Fighting for Love (34 page)

Ding, ding, ding.

“Wow, that was fast,” I chimed.

Breathing hard, Matt went to his corner and grabbed the bottle of water Carter handed to him, guzzling it down while nodding his head in reply to what he was being told. Kyle spent most of his minute reprieve by wiping the blood off his face and yelling at his coach. Matt’s chuckle could be heard from where I sat, and arrogantly so, he kept his gaze on Kyle the whole time. He demolished him in the first round and now he was getting cocky.

We all knew what happened to people when they got like that … they made mistakes. Matt had never been one of the fighters to let his ego get in the way, but he had so much animosity toward Kyle that eventually it had to get to him.

“Am I the only one who thinks this is bad?” I muttered nervously. Sitting on the edge of my seat, I chewed on my thumbnail as Matt and Kyle met back in the center of the ring.

Jace agreed, “He’s letting round one get to his head. Kyle’s not looking so good, but all it takes is one wrong move and he’ll get his energy back if he catches Matt off guard. Let’s just hope Matt continues to pound him.”

Ding, ding, ding.

Matt struck fast again, swinging his body around in a roundhouse kick, but Kyle deflected and ducked under Matt’s foot. Before Matt could get back into his fighting stance, Kyle caught him off guard with a one-two punch combo. Kyle was coming back full force and swung his fists left and right. For the round so far there wasn’t a second their bodies stopped moving or even took a break for that matter by circling around the ring, and they still had another minute to go. Matt’s left side of his face dripped in rivulets of blood from a gash above his eyebrow, and the whole area had already started to swell and turn purple.

Just like me, Jace had planted his elbows on his knees and leaned over, bouncing his foot up and down; it was a nervous twitch we both possessed. In another life I swear he had to have been my brother.

“This is a good fight,” he said. “I just hope we get to see the end of it. I thought it would be over by now, but it’s not.” Looking down at his cell phone, he held it up to me and pointed at the time. “We have to be in the car and on the way to the airport in ten minutes in order to make our flight.”

Anxiously, I glanced at the clock and then back up to Matt. “Come on, Matt, you can do this,” I whispered. I couldn’t leave without knowing he won the fight.

The bell rang and off they went to their corners. This time Matt had a scowl on his face as Carter yelled at him and threw a bottle of water in his lap.
Come on, let’s get it going.
I only had five minutes left until Jace was going to drag me out of the arena. Another minute down and now I only had four left.

Ding, ding, ding.

It was the third and final round and Matt started off strong, but he was angry and I could see it in his stance; he wasn’t focused. His goal was to make Kyle pay for what he did. I think he cared more about punishing him than defending his Heavyweight title.

I had three minutes left.

For the first time in all the rounds, Kyle took Matt to the floor and it was hard to tell who had the upper hand. Cries and cheers erupted from the crowd, but from their position I couldn’t see a thing. Finally, when they turned and grappled some more my heart sank when I realized Kyle was trying to put Matt into a Kimura hold by grabbing Matt’s wrist and angling his own body to the side where he could grab onto his other arm that held onto Matt’s. Once he got into position, all he had to do was start pulling and it would be game over.

I never knew about MMA submission holds or anything like that until Matt started fighting. He didn’t know any of that stuff when I was with him and it was amazing how much he’d learned over the years.

The Kimura was a highly notable maneuver and was used to hyper rotate the shoulder, which in turn could snap your opponent’s arm and be very painful. I had two minutes left and it didn’t look like Matt was going to get out of it.

Come on, Matt.

Blood red and eyes closed, Matt’s face contorted in full-blown pain and anguish, but he still had that stubborn sense of determination. He was holding on for as long as he could, but if he didn’t tap out Kyle would break his arm.

Jumping to my feet, with my heart pounding, I screamed as loud as I could, “Matt, focus! I didn’t come here to watch you lose. Tear him apart!” I didn’t care who heard me or if I made a scene.

