Challenge: A Contemporary MMA Romance: Oni Fighters Book 3

C
opyright
© 2016 by NATALIE GAYLE

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

C
over Model
:
James Ryan

Cover Image:
Simon Barnes

Cover Design:
Letitia Hasser—Romantic book Affairs

Editor:
Jennifer Severino—Twitching Pen Editing

T
his whole series
is very real. It explores real world topics and situations that people face every day—often when they least expect them.

Seth and Sophia’s story is very much about the “challenges” life unexpectedly tosses their way and how they cope. A good portion of this book is actually my story, 100% relayed as it happened, but through Seth and Sophia eyes. It was something that happened to me and mine—a tough time. One I know countless women have faced, but most likely in a different way. Ten years later I felt like writing about it and making it “fiction”. Often the truth is stranger than fiction.

None of us know what tomorrow will bring or take away. We can plan and we can hope but what we really need to do is make the most of every opportunity whether it’s actually presented as that or in fact an unwanted “challenge”. More often than not, it’s these challenges that really forge and sculpt who we are as people.

Each and every one of us has had highs and lows in our lives. If you’re fortunate, you’ll have more of the highs than the lows. You’ll treasure your family and friends. You’ll experience all life’s riches whatever they maybe for you. One thing’s for certain, there will always be challenges. The question is: how will you meet them?

I hope you enjoy Challenge!

Love

Nat

T
his book is
for every woman. You never know just how strong you are or can be until you’re challenged.

M
ay
you face every one of life’s challenges with bravery, fight with belief and emerge stronger for the experience.

I
rounded
the corner and stopped dead in my tracks. I couldn’t take a step further into the room just yet. Nor could I look away from the scene playing out in front of me.

How could I be twenty-eight years old and still feel the heartbreak and the hurt of a ten-year-old boy? I was passed this. I’d moved on and made my peace with it after all these years—surely?

My throat suddenly had a lump big enough to make swallowing difficult and the lining of my stomach felt as if it had turned to lead. That alone annoyed the fuck out of me.

Who would have thought I’d turn up to the birthday party of a ten-year-old boy and feel like this? Dane Roberts, one of my best mates, was bent over looking at the kid’s latest birthday present. A group of young boys were gathered around,
ohhing
and
ahhing
at the new Lego set one of the kids had given him.

Isaac was all but Dane’s stepson and it was clear that these two idolized each other.

There was no mistaking the huge grin on Dane’s face and the matching one on Isaac’s; it was a dead giveaway of their feelings towards each other.

Dane was smitten with this kid and his mother, Arianne. His new life. He’d gone from every-day guy to MMA middleweight champion, and now to stand-in father and soon-to-be-married man, in what seemed the blink of an eye.

To top it off, Arianne and Dane had announced their engagement today. I’d lay good money, the engagement would be short and I couldn’t be happier for them—truly.

I just couldn’t shake my own demons it seemed, regardless how much I’d tried. It surprised me how strong they still were even after all these years.

Why couldn’t my stepfather ever have accepted me like Dane had accepted Isaac? Loved me like that?

They looked so, well…happy.

Isaac, he’d been accepted unconditionally even with his challenges of Asperger’s. Maybe that was it? Maybe I hadn’t been
broken
enough, challenged enough?

Maybe having your father commit suicide when you were four didn’t rank high enough on the scale of shit you had to carry through life?

I swayed on my feet. Despite how much I tried, I couldn’t tear my eyes away. It was like watching an accident happen and not being able to do anything to stop it, like waiting for the seemingly inevitable collision.

I could see it all unfolding before my eyes but I couldn’t do anything to protect myself; guard myself from the feelings that were beginning to overwhelm me. Part of me wanted to run, to blank out the image of this happy family—if I couldn’t see it, I wouldn’t feel like this.

That was right, wasn’t it?

Yeah, I knew better. The demons would always catch me and just like now, it was always when I least expected it, when my guard was down and I was unawares.

The chisels of the demons tapped away at my guts—carving away my strength and the peaceful place I normally managed to remain in—one hammer stroke at a time.

Why him and not me?
Their demon voices chanted.

What had made me so different to Isaac? Why at age ten wasn’t that me?

Wasn’t I loveable?

Worthy?

None of it made any sense and the fact I was even dwelling on this or that it was affecting me so strongly made me feel like the biggest arsehole ever. Quite frankly it just pissed me off. I was pissed off at my own feelings. How ridiculous!

There was nothing worse than hating your own thoughts and not being able to stop them.

I should be happy for the kid—I genuinely was.

It just didn’t make up for the loss I felt, the hole that was inside me and wouldn’t quit.

“They make a great family, don’t they?”

Her silky voice brought me back from the place I’d travelled to deep in my own mind.

In fact, I’d been so deep in my own head, I hadn’t even realized one of the hottest women around these parts had come up and joined me in the hallway.

I really was slipping.

