filter in through the large, uncovered window running along one side of the room. When I slept, I usually drew thecurtains closed, because the light from the hotel sign nearby brightened my room at night.

Tav stood at the windows again, looking out at the city. I smiled slightly at how he was drawn to the windows in every room. He still held his shirt in his fist.

“Tav,” I said.

He turned around, face guarded. Wary.