Senn (A Cocky Cage Fighter Novel Book 5) (13 page)

I brush away the wetness from my cheeks before I look over at Luke. “So what am I supposed to do?” I ask.

“Pick him,” he says simply. “You and I can still be friends without benefits, but I’m pretty sure that he’s gonna go nuts if he has to keep sharing you.”

“Really?” I ask. “You’re okay with that?”

“Yeah,” he says with a small smile. “Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine. I’m a resilient motherfucker.”

I can’t help but laugh, even though a part of me is a little sad. It’s a small part, though, with most of me nervous and excited about what I could have with Senn if I trusted him enough not to break my heart.

“Now, why don’t you go take a bath, and I’ll go find some food?” Luke asks with a quick peck to my cheek. “Steak? It’ll be good for you with all the blood loss.”

My stomach rumbles just at the mention of a juicy steak. Maybe that’s why I’m so tired. I haven’t had much to eat today after leaving Senn’s house before sunrise to pack for our flight and get to the airport. And he’s right, my nosebleeds have been rough the past few days.

“Steak would be awesome. Ooh! And a salad with lots of cucumbers, too, please.”

“Got it, darling. I’ll be back as fast as I can,” he says before he walks out the door.

As soon as he’s gone, I roll myself out of the bed and undress as I walk to the bathroom. There’s a nice deep tub calling my name, so I start filling it up, making sure the water’s not too hot for the baby. I squeeze a bottle of the hotel soap in the running faucet to make some bubbles.

Sinking down into the warmth feels so nice. My tense muscles in my neck and back from sleeping on Senn’s shoulder for hours instantly relax while I soak. Closing my eyes and leaning my head against the tile wall, I try to clear my mind of everything and just enjoy this quiet, blissful moment.

My hands trail along the curve of my belly, and I would almost swear that I felt the baby moving on the outside. She’s growing bigger and healthier, which is what I’ve prayed for. Since I may not be around after she’s born, I’ve started recording a video diary for her to have. My sister Whitney has been helping, so I know she’ll make sure she gets to see and hear me as she grows up. It’s nothing deep or profound on the recordings, just the advice Whitney and I wish our mother would have given us growing up, if she hadn’t been too busy planning garden parties and picking out the most expensive dress for a gala. After each recording I’m usually an emotional wreck for the rest of the day, but it’s worth it to leave a piece of me behind for her.

By the time I hear the hotel room door shut with Luke’s return, the water has started to chill, so I pull the plug and dry off. Since my braid was submerged in the water, it’s soaking wet. Removing the hair tie to undo it, I use the hotel hairdryer to blow it out. Not having any clean clothes in the bathroom, I wrap a towel around my chest, tucking it in, before heading back into the room to finally eat.

My feet come to a sudden stop; and hearing my gasp of surprise, Senn turns around to face me. Good Lord, he’s wearing a suit! How did he even find a suit big enough to cover his wide shoulders and mammoth height? He must’ve had it custom made. Either way, the black pinstripe and golden pattern tie look damn good on him. His wavy hair is pulled back into a manbun, displaying his flawless, shaven face and making him look even more sophisticated. The last time I had seen him he’d been wearing shorts and a
Big Johnson’s
shirt for christsakes.

“Wow,” I say since there are really no other words to describe him. I become even more speechless when I see the table behind him set for two with candles and silver covered dishes, the backdrop of the Atlantic Ocean adding the final romantic touch. A romantic setting and Senn in the same room is something I never thought I would see in this lifetime.

“Hungry?” he asks, his deep voice causing cold chill bumps to spread along my still damp skin.

“Starving.” I’m hungry all right. The kind of hungry that involves stripping him out of his suit and nibbling my way down his entire, enormous body.

When Senn sits down at the table instead of yanking my towel off and throwing me on the bed, I get the feeling that he, on the other hand, wants food. Not me.

“So, I guess I’ll get some clothes on,” I say before I start digging through my suitcase.

“Good idea,” Senn replies, sipping from a glass of water and leaning back casually in his chair. “Because if you don’t cover up soon, I’m gonna end up eating you for dinner and then our food will get cold.”

“I wouldn’t mind cold food,” I say, clenching my thighs together at the mention of his tongue between my legs.

