Chapter Ten
Cait stood against the wall beside Dante and tried to calm her growing unease. Things were great at first. When they’d arrived, the host, Tommy “Lightning” Sparks, had made her feel both welcomed and flattered. Normally, compliments from a man flustered her, but Tommy had flirted in a lighthearted way that had only made her blush and feel appreciated as a woman. She wasn’t the only girl he made feel that way, either. The fighter was constantly in the middle of a flock of women.
Afterward, she and Dante had gone out onto the dance floor. Their dance this time was the complete opposite from the night they’d met. She’d still been uncomfortable as Dante bumped and ground against her, but instead of focusing on her awkwardness, she embraced it and laughed each time their moves didn’t synch together. Each time she’d laughed, Dante’s smile grew wider and he edged closer, until it seemed as if only two of them existed. Then he’d kiss her, a deep, thorough kiss that had left her breathless and throbbing. If the harsh exhale he’d given afterward had been any indication, he hadn’t been unaffected by the kiss either.
It wasn’t until they’d left the dance floor and taken up a place against the wall that she noticed the stares. She tried to ignore them at first, but over the last hour, it became increasingly obvious the Barbies were on the prowl—for Dante. They circled Cait like vultures, waiting for their moment to strike.
She’d been pulled into a feminine game she was unprepared for and had no idea how to handle.
She caught sight of a black-haired woman devouring Dante with her eyes. The short, black leather skirt she wore showed endless tanned legs. The nothing tank top was molded to her had-to-be-fake boobs. Cait gritted her teeth.
The Barbie’s gaze flicked to Cait and turned cold, her crimson lips twisted into a sneer as a perfectly plucked brow lifted. Cait held steady eye contact, lifting a brow of her own, hoping her expression conveyed what she felt: Back off, bitch. He’s here with me.
The woman tilted her head back, squaring her shoulders, and Cait mimicked her.
She couldn’t think of any another way to respond to the nonverbal challenges. So if they curled a lip at her or sent her a dismissive look, she copied them.
The woman’s attention returned to Dante, and Cait peeked up at him. He stood nodding his head to the beat of the music, sipping his beer, oblivious to what was going on. When he caught Cait watching him, he smiled. Her heart did a flip as he pulled her closer to his side and kissed the top of her head.
The woman had left by the next time Cait looked over. Good. Another confrontation averted. Dante’s lack of awareness seemed to keep the women at a distance. She had little doubt it’d take just one acknowledging glance from him and the cats would climb all over each other to stake their claim.
He squeezed her hip. “You need another beer?”
She held up her half-full bottle. “No, I’m good.”
“You having a good time?”
“Of course I am.” Just a small fib. She was enjoying his company.
Now if someone would write a “How to Date an Uber-Hotty” guide that informed her how to deal with aggressive wants-to-steal-your-date women, the night would be even better.
Dante released his hold on her to put his empty bottle on a nearby table. She stepped aside to give him room, and a buxom brunette shoved between them. Cait stared at her.
“Dante! Hi!” the too-skinny, completely proportional ninny exclaimed. Cait blinked at the breathless, come-and-get-it tone.
He turned. His eyes widened momentarily before all emotion left his face.
Interesting.
“Amanda. Didn’t know you’d be here. If I had, we would’ve skipped the party.”
“ ‘We’?” She gave Cait a dismissive once-over before turning her big-ass, toothy smile to Dante.
Of all the glances Cait had received during the evening, this one pissed her off the most. She curled her hands into fists and opened her mouth to tell the woman off, but Dante slid past the bitch and came to stand behind Cait. She snapped her mouth shut as he snaked his hands around her waist, and pulled her against him. She leaned into his chest and fought a smirk. Maybe she didn’t have the know-how these women did, but Dante made up for it.
“I don’t think you’ve met my date, Caitlyn Moore.”
Disgust curled the woman’s lips. “You’re kidding, right? What’s this? A pity date?”
