“You’re sure you want to go in there?” Alyssa had been trying to talk Hayes out of going into Levi’s shop since picking her up, and she didn’t understand why.

“What’s the big deal?”

“Does he know you’re coming?” Lys refused to answer Hayes the million times she’d asked that question.

As they parked, her friend turned in her seat to look Hayes in the eyes. “It’s different in a shop. It’s a real man’s world.”

Not shocking. “I know.”

She just shook her head, confusing Hayes further. “You want me to stay?”

“I’ll be fine.” Slamming the car door, she made her way to the entrance where a neon Open sign was flashing.

As she walked in, backpack slung over one shoulder, she was shocked to see the lovely young woman at the front counter. The person had long, curly blonde hair and wore such a feminine dress that Hayes felt like a boy compared to her. The woman looked like she belonged on the cover of magazines, not some car shop.

“Hi!” Her smile was genuine as she greeted Hayes. “How can I help you?”

“I’m looking for Levi.” Her nerves were getting the best of her now that she was actually there.

“He’s not here yet.”

Before the woman could say anything else or Hayes could ask if she knew when he’d be in, two men came through a side door laughing and pushing each other around. They stopped short at seeing them together.

“Dayum,” the taller one said as he walked behind her.

“Gonna introduce us to your friend, Soph?” the one with darker eyes asked.

“Joey,” she pointed to the tall one still circling behind her, “Mac,” she nodded to the other man, “she was just looking for Levi.”

“Fool’s probably at home banging some weekend chick,” Joey growled out behind her, making her heart clench. Too close for her comfort. Shifting from foot to foot, she hoped the woman—Soph—would help her out.

“Back up, Joey.” Soph’s smile was gone and in its place frustration. Thankfully, he listened.

“My bad.” His hands were in the air as he rounded the desk. “Levi doesn’t usually come in until around nine,” he explained, his eyes still roaming up and down her body. More in appreciation than lasciviousness. He still made her uncomfortable.

“Ignore Joey, he has no filter,” Soph told her.

Nodding her head, Hayes asked, “Nine?”

“If he’s not with some chick,” Joey repeated.

Her flinch at his words couldn’t be masked, nor could the tears that threatened. “Shut up and get back to work, Joey.” Soph’s voice was threaded with steel as she told him what to do.

Both men left talking about Levi with some other woman. Soph just shook her head at their antics. Hayes felt like she was dying inside.

“He doesn’t do that,” the other woman said, obviously sensing Hayes’ pain. She was trying to comfort her.

“Okay.” Looking around, she realized Lys might be right, she shouldn’t have come. “I’ve gotta go.” She turned to leave.

“What’s your name? Can I tell him you stopped by?”

“Umm, no, thanks.” And she was gone. She felt like such a fool for even thinking that surprising him was a good idea.

It’s possible that the concept of being with him was dumb altogether. She was a high school girl. He was a full-grown man. What could he possibly want with her?

* * *

When Levi woke up that morning, he’d missed having Hayes in his arms like crazy. He’d slept better with her in his bed than he had in years. He needed her by his side. However, he’d promised her parents he would wait at least two more weeks until graduation. It was going to be brutal.

Stopping for coffee and muffins on the way in to the garage, he was earlier than usual as he entered the building. The bay doors were open out front, and Metallica could be heard blasting through the speakers while Joey and Asher worked on an old Mustang.

“Morning, Soph.” He kissed her cheek as he walked past.

“He’s so dead,” Mac muttered as he passed him.

“Who’s what now?”

“Shut up, Mac,” Soph hissed at him.

Plopping the muffins on the counter, he looked between the two who had become thick as thieves the past few weeks as Soph filled out her little tyrant pumps and told everyone what to do and when. “Care to fill me in on why I’m so dead?”

“Not you.” Mac whistled. Soph elbowed him.

“Talk,” Levi commanded.

Soph rushed to speak. “A girl came here this morning looking for you. I don’t know who she was, but dumb and dumber just had to open their mouths spewing a bunch of crap, and she was almost crying when she left.”

