The Fighter's Secretary (9 page)

“Amanda, what’s going on?”

She glanced at the fight, wincing as Kyle got Dallas good in the ribs. “That fucking asshole Kyle grabbed me when I was coming out of the ladies room and tried to kiss me. Your fucking asshole brother was too busy letting models feel him up to notice, and when he did he accused
me
of coming onto Kyle with that bitch Tammy at his side.”

Austin said something in a string of Spanish, then nodded. “I’m sorry you got caught up in that crazy bitch’s drama. Let me take you home.”

“No, I’ll just take a cab.”

“Fine then, let me walk you out.”

She nodded, not wanting to fight, and allowed Austin to escort her to the curb. He made quick work of anyone in their way, tossing people to the side as if they weighed nothing. Most of the photographers had left by now and Austin quickly flagged down a cab for her. Before she entered it, she took off the jewelry and handed it to him. “Make sure he gets this and tell him I never want to speak to him again.”

Austin took the jewelry and shoved it into his pocket. “For what it’s worth, he’s a fucking idiot. You deserve so much better.”

Unable to face his kindness, she touched his cheek before getting into the cab and going home.

Dallas stared at his brother, trying to make sense of what he was saying while he put his shirt back on then studied his knuckles, noting where he’d scraped one on Kyle’s teeth. He was such an idiot to let himself get caught up in Tammy’s no doubt orchestrated bullshit and should have known right away that Kyle was full of shit about Amanda. Shame filled him that his knee-jerk reaction had been to accuse Amanda and the memory of her wounded expression hurt him more than any of the physical blows he’d received. He was an asshole and should never have believed Tammy’s tearful story about catching Kyle kissing Amanda.

Austin shook his head with a look of complete disgust on his face, then grabbed Dallas by the forearm and dragged him away from the staff fluttering uselessly around him.

With a snarl, Dallas jerked his arm away, his adrenaline already pumping. “What the fuck are you doing? Where’s Amanda?”

“She left.”

“What do you mean she left?”

Sneering at him, Austin shook his head. “Well, shithead, you accused her of screwing around with Kyle in front of everyone, then got in a fight all because of that manipulative bitch, Tammy. Fuck, for someone so smart you sure act like a dumbass sometimes. Why the hell you would pick that piece of trash over a lady like Amanda? It’s about the stupidest thing you’ve ever done.”

Angrily jerking on his clothing, Dallas shook his head. “I didn’t pick Tammy over Amanda.”

“Oh, so you accusing Amanda of kissing that fucktard Kyle was your idea? You didn’t fall for Tammy’s drama bullshit, again, and end up calling Amanda a whore?”

“It wasn’t like that!”

“You keep telling yourself that.”

“I didn’t really believe she kissed him,” Dallas muttered, guilt hitting him hard as he realized how much he’d let his stupid jealousy mess things up. “Are you serious that she just up and left?”

Shaking his head, Austin pulled out a handful of pearls and thrust them at Dallas. “You blew it, man, big time,” then walked away.

He stood there, looking down at the pearls as his chest ached like he’d been punched in the heart. A second later he stiffened as a female curled herself around him. When he looked up he saw that it was Tammy who was all but dry humping his leg.

“Hey, baby. Can we talk?”

The urge to shove her away filled him, but he managed to just step out of her grasp. “We have nothing to talk about.”

Her big blue eyes filled with tears and his lip curled with disgust at the obviously fake wounded expression on her face. “I miss you.”

“You mean you miss my money.”

She sniffed again, pouting her lower lip out in a move he used to find cute, now he just found it annoying. “Dallas, I still love you.”

“I don’t have time for this shit.”

He shoved the jewelry into his pocket and tried to leave, but Tammy clutched at his arm. “Please, Dallas, I’m sorry. Give me another chance.”

This time he did push her away. “What part of ‘leave me alone’ do you not get? You should probably go check on your boyfriend. I think I might have broken his nose.”