The words sent horror piercing through Cait’s heart. This couldn’t be happening. She was having a nightmare. She had to be. God, please wake up.
Horror became reality when Dante went rigid behind her. His chest no longer gently brushed her back, and he seemed to stop breathing. His loose embrace became steel. This was no dream.
Tears of anger and mortification blurred her vision and she wanted to scream at the cruelty. Why her? Why anyone? No one should ever endure such humiliation.
She blinked furiously, refusing to give the woman the satisfaction of seeing her cry.
“Caitlyn, go to the car.”
She glanced over her shoulder. Rage pulsed on Dante’s face and drew his features into a terrifying scowl. Cait swallowed.
“What?”
“Go to the car.” He met her eyes, his expression softening as he kissed her gently on the lips. “Please.”
She nodded and extracted herself from his embrace. She walked toward the exit numbly.
“What the hell is the matter with you?”
Dante’s outraged voice carried to her ears. Curiosity made her turn. Anger jerked his movements as he swiped his hand through the air. The woman studied her nails, smirking as if she were pleased in a job well done.
In truth, the woman had. If this was an example of what spending time with Dante meant, it was a deal breaker. Cait refused to endure this kind of treatment from anyone—no matter how much she wanted Dante in her bed.
…
Every muscle in his body trembled from trying to control his anger. He could still feel the way Caitlyn’s body shuddered against his, still see the glisten of tears in her eyes when she looked up at him. She didn’t deserve to have anyone speak to her that way. Ever.
Amanda glanced at him. “I hadn’t realized your taste had shifted to fat women. Makes sense why we broke up now.”
“We weren’t together long enough to break up. You can’t hide trash, Amanda, and you’re overflowing with it.”
A nasty sneer turned up her lips. “So you decided to date a woman with an overflowing muffin top? Not sure you’ve traded up, Dante.”
If these were the type of comments Caitlyn had dealt with most of her life, it was no wonder she felt inadequate. A protective instinct overwhelmed him. No one had the right to make her feel that way.
“You know what? Fuck this.”
He hoisted Amanda over his shoulder. Squealing, she pounded her fist against his back. “Put me down.”
A couple of fighters stood as he stormed past. “What’s going on, Dante?”
“It’s time to take out the trash.”
“Hey, Dante, wait up!” Tommy and a few others followed him down the hall and outside.
Why had he ever wasted time on this woman? Yeah, she had the perfect outer appearance, but it hadn’t taken him long to realize she was one of the ugliest women he’d ever met. He hated that Caitlyn had been a target of Amanda’s malicious mouth, and her foul words would fuel the insecurities he now knew Caitlyn had. Insecurities that were completely unfounded.
Caitlyn was the most beautiful woman he’d ever met—both inside and out. Sweet and innocent with a little feisty added in for spice. Amanda couldn’t hold a candle to Caitlyn.
He strode to the lip of the pool and tossed her in, watching her disappear under the water.
She surfaced, sputtering. “You bastard!”
He pointed at her. “Don’t ever come near me or my girlfriend again.”
How easily the word “girlfriend” had come out of his mouth. Not because he was trying to run off another man, but because Caitlyn brought forth a fierce need to protect he’d never felt for a woman before. This was no longer about a challenge, but a woman who’d gotten under his skin. She deserved to feel as beautiful as he saw her.
Dante spun. Five men stared at him, their mouths hanging open.
“Damn, Dante, what happened?” Tommy asked. “I’ve never seen you like this.”
He wouldn’t repeat the foul words. He jerked his thumb over his shoulder. “Make sure this thing stays out of my sight.”
“Sure, Dante. Whatever you want.”
Now he had to face Caitlyn. Damn it, the night had been perfect. They danced, laughed, kissed. He’d finally succeeded in getting her to lower her guard, and the woman behind all those barriers had forced him to lower his own.
