It had been two months since my little incident in the alley and just thinking about it, which admittedly I did often, still caused me to feel embarrassed and if I were honest with myself, aroused beyond reason.

Jacinda was still on an extended honeymoon so I had no one to talk to about why I had spent the past week pretty much hiding in my apartment. I’d heard of the walk of shame before but clearly it hadn’t ever happened to me given that up to the moment I’d had sex with Phoenix, Tommy had been the only man I’d been intimate with. And there lied the problem. I’d discovered a week ago that Phoenix was officially my new neighbor, so just the fear of walking out of my own door and running into him filled me with shame. I’d been brazen the night we met, but in the light of day I was still a recent divorcee with a chip on her shoulder.

I’d found out about Phoenix by accident after coming home late one night from class. I had been trying to juggle fries and a drink in one hand while balancing my books in another when I literally bumped into him. I had stared at him, my mouth wide open not knowing what to say to him.

“What are you doing here?” I had demanded when I finally got my thoughts together and could speak.

He had smiled sexily at me and just said, “Hi to you too.” He was wearing all black this time: black sweat pants, with an undershirt that was partially covered by a black hoodie. I could see his chest clearly as the undershirt did little to hide it from view. Apparently his muscular chest was too big to be contained under the thin cotton fabric.

With effort, I tore my eyes off his chest and marched away from him, determined to pretend he wasn’t there. He had simply crossed his arms and rested his back against the wall next to me, staring at me in amusement.

“I guess if I ever need to borrow sugar or something, I shouldn’t ask you.” I continued to ignore him, inserted the key in the lock, opened my door and entered, quickly closing it behind me.

“Is that anyway to treat your neighbor?” he called through the door.

I hadn’t answered him obviously and he had eventually gone away. Needless to say, whenever I had to leave my apartment, I looked through the peep-hole and then scuttled like a mouse to the parking lot.

I’d kept that up for a week, but as fate would have it, I was again coming home from a late night of classes when I could hear arguing in the hall near my door. The closer I got the more ominous the voices sounded. I was a little apprehensive when I turned the corner and saw Phoenix’s door open. He was standing there seemingly unfazed by all the commotion the other two men were causing. Their presence alone was threatening, in my opinion, let alone their words. They were covered with tattoos as well, similar to the tattoos Phoenix sported. One guy was at least 6’6, seeming giant when standing next to Phoenix who was barely six feet. He took a threatening step towards Phoenix and before I could say a word, I watched Phoenix punch the man in his gut in a lightning fast move. The tall man grabbed his stomach, stumbling backwards and the other man, with long dreadlocks, leaped forward tackling Phoenix to the ground.

I screamed as Phoenix hit the ground. This caught the attention of the man Phoenix had punched in the stomach earlier. He looked at me nervously and yelled, “Come on, man. Let’s get out of here.”

But by then Phoenix was in an all-out brawl with the dreadlocks guy and it didn’t seem to be ending soon. Phoenix surprised me as he tossed the dreadlocks dude off of him, as if he weighed nothing at all and then placed his knee in the man’s chest and began to punch him viciously in the face. He was merciless as the other man scrambled to get from underneath Phoenix while gripping his hands against his face trying to protect it.

The tall guy launched himself at Phoenix and dragged him off the other dude, trapping Phoenix in a chokehold. Phoenix leaned forward and as if the guy didn’t weigh a pound he flipped him over and he landed on top of the other guy with thud.

“Get out of here before I kill you both. There aren’t rules here to stop me,” Phoenix said quietly, breathing heavily. The men stared him down, but slowly got up and limped away.

“Send my regards to Marquez,” Phoenix said softly. He then turned to me where I stood frozen, unable to speak or contemplate what I had just seen. The vision of Phoenix’s lower lip bleeding woke me up from my state of shock and I instinctively walked towards him and reached out to touch his face.

“You’re bleeding” I said, my hands trembling.

He brought his hand up to his mouth. “Yeah, that sucks.” He then turned away from me and winced. “I think Rocco might have gotten in a lucky punch,” he said rubbing his side.

I studied him, taking his chin in my hand and turning it in different directions. “I think you should clean up that cut. It’s split your bottom lip in half.”

“Thanks for your concern.” He turned away and walked the few feet to his apartment door. I called out, “Hey, you’re just going to walk away without explaining what all that was about?”

“Yeah.”

I followed him to his apartment door and he didn’t seem to have a problem with it, so I walked in and gave his sparsely decorated apartment a cursory glance.

“Nice.”

He shrugged at my sarcastic tone, “You invited yourself in so keep your judgment to yourself.”

“Who were those guys?” I asked ignoring the fact that I was invading his space uninvited.