Seth the womanizer, the party animal, the good time guy…

It was laughable really, if only they all knew. There was still a big part of me that was the ten-year-old boy craving love, affection, and understanding. I guess some things never changed.

I went to reply to her comment but the words started to come out all wrong—strange to my ears. Somehow, I managed to turn the strangled word into a clearing of my throat to disguise my slip. Sophia would be horrified if she knew what I was thinking, any of them would. I kept it all very close to my chest. Nobody needed to know just how fucked up I was about some things.

“Ah, yeah. The Roberts are a great family. Top people. Arianne and Isaac really lucked out.”

There, I’d said it. The right thing. There was no way she’d pick up on what I was thinking. I’d had years of practise covering my hurts.

No one ever suspected the joker, the life of the party. It was the perfect foil to the pain inside.

“They surely did. Dane’s absolutely smitten. In fact, I think they both are. Seems everyone’s falling in love around here.” Sophia trailed off with a wistful sigh.

I stiffened, this conversation was moving into dangerous territory.

I covered it with a chuckle that sounded more like a choking sound of terror or was it skepticism?

“Nah…Not me. Might work for Xander and Eden, Arianne and Dane…not this little black duck. No sireee, sweetheart. Crazy talk.”

She giggled a little and I swear her laugh was so close to that musical sound of Eden’s laugh. Almost identical. It stood to reason, they were sisters, after all.

Her laugh seemed to wrap around me like a caress. It was warm and left me with a tingly feeling of well…goodness and naughty promises.

Fuck!
What was wrong with me?

Crazy talk, crazy thoughts.

Any minute I’d start believing this soppy shit.

“Yep—Love and marriage is crazy talk for sure.” She tipped her chin toward me and her big expressive eyes danced with mischief. The girl was dangerous, with a capital ‘D.’

She wasn’t a girl anymore. Sophia Sommers might be the close friend of my little half-sister, Rachel, and Eden Todd’s younger sister but she was all woman from head to toe. That realization had clobbered me like a twenty-pound sledge hammer when I arrived back home about six months ago. The cute girl was gone and in her place was a woman, beautiful enough to grace the cover of a magazine.

A smidge under six foot, long blonde hair that reached her slender waist, eyes that were the colour of the clearest blue sky, a body that was rockin’, and the face…yeah, all three Sommers girls were stunning but there was just something about Sophia that screamed to me as a man in the most primal way.

I’d known it for months now. My dick had recognized it immediately—and what now seemed like constantly when she was in my vicinity.

Her words, however, had me curious. Although, it was the look she’d given me. That was…? What was she driving at?

We’d flirted a few times, danced together, partied together, shared casual touches that could have easily led to more—a more we both understood. One that ended up in my bed with her legs wrapped tight around my waist as I hammered into her.

Yet, each time, she’d pushed me back—not hard enough to throw me off but enough to ensure nothing had happened…yet.

“I love you so much, Grandma and Grandad.” Isaac broke the moment and my head snapped around at his shrill voice, in time to see him launch his skinny little boy body into both of them. His arms were outstretched in readiness, one hundred percent confident he was going to be hugged—loved right back.

Just like the kid knew, Dane’s parents, Cathy Roberts and her husband, Gary, delivered—in spades. I watched them wrap him up and smother him in hugs and kisses, as they transferred him between them. You’d never know Cathy and Gary had only been a fixture in Isaac’s life for the last few months. I swear they looked like they’d been there for him forever.

The lump in my throat was back and the lead in my gut felt heavier than ever.

“Awww, they’re so cute!” Sophia crooned, her face all soft and dreamy. It surprised me. I wouldn’t have taken her for the mushy type. I guess all women had that streak somewhere.

When I didn’t answer, she turned toward me, an expectant look on her face.

I couldn’t do this anymore. It was too raw for me.

“Yeah, sure,” I mumbled, before looking at my watch. I’d most definitely met my quota of happy family goodness today. Don’t get me wrong, I loved my mates and their families—just in very small quantities.

I gave her what I hoped was my sexiest look. “Want to get out of here?”

A flash of surprise careened across her face, before turning to guarded curiosity. “What did you have in mind?”

Fuck!
I had no idea. Fortunately, one thing I could do better than most was think on my feet.

“There’s a new little wine and tapas bar that opened up down the coast, they have a band on Sunday afternoons. This time of day, we can be there in about forty minutes. You interested?” I raised my eyebrow and curved the left hand side of my lips up. From experience, I knew the ladies loved that look.

Her pink tongue flicked out and swiped her lower lip, then she dragged her top teeth across that very same spot before those lips morphed into a cautious smile.

I was fascinated and those crazy feelings of before were gone. Ah my comfort zone had returned right along with that smile she’d just given me. In their place, was the familiar excitement of a potential new conquest.

“Sure! I’m game.”

Her words were a fraction bolder than the smile. I didn’t care. We were getting out of here, that’s all that mattered and I’d have Sophia to distract me from my thoughts for a while.

I hated having time to think.

If I thought, I felt.

I hated being alone with my own demons.