Out of the corner of his eye, he looked over at me and it was as if the whole world had frozen still in that moment. The only sound I could hear was my ragged breathing as I waited on him to make a move and finish it. His lips moved in a silent plea of my name and I nodded, reassuring him that I was there for him.

“I’m here, Matt,” I whispered.

Closing his eyes for only a second, a small smile splayed across his lips. Before I knew it, he was out of the hold and on his knees, pounding his fists into Kyle’s side, stomach, and face.

Jace put his hand on my shoulder and squeezed; my time was up. “Shelby, it’s time to go,” he murmured regretfully.

Slowly, I walked away from my seat, keeping my gaze on Matt as his relentless blows finally knocked Kyle out. He was motionless on the floor and the crowd went wild, their cheers more deafening than I’d ever heard in an arena before.

I was halfway up the walkway before the announcer rushed into the cage and lifted Matt’s arm triumphantly. “Ladies and gentlemen, I give you your Heavyweight champion for four consecutive years … MATT ‘THE DESTROYER’ REEYYYNNOOOLLLDDSS!”

While Kyle’s coach and a medic helped Kyle out of the ring, the announcer turned to Matt. “Okay, so I’m sure the whole crowd wants to know … what gave you that last jolt of energy that got you out of Kyle’s Kimura hold? That’s pretty much an impossible feat.”

Jace and I were almost to the door, but I stopped, refusing to move a step further until I heard Matt’s reply. His brows furrowed when he didn’t see me in my seat, but once he lifted his gaze he found me as if I was the only person in the room. No matter where we were or what was going on, I could always find him in a crowd. Even if there were a million people around I knew I’d be able to find him. It was as if our connection tethered us together by an invisible cord and every time he was around that cord would tingle and spark like a bolt of electricity. I remembered feeling the same thing on the first day I met him after school as a teenager. For that many years nothing had changed, and I knew it never would.

Keeping his gaze on mine, Matt smiled directly at me and spoke into the microphone, “What can I say? I have an angel watching over me. It was all her.”

“Shelby,” Jace called, “let’s go, babe.”

Taking a deep breath, I smiled at Matt one last time and lifted my hand in a silent farewell. I didn’t know what was going to happen or how long I’d be gone, but there was one thing for certain … I was going to miss him, terribly.

FOR THE FIRST TWO DAYS
after I arrived in North Carolina, I honestly admit that I did kind of stare at my phone in hopes that Matt would call or text. Jace ended up taking my phone and hiding it so that I’d stop looking at it and have fun. I was a routine kind of girl, so it didn’t take long to develop one. The weather was hot and sunny, so I went shopping on my first day and bought a ton of little sun dresses since it was hard to wear them at home with the cooler weather.

Each day I watched Jace work, and once sunset came I’d walk to the pier that was only a little over half a mile away. Sometimes Jace would come with me, but most of the time I preferred to take the walk myself.

The highlight of my week was watching Jace act on film. His lead was a beautiful red-haired female with creamy skin and a dash of freckles on her cheeks that gave her a natural glow. Her name was Allie and she had the cutest southern accent I’d ever heard. One thing was for certain, her and Jace’s chemistry during the love scenes was epic. I honestly didn’t think Jace could pull it off.

“So what did you think of the ocean scene?” Jace asked, sitting down on the towel beside me.

The ocean scene was a romantic one with his leading co-star taking a sunset dip in the water where they gave in to their urges and made love in waves. The whole sky was bathed in the beautiful sunset colors of reds, oranges, and pinks. I had never seen a more beautiful sunset in all my life, or a more beautiful kiss for that matter.

“It was amazing, Jace,” I breathed, staring out over the water. “I swear you have to be one of the best damn actors I know. The way you look at Allie and the way you connect on film is phenomenal. In a way, it felt like I should cover my eyes when you two were out in the water. It all looked and felt so real.”