“Care to close the door? You know? Just in case they come back?”

Sheepishly, I did. He took a dry dish towel and wrapped ice in it and pressed it against his lip.

“Are you going to answer my question now? Are you a criminal or something?”

“Are you kidding me?”

“Well only ex-cons or criminals get beat up in hallways.”

“Is that right? Are you an expert on the subject or something?”

I placed my hand on my hip. “Yeah, I like to think so at least.” I then rolled my eyes at him and said, “Stop being cute and answer my questions.”

“Remember how I told you that I’m an MMA fighter?”

“Yeah.”

“Well, I wasn’t always one. I actually got most of my skills from street fighting. No rules. Illegal spur of the moment fights. The pay was good and it was the outlet I needed at the time. I worked for one particular guy, Marquez Jackson, for a while. That worked out. I kind of saw him as a mentor. And then one day I was fighting some dude named Vic who decided he wasn’t going to lose so he pulled a knife on me and proceeded to carve me up.”

I grimaced at the image and felt sick when Phoenix raised his shirt. The scars that covered his lower abdomen made me sick just looking at them.

“When I was able to get the knife out of his hand, I picked up a trash can and slammed it down into his face over and over. I wanted to break his skull open.” He growled as if the rage he had felt then was still fresh.

“Aren’t weapons like knives illegal?”

“There aren’t any rules when street fighting, but there are unspoken ones.”

“Is that normal?”

He gave a harsh laugh, “No. It’s not customary to get gutted while fighting.”

I felt instantly stupid for my question and apologized. “I’m sorry. I don’t know much about MMA”

“Not MM—“

“You know what I mean. So who were those guys?”

“They work for Marquez. Marquez figures he can coerce me into fighting again.”

“So he sent those goons?”

“Pretty much.”

“So should we call the cops?”

“And tell them what? That the dude I used to work for illegally is trying to coerce me into doing more illegal stuff?”

“Yeah.”

He scoffed, “Yeah, that’s not going to happen."

“Do you think they’re coming back?”

He shrugged as if he didn’t really care, “They could and I would just keep beating their ass.”

“That’s an option, but for some reason that doesn’t sound like a viable solution.”

He nodded in agreement and said simply, “It’s the only one I have now.”

He leaned against his kitchen counter and studied me carefully.

“You look just as good today as you did the night we first met.”

His compliment caught me off-guard and so did the abrupt change of subject.

I blushed. “Thanks,” I mumbled feeling suddenly self-conscious.

“That night you slammed the door in my face, I wanted to ask you out.”

“Sorry about that,” I said feeling ridiculous now. “It was just a shock seeing you...after...well...you know.”

“After I deflowered you in the alley?”

“I wasn’t a virgin!”

“You were tight like one.”

I sat down and crossed my legs, pressing my thighs together, as if that would stem the flow of arousal and heat I felt emanating from between my legs at his words. I could feel myself growing wet and he pointedly stared at my legs, allowing his eyes to drift up and under my skirt.

I scowled at him and he laughed. “Are you free tomorrow? Let me take you to dinner?” He said coming over to sit next to me. His presence was overwhelming and I wanted to move away. Even though he had just been in a fight, he hadn’t even broken a sweat. In fact, I thought I was crazy for thinking this, but besides his broken lip he looked delicious. I even found his bruised face sexy, virile, the epitome of masculinity.

And as if sensing it, he placed his hand in my hair and pulled me towards him. I didn’t resist as he pulled me onto his lap, making me straddle him.

“Now this is where you should be.” He said gliding his hands up and letting them rest right below my breasts.

“Oh really?” I said moving my hips just a little bit, rubbing my heat across his erection that I could feel pressed against me.

I began to lower my face to his when he abruptly stopped me.

“Maybe we should leave this make out session for another time, when I’m not practically bleeding all over the face.”

I had totally forgotten, having got caught up in the moment. “Okay.”

“So how about it? You, me, dinner this weekend?”

“You’re on.” I whispered, stroking his face as he gently detangled me from his arms.

I let him lead me to his door and he took a moment to grab my behind and squeeze it softly. I swatted at his hand and he caught me by it, dragged me back up to him and began to kiss my ear. I closed my eyes, enjoying the feel of his lips against my skin, wondering how he knew that was my sensitive spot, hoping that he wouldn’t stop.

But he did and I sighed as he let me go.

“Go home. I’m going to watch you, make sure you get in safely.”

“Seriously? My door is only ten feet away from yours.”

“A lot could happen in ten feet.”

I shook my head, walked the short distance and opened my door, “Bye, Phoenix.”

“I’ll see you later, Bree.”

And then I disappeared into my apartment eagerly anticipating what our next date held in store for me.