Dirty Fighter: A Bad Boy MMA Romance (18 page)

I
t had been
three days since my world started to spin that night in the bar. I kept blaming it on the alcohol but in my heart, I knew it was a lie. Since then, I had done everything in my power to stay busy and avoid Desmond. I didn’t want to become another notch on his belt. Plus, no one would take me seriously for the next few weeks if I slept with my boss.

I needed to keep my head in the game and steer clear of him and any chance of complications. Each time that I saw him, I repeated to myself, “I’m here for my shop,” over and over again in my head until I was able to calm down my burning desire for him.

Today was no different, between each press release he would come in to see how the new improvements were coming. Each time he came in, he seemed more determined than the last to pull my attention away from the car.

I was starting to lose my battle of wills against him. I wanted to spend time with him, but I wouldn’t risk my reputation to do so. As the shop door opened, I braced myself for another round of banter.

“Can I help you?” I said in a friendly tone when the man who walked in wasn’t Desmond.

The man grinned, “I bet you can. I just came to meet this famous mechanic Desmond has.”

I smiled, “You must be looking for someone else then, I’m just doing my job.” I said politely.

I knew who he was, he was Luke Chambers. I also knew that Desmond despised him above all other racers. He was attractive, but not like Desmond.

“I don’t think so,” he said politely, “I believe you are more than what I have been looking for.”

“Boy, you know how to charm a girl, don’t you?” I asked playfully.

He smiled, “I wouldn’t know a thing about that. I just call it as I see it; beautiful, smart, and talented. Desmond is a lucky man.”

“I’m just doing my job, but thank you,” I replied.

“That’s a shame, if I had you on my team, I would treat you like a queen,” he cooed.

My senses were tingling, “He treats me just fine, thanks. Is there something I can help you with?”

My temper was starting to show. I didn’t like Luke being in the shop or around the car. He seemed a little too interested in me and my skills for my liking.

“Oh now, there’s no need to get upset. You never know, after this race there might be a future for us,” he said slyly. “Professionally, of course.”

I didn’t believe that he meant only professionally, and in any case, I didn’t want anything to do with him in either way.

“Sorry, but I have my own shop,” I replied as I started working on the car again.

I could see how interested he was in what I was doing, but I also knew that he wouldn’t be able to tell what was happening for the most part. He didn’t strike me as they type to work on his own cars or even to know how they were running. When the door to the shop opened for the second time, I looked up and let out a sigh of relief. Desmond was back, and he looked angry.

“What the hell are you doing in here Chambers,” he said, without even looking at me.

Luke smiled, “Now Desmond, I was just coming to meet the mechanic that I have heard so much about. No harm in that.”

“With you, there’s always some harm,” replied Desmond, glaring at the man.

“Now, that’s not very good sportsmanship Desmond, I was just paying a little professional visit, for now,” replied Luke with a wink to me.

I could see the anger building up inside of Desmond and knew that this wasn’t going to go anywhere good.

“I don’t think that drivers are allowed to be in the competition’s tents Luke, you should go,” I interjected, hoping to avoid bloodshed.

He smiled at me again, “You’re right. I should go. Hopefully though, I will see you around after the race Amber. I would love to spend some time with you, professionally, of course.”

Luke turned and headed for the door before I could reply and tell him I wanted nothing to do with him. One look at Desmond though, and I knew that it wouldn’t have done me any good. He was jealous, and it was a little flattering to me.

I couldn’t stop myself from smiling a little bit. I wondered how often a handsome man like Desmond got jealous over women. No doubt, when he hooked on, they stayed by his side for as long as he wanted.

“Desmond, he was just saying hello,” I said, hiding my grin.

“Bullshit, he was up to no good. I didn’t like the way he looked at Theresa,” he muttered.

“Oh. You didn’t like the way he looked at your car, huh?” I asked him, a little surprised at his response. I knew that there was more to it.

“Yeah, that among other things,” he replied.

