Double Dare (Devil's Fighters MC Book 3) (10 page)

Alyssa pressed the back of her head and shoulders into the hard floor and levered herself so that she could arch her hips upwards and increase the friction against Xavier’s pelvis. They moaned in unison, the movement hitting them both in just the right way.

They danced their dance then, as the outside world probably kept turning; they couldn’t be sure, and they didn’t care. They eased into a rhythm they both knew and longed for. Fast strokes and furious flicks, clenches of muscles and swaying of hips. Hungry, urgent thrusts and slow, languid strokes. It was sensuous and sensual and sexual all at the same time, a combination that was, at the very least, explosive. Xavier went deep inside of her, and Alyssa always took him readily.

If asked, neither of them would be able to say how long it went on—if minutes or hours or who knew. They didn’t care. Time was another thing that did not matter whenever they made love.

Xavier satisfied Alyssa time and time again, ultimately gifting her with three more mind-blowing orgasms. She gave in each time, unwilling to put any restraints on herself whenever she was with him; after all, restraints were how they had lost each other in the first place.

Eventually, Xavier gave in to his own climax. Alyssa held him through the aftershocks until he lay still on top of her. They remained unmoving for a while, and then Xavier rolled off of her and lay down on the cool floor next to her. The tiles underneath Alyssa’s naked back had turned burning hot a long time ago, but she didn’t care.

She turned her head and found he was already staring at her.

“I love you,” he said.

He said it in a different way than usual. Despite his best efforts to open up to her—old habits die hard—and Xavier was always somewhat guarded—even around Alyssa, even when he was baring his feelings. Not this time. This time, he was open and naked in more than the physical sense. This time, he was unguarded.

Alyssa’s heart swelled.

“I love you, too,” she declared easily. Because that was the thing when it came to admitting her love with Xavier…it was as easy as breathing. “Please, don’t get yourself killed tonight.”

Xavier smiled. He reached over and pulled her close to him. He kissed the top of her head like he used to do when they were teenagers, as they lay on Alyssa’s bed in her bedroom. “I’ll do my best.”

Alyssa wrapped one arm around his waist and snuggled as close as humanly possible. “I don’t know what I’d do if…” She trailed off, unable to speak the words.

Xavier tightened his hold around her. “Let’s hope you never have to find out.”

CHAPTER TEN

The fight was the single most horrible experience of Alyssa’s life. It was even worse than attending her parents’ funeral. At the very least, their death had been an accident. This was an orchestrated affair, and it made her sick to her stomach. She seriously came very close to fainting more times than she would care to admit as she looked around at the cheering crowd. They were screaming at the men in the ring. They were screaming at the men to kill each other. They wanted to see death. They thought it was a game. They didn’t know that it was Alyssa’s whole life.

Standing in the first row beside her, Anna’s eyes were wide as saucers. She looked as out of place as a lamb amongst a pack of wolves. She was trying to be brave and not comment on it and not make things worse for Alyssa, but it was all too clear that she thought this was folly and she had just landed amongst madmen. Alyssa didn’t blame her; in fact, she thought the same.

Lynn was handling it a little better. She had never been to one of these fights, of course, but she had known more than she cared to about them, and at the very least she had come prepared.

Rick was, of course, the one who was handling it better than all of them. He had spoken a few words with Xavier before the fight began, probably giving him technical advice. Now, his eyes were fixed on the ring and on everything that happened. He followed both men’s movements like a hawk. His whole body was taut with the same tension that was eating Alyssa up from the inside.

On the opposite side of the ring, Bennie Lenday enjoyed the whole experience. He was drinking it all up as if it were the very nectar that gave him life. Alyssa suspected that it kind of was. The man was Satan himself; there was simply no other explanation for the malicious glint of pleasure shining in his dark eyes. Even from a distance, even through the ropes of the ring, even through the competitors’ legs as they danced around each other in their mortal dance, Alyssa could spot the evil glint in Bennie’s eyes.

Dark eyes, dark soul
, she thought. It was something she thought—whenever she was faced with that excuse of a man.

Their eyes met across the ring, and he nodded at her. Alyssa felt sick. She turned away and forced herself to look back at the ring.