Senn chuckles. “Don’t tempt me. I want us to have a real date. I’m trying to be a gentleman tonight.”

“Gentlemen don’t like to eat pussy?” I ask, baiting him, even though I’m thrilled that he wants to have a normal date with me. Sure, we’ve had dinner together a lot of nights the past few weeks, but usually we do it in his bed, naked, after we’ve fucked.

“A gentleman would feed his pregnant woman before burying his face in her pussy and feasting on her,” he tells me.

“Oh really?” I ask, pulling out a navy blue summer dress from my luggage, hoping that it still fits. “Well then, I guess there’s no need for panties.”

Senn grumbles a curse. “Abby,” he warns.

“Fine,” I say, going back in the bathroom to put on the dress. If he’s trying to be good then I won’t tease him anymore. It’s sort of sweet that he went to all this trouble for me when I should be the one catering to him before his big fight.

Senn

Why can’t we fuck her?

Because we’re trying to show her that we care about her more than exchanging a few orgasms,
I tell my cock. So, even though I know for a fact from the lustful look on her face that she’s down to fuck, I’m gonna keep my hands off her tonight. Well, mostly. Tonight is about her and her pleasure, not my own. I can do this because despite her sexy bravado, Luke is right, this is what she needs right now. And I need to convince her that there’s more to me than my cock. I can be a boyfriend, and I can be a father, if she’ll just give me a chance.

Abby comes back into the room a few minutes later, wearing a short, navy blue dress held up by thin spaghetti straps. Her long, mahogany hair that’s usually braided, falls in loose waves down her shoulders and over her succulent tits. I don’t know if it’s the pregnancy or what, but she emits a glow that no other woman has. Walking around the hotel, there were plenty of women to compare her to. Plenty of them checking me out. But none of them had Abby’s sexy curves or radiance.

“You look beautiful,” I tell her when she sits down at the small table across from me. Her dark chocolate eyes widen in surprise and her face lights up before she tries to hide her joy at my sincere compliment. She reaches across the table and slaps her palm over my forehead.

“Do you feel okay? Have you got a fever making you delusional? Or maybe you bumped your head and have a concussion?” she teases before settling back in her chair.

“What?” I ask. “I have to be brain damaged to give you a compliment?” Now that I consider it, I’ve never actually told her how attractive she is before. “Just because I don’t say it, doesn’t mean I don’t think it.”

“Whatever,” she says with a smile and roll of her eyes when she lifts the lid on her dinner plate. “You never looked at me twice before I propositioned
you
in the club that night.”

“Is that what you think?” I ask her.

“Uh-huh,” she says, digging her fork into the baked potato. “I’m surprised you knew my name.” She swallows and freezes with her fork in midair. “You did know my name that night, right?”

“Of course I knew your name. Fuck, you had been in
Havoc
flaunting your tits and ass at Linc at least two dozen times.”

“Like you noticed,” she mutters.

“Yellow shirt, dark jeans and knee high brown boots.”

“What?” Abby asks with a confused crease between her eyebrows.

“That’s what you were wearing the first day you walked in to see Linc,” I tell her. When she keeps staring silently at me because I remember the outfit she had on almost a year ago like a creepy stalker, I lift the cover off my own plate and start cutting up my steak.

“How-how did you know that?” she eventually asks.

“‘Cause I was there.”

“No, I mean how did you remember?”

I shrug like it’s no big deal and I remember what women wear all the time. “Yellow’s my favorite color, and you had a nice ass. It’s not like many women come into
Havoc
other than moms.”

“That’s…that’s sort of sweet,” she says softly.

“Thinking about fucking you from behind before I even knew your name is sweet?” I chuckle. “Then I must be the sweetest motherfucker on the planet.”

“Don’t belittle it,” she scoffs, and cuts into her own steak like she’s starving. “It’s sweet, and so is this.” 

After all that heaviness, we eat most of our meal in silence, both of us in our own heads. Mostly I’m relieved that she didn’t laugh at my attempt at trying to impress her. I’ve never had to date a woman, so this is all new to me. So what if I’m doing it backwards? As long as it works to show Abby that I’m not going anywhere, it’s worth the effort.

“Do you want any dessert?” I ask Abby after she pushes her mostly empty plate away.