I could see him starting to get nervous, and I couldn’t help but goad him a little bit. It was too funny not to.

“Sir, are you getting jealous that another racer was talking to me? I didn’t realize one little old mechanic was so important to you.” I said with a smile.

He looked at me but then quickly looked away, clearing his throat, “I just know Luke, if he was in here, he was up to no good. He is a dirty racer. I know that he tried to sabotage my car last time and this time he will do it again. He thought that he could get in here and mess something up with José out of the way. I just hope that you are as good at seeing through his crap as José was.”

I noticed that he didn’t deny being jealous, but I couldn’t help but be a little bit offended by him. “You don’t think I’m smart enough to know he was trying to do something?”

Desmond looked at me, “I didn’t mean it that way. I’m sorry.”

I smiled at him, “It’s okay.”

“It’s just, Luke gets under my skin. He’s just an all-around bad guy,” said Desmond.

“I sort of got that vibe from you earlier. Do you think he will try to come back? Knowing it’s against the rules?” I asked him.

Desmond nodded his head, “He doesn’t give up credence to rules. If he does come back, tell him to leave right away. If he even so much as sets foot near you or Theresa, call the race police in here. I won’t have him near anything of mine.”

I raised an eyebrow. I knew that he was talking about Theresa, but I also got the feeling that he meant more than just the car. I wasn’t sure if I was okay with that or not but I had to admit that his words sent a chill down my spine.

I couldn’t help but let my mind wander; thinking about what it would feel like to be owned by Desmond Keys. To feel his body, naked, underneath me. I shuddered before shaking my head, bringing myself back to reality.

“Right,” I said, clearing my throat, “I will make sure he doesn’t come back. I think I should go over the car now. I didn’t pay attention to him while he was in here, he could have done something without me noticing.”

Desmond looked angry all over again as he spoke, “I think I will stick around and help you. If that’s okay?”

I smiled, “It’s your car remember?”

“We are running out of time, the next leg starts in a few hours.” he said.

“Right,” I replied, now I was in the zone to get started on checking the car over.

With Desmond at my side, we began to comb over every inch of Theresa. I was surprised when I realized that he had a lot more knowledge about cars than he had originally let on. As we worked, we talked, and he told me about how he and José first met and how much the older man had taught him.

When I asked about his family and parents though, he shut down on me. After several minutes of awkward silence, they called for the racers to head to the starting line.

“I haven’t come across anything, have you?” I asked him, hoping the race would pull him out of the bad temper he now seemed consumed by.

He shook his head, “No. All I can do is hope that he was just in here to hit on you.”

I flinched, “Listen, Desmond, about your parents.”

He shook his head, “No, don’t apologize. I shouldn’t have snapped like that. Look, it’s a long story and one that I would love to share with you. Right now, though, I have a race to win. Maybe we could pick this up over dinner later?”

I gazed into his eyes, unsure of how to answer. I didn’t know if it was a good idea to have dinner with Desmond. For all I knew, it was just a ploy to get me into bed. He had one hell of a reputation to go up against and I wasn’t sure I wanted to gamble like that just to find out. Looking at him, in that moment though, something was different. My heart told me that he didn’t want to hurt me, that maybe I really was different.

“Okay,” I whispered.

His entire face came to life as he smiled at my answer. They made the final call for all racers, and his celebration was cut short as he jumped behind the wheel of Theresa. Shooting me a smile, he fired her up and headed out of the garage. My heart was pounding in my ears from the thrill of the upcoming race and now the pending date with Desmond. Things seemed like they were looking up.

My only hope, as I made my way out to the viewing area, was that I hadn’t been wrong about Luke. Maybe he had just run out of time to sabotage the car. Either way, I was grateful that he hadn’t had the chance to ruin anything, yet.

Next time I would make sure to be more careful when he came into the shop. Something told me that he would try again, I hadn’t seen the last of Luke, and I prayed that next time I would be ready for him. As Glen called out the start of the race, I silently crossed my fingers for another victory.

