CHAPTER TEN
Caleb
I stared out the window of my penthouse at the mid-February morning light barely tinting the horizon, but the view did nothing to quell the whirring in my mind.
I had never been one to overthink other people’s reactions, but yesterday’s encounter with Cherry had kept my brain spinning all night. Thinking about her mouth under mine, the way the room lit up with sparks when our eyes clashed. The way she’d slipped out the door while I was still in the afterglow.
While I was no stranger to someone making a hasty exit after the euphoria of sex wore off — usually me — her retreat had been so hasty that I’d begun to wonder if I had crossed some sort of line.
What we did wasn’t professional by any stretch of the word. Hell, I’d fucked her on a mat where people had sweated throughout the day. What kind of bastard was I?
Then again, we’d just erupted into a hot blaze. I hadn’t seen it coming. Didn’t regret it for one moment. Every moment inside of her had been rapture, and… I had never felt so complete with another human.
Which was bizarre, to say the least. While I respected every woman that I bedded, I didn’t consider myself a romantic. Sex was a fun activity for two or more people, and that was it.
But it wasn’t that way with Cherry. Not only was she breathtakingly beautiful, when she’d been bare and writhing against that gym mat, everything had seemed to have so much meaning. The sounds she made. The way she tensed around me. The experience had been perfect. So, when she’d practically run from me, I’d been astounded. I began to doubt if the experience was as good for her.
I knew I hadn’t inadvertently pressured her. I’d asked her multiple times, and she’d given enthusiastic consent, even begging me not to stop.
If this was any other woman, I would have dismissed it, chalked it up to playing games. But Cherry didn’t seem like one for games, so I just ended up turning the situation over and over again in my head.
But that was getting me nowhere. My eyes wandered down to the street, and I watched a man wearing camo and a battered coat pushing a cart piled high with miscellaneous items. I needed to talk to Neddie.
With a purpose other than running each individual breath of Cherry’s over in my mind, I showered and shaved, and stopped at Please & Thank You for an extra-large coffee.
Neddie was already at his post, guarding the lane in front of the truck entrance from anyone who might deign to park there. He spoke to everyone who passed, and it seemed like he actually knew them. When he saw me, the smile he’d been sporting faded. “Morning, Mr. Birchmeir. I know why you’re here. I’ve enjoyed working this job, but now’s as good a time for an old feller like me to retire. So you don’t have to feel bad about firing me—”
“Firing you?”
“Yeah, I mean…” Neddie’s brows knitted together, “that’s why you’re here, isn’t it?”
“No, Neddie, I’m not firing you. I want to know more about Wayne and Rosemary, her husband and the little girl’s situation. I offered to put them in a hotel yesterday, and they wouldn’t accept.”
“You did that?” Neddie’s voice rose to a higher octave, and his eyes blinked rapidly. “They didn’t tell me that. Or Kyle didn’t anyway. Proud bastard.”
“The point is, Neddie, that those people can’t live underground. Now, I don’t care what part you had in it, and I’m sure you were just trying to help. But if they won’t accept my offer then I know there’s a couple of shelters where they could go.”
But Neddie was already shaking his head before I could finish the sentence. “Damn shelters are full to bustin’, and only safe if you can sleep with one eye open. When the city shut down Good Samaritan Shelter, it left almost twenty families on the street. Place had separate bedrooms for each family so they could have some semblance of normal.”
“So I’m told. What happened to make them close?” My stomach churned, knowing there were even that many homeless families in the city.
Neddie spotted a potential parker in his protective lane and yelled, “Hey!” and the car sped up.
“I’ll let you get back to work. Let me know if you hear anything. I’ll make some calls, and you see if you can convince them to let me put them in a hotel for now.”
“Yes, sir, Mr. Birchmeir. Mighty fine man you are.”
On the top floor, I sat at my desk, staring dolefully at my computer but not reading any of the reports in front of me. Normally, concentrating wasn’t an issue for me, but nothing seemed normal lately.
Even with the distraction of work, the screen blurred into Cherry straddling me, raising up and—
“Caleb!” I jumped when Hunter practically shouted my name, rushing in, holding his tablet up. “You have to see this!”
A pounding headache began right then, joining the sensation of my skull full of cotton.
I grimaced. “Good morning. What’s got you moving so fast this morning?” Hunter was notorious for his late nights, sliding in later than the rest of us.
“Oh, sorry, good morning. Check this out.” He shoved the tablet under my nose, and I skimmed through the article.
