Knockout! A Passionate Police Romance (15 page)

“I haven’t got a wooden leg.” She laughed, in spite of her feelings.

“Then it is all over - I only wanted a woman with a wooden leg - but I was too shy to tell you.” He responded, reaching down and squeezing her thigh.

The way he dismissed her words only increased his vulnerability. He had a way of joking his way out of corners - almost desperate not to wake up from this dream. She tried again.

“I’m trying to be honest - I’m just so afraid I will disappoint you.”

His mood calmed and he became serious, “Anna, listen - whatever there has been, whatever worries you - it is nothing. Nothing. We have both lived lives. There will have been highs and lows. I am not a fool. The day before we met was the last day of history. Since I saw you there has been only present and future. I love you as you are this moment. I love you for whatever has brought you to me. Love resets all the pieces on the chessboard.”

He took her in his arms and kissed away all her resistance and all her resolve. Within herself she settled back into a comfortable seat to watch her own story unfold, took her hands from the steering wheel and headed breakneck towards the next curve.

“We can drive on to Lyon. I have fixed an hotel.” He said.

“Lyon - why Lyon?” She questioned, her heart leaping with the knowledge that Lyon was home to the headquarters of Interpol and there would be a very increased risk of being recognized.”

“It is half way to Antibes and I want to show you the old town and the Basilica. I am interested in the marble and the mosaics. One day I would like to study the art of churches - I guess you have never been there.” He replied with boyish enthusiasm.

“No - no, never.” She lied, immediately aware that her impulse to lie had probably made things worse. If she was spotted, it would have been easier to explain if she had been there!

The Mercedes swallowed an afternoon ribbon of road.

“I must call my father tonight,” She said, aware that his meeting with Freddie was closing in and that it was far from certain that he would help with the deception that she was weaving.

“Call now - from the car.” He suggested.

“Oh - it’ll be a long call - no need to put it on the cell phone - I’ll call from the hotel.”

He smiled and shook his head.

“Madame will be a great guardian of my wallet. Anyone would think that you were a poor little ant scraping along to pay your bills.”

If only he knew. How she dreaded talking to her father. There was no reason why he would want to compromise his business by acting as a front for the police. There was potential for huge damage to the Leyton Marine brand.

“How does it feel when you step in the ring?” She asked innocently enough - wanting to know more of him.

“Focused I suppose. You hear the crowd but you are not aware of what they are shouting.”

“Do you feel fear?”

“Of course - afraid of being on your back with everything gone. You are only ever one punch away from defeat - but now I feel very different.”

“How?”

“Because there is someone in my life who wants me win or lose - not some trash who wants only the champion - there are plenty of those.”

“This will be the last fight won’t it - promise me Freddie.” She begged - her heart breaking at what he had said. How had she got into this position? He trusted and respected her. She loved him desperately. Soon everything would be spoiled like virgin snow turned to slush. He would fight in a rigged match while strangers shrieked and rejoiced in his blood. Criminals would gloat on their winnings and she could not be there at his side. She began to sob uncontrollably.

“Baby – please... .it’ll be a tough fight, but I can handle it. I trust you and I’m asking you to trust me. I can’t bear to see you so sad.” He replied reaching across for her hand.

His touch and his words made her despise herself even more. She had spent ten years listening to the lies and fabrications of criminals and had come to loath dishonesty. Now she had become no better.

“I’m OK - I’m sorry, I trust you my dear sweet man. You’ll win and it will all be fine.”

“I won the day we met Anna.” He said with a solid authenticity that almost stopped her heart - like a knockout - like a last word.

She leaned back into the leather as the big smooth car ate the distance. It was dusk when they arrived at the hotel Florentine in the old town quarter of Lyon. Anna had also come to love the place during her visits. A smell of wood smoke haunted the narrow cobbled streets while the illuminated Basilica looked out across the Roman tiled Gallo-Romano rooftops. She wanted to phone her father in private but Freddie had become playful. She hung up a few items of clothing, feeling the stroke of his eyes probing her body. She watched him carelessly undress and lie down naked, not speaking but transmitting waves of man power. From the corner of her eye she caught sight of his arousal. Despite all the turmoil in her mind she felt herself responding. He intercepted her thoughts.

“I’m sorry cherie - it’s not my fault that you turn me on so much - I can’t help it - I need therapy.” He said in a mock pleading voice.

She smiled, feeling a dull awakening in her belly and the tension in her nipples. Her eyes dilated and hot desire swept over her. She abandoned all her worries and let them fall crumpled with her knickers and discarded shoes as she walked to him, gazing into his eyes with her deep dark pupils wide open and her hands releasing her belt. She straddled him and pushed him flat onto the bed. He groaned and drew her breast into his mouth. She plunged her wet longing down onto his silky steel erection. He filled and caressed her as she moved rhythmically in slow pulses above him. She caught his male musk of his skin and thought of his sperm bursting into her female flesh - deep deep into her craving core. She pressed her lips down onto his. His tongue met hers, teasing away the last shred of reserve. She shuddered and looked down at his closed eyes lost in a dream of ecstasy.

Behind the lids of his eyes he sensed her moment. Now he was driven on by her sweet gripping succulence. He tensed his buttocks to drive himself into her, letting himself go in thrusts of wordless animal pleasure.