He hurried to the parking lot. Talking about Frank, his past, and the way she’d tried to comfort him with those small touches to his arm, had been amazing. She might not have understood his sport, but she was compassionate and caring. It’d been a long time since he’d connected with a woman on a deeper level. Most of his relationships had been superficial with superficial women. At the time, that had been enough. Now it no longer was.
Dante wanted the openness he and Caitlyn had formed today. He’d let her in, and she’d done the same. He refused to lose that.
He neared his truck, but Caitlyn was nowhere to be found. A knot formed in his stomach. She wouldn’t have left.
After digging his cell phone out of his pocket, he called her and it went straight to voicemail. He sent a text asking her where she was.
A few seconds later, his phone chimed with a return text.
Took a taxi. It’s over, Dante.
…
Caitlyn quietly closed the door to her apartment. She leaned against it and finally allowed herself to cry. She pressed the back of her hand to her mouth. Why had sending that text been so hard?
“Cait?”
She heard Amy before she saw her. When her friend popped her head around the corner of the living room, her eyes widened and she rushed to Cait’s side. “What happened?”
“I’m so humiliated.”
“Cait, honey, come here.”
Behind Amy, Paul stood in the door frame, his arms outstretched. She hurried into them, his thin limbs enveloping her. So different from Dante’s strong embrace, but just as safe.
“Amy, I think this calls for the good stuff,” he said.
“Which one?”
“We have tears, Amy. Which do you think?”
The exaggerated disgust in Paul’s tone made Cait thankful to be home. She needed her two best friends right now.
Paul led her to the couch and gently pushed her into the cushions. He sat beside her, reached for a Kleenex on the coffee table, and wiped her tears. Concern drew his eyebrows together.
She opened her mouth to spill her guts, but he held up his hand. “We have to wait for Amy. She’d kill me for sending her on an errand then getting all the drama to myself. You know how much she loves the drama.”
Cait begrudged a smile.
Minutes later, Amy walked in, carrying three heaping bowls of ice cream. Cait took a bowl. Full-fat Rocky Road. Paul really knew how to wallow.
“Thanks, guys.”
“What kind of friends are we if we can’t share ice cream when one of us is upset?” He squeezed her hand. “So what happened?”
Cait grimaced. Voicing the humiliation she’d endured would be difficult. Yet she had to, or this night would eat her alive. “A woman asked Dante if I was a pity date.”
Paul gasped, his fingers flying to his mouth. “Did you claw her eyes out? ’Cause if you didn’t, I sure will.”
Amy scooted close and hugged her. “God, Cait, I’m so sorry.”
The sympathy in her friend’s voice made a fresh wave of tears gather in her eyes. “To be so humiliated, in front of Dante.”
Before she could let the waterworks start again, she shoved a spoonful of ice cream into her mouth. The sweet goodness did nothing to relieve her distress.
Paul straightened. “Cait, I know how you think. You will not let some catty bitch come between you and Hercules. Do you understand?”
Cait forced the ice cream past the lump in her throat. “I never wanted anything to do with the fighting part of Dante’s life. Tonight’s encounter only confirmed that. I let my attraction to Dante cloud my judgment and now I’ve been rudely awakened.”
“Cait, you need to look at this from a different perspective.” Amy pinned her with an intense stare. “Dante wanted you there. No one else. This woman was jealous. The easy target is to attack the woman he’s with. What do women attack first? Other women’s looks.”
“I know Dante wanted me there, but I had women challenging me from the moment I walked in there. I had a woman humiliate me because she wanted the man I was with. I refuse to deal with people like that over an attraction that has no future. I want to go back to life before Dante.” Glancing down at the ice cream, she felt her stomach roil. She set the bowl down. Fatigue sapped the last of her energy. “I want to go to bed.”
“Cait—”
She shook her head. “No more tonight. My head is killing me and I’m drained. I just want to curl up in bed, okay?”