“Why are you so excited about this boxer? I thought you were only into MMA and wrestling.”
“Well yeah, on a general basis,” Hunter pointed at the screen as I handed it back, “but do you see the event this guy is pulling? It’s the best free PR move I’ve seen in years.”
“Wait, let me see that again.” I held my hand out, and he dutifully gave his device over. Looking the article over again, I saw that a fairly popular, middleweight boxer was holding a challenge event where anybody, as long as they passed a physician’s evaluation and signed a waver, was welcome to go toe-to-toe with him in the ring. The opponent would even get to choose a charity to highlight under their name.
If Cherry could take Andrew the Giant, she could take this guy.
I jumped to my feet as I scanned the details. The event was obviously pure publicity fodder, meant to drum up attention for the coming boxing season, and generate some pay-per-view revenue. But I couldn’t think of a better way to introduce Cherry to the world.
The fact that she was at the end of featherweight category and maybe just bordering into lightweight, while this guy was a middleweight boxer, would be a pretty good bet-bait on its own. But then, adding that she was a woman on top of it would be the cherry on top — so to speak.
The iPad faded as a new meaning to cherry on top clicked in my sex overloaded brain, and I remembered the way she’d ground down on me, the way she’d come apart…
“Earth to Caleb. We’ve lost you, Caleb.” His words shot me from an x-rated scene to memories of late nights watching reruns of Lost in Space and setting up my treehouse to look like a rocket ship.
I grinned. “She’s going to lose, that’s a given.”
“Hey, you lay your bets where you will, but mine’ll be on Cherry.”
I had absolute faith that she could last at least several rounds and give the crowd a fight to remember. After, her name would be plastered in forums everywhere.
I made the called I’d promised Neddie first, and was stunned to find out the homeless shelter had been closed down because it didn’t have sprinklers. Apparently, that was an ordinance, one the shelter had in the works to fix when their funding didn’t come through.
“Cancel my meetings and set them for in the morning sometime next week,” I ordered my secretary as I headed for the elevator.
“But you’ve got that meeting—” I leveled a single look at Linda, and she cut herself off. “Right. I’ll make sure to do that. Will you need your driver?”
“No. I’ll drive myself.” I stepped into the elevator brimming with energy. My mind jumped back and forth from fixing the Good Samaritan to risk versus reward lists. There were social media strategies for capitalizing on all the public hype for both the fight and the shelter. I should probably hire someone to do publicity, and had planned on it, but now we were jumping way ahead of the game.
I had time to deal with that. We had two weeks to prepare, and Cherry had a long way to go before she could deliver the performance I knew she was capable of. The people I’d met in the tunnel —I thought about Isabella’s cough — they might not last so long.
On my way to the gym, I stopped at the Codes and Regulations office. They knew my family, if not Dad himself, so they didn’t hesitate in giving me all the information I needed.
After reading over the forms, I called my attorney, because even though everything seemed like it was correct, I wanted an expert to see if there were any loopholes to get these families back in the shelter right away.
There weren’t.
So I called a plumber, made arrangements for him to meet me tomorrow to see what would need to be done. My excitement grew as I considered all the possibilities.
I knew the shelter was only for families, but maybe…
Could I find her?
My sister?
I scrubbed my face with my hand, knowing that finding her in the displaced families was a longshot. But could it be such a longshot when the one you were looking for was a beautiful woman? Was it so out of the realm of possibilities that she could be with someone, even have kids?
I instructed my car to call Neddie and filled him in on what I’d learned. “I’m going to have my secretary make arrangements at the Holiday Inn for them. I’m going to need you to convince them to go.”
Neddie hummed. “That’s easier said, Mr. Birchmeir.”
“Guilt trip them. I’m going to reserve a block of rooms. Tell them those other rooms are for the other families evicted from the shelter. It’s their job, in return for the rooms they’ll be staying in, to find them and make sure they accept the arrangement until the shelter is reopened.”
I could hear the grin on Neddie’s face as he agreed. “You’re pretty smart there, you young whippersnapper.”
I shook my head as I disconnected and called Linda to make the arrangements.
I arrived at the gym while Cherry was on her five-mile run. I needed a workout anyway and changed out of my suit into workout clothes. I figured I could burn off a little steam with the weights while I was waiting.