T
he flag dropped
, and I felt the thrill race through my body as Theresa naturally took the lead out ahead of the pack. By now, it was almost second nature for me to be in front of everyone else.

I knew my car better than any racer could ever hope to know his own ride. We worked together like old friends, mostly because that’s what we were. This leg of the race was a two-mile stretch, longer than most but built to test drivers and their cars.

This wasn’t an endurance race, but it wasn’t your traditional quarter mile drag either. It was just long enough to see if your car could actually make it but still short enough that no help was needed from your crew. Unless, of course, something went wrong. Then everyone would jump into action. I was sure that a wreck made for good television, but that was about it. A wreck caused every driver's heart to give away a little bit.

It didn’t matter how much you wanted to win, or how badly you disliked another driver, harming their car was a cardinal sin. It was one of the reasons I despised Luke so much; he had no moral compass to speak of.

I had to cross my fingers and hope that Luke hadn’t done anything to the car while he was in my tent hitting on Amber. She was beautiful enough to distract any man, even one as evil as Luke.

As we passed the half-way mark, I smiled; it looked like this race was going to be another one for the record books. Amber’s improvements had once again proven to give me the edge that I needed over my competition. Just as my thoughts started to wander to Amber and her delicious lips, Theresa jumped violently forward without prompting.

“Shit,” I muttered to myself.

I knew that something was wrong as we passed the quarter mile mark. As I had anticipated, Luke was right on my heels. I had no choice but to let off the gas as my car started to sputter, a cloud of black smoke starting to roll out from underneath the hood.

It was like watching a disaster in slow motion. I knew that I could push her and hold onto first place, but it would probably make it so that she was never able to race again.

Cursing under my breath, I watched as Luke took the lead, his evil grin infuriating me as he drove past. I knew, at that moment, that he had done something to Theresa, there was no other explanation for it.

I could hear a shocked Glen calling out the race winner over my headset; he was obviously just as angry about it as I was. Fortunately, he also had a far more level head, and I knew that he wouldn’t say anything to get thrown out of the race.

As we limped into the garage, I glared at Amber, who was running towards us. She was the last person I wanted to see. Thankfully, she seemed to be looking right through me to Theresa. I scoffed, it was a little too late for her to try and fix things now; the race was over for the both of us. There was no way we would be ready in three days for the next leg. All I could do was storm over to the winner’s circle and give Luke a piece of my mind.

“Well, you know, it really isn’t just about who’s the better driver,” Luke was saying to a reporter. “It’s also about the team, some people are just cut out for this world, and others aren’t.”

I glared at him, my anger starting to boil over once again. I knew that if I didn’t turn around, I would get booted from the race also, for murdering him. I spun around and headed back into the garage, still fuming from the contest.

“Desmond!” shouted Amber.

I glared at her, “So was this your plan? Huh? To let that dirtbag into my tent to sabotage my car?”

“What are you talking about?” she asked.

“You know it was Luke, you just loved being flattered didn’t you? So much you didn’t see him slip something into Theresa!” I screamed at her.

“What the hell is your problem Desmond? You looked over the car with me and found nothing! The only reason I knew what he did was because of the smoke and its color!” Amber screamed back at me.

“What do you mean?” my concern for the car greater than my anger over losing.

“Look, he must have slipped this screw into the turbine when I wasn’t looking, anything else would have started to damage things right away,” she replied.

I took the screw from her hand. It was smaller than anything I had ever seen. I couldn’t believe how she had ever found it to start with. It would have taken other mechanics days to find something so small and out of sight.

“He must have dropped it in while I was under the car.” she muttered quietly. “Desmond, I am so sorry. I had no idea he would stoop to such low levels.”

I sighed, unable to stop myself from forgiving her, “I know that you didn’t know any better. The damage is done, though, isn’t it?”

She nodded her head.

“I’m sorry I attacked you,” I said earnestly.