“Dallas…”

Before she could touch him he took off, shoving through the crowd and pissing people off. No doubt his business partners and PR team were freaking out right now, but he didn’t give a shit, he had to go find Amanda. He was beyond pissed at himself for not thinking how much he’d hurt her. Amanda would never kiss a shithead like Kyle, yet he’d accused her of just that in front of a club full of people. Without a doubt he was a selfish asshole, and he needed to do some serious ass kicking as well as taking a hard look at his priorities. She was the only real, good thing in his life. The one woman who saw past all the fame and bullshit to who he really was. The only person in the world that he trusted besides his family and he’d fucked up, big time.

After having the limo pull around to meet him he stopped first at his office, getting the spare key to Amanda’s house that she kept in her desk for emergencies.

When he arrived at her modest condo on the outskirts of Miami he saw that the upstairs light was still on. Biting his lip, he contemplated what he was about to do and decided it was better to face her anger than allow her to slip out of his life. When he used the key to open the front door he waited for there to be a security chain or something to stop him, but it opened. He raised a hand to his limo driver, signaling him to leave, then went inside.

He’d been to her house once before when she’d forgotten some documents for a meeting, but it had been a brief in and out trip. The cool, soothing mint green and silver tones of the living room flowed into the compact kitchen. To his left a set of stairs led to the second level and he prayed that Amanda wasn’t one of those women who kept a firearm beneath her pillow or he was about make the shortest apology in history.

Amanda stepped out of the shower and let out a weary sigh, wrapping her hair up in a towel before grabbing her body lotion and throwing her leg up on the toilet seat. She quickly smoothed the cherry blossom-scented lotion onto her calf, her body feeling hollowed out and sore, like she’d run a marathon the day before while carrying an elephant on her back. It was as if her misery had taken on a weight that was slowly crushing her.

The warm water had helped her calm down somewhat, as had the hard cry she’d had while sitting on the shower floor. Finally the tears had tapered off and she’d felt pathetic so she pulled herself up and scrubbed off the remains of her makeup before finishing up. Now, as she finished putting her lotion on, she had to fight off a new round of tears at the thought of perfect Dallas dancing at the perfect club with his perfect bitch ex-girlfriend. The memory of Tammy with her hand wrapped around Dallas’s bicep while she accused Amanda of kissing someone else burned in her gut. She really wanted to call Dallas and leave him a nasty message, as childish as that was.

He’d hurt her, worse than she’d thought possible.

When she opened the door from her bathroom to her bedroom she screamed and would have fallen to the floor if Dallas hadn’t reached out and caught her. For one disbelieving moment she stared up at him, wondering what the hell was going on, before her anger exploded. With a hiss she shoved away from him.

“Get your fucking hands off of me, you asshole.”

He looked pained and she scurried away from him, ending up in the corner of her room between her dresser and the window. She noticed that he didn’t look any worse for the wear from his fight and wished that the other guy would have landed at least one punch on Dallas’s perfect face. “How the hell did you get in my house?”

Sighing heavily, like he was the wounded party, he sat on the edge of her bed. “There’s a spare key in your desk at work.”

“Great, give it to me and get the fuck out.”

“Amanda—”

“Don’t you ‘Amanda’ me, shithead. I can’t believe I trusted you. God, I’m so stupid.”

He flinched like she’d hit him. “It’s not what you think.”

“Oh really? Tell me, stud, where were you when I needed to you to get Kyle off of me? Oh, that’s right, you had a bunch of models hanging all over you. I’m surprised you aren’t off having a celebration threesome right now.”

Rubbing his face, he shook his head. “It wasn’t like that. I’m expected to take pictures with them, to mingle.”

Disgust filled her. “Yeah, whatever you need to tell yourself to justify being a cheating asshole.”

“I wasn’t cheating. I would never do that to you. I fucked up, okay? My fans and our PR people wanted me up there taking pictures with them. I am my brand, Amanda, you know that.”

“‘Amanda, I am my brand’,” she mimicked in a snotty voice. “Give me a fucking break. The only reason you even noticed I was in trouble was because that bitch pointed it out. And what happens when you got him off of me? Did you ask if I was all right? Hell no. You accused me of wanting that piece of shit to molest me.”

“I’m sorry, Amanda, I really am. I handled it badly. I know you would never kiss Kyle, but when I saw you with him I lost it.”

“Spare me your bullshit and get the hell out of my house. I’m sure Tammy is waiting for you to comfort you and sooth your injured man pride.”