Truth be told, I was a little nervous about putting her in this fight. Cherry inspired me, lit a fire under me that I hadn’t felt in ages. You couldn’t just walk onto the street and find something like she had. Other people would see that fire too, had seen it. They loved it. But did I really think she could hold her own with this guy only a few weeks into training, even long enough to go a few rounds? The last thing I wanted was for Cherry to get KO’d or injured.
I pumped iron, adding more weight when and out of breath Cherry entered, and my cock leaped in my shorts. I needed control, more control than I’d been able to manage since she’d dazzled me that night in the abandoned garage.
Out of the corner of my eye, I watched Andre put her through her paces, doing some pad and bag work. I vacated to the shower before they made it to the weights, letting Chris know to show them to my office when they were done.
Wearing his signature sunglasses and with his neatly formed dreadlocks up in a tight bun, Andre escorted Cherry into my office and dropped his bag loudly in the corner.
“Your girl here’s working hard. Got a ways to go, but she’s tough. For a girl,” Andre said, giving me a respectful nod.
My eyes flicked to Cherry, whose gaze met mine cautiously. Her hair was done in a braided crown around her head instead of its usual ponytail. She looked beautiful, like some kind of Wonder Woman slash Fairy Princess. This was the look we’d want at the fight.
I snapped out of my fantasy when Andre cleared his throat.
“I have news,” I said, knowing exactly how I wanted to present my information. I looked from one face to the other, waiting until there was enough intrigue for me to keep going. “Roberto De La Matta, the middleweight boxer, is holding a pay-per-view free-for-all two weeks from now that’s going to last five days. Anyone who challenges will be able to fight him, and I want Cherry to enter.”
“She’s not ready. She still has too open of a guard and is leaning too far forward.” Andre frowned, shaking his head. “Besides, he’s a boxer, not MMA. She’ll get her head handed to her on a platter.”
“We don’t need you to win,” I assured him, keeping my gaze on Cherry’s flushed face as if Andre wasn’t even in the room. “You have the free will to agree to the fight or turn down my proposal without pressure, as per your contract. But I firmly believe that this could be a groundbreaking move for you, even if it is in a different area of fights. We just need you to last long enough to make an impression, and I think you can. Getting this kind of buzz around your name so early is a one in a million chance, and you would be remiss in passing it over.”
I hadn’t missed the light in her eyes the second I mentioned the fight. She stepped forward, her entire countenance glowing. “I can do it. I need a fight. It’s been too long.”
“I’m not going to pretend that it won’t take a lot of hard work on your end. Excruciating, time-consuming work. But if we up your training time here to six hours a day, along with some other measures, I believe we can get you to a passable state by the time of the fights.”
Andre threw up his hands. “I think this is crazy talk! He’ll kill her. And if not, this sounds like an easy way to get a career-ending injury. Not to mention that there are plenty of people who will say she lost because she’s a woman and women don’t belong in the ring — whether or not she makes it a few rounds with a man an entire weight class above hers.”
“But those people would say that about me no matter what,” Cherry argued, her expression determined. “It’s nothing new. I could win a hundred and one fights, but a single loss would prove that I could never be enough. I’m not concerned with them. I’m concerned with the people who actually love the sport and want to see it grow.” She crossed her arms and looked at me, her brow furrowed. “Do you think this would impress those people? The ones who matter?”
I didn’t hesitate. “Absolutely.”
She nodded. “Then let’s do it. I’ll need to text my mom, so she doesn’t worry when I’m not home on time, but other than that, we can start today.”
“Alright, it’s your funeral,” Andre said with a shrug, holding his hands out in front of him like he was washing them in the air.
“Don’t worry about that. There was a great life insurance policy written into my contract so my family will be set.”
Andre’s mouth dropped open.
I was sure she was kidding. “You know, there’s more to life than making sure your family is taken care of.”
“Not for me,” she answered flatly, heading out the door without looking back, already focused on the additional training. “Now, come on, I’m sure you’ll enjoy tearing me apart for three extra hours.”
“You’re not wrong on that.” Andre craned his head to me as they walked off. “I assume you’re going to include a bonus in my check for all this unexpected overtime?”
“Only if you don’t try to subvert Cherry’s decision and train her to the best of your ability.”
“I wouldn’t dream of doing otherwise.”
“Good.”
I was well aware of what Andre was doing — testing my boundaries and just how far he could push. It wasn’t like he was trying to get away with anything, but he was a fairly dominant male. While it was obvious that I was in charge here, he was trying to see just how in charge that meant. I was more than happy with setting the perimeter of what I would accept, and what I wouldn’t.
