Battered Not Broken (10 page)

Ally had improvised by calling her Aunt Elsa and suggesting she spend the evening with Maria. She’d agreed, which meant that Maria was currently in the company of her sister and two nieces – at least she wasn’t alone.

Since what was done was done, Ally decided to congratulate Ryan on his victory. Rising from her seat, she picked up her handbag from beneath it and made her way through the crowd, to the area near the men’s locker room.

He was there, lingering by the locker room door as Cameron slapped him on the back and yammered on about how well Ryan had done. From what Ally could make of Cameron’s chatter, he was looking into finding a larger venue to hold events at and talking about some training plans he’d laid out for Ryan’s upcoming week.

Ally wasn’t sure if Ryan had agreed to train with Cameron or not, but either way, it didn’t look like there would be any stopping Cameron’s wild enthusiasm.

“Hey.” Ally ducked under Cameron’s arm, planting herself between him and Ryan, whose facial expression indicated that he’d appreciate being rescued from Cameron’s zealous monologue.

“Hey.” Ryan favored her with a smile like the one he’d flashed her from the ring.

“You were amazing,” she said. “Congratulations.”

“Thanks.” His face glistened with sweat and he held a mouthpiece in one wrapped hand. “Let me clean up and we can get out of here.” He leaned down, his jaw nearly brushing the top of her head. “I’ll fight my way past Cameron if I have to.”

Ally’s lips quirked in an automatic smile. “You go ahead and get showered and dressed. I’ll wait here and distract him when you come out, if I have to.”

“Just make sure he hangs around long enough to pay me.” Ryan turned on his heel and dodged Cameron’s latest attempt to clap a hand down on his shoulder.

His change of position put her within a couple feet of his bare back instead of his sweat-slicked chest. For the first time, she was close enough to read the wording that had been worked into the uppermost part of the knotted design of his tattoo. Her eyes scanned the script automatically before he disappeared into the dressing room.

Semper Fidelis.

Her heart skipped a beat as realization clicked in her mind. Semper Fidelis. Always faithful. The United States Marine Corps motto. Her thoughts were suddenly peppered with images of Ryan in uniform, his blue eyes the brightest feature in a field of desert-colored camo. Or maybe complimenting a set of dress blues…

She hadn’t known – hadn’t even suspected. Her ignorance left a vaguely sour taste in her mouth. How had she gotten through an entire date with him without finding out, without asking? Somewhere in his mid to late twenties by her estimation – she wasn’t sure of his exact age, either – he was old enough to have completed one or even two four year military enlistment periods.

An entirely new set of butterflies took up residence in her stomach as she waited for him to emerge from the locker room. She still couldn’t think of him as a stranger. There was what he’d done for Melissa, and the fact that Ally felt more comfortable in his presence than she ever had with another date. Still, the revelation his tattoo had imparted reminded her of how much she had to learn about him.

And truth be told, she felt bad for not asking the right questions on their first date. Obviously, his time in the USMC was important to him – he wouldn’t have devoted his entire back to a work of art showcasing the fact that he’d served if it wasn’t.

Her mood was buoyed by the fact that the night was still young. Relatively, anyway, and she and Ryan still had an entire second date to enjoy. This time, she’d try not to get so lost in the delicious sight, sound and feel of him that she overlooked an equally important part of him – his past.

Eventually Ryan emerged from the locker room, his hair damp with water instead of sweat and his shorts replaced with jeans and a leather jacket.

While he’d been showering and changing, Cameron had written him a check. He pressed it into Ryan’s hand when he emerged. “You’ll be coming back to claim another check next Friday, right?” Cameron’s grin was still a mile wide.

Ryan nodded. “See you tomorrow – I’ll be here for Ally’s fights.” With that, he slid an arm around Ally’s shoulders, walking with her close to his side as if no time at all had passed between their date the night before and now.

Cameron made a remark that sounded generally surprised, but Ally didn’t hear his exact words. She gladly let the noise of the crowd that filled Knockout fade behind her as she and Ryan made their way through the front door and out into the night.

Halfway through the parking lot, Ryan tensed, the arm he’d put around her going stiff. For the first time, she felt the full weight of his muscled limb bearing down on her shoulders.

A ripple of surprise passed through her consciousness and she looked up to see that he’d raised his free hand, pressing his fingertips against his temple. “Are you all right?”

“Just a headache,” he said, and lowered his hand.

When they reached the car, he opened the passenger-side door for her.

“Where to?” he asked as he slid into the driver’s seat.

“I’m not picky. Is there anything in particular you’d like to eat?” After the exertion of his fights, he had to be starving.

“Well, if you really mean that…” He backed the car out of its space and rolled out onto the street. “I’d love some chicken and waffles.”

“Chicken and waffles?”

“Yeah. Waffles topped with chicken and gravy? I feel like I could eat about a hundred of them right now.”

“I don’t think I’ve ever tried that. Whenever I eat waffles, I put fruit on them. Or syrup.”

