Fighting Love (Love to the Extreme) (7 page)

“Get. Out!”

What the hell was he doing? He shook his head, backed out, and slammed the door. “Sorry!”

Taking deep inhales, he collapsed back against the wall. Out of everything he could have seen

on Julie’s body, why did it have to be her ass?

He shook his head sharply, trying to dislodge the image. The tempting perfection of it refused

to vanish. Even worse, his dick was raring and ready to go from the replay.

No. Oh, God. No. This was so wrong on so many levels. Julie was his best friend. He’d never

once thought of her in a sexual way. But he’d had no clue she looked like that under her clothes.

The bathroom door slammed against the wall and a furious Julie emerged, wrapped in a robe.

She shoved him and he lifted his arms to ward her off. “What the hell, Tommy! Knock before

entering.”

Angry that she’d made him see something he could never unsee, and finding that he liked it,

he yelled back, “It’s called a lock! You don’t live alone anymore, Julie. Lock the goddamn door.”

Just to get it out there and remind himself more than anything, he added, “I do not need to see

someone I consider my sister naked.” He pointed at her. “Don’t do that to me!”

He stalked back to his room and slammed the door. Shoving both hands in his hair, he fisted

his fingers and tugged, letting out a long, frustrated yell as he paced the room.

Last night he’d wanted to kiss her, and now she had a perfect ass. Fabulous.

God, he wanted to throttle her.

Hell, she’d probably throttle him if she knew what he was thinking about her.

Thankfully, there was a way to fix this. He’d been out of the game too long, that was all. His

body was wacked out. Not used to going this long without a woman. There was an eager and

willing woman at work who was more than ready to help get him back in the game. He just had to

convince her it would be much more fun if he tied her up.

…

Unfortunately, nothing had gone the way it was supposed to for the rest of the day.

It was all Julie’s fault.

And Tommy was seriously pissed.

As soon as he walked into the photo shoot that morning, he’d started putting the moves on

Bonnie. She very easily allowed him the lead, which was the way he liked it. But there hadn’t been

even one little shimmy of anticipation in his pants. Why? Because Julie’s ass kept teasing him.

Thinking of that, his pants had felt a whole lot of action.

The pending “date” had sat like a rock in his stomach all damn day. He never dreaded

spending time with a woman. He fed them and then they had an excellent time between the

sheets. At the end of the night, they parted ways with full bellies and sated bodies. Perfect for

everyone.

But that’s not what had happened tonight with Bonnie.

The truth was, he’d had no urge to take the woman to dinner, much less take her to bed,

because that beautiful ass was tormenting the ever-loving hell out of him. The more it kept

popping into his mind, the more he wanted to direct his attention toward that source of lust. A

very dangerous thought.

But a date was a date. So when they’d finally called a wrap on the shoot, he’d driven Bonnie

over to a nice restaurant. Only, the more she’d talked, flirted, and made blatant comments about

phallic-shaped objects, the more he’d wanted to get up and leave.

He wanted to be with Julie. Not her ass. But her.

Which was why he now found himself in his car, alone, driving home well before midnight. And

hating life.

Since when did he ever want to sit around the house watching TV and eating popcorn instead

of going out and having fun?

Never, that’s when. And yet, he’d begged off a night with a gorgeous, more-than-willing

woman, using the lie that the food hadn’t agreed with him. A damn stomachache? Seriously?

It was Julie’s fault. All her damn fault.

And he intended to give her a piece of his damn mind.

…

After a solitary dinner, Julie leaned back on the couch with a glass of Merlot. Earlier this

afternoon, Tommy had sent her a text saying he wouldn’t be home until late, so don’t wait up.

Code for he’d met a woman.

Considering he’d been pretty damn horrified at seeing his “sister” naked this morning, he was

probably in someone else’s arms right now, trying to banish the image from his mind. The thought

made Julie’s stomach twist. She took another long swallow of her wine. Not that she’d ever

thought Tommy would see her naked, but having him blurt out the sibling comment verified

everything she’d always known.

Tommy would never see her as anything more than a sister figure.

Somehow she had to start thinking of him as a brother and get rid of all that other stuff. She’d

been truthful with him about dating. She did date. Just not as much as she’d like to. She’d also

been truthful that her schedule kept her from meeting many eligible men, and the few she’d met

online had ended in disaster.

Every once in a while she’d meet a guy, though, and they’d start dating. Sometimes it didn’t

work for her and she ended it, but more often than not, the guy ended it. Mostly after meeting

Tommy. She used to always be upfront that her best friend was Tommy “Lightning” Sparks, and

the guys always thought that was so awesome…until they met him. Then they seemed unable to

handle the pressure of dating a woman whose best friend was an MMA super-fighter.

Some hung around for a few more dates, some called it off that same night, and others just

never called again. The ones who gave her a reason said they weren’t looking for anything serious,

and men didn’t fool around with girls who had a best friend who could put them in the hospital.

Now she kept Tommy to herself, hoping some guy would fall for her and not be intimidated by the

other important man in her life.

She was a good woman. She worked hard. She was attractive. Independent and loyal. Any

man would be lucky as hell to have her, if she did say so herself. And if Tommy Sparks didn’t want

her, somewhere out there was a man who would love to have her.

The front door opened and she was surprised to see Tommy storm in and slam it shut. What

was he doing home so early? He stalked into the kitchen and started making a racket, slamming

cabinets and the fridge. The lid of a beer bottle popped off.

She started to rise, to go and ask him what was wrong, but when he came to stand in the door

of the living room, he glared furiously at her, as though she’d done something wrong.

Immediately, she was on the defensive. She sat down again. “What’s crawled up your ass?”