As for Cherry, I was quite pleased with her decision. It definitely appeared that whatever was bothering her about what happened between us wasn’t a great enough force to overcome her desire to become pro. That was good. I’d need to find a way to talk to her, and the sooner the better.
I heard a grunt and looked up to see that Andre was already putting her through a pretty intense workout on the bags. Good. Time was short, and we were going to need every second.
I sat at my desk and worked out the extra pay I was going to give Andre, as well as all the other minutiae that was necessary now that Cherry was moving from the training stage to the fight prep stage.
An arc of excitement ran through me. Grooming a fighter to the professional leagues was certainly turning out to be more involved than I ever thought, but I was loving the challenge.
When I finally finished an hour and a half later, Andre and Cherry were in the weights area, Cherry looking like she needed to be rescued.
“I’m heading to the sign-ups. Thought you both would want to be there.”
“Man, can you handle it? I have an appointment with the agency. Have to get going in about thirty anyway.”
“Agency?” I asked.
Andre’s dark complexion grew darker. “Yeah, we’re adopting a baby. He’s in an orphanage in Malawi, Africa. At some point, we’ll have to fly there to get him.”
Cherry recovered before I did. “Andre! You never told me that. That’s wonderful. I bet you can’t wait to get him.”
As Andre nodded and smiled, I said, “Just let me know whenever that happens, we can be flexible for that. And congratulations.”
Andre said his thanks and left, happier than I’d ever seen him.
“Come on,” I said, tossing Cherry one of the small towels kept on one of the racks between sections of the gym. “Grab your coat.”
“I don’t need a coat. I didn’t bring one.” She looked away, scrubbing her face with the towel.
I paused. “Cherry, you do have a coat, right?” When she said nothing, I cursed.
“I don’t have a coat because both my brothers went without one until now, and besides, winter is almost over. I don’t need one.”
“Cherry, my delicious one,” I stepped closer, taking her chin in between my fingers, “if you’re going to fight, you have to keep those beautiful muscles warm. Now, we’re going to the sign-ups first to make sure we get there before so many people sign up that we don’t get in. After that, we’re getting you a coat.”
“Wait, can’t we sign up online?” I picked up on her incredulous tone, and for some reason, it amused me.
“They need a copy of your latest physical, and then you sign a release-waiver as well as a bunch of other insurance stuff.”
“Oh, right. I guess that makes sense.” She sighed and hovered where she was standing.
“Cherry?” I let my natural authority come out in my voice, demanding she spit out what she was holding in.
She hesitated only a moment. “I’ve not had a physical.” Turning, her fists were clenched at her sides. “But I’m assuming you’re going to make sure I have one.”
I cocked my head just enough that she realized what her words could have meant and the whites of her eyes showed. I lowered my voice, so none of the other patrons would hear. “I would be happy to give you… a very thorough physical. But only if that’s what you want.”
I searched her eyes, and she held my gaze, emotions surfacing then diving deep again in her spring-colored eyes.
“I—I’ll get ready.”
It didn’t take long for Cherry to get back into her street clothes. For the briefest of moments, I contemplated calling my driver, but I needed to be behind the wheel, needed to be in charge.
“Come this way,” I said brusquely, striding outside.
We reached my car, and I opened the passenger door for Cherry, but she just stood there. “I’m sorry, for leaving like I did last night.”
“Why did you?” came out of my mouth before I could stop it. Something in my chest heated as I waited for the words that would amount to a fork in the road. Either she hated me, or she had something she needed to work out.
“I thought I screwed it up. The chance to fight.”
I ground my jaw together. “By… doing what we did. You thought I’d dump you after that.”
She shrugged. “The fight world is still a man’s world. You’d be surprised what I’ve come up against.”
She was right, and knowing she’d fought battles already, as young as she was, as motivated to take care of her family as she was, made me want to just take care of her. But I knew she was so independent that would only get her fired up.
Fuck it. If I wanted to take care of her, I damn well would, and she could get over it.
“That’s what I’m for.” When she narrowed her eyes, I said, “To help you over the speed bumps.”
I made a call and stopped at my doctor’s office, waiting while Cherry had a rush physical done, coming out with a signed form.
We settled into a slightly uncomfortable silence as I headed for the sign-ups, driving just at the speed limit. I never speeded, not since that night.
“I know this car has some muscle under the hood. Let’s see it.”