It took a moment for Soph’s rapid fire words to catch up to his brain. He had a bad feeling in his gut. “’Bout your height, red hair, looks like a tomboy?” he asked her quietly. She nodded. “Who said what?” His words were snarled.

“It was a joke,” Mac defended.

“They were just being them. They had no idea who she was.” Soph helped Mac out.

“Who. Said. What?” Levi’s voice was damn near deadly by then.

Sighing, Soph finally answered him. “Joey joked you were probably at home banging some girl from the weekend.”

Blood rushed through him at her words. “Fuck!” he yelled, slamming his hand on the counter making Soph jump and Nox come screaming out of his office.

“What the fuck?”

“I’m gonna kill Joey,” he warned and was off into the shop, fully intent on stringing the little bastard up by his neck on one of the hoists.

Shoving Joey across the room had Asher stepping back.

“What the hell, man?”

“You have a big fucking mouth, Joe, and in a second here, I’m gonna make sure you never open it again.” His snarled words dropped lower the more he advanced on the man scrabbling backwards.

“I didn’t fucking do nothing.”

Levi didn’t give him a chance to get anything else out as he pounced on him. His mind cleared, and instinct took over as he levelled the man with punch after punch to the face, ribs, kidneys, anywhere he could. It wasn’t until Nox pulled him off and slammed him to the ground that he realized what he’d done. Joey was on the concrete next to him bruised and bleeding.

“Are you fucking stupid, Levi?” Nox growled in his ear from above him. Anger laced his words.

“Fucker needs to keep his goddamn mouth shut,” he snapped back.

“He okay?” Nox ignored Levi, asking Asher about the bigmouth cocksucker.

Groaning, Joey sat up with help. As he spit the blood from his mouth, he shot a glare at Levi and hissed, “Fucker hits like a damn girl.”

“You son of a bitch!” Levi bucked under Nox’s weight, wanting to go at the other man again.

“Levi?” Her sweet fucking voice.

Nox wouldn’t let up off his body. “Get the fuck off me, Nox!” Rolling over, he was able to dislodge his brother from on top of him.

Jumping to his feet, he bolted for the door between the office and shop, and there she fucking was. Standing with Soph, looking worried as fuck.

“I wasn’t with anyone else. I swear to fucking God, Hayes. It’s only you.” His voice was feral as his hands delved into her gorgeous red hair, her hazel eyes full of shock. Before she could respond, his mouth was on hers. A need to claim her drove through his system.

She responded immediately, opening up for him, touching her tongue to his as he plundered her. Bruising her soft lips with his own. He couldn’t help it, not with the way he was feeling. He was raw like an open wound.

“Levi?” She pulled away, and he growled at the loss. “What’s going on?”

“Boy needs to be on a leash.” Joey yapped off at the mouth behind him.

“You shut your fucking mouth before I break it!” Levi promised him. He would, too.

“Swearing,” Hayes admonished him in a whisper. Soph laughed. “Did you do that to him?” She sounded amazed.

“He lied to you.” He shrugged.

“Apologize.”

He turned to look at her, wondering about her sanity. “I know what you were thinking when you left here, Hayes. No fucking way.”

“Yes.”

Stubborn woman. “I won’t. He made you doubt me, and frankly, I should put you over my knee for that alone. I settled for smashing his face in.” He crossed his arms defiantly.

She stared at him.

When tears began pooling in her eyes, he started to waver. “Son of a bitch.” He turned to Joey, who had a smug fucking look on his bloody face. “I shouldn’t have bashed your mug in.”

“Levi,” she prompted him again. Nox and Asher were fighting back their laughter at his unease.

“Fuck. Fine. I’m sorry, Joey.” Her arms wrapped around him from behind. Her hands roamed up his chest, and he was done. Turning around, he bent over, draping her body over his shoulder and carried her out. “I’m out for the day, Nox!” Levi called over his shoulder as Hayes laughed and smacked his ass.

* * *

They nearly crashed through the front door of Levi’s house as he carried Hayes in, legs wrapped around his hips and mouths fused together.

