I can’t fucking believe sweet Katherine Adeline Lewis is in the audience watching my fight. This is not her kind of thing. Her best friend however, she’d be all over an attraction like this. She was always was the wild one of the inseparable duo and sometimes I wonder how they ever became best friends. But if she’s responsible for bringing my high school crush here, then I owe her.

It’d been a long-ass time since I’ve been back to Seattle. Adeline was the last person I expected to lay eyes on, even though I would have given my left nut just to see her in the distance. Yeah, she goes by Katherine, but when I saw her filling out a college application during our senior year of high school, I decided Adeline fit her better, and I liked having my own special name for a girl so special. I’m not sure what it is about her, why I’m so goddamn attracted to her, I only know I am. She’s different from other girls, driven and ambitious, but there is an innocent sensuality about her that turns my cock to granite.

The second I saw her gaping at me as I scanned the audience, my heart nearly fucking stopped. Not a great situation to find myself in when I needed all my strength and wits about me to beat the mean-ass motherfucker who boasted he was going to be the man to finally take me down. Seriously though, he did give me a good pounding and my fucking eye is swollen. I really need to give this shit up. One more fight, for the big money, and then I’ll put this world behind me. Until then, it’s status quo. Another fight, another woman, another city. Yeah, everything in my life is running together in one big blur, but I hope to clear my head and change direction after next week’s fight in New York. I just have no idea what that direction will be.

I climb from the ring, and make my way to the back room for the medic to bandage me. I scan the crowd, looking for Adeline, but she’s nowhere to be found. My heart sinks. Shit, I shouldn’t have gotten my hopes up. No doubt she’s well aware of my reputation and a sweet thing like her would probably never accept an offer to meet me back stage. Then again, I never thought she’d show up to one of my fights, so I don’t want to give up all hope that she won’t take me up on my offer.

I walk down the hall, and the cheers become a distant hum as I make my way to my room. I step inside and my private medic, aka my best friend, Brayden Long, gives a low, slow whistle. “You look like shit, man.”

“Why don’t you tell me what you really think?” I say, and give him a grin. Brayden and I go way back, and after high school he trained to be a first responder. When I give this shit up, he’ll go back to riding shotgun in an ambulance, but for now, we’re a team, us against the world.

He tosses a towel over my shoulders to keep my body warm and grabs his bag. With a nod, he gestures to the table. “Sit.”

I hop onto the examination table, and blood drips from the cut under my eye. “Did you see Adeline and Sara in the crowd?”

“Who’s Adeline?” he asks as he pours some foul smelling shit onto a cloth.

“Katherine Lewis from high school.”

“Oh, right. I forgot you always called her Adeline. Why do you do that again?”

“I just do. Did you see them?”

“No.”

He dabs my eye and it stings like a bitch, but I don’t flinch. After all, this isn’t my first rodeo. “You remember them from high school though, don’t you?”

He cleans the blood from my cut, and checks out the rest of my body. “Yeah, is Sara still hot?”

“I’m sure you’ll think so. I invited them back stage.”

He steps back, his eyes darting to mine. “Are you fucking serious?”

“Yeah, why?”

“You haven’t brought a girl back stage in…fuck, I can’t even remember really.”

A few months, but I don’t say that. I think I’m getting played out. Either that or Hell is freezing over, because there is nothing I like more than a hard fuck after a hard fight.

“Just want to get caught up with some old friends.” I shrug. “Thought you might like that, too.”

He laughs and sees through my partial lie. While it’s true, I do want to get caught up, what I really want is to get my mouth on Adeline, to finally see if she tastes as sweet as she looks. Jesus Christ, I’ve imagined it for years, but back then, her parents hovered over her, preventing the good girl from having anything to do with the likes of me. Now, though, she’s all grown up, and her folks are nowhere to be found, which means I can finally make my move. Will she let me, or will the good girl come to her senses and run the other way?

“Caught up, huh? Is that what we’re calling it now?”

I arch a brow, but it hurts my swollen eye. “You got something to fucking say?”

My voice is threatening, but Bray doesn’t have to worry and he knows it. I’d give my life for him and vice versa. We grew up on the mean streets together, and even though we’re not blood, we’re brothers in every sense of the word.

He smirks and returning to professional mode, checks my eyes again. “Nope, nothing to say.”

“Stitches?” I ask.

“Not this time.” He hands me a cold pack and I put it over my eye, but set it on my lap when a gasping noise behind my friend reaches my ears.

My pulse leaps when I see Adeline standing there, her big blue eyes wide, her mouth agape as she takes in my bruised face. My cock jumps, eager to slide into that sweet open mouth of hers. Fuck, man, it’s insane how much I still want her.