“If you need—”
“I know. I’ll talk. I promise.” She forced a smile, then rose from the couch and went to her room.
Once inside, she closed the door and flung herself across the bed. She’d been a fool. She never should’ve agreed to the date. She should’ve concentrated on a safer man, one who didn’t make her insides come to life with a smoldering glance. Too many feelings were wrapped up in Dante.
Of course, she would’ve been embarrassed if the same thing had occurred with any guy, but it wouldn’t have been this mind-numbing mortification she felt at Dante witnessing it.
Damn, there were the tears again. She blinked, wiping her eyes on her comforter.
A tapping came from the door. She pulled her pillow over her head. Couldn’t her friends just leave her alone? She knew they were worried, but still. The tapping came again. “Go. Away!”
“Open the damned door.”
Cait jackknifed into a sitting position, a gasp lodging in her throat at the deep—very angry—masculine voice on the other side.
“Caitlyn!”
The raw authority in his voice made her jump off the bed and hurry to the door. He stormed inside once she opened it, slamming it shut behind him. She backed up to give him room, lots of room, as memories of what happened the last time he was in here came to mind.
She didn’t need that. Not now. Not when it would take every ounce of willpower to send him away.
She crossed her arms. “What are you doing here?”
“You can’t just leave without a word and think I’m not going to show up.”
“I think my text said it all.”
“The hell it did. I’m not going to let one incident bring this thing between us to a grinding halt.”
Blasted tears blurred her vision and she blinked them away before staring him in the eye. “It’s an attraction, Dante. Attractions fizzle out. This one will, too.”
“You’re scared.”
“Oh, I am so far outside the spectrum of scared, Dante.”
He took a step forward, and she took a step back. He scowled. “Amanda’s an ex-girlfriend. You have no idea how sorry I am that you were on the receiving end of her venom. It’s why we broke up.”
“That’s supposed to make it all better? How many other hateful ex-girlfriends do you have waiting out there in after-party land? Better yet, how many women are waiting for their chance at you? From the women I saw drooling tonight, it’s one hell of an impressive list.”
“I’ve never claimed to be a saint. Women like me, they always have, and I do have my fair share of exes, but that shouldn’t matter when it’s you I want to be with.”
“Shouldn’t matter?” She pointed at him. “Let me tell you something, Dante Jones, in all my life, at any weight, with any man I might have been with, I’ve never been asked if I was a pity date. Why? Because when I did have the occasional date, it was with an average Joe, not someone in the limelight who has every anorexic hussy panting after him—women who have no regard for human freaking emotion.”
“What they think doesn’t matter.”
She stepped toward him. “I’ve spent a majority of my life beating myself up over my weight. I’m finally getting to a point where I no longer do that, and I refuse to let women who have you on their to-do list step in and do it for me.” She waved. “This world of yours—I want nothing to do with. So leave.”
“No.”
She threw her hands in the air. “Why?”
“Because of this.”
He grabbed her then, his lips crushing down on hers. Cait pushed at his chest and opened her mouth to protest, but he took the opportunity to slip his tongue inside, caressing, stroking. His fingers worked their way into her hair and massaged her scalp. She wanted to deny him, to turn her head, but couldn’t. Instead, she gripped his head between her hands and returned his kiss with passion and a little desperation.
“Caitlyn,” he whispered into her mouth. He cupped her bottom and brought her close. The hard evidence of his arousal pressed into her belly. “God, Caitlyn. I can’t get enough of you.”
Reality crashed over her like cold water. She pushed at his chest. “I can’t. It’s not going to work. Please…leave.” When he didn’t budge, the fight left her and she pressed her face into his chest. “Please, Dante, just leave. I can’t handle any more tonight. It’s all been too much.”
He stiffened, his arms tightened around her as he kissed the top of her head. “Fine. But let me tell you something, Caitlyn. I want you. When I want something, I get it. And nothing, especially your past, will stand in my way. So get used to it.”