She sits back and rubs a hand over her bump. “Too full.”

“Me, too,” I agree. “Oh, and I put a pint of milk in the fridge and brought up some
Lucky Charms
for you to have for breakfast.”

Abby smiles like I just told her a joke. “She moves when you talk.”

“Does she really?” I ask.

“Uh-huh. She’s getting stronger, too. You might be able to feel her soon.” The smile slips off her face. “She’s almost twenty weeks.”

“That’s good, right?”

“We lost Thomas at twenty weeks.”

“But they’ve tested her for everything, and she’s healthy.”

“Yeah, but I still can’t help worrying,” she says with a sigh.

“Then let me help take your mind off everything,” I offer. Standing up, I reach for her hand to pull her to her feet so I can peel her dress off and lay her down on the bed.

“You don’t have to…” she half protests when I kiss her belly and my mouth moves lower.

“I want to,” I tell her before tonguing her clit.

“Yes, yes, yes,” she chants, lifting her hips and thrashing around on the bed while I lick her pussy. When her legs tense and she goes silent, I know it’s the calm before the storm. “
Oh God
!” she exclaims when she erupts like a geyser all over my tongue. Her body doesn’t even stop trembling before she falls asleep.

I undress and then take a shower since my balls feel like they might explode if I don’t give them some relief soon. Fisting my cock, it doesn’t take long to get myself off, especially after I picture Abby on her knees in the backseat of the cab, sucking my cock the first night we fucked.

I dry off quickly and wet a warm washcloth to take it to clean Abby between her legs. Then I tuck her under the covers and climb in with her. It’s early, maybe only nine-thirty, but I could use the rest. Instead of turning on the television, I watch Abby. Running my palm over her bump, I feel for movement underneath the surface. She said the baby moves when she hears me talk, so maybe she recognizes me already.

…

Sometime in the middle of the night, I wake up because the bed is shaking. Abby’s back is to me, and she’s curled up in the fetal position, her entire body trembling.
Shit
.

I get up and turn off the air conditioner and look around on the floor for the white t-shirt I had on earlier underneath my dress shirt.

“Abby,” I whisper with a shake to her shoulder. Her skin is scorching hot. She’s got a fever. “Abby,” I say again, and this time she blinks her eyes open. “Can you sit up, so I can put some clothes on you? I think you’ve got a fever.”

“Y-y-yeah,” she stutters with her teeth chattering.

“Do you have some sweats in your bag?” I ask. “What about Tylenol?”

“In-in-in my bag. Black yoga p-p-pants and Tylenol in-in-in the front z-z-zipper.”

I turn on the overhead light to find both, get her dressed, and offer her the white pills with a bottle of water.

“You okay?” I ask, brushing the sweaty hair from her face. “Should I take you to the emergency room?”

“N-n-no. Just h-h-hold me.”

Climbing back in bed, I pull her to me and stroke my hands up and down her back until her body relaxes and she finally falls back asleep.

The next morning, Abby’s still exhausted after sleeping for twelve hours. I woke her up long enough to feed her cereal for breakfast, and then she fell back into bed, instantly sound asleep.

I have to leave for the official weigh-in and media interviews, but I don’t want to leave Abby alone. So, I do the unthinkable and send Luke a text message asking if he’ll stay with her. He knocks on the door ten minutes later. There’s not even the usual smug look on his face.

“How’s she doing?” he asks quietly when he steps into the dark room.

“I don’t know. She’s been asleep forever, and I have to wake her up to get her to eat or drink. Should we take her to the doctor?”

“Nah. She probably just needs to rest. Go. I’ll get her some lunch and call you if she gets worse.”

“Okay,” I agree with a nod, knowing I have to leave. “I’ll be back as soon as I can.”

…

Abby

I wake up with a stiff neck and tense shoulders. Stretching my arms over my head, I look around to try and figure out what time it is. The clock says eight-thirty, but I’m not sure if that’s a.m. or p.m. From the gap between the drawn curtains in the hotel room, the sun is up but it’s dim. It could be morning or afternoon.

“Hey, sleepyhead,” Luke says from the other side of the bed. I roll over and am surprised to find him and not Senn sitting against the headboard, fully dressed with his ankles crossed, watching television. The volume is muted and closed caption flashes words along the bottom of the screen. It’s an IFC fight. When Senn’s picture comes up on the screen, my heart starts racing in my chest.