“Man pride?” He shook his head. “No. Amanda, I don’t want her, I want you. I’m sorry I was such a colossal asshole but I swear to God you’re the only woman I want. That’s why it drove me so crazy to see that fucker with his hands on you.”

Her lower lip trembled as the memory of Tammy’s triumphant smile as she clung to Dallas. “You’re such a liar.”

“I’m not lying! If I wanted Tammy I could have her, but I’m not there. I walked out on one of the biggest nights in the history of my company because I hurt the woman who means more than me than anyone or anything.”

The way his voice went soft and gentle, as if he was talking to someone irrational, really pissed her off. She shoved out of her corner and advanced on him. “Get out. I want you out of here right now.”

She tried to shove him off her bed but he caught her wrists. “Why didn’t you come talk to me? Why did you just leave?”

Trying to jerk away from him, she became aware that her towel was coming precariously close to falling and froze. “What? So I could hang around and watch all the women you’ve fucked fawning all over you? So you could accuse me of being a skank in front of everyone—again. No thank you.”

With a low growl he pulled her down onto his lap and she tried to wiggle away from him, but he was a former UFC world champ and she didn’t have a snowflake’s chance in hell. In a matter of seconds he had her pinned to the bed with his body in a way that left her helpless, only feeding the fuel of her anger. She could probably scream for help and one of her neighbors would hear her through the thin walls of her condo and they’d call the cops, but that would rob her of the chance to tell Dallas what an asshole he was.

Her towel had come askew and she was all too aware of her hard nipples scraping against his chest. While she tried to tell herself it was just an adrenaline rush, adrenaline rushes didn’t make her pussy wet. His weight on top of her felt too damn good and she was so not going to admit that being held down like this turned her on something fierce. To her shock he leaned down and pressed a kiss onto her neck, almost losing his ear when she snapped her teeth at him.

He frowned down at her. “You need to settle down and listen to me.”

“You need to fuck off and—”

She never got the next word out because he flipped her over on her stomach. While she cursed and tried to move him he tied her hands together with something, then wrapped some silky cloth around her head, forcing it between her lips. Bound and gagged, he moved her back over so she was on her back again. Beyond pissed, she struggled against her bindings, trying to get free so she could kill him.

To her disgust he just grinned and watched her writhe on her mattress until she finally lay there in a sweaty, panting heap but with her hands still bound and her mouth still gaged.

“Done with your tantrum?” he asked in a quiet voice.

“Fuck you,” she said, or at least tried to say.

It must have come through loud and clear because he smiled at her, a predatory smile that actually made her wet. Damn her hormones had bad taste and timing. He licked his lips and her pussy throbbed. “Oh, you’ll be begging me to fuck you by the time I’m done with you.”

She glared, then rolled over on her stomach so she could flip him off with both bound hands. “See, this is why I love you. I love you, Amanda. Not anyone else. Only you.”

Blinking up at him, she frowned and tried to figure out if he was telling the truth, a truth she wanted so desperately to believe in.

He leaned down and brushed her hair back from her face with a gentle touch. “I never want to hurt you Amanda, ever. Do you really want me to let you go? You don’t have to say your safe word, just nod and I’ll release you.”

The rapid beat of her heart was doing nothing to calm her down. He said he loved her. Well, it wasn’t exactly a heartfelt, on-his-knees plea, he did seem sincere and as she searched his expression and gaze she couldn’t see an obvious lie. He started to look worried.

“Hold still and I’ll let you up. I’m sorry if I scared you.”

“Wait,” she said in a garbled voice. “You love me?”

Her heart thumped and she looked over her shoulder at him. He smiled and began to unbutton his shirt, slowly, revealing his magnificent body an inch at a time. The thought that Tammy had been touching him sent a purely territorial streak through her and she wanted to shove him into the shower to wash the slut’s stank off of him.

“That’s right, I love you. I love how brave you are, how smart, how classy and yet at the same time you can cuss up a blue streak. I love how you take care of me, how I’m the only one who gets to see the soft, feminine side of you that comes out when you make love. I love your temper, your kindness, and how you devour me with your eyes, like you want to eat me alive. Kind of like you’re doing right now.”