“That’s because it was real,” he admitted sheepishly.

“Wait, what?” I gasped, jerking my head in his direction. “What do you mean by real? Are you saying you two were actually …”

Grinning, Jace waggled his eyebrows and chuckled. “Hey, it worked, didn’t it? It’s supposed to look real so we made it real. Do you remember a couple of weeks ago I said I had something I needed to tell you?”

Thinking back to our conversations, I did remember him telling me that on the phone right before everything blew up with Matt. “Yeah, I remember,” I told him, “but I don’t understand. Are you trying to tell me you’re not gay anymore? Does she know any of that?”

He nodded. “She knew from the very beginning because I told her not long after I met her when we started hanging out. The more I was around her the more I wanted … more. During our first love scene I think we were both a little nervous, but the second I kissed her it was like everything just changed.”

Reaching for his hand, I squeezed it and murmured, “That’s usually how it goes. I felt the same way about Matt.”

“Do you still feel that way about him?”

“Of course, I do,” I told him. “Even though I love it here it kills me to be so far away from him, but I actually don’t want to talk about me right now. Tell me more about you and Allie.”

I had never seen Jace so excited or full of life like he was at that moment. Never in a million years would I have imagined that he would go to North Carolina and return home straight.

“All right, well I told you about the first love scene. Our second one was even more of a challenge. My dick got so hard while we were messing around, and I could see in her eyes that she wanted more. Later on that night she showed up at my room, and one thing led to another. I haven’t known her long, but I swear I think I’m in love with her.”

“Wow,” I gasped. “I’m literally speechless.”

“This won’t make things weird with us, will it? You know I love you like you’re my own sister, and I don’t want you thinking I’m going to try and sneak into your room or some shit like that.”

Rolling my eyes, I smacked him on the arm and laughed. “Jace, I know you’re not going to do that. I’m just glad you’re happy.”

“I am,” he marveled, gazing down at his phone. “So are you walking down to the pier this afternoon? It’s going to get dark soon.”

Brushing the sand off my legs, I nodded and slipped on one of my new sundresses over my bikini; it was a strapless, pale yellow that went perfectly with my new tan. “Yeah, I need to get going so we can go eat dinner. Do you want to go with me this time?”

Jace got to his feet and helped me pack up my things, which I had scattered across my towel. “I think I will,” he agreed.

The walk to the pier was more adventurous with Jace alongside me. Every time I kicked a stream of warm, salty water his way he threatened to just throw me in. I was pretty sure he would do it, too. However, we had plans to go out to dinner and I couldn’t very well go looking like a wet dog.

Once we trekked the whole way to the pier, Jace had an incoming call he said he had to take and told me he’d meet me at the end of the pier in a few minutes. All along the sides of the pier there were men and women with their fishing rods and little children excited to see what they would catch. There were benches at the end of the pier that I sat in each night where I’d close my eyes and let the wind blow every single doubt out of my body.

As much as I loved California, there was a part in my heart that longed for the sweet serenity of North Carolina. It was beautiful. Leaning my elbows on the rails, I watched as the last little bit of the sun finally retreated below the horizon. Jace nudged my arm and stood right beside me.

“Is it bad that I’m starting to think I want to live here?” I asked with a sigh.

“Yes, that is bad considering that you’d be moving away from me, but I would follow you anywhere,” he answered.

Almost instantly, my heart sped into overdrive and I gasped, swaying on my feet as the shock of the surprise had me dizzy and elated all at once. He caught me in his arms, and that was when I looked up. He was really there … it was Matt. His hypnotic green gaze bore into mine and his lips were pulled back into that sexy smile of his that won me over countless times.

“Matt,” I breathed, “what are you doing here?”

Wearing a light blue Outer Banks T-shirt and a pair of khaki shorts, I couldn’t help but notice his skin was more tanned and he had a mischievous look in his eyes like he was in on a secret that I was not.