She wished she could hide somewhere and not come out until it all was said and done. Xavier was holding his own, but Taylor “The Jack” Jackman was a mountain of a man. More than that, Taylor “The Jack” Jackman was a killer. Alyssa could tell from the way he moved, eagerly and studiously at the same time, like an animal stalking his prey. There was a beastly glint in his small, dark eyes. (
Dark eyes, dark soul.
) A fiendish grin had been plastered on his sweaty, ugly face since the fight had begun, and it was yet to go away.

Alyssa wondered if Taylor Jackman may not be that ugly underneath all that fury and animalistic rage. It was impossible to tell. His features were permanently contorted in a grimace of fury and ferocity. The man thirsted for blood. He gave Alyssa the creeps.

“Oh God,” she choked out when Jackman managed to land a kick home, his foot hitting Xavier hard in the ribs.

Beside her, Anna took her hand and held on. Alyssa squeezed back just as strongly.

“It’s going to be okay, Lyssa,” Lynn tried to reassure her. “He’s a great fighter.”

“Yeah,” Alyssa said, unconvinced.

“That son of a bitch,” Rick bristled, his eyes glaring in the general direction of Bennie Lenday. “Look how fucking smug he is. He really thinks Xavier’s going to lose.”

“And is he?” Anna asked, unable to stop herself.

“No,” Rick said immediately. “Trust me, ladies, if anyone can beat that monster, it’s Xavier.”

Alyssa was very much unconvinced.

She didn’t know how long it lasted. It felt like it last forever. It felt as if her heart was slowly stopping, and the air was slowly leaving her lungs. It felt like she was dying. By the time it was all over, she was a shaking mess. It was all she could do not to fall to her knees and sob right then and there. But she knew that she couldn’t do it. She knew Xavier would never forgive her if she gave Benedict Lenday what he wanted. She knew Xavier would never forgive her if she gave Benedict Lenday her sorrow.

*****

It was a miracle that Xavier was even alive. But he was. He had survived, somehow. He had won. And he had not killed “The Jack”; everyone had been shouting at him to, but Xavier had not. He had knocked him out—God only knew how he had managed—and when he had been declared winner he had collapsed right next to the man who had been ready to crush the life out of him with his bare hands.

Xavier had lay unconscious in a hospital bed for two days. He had woken up to his friends standing around in his room and with the woman she loved sitting next to him. Now, five days later, he was standing with Alyssa and Rick in the Devil’s Fighters’ meeting room. Only Bennie Lenday was present, and he was watching them all with interest.

“So, you’ve made it,” the man said, his voice and expression unreadable.

Xavier stood as tall as he could, given his cracked ribs and his generally bruised self. “I’ve made it,” he said. “And now you have to keep your word.”

Even though he had seen Lenday keep his promises before, he was still on guard.

Bennie stared at them for what felt like an eternity. Finally, he nodded. “Fair enough. You’ve made us rich. You’re all free to go.”

Xavier did not move. The words took a long time to register. It all felt like a blur. It felt like a blur to leave his leather vest on the table in the meeting room. It felt like a blur to shake Benedict “Bennie” Lenday’s hand, as they parted ways for real, for good. He would have never wanted to shake that hand, but it seemed stupid to risk jeopardizing everything he had fought so hard for with a disrespectful gesture.

It felt like a blur to walk out of the Devil’s Fighters’ headquarters. It felt like a blur to drive back to Alyssa’s house and later on to Lynn’s diner. It felt like a blur to celebrate with them all.

He was free. He was truly free.

*****

Alyssa said her goodbye to Lynn with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face. She managed to extort a promise from her friend that she would visit them in Vancouver soon—there was simply no way in hell that either Alyssa, Xavier, or Rick would ever return to Pinebrook.

When the plane took off from New Orleans, Alyssa’s heart and soul soared with it. It all felt very surreal. She still could not believe they had succeeded. She still could not believe they were free. She still could not believe they had done it—well, Xavier had done it.

She turned her head and watched him as he stared out the window in disbelief. It occurred to her then that Xavier had never been on a plane before, and for some reason, that notion tore at her heart. She reached out and took his hand. Xavier squeezed her fingers and turned to look at her. His green eyes were wide with wonder. Whether that amazement stemmed from being on a plane or from his shackles having finally been broken, Alyssa could not tell for sure.