“Are you…okay?” she asks tentatively as she wets her bottom lip. Jesus fuck, that’s sexy. Her friend turns her gaze from me to Bray.

“Hey Bray, long time,” she says as she curls her fingers in her long hair and Bray takes the bait.

Bray looks at me. “You good?”

What he’s really asking is if he can leave so he can get ‘caught up’ with Sara. “Yeah, I’m good, man.”

He leaves and Adeline takes a small step closer. The air around us is charged, and from the way her chest is rising and falling from her erratic breathing, I know she feels it too. I can feel her need, desire reaching out to me, but I’m not about to act on it. Not yet. Every instinct I possess warns me of that.

“You should put that ice back on your eye. It looks bad.”

Most girls think my bruised body and face is hot—the more broken I am, the more they want a piece of me—but not Adeline. She’s actually fucking concerned. My cock swells another inch, the unease dancing in her eyes like a sucker punch. Shit, it’s been a long time since anyone cared about me. But this girl isn’t just anyone. She’s Mayor Lewis’s daughter, and the nicest girl I know. Maybe I should walk away from this. The last thing I want to do is corrupt a girl like her.

I’m open my mouth to tell her this was a mistake, when she takes the icepack from me and gently presses it to my eye. Her other hand brushes my too long hair from my forehead, and she leans in. Her breath is hot on my face, and I feel it all the way to my cock.

I put my hand over hers and press the pack harder to my cut, showing her how to do it. She tenses as our hands touch. Shit, she’s nervous, practically quivering in her shoes, and I hate that. “You okay, Addy?”

She swallows, and says, “I can’t believe you recognized me.”

“Why not? You’re just as beautiful today as you were in high school. No, correction. You’re even more beautiful.”

She blushes and my dick jumps. I haven’t seen a girl blush in…ever.

“I…Ah…”

“Want to grab a drink?” I ask. “Get caught up?”

Please say yes. If she doesn’t, I might have to punch something.

She nods. “I guess I could use a Starbucks.”

I laugh. “I do miss having one on every corner when on the road,” I say. I’ve been pretty much overdosing on the espressos since being home. “But I was thinking maybe something with alcohol in it.”

“Oh, ah, okay. Just let me text Sara. I drove and I need to make sure she has a way home.”

“Don’t worry, Bray will see to it. He’s a good guy and will take care of her.”

She shoots off a text, reads the response, and puts her phone in her pocket.

I can’t seem to take my eyes off her sweet curves. She’s thin, but her body has filled out since our high school days. “So you still live in Seattle, I take it?”

“Yeah, going to state college. I’m in my last year. I’m taking political science, and going to go into politics like my father.” She wets her lips and continues. “I really want to. I want to make Seattle a better place for the people. It’s important to me.”

While she might have changed outwardly, inside she’s still nervous around me, rambling like she used to do when we were paired together. I drop the ice pack and jumps from the examination table. She takes a step back and I go still. “Are you afraid of me, Adeline?”

She gives a quick shake of her head, but I see through her lie. “Good.” I step up to her, brush my thumb over her bottom lip. “I’d never do anything to hurt you.”

“Okay,” she squeaks out, her lashes blinking rapidly.

I eye her. “You do know that, right? I’d never lay a hand on you. Unless, of course you wanted me to.”

She nods.

I pull my hand away and she visibly relaxes. “Where would you like to have that drink?”

I shrug off my towel and her gaze roams over my naked body. “You…you need to get dressed.”

“And I need a shower. Why don’t we go back to my hotel? I can shower and change there, then we can go out.”

When she hesitates, I say, “If it makes you more comfortable, I can get cleaned up and pick you up at your place when I’m done.”

“No,” she says quickly, too quickly. What? Does she not want me crossing the tracks into her territory and embarrassing her, or is it something else?

I tug on a shirt and pull my sweats on over my shorts. “You want to drive with me?”

“I have my car.”

“I can take you back to get it later.”

She stares at her shoes for a moment, then says, “No, I’ll just follow you.”

I grin at her. “That way you can make a quick escape if you need to.”

She laughs, and the sound caresses my cock. Dammit, I need to make her laugh more often.

She puts her hand on her hip. “Am I going to need to make a quick escape, Harding?”

“Depends.”

She cocks her head. “On what?”

“Why did you come to the fight?”

“Sara dragged me.”

“Did you know I’d be fighting?” I ask.

“Yes.”

“Why did you accept my invitation to come back stage?”

“Because you asked me to.”

“The truth, Addy.”

She looks down, and I put my finger under her chin to lift it. Our gazes meet and hold. She sucks in a breath, lets it out slowly and says, “Because I wanted to.”