“You’re missing out.” He guided the car down a route he seemed to be familiar with. “You can try some of mine tonight. Maybe they’ll become a favorite of yours too.”

He took them to a twenty-four hour diner and parked in its small lot. “This place has the best chicken and waffles in the entire city. I should know – I tried all the places I could find when I first moved here.”

Ally’s interest peaked at the mention of his move. “Where did you live before you moved here?”

The slightest of frowns caused his lips to turn down at the corners. “North Carolina.”

“You didn’t like it there?”

He shrugged. “It was all right.”

There were military bases in North Carolina – that much she knew, though she couldn’t name any of them. “Were you in the military at the time?”

His eyes flashed briefly as they searched hers.

“I saw your tattoo – Semper Fidelis.”

Chapter 6

“I was a marine. Stationed at Camp Lejeune.”

He didn’t sound as interested in talking about it as she’d thought he would be, given his elaborate tattoo that paid homage to the Marine Corps.

His door popped as he opened it, then clicked when he shut it. He’d made his way to her side of the car by the time she’d unbuckled her seatbelt.

“Thanks,” she said, stepping out onto the pavement as he held the passenger-side door open for her.

“My pleasure.” He shut the door and pressed a hand gently against the small of her back, restoring her confidence with the sensual touch. For a moment, she’d feared that she’d made a mistake by bringing up his time in the military.

Once inside, she decided to take a leap of faith and order her own plate of chicken and waffles. Though it sounded like a strange combination, she liked chicken and she liked waffles. How bad could it be?

“Good choice.” Ryan winked at her.

She smiled, a flush of pleasure creeping across her cheeks. Blushing over chicken and waffles – she had it bad. Not that she could help it, really – her nerves were still buzzing with the memory of his touch and their kiss the night before. And her memories of his time in the ring that night were still vivid. She could visualize the way the muscles in his shoulders and back shifted when he threw a punch, a ripple of strength passing beneath the inked cover of his skin. There was a certain sexiness to watching him fight that she didn’t feel when the other guys stepped into the ring. Somehow, he made brutality seem sensual.

“Do you have work tomorrow?” he asked, meeting her eyes from across the Formica-topped table.

Ally shook her head. “No, my cousin is taking care of nails at the salon tomorrow. I’m planning to head over to the gym in the morning and warm up for the night’s event. I don’t want to tire myself out, but I do want to practice some kicks to make sure I don’t make the same mistake I did last time.”

“Maybe I could help. You know, give you some coaching.” He grinned. “I want to see you win.”

“Sure.” Her heart fluttered, and not just because one of the best – possibly the very best – fighters in the gym had just offered to help her personally. “I’d appreciate you taking the time to do that.”

“Believe me, it won’t be a chore.” He flashed her a smile, but it didn’t quite reach his eyes.

The difference was noticeable – the way the expression normally transformed his face was something that made her heart beat faster.

“Are you sure?”

“Absolutely.”

A nagging voice in the back of her mind wondered if something was wrong, but before she could ask, the waitress arrived with their food.

“Here you go.” She warned them that the plates were hot and lowered them onto the table.

The portions were more generous than Ally had expected, but the food smelled undeniably appealing.

Ryan dug into his without preamble, carving a large bite with his fork. Faint lines crisscrossed the back of his hand – impressions his hand wraps had left.

Ally took his cue and lifted her own fork.

“You were right,” she said a couple minutes later. “This is good.” The waffles were soft, the chicken tender and the spicy gravy made the dish unexpectedly savory. “I might actually be able to finish this plate.”

“A woman after my own heart.”

As it turned out, her eyes were bigger than her stomach. “Okay, I can’t finish this.” She gave up halfway through. “Do you want the rest?” He was almost done with his own plate.

“If you’re sure you don’t.”

“Definitely.” She pushed her plate toward him, across the table.

He started on her remaining waffle and a half. When the waitress stopped by their table to ask if they needed anything, he asked for a cup of coffee.

“Would you like one too?” she asked Ally.

“Do you have decaf?”

“We sure do.”

“I’ll have that, please.”

When the waitress was gone, Ally returned her attention to Ryan. “It takes me forever to fall asleep if I have caffeine this late.”

He nodded. “I know what you mean. But caffeine sometimes helps take the edge off a headache. I’d rather be awake from caffeine than because I’m in too much pain to sleep.”

“Is it that bad?” The image of him raising a hand to his temple flashed through her mind. “You weren’t hit in the head tonight, were you?” She didn’t remember him suffering any direct blows to the head, but a thread of worry wove its way through her thoughts anyway. It happened all the time in MMA fights.

He shook his head, frowning faintly, as if he regretted the motion. “No.”

“My aunt gets headaches sometimes – migraines.” Occasionally, her Aunt Elsa would miss a day at the salon because the pain was too severe to allow her to work. Other times, they’d start while she was at work and she’d have to cancel her clients for the rest of the day. Or worse, she’d try to finish out the day, sometimes. Ally hated to watch her do that, trying to make her clients happy while she was in obvious agony.