Redemption: A British Stepbrother Romance (42 page)

“
Y
ou scared
?” Foster asked.

I nodded. The nerves never went away.

“Come on, you know what to do,” Foster teased.

I smiled and placed my hand on his chest. I did this before every court appearance to calm my nerves. Something about feeling his heartbeat always helped me relax ever since that first courtroom appearance in the Doris case.

My one regret about not working for Arrington, Arrington, & Hedges was that I’d had to drop the hunt for Doris’ son. At least Foster was still working on it, and by some miracle Doris was still clinging on to life. There was hope for a happy ending yet.

“Okay, I’m good,” I said, picking up my materials and walking into the court. Foster took his usual seat in the audience.

This was my fifteenth appearance representing a client in a courtroom, and my third in front of Judge Whiteman. I still had the same butterflies in my stomach that had kept me awake the night before the first trial.

“Good to see you again, Mrs. Arrington,” Judge Whiteman said as I introduced myself to the court. “I enjoyed reading your brief, although not as much as that one you filed a few years ago.”

Every time. Every fucking time I saw Judge Whiteman he slipped in a little reminder of that brief. If I ever did become famous, he was going to make a fortune telling that story on the after-dinner circuit around D.C.

“I’ll try to spice it up a bit next time,” I replied.

Today was my first jury trial. I had to convince six people that my client had suffered severe discrimination in the workplace, such that she’d had to resign and had suffered a mental breakdown.

I’d practically had a panic attack when the case had first landed on my desk. We were going up against a large department store that had retained a law firm almost as big as Arrington, Arrington, & Hedges.

Fortunately, the big law firm had taken one look at me and figured this would be a walk in the park. They didn’t prepare properly and I locked the case down in jury selection. The actual trial would be a formality now.

Opposing counsel had been so obsessed with keeping women and minorities off the jury, who would supposedly be biased against the defendant, that they hadn’t bothered asking the jurors many questions.

That allowed me to slip through a juror whose wife had won a case for discrimination, a man who’d been fired from the department store a few months ago, and three other people who described themselves as staunchly in favor of increased protection for employees in the workplace.

I had this case in the bag.

In addition to having the jurors on my side, I also had my lucky charm in the audience. Foster had been to every single one of my court appearances, even though he was now a partner at Arrington, Arrington, & Hedges.

He’d been welcomed back into the fold once it became clear that PorTupe was a complete shambles. As Foster had predicted, Zach tried to bribe Bryan and other lawyers at the DOJ, which went down about as well as you can imagine.

The ensuing scandal nearly took Cooper & Cooper into bankruptcy, but at the last minute they merged with another firm in the corporate field. The competent attorneys from Cooper & Cooper stayed on at the new firm, but Zach got booted out within the month.

I had a feeling he’d worm his way out of the bribery prosecution, but he wouldn’t work as a lawyer again either way. I had zero sympathy for him. He’d made his bed, now he had to lie in it.

The trial went smoothly, even though I nearly lost my way during the closing argument. We won the case convincingly which hopefully meant opposing counsel wouldn’t bother trying to find grounds for an appeal. By the time the case made it to an appellate court, I would be on leave from work and wouldn’t be able to handle the case.

“Great work, baby,” Foster said, once we were outside the courtroom. He kissed me on the cheek and put his hand on the small of my back.

“Thanks.” I had to tell him the news today. I’d thrown up the last three mornings, but he’d already left for work each time. He’d catch me soon enough though.

“How about we go grab a drink?” Foster asked.

It would have to be non-alcoholic. “Sure. Where do you want to go?”

“How about we go back to the rooftop bar near my office?”

“Back to where it all began?” I asked.

“I have very fond memories from that night.”

“Me too. And I think after tonight you’ll have some more.”

“What does that mean?” he asked.

“You’ll find out soon enough.” I touched my stomach unconsciously, even though there was no bump to give away the secret just yet.

Foster and I argued a fair bit, but we always made up quickly and passionately. It came with the territory of being two busy lawyers. One argument we wouldn’t need to have was the baby name. If it was a boy, we would name him Steve after Foster’s dad. If it was a girl, we would name her Laura, after Mom.

Boy or girl, the baby was going to be spoiled rotten by Foster, and our parents. That kid would never want for a thing.

Neither would I. Not with Foster.

“I love you,” Foster said, out of the blue, as we walked to the bar.

“I love you too,” I replied. He was going to be a great dad.

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L
ife was good
. I got paid to fight, fuck, and act like a dick. All things I would happily do for free anyway.

Okay, so I didn’t
technically
get paid to fuck loads of women and act like a dick, but the sponsors liked it when I made the news and who was I to deny them?

Before making fighting into a career—if you could call it that—I’d spent every weekend fighting on street corners. And sometimes fucking there as well, if the circumstances called for it.

Now, instead of fighting on the street, I fought in a metal cage. Instead of screwing random women from the neighborhood, I screwed random groupies who fought their way backstage after the fights.

The acting like a dick thing? Well, that just came naturally.

I stuck to what I was good at. If I was going to make a living based on one of my talents… well, probably better to be paid for the fighting than the fucking.

Tonight’s fight had been the toughest one yet, but I’d still won by knockout. I’d just had to work for it a bit this time. The black eye, cuts to the face, and badly bruised ribs were evidence of that.

“Hey, baby,” the brunette said as she strolled into my changing room as if she owned the fucking place. “You were amazing out there tonight.”

Tell me something I don’t know, sweetheart
.

I recognized those lips. I’d let her suck me off a few times. Judging by her outfit, she’d been promoted to ‘ring girl’ status for tonight’s fight.