A snarl came from him as he stalked into the living room. He slumped on the other end of the

couch and stretched one arm across the back, staring straight at the wall in front of him, jaw

clenched. Then he guzzled the beer.

“I’ve had the mother of shit days. The worst ever,” he finally muttered.

Since his freaking house had burned down a couple of days ago, she’d disagree with that

assessment, but Tommy tended to see things differently than she did.

“Want to talk?” she ventured.

“Nope.”

“Are you going to be a douche for the rest of the night?”

“Most likely.”

Okay then. She took a sip of her wine. She’d seen Tommy in many frames of mind, and after

more than two decades with him, she’d believed she’d seen them all, but this was a new one. He

had completely shut her out. He never shut her out. “Then how about going to your room to sulk?”

Slowly, very slowly, his head turned toward her. Anger had made his green eyes darken to a

moss green. “I’m not sulking. I’m trying to wrap my mind around the fucking unimaginable.”

She couldn’t tell if he was angry at her or at whatever had happened. It was the first time in a

very long time she couldn’t read Tommy at all. And it left her feeling very unbalanced.

“Is this what you do every night, Julie? Come home, sit on the couch, drink some wine. Watch

TV? That’s it?”

Were they going to have this argument? Again?

“No. I do go out. Melody comes over. You come over all the time.”

He scowled at her. “I’m not some kind of stand-in boyfriend, am I?”

Her mouth dropped open. “Where the hell did that come from?”

The scowl deepened. “You don’t date. In fact, have you ever even been in a relationship? Any

guy I’ve met, I haven’t seen him a second time.”

She ground her teeth. “That’s your fault, asshole. You try being a woman who is best friends

with a professional fighter, and see how many men are willing to stick around. Besides , you’re one

to talk. You jump from woman to woman like you’re terrified you’ll die if you stop.”

“Not terrified, Julie. I do it because I enjoy every fucking second of it.” There was a nasty edge

to his voice she’d only heard when he was really furious. “You’re like a damn spinster. When’s the

last time you were actually with a man? Maybe if you’d let a man at you, you’d relax some.”

Her jaw dropped nearly to the floor. Then she got mad. Really mad.

Shaking with fury, she shot to her feet. “I don’t know what your fucking problem is or why

you’re being so goddamn mean, but screw you.”

Chapter 4

This house was not big enough for the both of them.

Julie shoved a spoonful of oatmeal in her mouth and tried to concentrate on the taste of

cinnamon and apple, pissed that she was even aware of the sounds of the shower running in the

background. A hot, steamy spray that would hit a naked masculine chest, plastering those fine

blond chest hairs to Tommy’s skin as the water rolled down his body.

Especially after what he’d said to her last night.

Spinster.

What was this, the freaking 1800s?

“Good. I’m glad I caught you before you left.”

She jerked her head up.

Oh. For the love of God.

He stood in the doorway, a towel wrapped low around his waist, still damp from his shower.

Her belly twisted painfully with the need to touch the man, and not in a best-friend way. Which

pissed her off even more.

“What?” The bite in her tone came through loud and clear.

He grimaced. “Yeah, okay, I deserve the anger. I was an asshole last night. I’m sorry.”

Striving to be civil, she wrangled her fury with him. “Where’d that even come from? Do you

have an issue with our relationship you’re not telling me? I’ve never made any demands on you

other than as a friend.”

She’d made damn sure she’d only done that because she’d always known Tommy was

incapable of giving her more.

He slid his hand through his wet locks, something she knew he did when frustration was

getting to him. “Julie, I love you and I want to see you happy. It bothers me how alone you are.”

“Why? It doesn’t bother me.”

“I just want to be sure I’m not somehow filling the man role in your life and it’s making you

complacent.”

Of course. Since every other woman he came across took any scrap of attention he flung her

way, his best friend had to be completely satisfied with the excessive Tommy time she received, to

the point that she didn’t need another man. Wouldn’t his ears burn if he knew how much she’d

give to move past him? “You’re not,” she deadpanned.

He swallowed, then gave a jerky nod. “All right, then. I won’t say anything more about it.”

“Good. Because I’m getting really sick of hearing your opinion of my love life.” She shoved back

her chair and picked up her plate. “I have to get to work. I’ll see you tonight.”

After cleaning up and grabbing her things, she hurried to her car.

Numb.

That was how she felt. That had to be progress. It showed that she’d made some kind of

disconnection within herself that was rewiring to see Tommy in a different way. Thank God.

Twenty minutes later, she pulled into the vet clinic’s parking lot. As she walked in through the

back entrance, her partner, Melody, frantically motioned to her from the front desk. “Come here.

You’ve got to see this.”

The other vet was usually much more controlled with her emotions. The barely restrained

eagerness rolling off her took Julie slightly aback. “What is it?”

“Come. Here.” Her waving increased. “Your nine o’clock is already here. You’re not going to

believe what you’re about to see.”

Curiosity piqued, Julie cautiously stepped around the reception desk that was separated from

the waiting area by a glass window. Her mouth dropped open.

“I know, right!” Melody said, awestruck.

There, stuffed in one of their tiny waiting room chairs, was the biggest, most ripped man she’d

ever seen. Rippling muscles strained beneath a tight shirt, the sleeves of which had been cut to

make room for his bulging biceps. But it wasn’t the man alone that made her hottie meter go off.

It was the way he was cooing at the white Persian kitten he held in his huge arms.

“My word,” Julie breathed, thoroughly captivated by the sight.

“To say the least,” Melody said. “Have you ever seen anything so sexy?”

Unfortunately, she had—the man who’d stood in her kitchen this morning in only a towel,