“Today’s Saturday?” I exclaim as I jump out of bed. “What happened to Friday?” I ask Luke in a panic.

“You slept through it. Don’t worry, you needed the rest.”

“The fight…it’s tonight? Like in half an hour?” I ask, running around the room, looking for my luggage.

“Yeah, but if you don’t feel up to it–”

“Of course I feel up to it!” I interrupt him with a shout. “That’s why we’re here!”

“Senn would understand if you wanted to stay in,” Luke says, unmoving from the bed.

“He would understand, but I would feel like an enormous pile of dog shit. I want to be there! I need to be there!”

“Okay, calm down and get dressed. I’ve got our passes to sit with the team.”

“I need a shower. Shit! Did I really sleep for two days?” I ask, but don’t wait for his response before turning on the shower and stripping off a white tee and my yoga pants that I don’t remember putting on. Usually Senn and I sleep naked together.

There’s no time to dry my hair, so I put on a one shoulder, stretchy black dress that hits right above my knees with a pair of heels, and then I braid my hair while we take the elevator downstairs.

“You look great,” Luke says while we weave our way through the fans standing around the entrance of the hotel’s arena.

“Thanks. I don’t feel great,” I reply, a little out of breath when we make it to the front of the cage where the rest of the
Havoc
team is milling about. “Did we miss it?” I ask Hailey. Her arms are wrapped around her man Mace’s waist, and he’s holding on to her possessively like he’s daring someone to even try to look at her.

“No, they’re on an intermission, and then he’s up next,” she tells me. “How are you feelin’?”

I plop down into a seat, exhausted now that we’ve made it. “Like a sumo wrestler trying to run track. How are you doing?”  Linc had told me she spent some time in a treatment facility for eating disorders. Looking at her…well, you would have no idea that she’s self-conscience about her perfect figure.

“I’m feelin’ great. And you don’t look anything like a sumo wrestler. You’ve got the pregnant woman glow goin’ on. Guys are seriously checkin’ you out.”

“Whatever,” I scoff. 

Hailey and I chat for a few minutes about Senn’s opponent tonight, a really great fighter named Chad Hollandsworth. Both fighters are about the same age, height, and of course, weight. Chad’s ranked tenth in the world and Senn’s ranked thirteen, so Chad is favored to win.

The bright lights in the area dim and are replaced with colorful ones when loud, rap music starts to play. I laugh out loud when I realize that “Mama Said Knock You Out” by LL Cool J is Senn’s intro. The crowd suddenly erupts into cheers and clapping, making the baby go wild. It feels like she’s doing backflips while I stand there on my tippy toes trying to see Senn over the much taller heads in the crowd. Since I can’t see him at the tunnel, I watch on the big screen that’s hanging on the wall.

Wow
.

He looks big and dangerous with his black
Havoc
hoodie pulled up over his head. His snug red and black shorts stretched tightly over his powerful legs match the gloves on his hands. I can’t see his face, but if I had to guess based on his powerful swagger, I would bet he looks serious, in the zone. Ready to kick another guy’s ass.

When Senn gets to the team, he lowers the hood from his head and starts to unzip his hoodie when he looks up and sees me. He flashes me a smile that would’ve ignited my panties, if I was wearing any.

Strolling over, he stops inches in front of me before cupping my jaw to kiss me slowly and thoroughly. My hands grip his broad shoulders, knowing the cameras and everyone in the arena is watching, but not caring one little bit.

“How are you feeling? You sure you’re up for this?” he asks when he pulls away.

“Oh yeah,” I assure him. “I feel great. And you are definitely getting laid tonight.”

“We’ll see how you feel,” he says. “I’m really glad you came.”

Grabbing my hands from his shoulders, he slides them to his chest and the opening of his hoodie. Taking his hint, I drag the zipper down slowly, revealing his amazing body one inch at a time. Once that’s done, I reach up to the tops of his shoulders and peel the fabric down his bulging biceps until he can shrug all the way out of it. The fact that he’s letting me undress him so intimately in front of this many people, all these female fans who want to fuck him, has me practically dripping wet.