Were they still ‘ring girls’ when there was no ring? We fought in a cage, but ‘cage girls’ made them sound like prisoners. They were always very willing around me. I needed to call them something, and I sure as hell wasn’t about to remember their actual names.

Duke didn’t pay any of the ring girls. They did it just for the opportunity to get close to me. They knew I liked to fuck after a fight, and they wanted to be on the business end of my cock when I let go of any remaining aggression.

Brunette would do for tonight. The girl had some skills with her mouth and tongue, and I had an overwhelming desire to shoot my load down a pretty girl’s throat.

“You’re covered in bruises,” Brunette remarked, as she ran her hands over my sweaty chest. Her fingers pressed against the red marks on my chest that would soon turn purple.

I grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her hand from my chest.

“Do they hurt?” she asked.

Brunette tried to sound concerned, but the cuts and bruises turned her on. The more battered my body, the more she wanted it. She was practically licking her lips while looking at the black eye forming on my face.

“No,” I replied. “That’s just not where I want your hands.”

Brunette smiled and lowered her hand tantalizingly slowly towards my cock as it began twitching in anticipation. Her palm pressed against the top of my shorts, before lightly stroking it up and down.

Ugh. The last thing I wanted after a fight was a girl who liked to tease.

Screw foreplay.
I placed my hand on the top of her head and pushed her down to get reacquainted with my dick.

There was a loud knock at the door. Brunette froze just as she was about to free my cock from my shorts.

“What is it?” I yelled out.

“It’s me,” Duke replied. “Can I come in?”

“No you fucking can’t,” I snapped back. Duke might be my manager and my boss, but if he was stupid enough to interrupt my post-fight ritual, then he deserved an earful of abuse as much as Brunette deserved a mouthful of cock.

“Tell whatever girl—or girls—you have in there to put their clothes back on. Or not. I’m coming in either way.”

I groaned and pushed Brunette’s hand off my crotch. She barely had any clothes on as it was, but she’d been parading around like that for the last few hours, so she wouldn’t be embarrassed.

Duke walked in, true to his threat, and smiled at Brunette. “Give us a minute please, Courtney.”

“Okay. See you soon, sweetie,” Courtney said, blowing me a kiss as she walked out the door.

“Do you have any idea what that girl can do with her mouth?” I asked Duke angrily. “This had better be important.”

“I knew you’d forgotten,” Duke said, shaking his head. “Fucking hell. Now I owe Gayle ten bucks.”

“Forgotten what?”

“You need to go straight to 51st Bar tonight after the fight and drink there until at least two in the morning.”

“Not that I’m complaining about spending the night drinking in a bar, but why do I have to go there right now? Can’t I get my dick wet first?”

“Only in the shower. Go get cleaned up and changed. I know the owner of the bar and he’s paid a lot of money to have you over there after the fight. He thinks having the city’s most infamous underground fighter in there will bring in more customers.”

“Do I at least get free drinks?”

“Yep. Just go there, get drunk, flirt with the women, and act like a jackass.”

“I guess I can manage that.”

“I’ll tell Courtney where you’ll be. I know you get fucking moody if you don’t get your dick wet after a fight.”

“Fine. I’ll go. But don’t tell Courtney. I think I’ll dabble with some fresh meat tonight.”

“Gotta spread out the love,” Duke agreed. He’d been a fighter back in the day, so he knew the score. He was also the closest thing I had to a father, but we’d never had the traditional father-son relationship. More like two brothers who fought a lot.

“I never disappoint my fans. Especially the slutty ones.”

I
can’t trust
Duke as far as I could throw the fat piece of—

“Hi Courtney,” I said with mock enthusiasm as she greeted me by the entrance. She’d been lying in wait for me.

Her face lit up in a glorious smile just because I’d remembered her name. It’d be a hell of a lot harder to hook up with another woman with Courtney all over me. Tonight might have to be a threesome.

I’m tired, but I’ll manage
.
Even on an off-night, I can keep two women happy.

51st Bar redefined the term “dive bar.” I’d been in my fair share of shitholes over the years, but this place made them look like celebrity hangouts by comparison.

With every step, I had to peel my foot off the sticky floor, as I headed to the bar for the first of many drinks.

Some of the lads from the gym shouted my name from the back of the room, where they’d been given a roped off area presumably for my benefit. At least they’d have table service. No lining up for drinks every twenty minutes.

The place was packed, and while there were plenty of pretty girls, it was a little too much of a sausage fest for my liking.

I started walking towards the lads, when a woman behind the bar caught my eye. On second thought, maybe I didn’t mind going to the bar just this once.

She must be a college student, because she didn’t fit in around here at all. Long brown hair partially hid a cute face that was the picture of innocence until she smiled while talking to another girl by the bar.

That smile told me all I needed to know about her: princess by day, kinky sex goddess by night. Yes, I really could tell all that from a smile.

Her tight top hugged her chest, but she only had the tiniest bit of cleavage on show. She’d get much bigger tips with a low-cut top, but sometimes what you couldn’t see was all the more tantalizing. That was definitely the case here.

Time for this lucky girl to meet the star of tonight’s festivities.

“Let’s go sit down, baby,” Courtney whined in my ear.

Shit, better deal with her first.

We walked over to the roped off area where I introduced Courtney to Matt. “You two will have a lot of fun together,” I said, winking to Matt.

“Where are you going?” Courtney asked, grabbing hold of my arm as I headed to the bar.

“I have business to take care of tonight,” I replied. “Matt will look after you. He’s almost as generously portioned as me.”

“But I want you. I don’t want to settle for someone less perfect. I want the real deal.”

“So do I,” I replied, as I looked back to the bar. “So do I.”