“Nah. I prefer to not get a ticket.”
“In a minute, you’re going to get a ticket for going under the speed limit. You’re driving like a grandpa.”
I laughed because it sounded like something Hunter would say. “I don’t speed for a reason.” I had no idea why that’d come out.
I felt her eyes on me. “You’ve wrecked going too fast?”
The light I’d stopped at turned green, but I couldn’t move, the cold dread that I’d first felt that night slamming into me. A horn honked behind me, and I stepped on the gas, gripping the wheel until my knuckles were white.
“Story for a coat.”
I shot her a glance. “What?”
“It’s a thing my little sister does, bargains. Only kind of backwards. You tell me the story, I’ll let you buy me a coat. You wouldn’t want these muscles to get cold, would you?” She blinked her eyelashes rapidly at me, her shoulder-length hair fanning out prettily.
I sighed. It was no secret, just something I didn’t talk about. And I could see from the stubborn gleam in her eyes that she’d never wear the damn coat even if I bought it for her until I told her the story.
“We were eighteen. Just graduated, Hunter, my best friend, and Lillie, my twin.”
“You have a twin?” She went silent when she saw my jaw clench.
I drove toward the Highlands, heading for the more middle-class area. It made sense that Roberto would select something more mid-range considering that his father had been a small business owner and he had grown up in the area. The fights would give a boost to the entire area.
“It was dark, a Friday night, but I hadn’t been drinking. I was driving too fast, missed the light. The UPS truck driver damn near flipped the truck trying to miss us but still clipped the passenger side, where my sister was sitting.”
Cherry gasped, covering her mouth with her hands, waiting for me to continue.
We arrived at a large but slightly run down gym, and I pulled into the lot, parking and turning off the engine. “Lillie was in the hospital a while. Punctured lung, broken leg, pelvis. Got hooked on painkillers. Bad. Then other things. A year later, she was gone.”
I opened my door.
“Gone?”
I couldn’t look at Cherry because her voice held the same dazed, bottomed-out feeling I got whenever my thoughts turned to Lillie. Which was less often now. I’d trained my brain to turn away more often, to not dwell on her beautiful face before the wreck. But instead to concentrate on finding the woman she would be now.
“Last anyone saw her she was living on the streets. That was about ten years ago.” Before my voice broke, I got out of the car. Going around to her side, I opened the door.
Cherry’s eyes were big and luminous, holding tears not shed yet. When she opened her mouth to voice what my heart bled every day, I shook my head.
“We’ll get your coat on the way back.” So that she couldn’t argue, I turned and headed inside, leaving her to catch up.
It was the right place, that was for certain. There was a long line snaking around the edge of the interior, leading to a table where several people held clipboards. Without a word, I got into line, Cherry following.
Thanks to me and my gloom and doom in the car, neither of us were in a chatty mood, so we just silently scoped out the competition. I could turn to her, make small talk, but I didn’t do small talk. In my opinion, it was usually a waste of energy. I engaged for networking purposes, when I wanted to know something or had something to say, like at conferences or parties, and this was neither.
Glancing over at her, her eyes were huge, and she was kind of bouncing on her toes, looking both excited and nervous.
I cleared my throat, trying to shed the mood I’d dredged up by spilling my guts. “So, what they’re probably going to do is find a way to disqualify anyone they think could actually beat or injure Roberto.”
“What?” Cherry leaned closer, half whispering. “What if they think I could beat or injure him?”
The guy behind us heard her, gave a smirk as he snorted. “You here to fight, baby? I got an open schedule. I’ll make sure you don’t get hurt, treat you real good.” He stopped nodding his head when I gave him a shut-up-or-die glance.
Cherry shot me a do you see the assholes I put up with look.
“They won’t think that. It’s your golden card.”
“So…” she began uncertainly. I didn’t like that tone on her. She was at her most alluring when she was confident and full of fire. “Anything I should say?”
“Nothing about illegal fighting. You were trained at a dojo in the slums and a bit in college. Thought this would be fun.”
“And what if they won’t let me in?”
“They will.”
I could feel her bristle at my short response, but I found it interesting. “How do you know?”
I purposely turned only my head, met her eyes, then let them drop. Slowly. To her cleavage, then her breasts. Waist. The flaring hips that made me want to plant my hands there and press my body to hers, grind against her, make her gasp like she did when she was under me. When my eyes made their slow return trip, there was a light sheen on her face, a hitch in her breath. I smiled and winked.