She shook her head, “No. Please don’t apologize, all this happened because of me. I can’t believe I was so foolish!”

“You weren’t foolish; no honorable person would deliberately sabotage a car like that. He’s a special kind of dirtbag though.” I replied. “Is there anything that we can do to fix it?”

She shook her head, “I honestly have no idea. I can’t do anything about it until the engine cools down either.”

I shook my head, unable to believe how quickly everything had taken a turn for the worse. One second I was on top of the world, and the next, things were falling apart. I knew that Luke would get his; people always got what was coming to them.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t going to be soon enough. It was turning out to be one hell of a bad run of luck. I made the decision to stay in the shop while Theresa cooled down so I could try and see what had happened. Maybe it wasn’t too late to fix her.

“I’m so sorry I let this happen Desmond.”

I smiled softly at her, “I told you, it’s not your fault.”

“Yes, it is. I know you say it’s not but you’re wrong. I should have known he was up to no good. I saw the way you two interacted on television.” Amber muttered under her breath.

I sighed, “There’s nothing to be done right?”

“Sure there is, you can let me buy you a drink,” she replied with a smile.

I laughed, looking up at her for a moment, I thought she was joking. I could tell by the look in her eyes though that she wasn’t. She felt terrible about what had happened, and unless I let her make up for it in some way, she was never going to forgive herself.

I nodded my head, “Well, it’s the least you can do.” I said playfully.

Her eyebrow arched, ready to snap at me, “That’s what I said, so are you coming or not?”

She smiled at me, and I felt all the troubles of the day starting to drift away from me. Something about Amber had that wild effect on me. It felt like, no matter what happened she would always be there for me, rooting me on. That was something I had never known before with a woman. Especially one that I barely knew too. Still, there she was, ready to make me feel better in a way that I wasn’t accustomed to. She wasn’t after fame or money or the bragging rights of sleeping with Desmond Keys, she just wanted to be my friend. That was something I could get used to.

We made our way to the same little dive bar from the last time we had gone drinking and the memory of the kiss that we shared came flooding back. I couldn’t stop from licking my lips, thinking about her body pressed against mine. When we walked in, I mentally cursed, it was too busy for me to try and get her to dance again but it didn’t matter, the night was young.

We wiggled our way through the crowd to the end of the bar. Everyone was less than thrilled this time around, though. It seemed like everyone there knew that my car had been sabotaged. The feeling of comradery was abundant. I hadn’t realized just how many people on the racing scene knew what kind of a man Luke really was. It was refreshing to know that I wasn’t alone in my hatred for him.

As we waited for our drinks, one patron after another came over and paid their respects to the lost race, vowing to support me if I wanted to knock out #9, which was Luke’s number.

Each time, I smiled but didn’t reply, the wound was still too fresh and even with Amber sitting next to me, it was hard not to think about Theresa.

“Hey,” said Amber, as she placed her hand on mine, “We will figure it out tomorrow okay?”

I nodded my head and looked down at our touching hands, “I know, you’re the best mechanic at the race after all.”

She blushed and it was an intoxicating sight. I wanted to touch her cheeks and feel the warmth in them. I wanted to kiss her neck and tell her I wasn't just being nice, that it was the truth. I wanted to tell her that she was more woman than anyone I had ever known, and I wanted to see more of her, every single day of my life. The words fell silent on my lips though as she pulled her hand away and quickly looked away.

“Amber,” I murmured, hoping she would hear me.

She looked at me and smiled once again, “Let’s just get drunk and forget all about our problems for the night. What do you think Keys?”

I laughed, “That sounds like the best idea I’ve heard all day.”

“I’ll toast to that,” she said with a smile, holding up her beer.

Our bottles touched and I vowed to drink away my problems with the night that I was having. Nothing could beat spending a few hours in the company of a lovely woman who was as smart as she was attractive. I wouldn’t let anything ruin it, not Theresa, not the race and not Luke. It was at that moment I noticed that he was walking through the bar door.…