She didn’t’ know what it was about him defending her honor that was such a huge turn on, but it did the trick. She couldn’t help herself when he went all caveman. Clothes flew from their bodies in every direction as they stumbled their way up the stairs. Not even half way up and Levi had her pinned down, one step digging into her back, yet she couldn’t care less about anything but the way he made her feel.

“After graduation,” he mumbled into her neck, “I want you moving in.” She froze, he continued his sensual assault on her body. “You’ll still go to school in the fall.” he murmured in her ear as he nibbled on the lobe. “When you’re done, you’ll be the nutritionist in my new gym.”

She wasn’t sure what shocked her more, the fact that he was thinking so far ahead, or the bomb he just dropped on her. “Gym?”

“Later, sugar. I need you now.” And that was the only answer she got as he slowly slid his pulsing cock into her tight channel.

They started out slow, eyes meeting, breaths catching. Light kisses to the chest and neck as he slowly slid in and out of her in a delicious rhythm. They grew more frantic when he rubbed a sensitive spot inside of her, making her scream and convulse around his cock as her back arched off the step.

“Hang on, baby,” he groaned as he hiked her legs around his waist and picked up his bruising pace. He dipped his head as he latched onto one of her nipples, sucking and biting gently.

Her body burned for more of him, for everything he could give her. “More, Levi, please,” she begged without remorse.

Her orgasm was quick and swift as it swept through her frame, triggering his release. He climbed over the edge of bliss right along with her.

Laying on the stairs in a tangled mess of limbs and sweat, Levi cradled Hayes to his chest like she was the most precious gift he’d ever been given.

“Gym, huh?” she questioned again. He laughed lightly against her neck.

Picking her up in his arms, he slowly made the way to his room. Collapsing on the bed on top of her and still embedded deeply inside of her, he began to explain his thoughts and ideas.

“Fighting was never going to be my life. The MMA, title matches, the spotlight, none of that shit’s for me.” She didn’t think he was a glory hound. “I started fighting on a whim. My winnings have always gone to charity.” She wasn’t shocked.

“Why did you start?”

He looked at her, really connecting with her soul as he answered. “It was just before Nox met Soph. I was in a bar with some girl I was seeing when I got into a fight. Casper hauled me out before the cops showed up and I could be charged with assault—the other guys were fine—but Casper saw a need for purpose in me and pounced like a lion.”

“He used you.” It seemed that way to her.

“I think it was mutual. I made him money, he gave me an outlet for the emptiness I’d been feeling. After Nox and Soph started seeing each other, I finally realized what it was that I was missing, and I wanted it for myself. I was jealous and bitter, and the fights got worse. I never lost, though.”

“And now? How do you feel about everything?”

Levi’s smirk as he flexed his cock inside of her caused her to emit a gasp from her lips that was sexy as hell. “I think you know how I feel, Hayes.”

About her, she did. Or she had a pretty good idea, but neither were ready to say it yet. “I mean about the fighting. The MMA. Is it something you’re considering now?”

He thought about it for a minute before saying, “Not anymore.” His fingers traced her face as their eyes met. “You’re a game changer for me, sugar. I’ve been a lucky son of a bitch so far, but there have been plenty of times I shouldn’t have walked out of that ring. I have three fights left, and I’m done.”

“That’s where the gym comes in?”

“It is. I like the exhilaration and blood-pumping rush I get from a fight. I always will. But I want it in a more controlled and less volatile environment.”

“And you want me there?”

“Every step of the way.”

She couldn’t stop the smile from transforming her features. His confidence in them, in her, was worth so much more than any gift.

“I would really love to be part of it.”

“Good.” He kissed her lightly, pulling them both up off the bed. “Get ready for school, and I’ll drop you off since I assume you have to actually go today?”

She shrugged. “I’m done with the tests, it’s mostly a bunch nonsense remaining.”

He levelled her with a hard look. “I promised your folks you’d finish and go, and that I wouldn’t steal you away until after graduation. Just go. Don’t tempt me.”

The pained look on his face had her laughing while she cleaned up and got ready. What she hadn’t been prepared for was the soul-stealing kiss he left her with on the front steps of her high school.