“Are you all right?” she asked. “How are you feeling?”

“I’m fine.”

“Sore?”

Xavier shrugged and hissed at the movement. He seemed to keep forgetting that he had cracked ribs. “A little,” he admitted.

They lapsed into a companionable silence then. Alyssa had almost fallen asleep like she always did whenever she was flying when Xavier spoke again. “Is this really happening?” he asked quietly.

Alyssa was instantly awake again. She tightened her hold around his hand, which was still in hers. “Yes,” she said forcefully. She locked gazes with him, making sure he was really hearing her. “It’s really happening, Xavier. We’re going home.”

Xavier seemed to relax then, as if a reassurance from someone else was all that he needed to hear. “Home,” he repeated, trying out the word in his mouth.

Alyssa hesitated before asking the next question. “Xavier?” she called carefully.

“Yes?”

“Do you regret not saying goodbye to your father?”

Xavier had been adamant about not seeing his father before they left for Canada.

“Hell, no,” he said vehemently. “His debt is paid in full and then some. I’ve done all I could for him.”

“I’m not talking about what it could have done for him to say goodbye,” Alyssa said gently. “I’m talking about what it could have done for you.”

“It could have done nothing for me,” Xavier said. There was no hate in his voice; he was merely stating a fact. “Trust me, Aly. It’s better this way.”

He smiled reassuringly, and Alyssa nodded. She relished in him calling her Aly, something she had hated to hear coming from his mouth when they had first found each other again after eight years apart.

“I love you,” she said again.

Xavier kissed her immediately, as if those words elicited an almost automatic response from him. Alyssa sure as hell wasn’t complaining.

“I love you too,” he said sincerely.

Alyssa settled back in her seat and watched as Xavier did the same. Not long afterwards, he was asleep. She craned her neck to shoot a look behind her and saw that Anna was reading a magazine and Rick was also out for the count. They shared a knowing smile over the sleeping men; both Xavier and Rick were probably letting go of tension that had been in their bodies as a constant companion for almost a decade.

Alyssa didn’t let go of Xavier’s hand. She would never let go of him again.

“Is this really happening?”
Xavier had asked.

The thing was, Alyssa could hardly believe it herself. The past two months had been a roller coaster that she had more than once suspected she would not survive. Instead, here she was. Here
they
were, unharmed and more or less whole. There was still work to do. It would take time for Xavier’s emotional scars to heal. Alyssa would be there through it all. There had been a time when she had wondered whether she would be strong enough to take on the load of Xavier’s emotional baggage. Now she knew it was not a load; it was an honor. Xavier did not trust easily. In fact, with the one exception of Rick, Xavier did not trust. Period. That he had trusted her and was continuing to put his trust in her was something Alyssa was not going to take for granted, no matter what kind of past they shared.

The more she thought about this man, the more she looked at him, the more her love grew. Alyssa had not thought she could love so strong and so deep. She had never thought she would be able to devote herself to someone so completely. But then again, Xavier wasn’t “someone.” He had been so much more than “someone” ever since they were kids.

Alyssa had to smile. It was funny how life worked. They had been through
everything
together. They had loved each other and hated each other. They had adored each other and resented each other. They had lost each other, and they had found each other again. Alyssa had lost the two most important people in her life, her parents, only to find someone who filled her life again. It was cruel and bittersweet and ironic, and she wondered if her parents had anything to do with it. Had they manipulated her life from above somehow? It sounded like something her parents might do, especially her dad, who had always liked to tease her and meddle in her love affairs.

Alyssa shook her head. It was nonsense, of course, but it was still a good thought to think; it filled her with warmth. For the first time since she had lost her parents, that loss did not burn so fiercely. It still hurt, of course. It was still a gaping hole within her. But for the first time since it had happened, she was able to think about her parents without feeling like she wanted nothing more than to curl up in a ball in some corner and cry herself to sleep. For the first time, she was remembering them.

Xavier shifted in his sleep and rested his head on her shoulder. Alyssa looked down at him and smiled, deeply touched by his letting himself go completely whenever around her.