She subsided onto his chest as he kissed her neck in time with his echoing shocks of release. She wanted to draw him in and squeeze every juice from the sweet fruit of lust.

“You are woman,” he groaned “utter joy of woman my angel.”

His words mixed with his male scent. She let her soft breasts press onto his rippled body. She floated in a timeless heaven - before the complications of words - in the jungle of shameless desire and the steaming swamps of passion.

She ran her hand across his scarred brow and kissed his lips.

“I love you.” She said simply.

“And I you... more than I can put into words.” He murmured dreamily.

Somewhere in the room his mobile was ringing. He scrambled in his discarded clothing to find it.

“Hi mom - yeah- I’m fine. What? What guy? Um - Scapaticci - Have I met him before?”

Anna came to attention. This was business. The call continued.

“He wants to talk about a project you say - what’s that - he’ll open with an investment of ten million dollars- are you sure?”

Anna watched his face. He seemed relaxed and unaware who this guy was.

“OK mom - I’ll wait for his call - sure I’ll be nice OK - I mean that’s a lot of money...”

She lay still on the bed trying to appear uninterested, as he finished the call.

“You sound like a hire and fire tycoon.” She commented, trying to sound a bit naïve and girly.

He grinned “Some lawyer guy wants to meet me tomorrow at his hotel in Antibes - he’s got some way of making money. There’s zillions of ideas out there honey - I meet these kinda guys all the time.”

Anna smiled back. What was the project? What did mom know - could she fail to know that Scappaticci was Brennan’s business manager? She decided to push a little.

“Ten million dollars is a lot of money.”

“Yeah - in some ways” He replied.

His vague answer irritated her and for a second she felt of stab of anger. He wanted to marry her but locked her out of his affairs. Before she could rein in her response she had fired a question as if she were interviewing a suspect.

“No one gives away ten million dollars without some tough pay back conditions surely?”

He looked up at her calmly but with steel in his eyes.

“Anna - you cannot know the boxing business and I’m not gonna start explaining it to you. I want you outside the ring. My career is nearly over and that’s all you need to care about. One day I’ll fill you in but for now I love you as you are and that is enough. I never want to argue with you about this baby - but this is my world - and I run it.”

She sat heavily on the bed, feeling his words as if they were punches. She let her head drop down and didn’t look at him.

“You know that there were crooks involved in your last fight - I’m worried that’s all.”

“But you don’t know anything - I don’t know anything. It’s all guesses and Sherlock Holmes stuff - you know all that deduction that it was a left- handed bald man with limping dog.”

She looked up and smiled at him with tearful eyes.

“The dog didn’t limp.” She said.

He softened his eyes and put his arm around her.

“Baby - it’ll all be fine. Let the detectives worry about the crooks. You’re my sweet lover, that’s all I need. You will learn everything - when I write the book.”

“But why do they target you?” She persisted.

“Who says anyone is targeting me? You must know more than I do! This Scappaticci is just a business guy and he’s got in touch with mom. Perhaps he just wants me to market some trainers or perhaps he’s dreamed up some dumb gum sweet and wants me to chew it for the cameras.”

“For ten million dollars?” She fired back.

“Yeah - it is a bit cheap,” he laughed. “Hey, come along to the meet and tell him we want twenty. Call your pa -I’ll take three of those boats!”

Anna could not help but smile. Whenever she began to corner him he could joke his way out. She kissed his cheek. She knew he could sense her unease and tension - although, poor guy, he thought it was entirely his fault and could not guess at the truth.

“This life - there are... there are sorrows - things we try to live through, things that are always on your mind. Trust me - just love me and trust me. You won’t get this - but your love will see me through. ” He said, suddenly hugging her as if for comfort.

She knew not to push him now. This was real. She had reached that barrier inside him that sometimes hinted but melted like a wounded deer into the forest. She held him, feeling his need for her tenderness and love like never before. He was champion of the world and for the first time through their shared rhythms, she experienced his loneliness almost as if it had been her own.

“I’m gonna shower.” He announced suddenly, breaking away, not turning his face to her. “The restaurant here has a Michelin star like my place in London - I want to check the standard- and maybe the chef.” He called from the bathroom.

She sat still on the bed, reaching her hand up to her shoulder where he had laid his head. She drew her hand back to her lips and tasted the salt of a tear.

She dialed her father’s number on the hotel phone. She imagined the house in Sandbanks overlooking Poole harbor. The neighbors were a North London football team manager and a gray frail punk rocker from the 70s who wore a peaked hat and walked a poodle. It was a long way from her flat in Kilburn.

“Dad!”

“Anna!”

She had hardly thought through what to say - she could hardly tell him that in five days she had become engaged to the client.

“I’ll be at Antibes tomorrow afternoon,” she began, “we’re in Lyon - um - things changed a bit.”

“Lyon? Are you planning to show him around the Interpol headquarters?” He asked with an edge of sarcasm.

“Dad - it’s fine- I’ll explain everything - just trust me.”

“I’m worried Anna. If clients think that Leyton Marine is a police front it will really hurt us.”

She sighed. He was right. He was so right and she was selfishly using anything to get what she wanted. Except that she had lost sight of what she wanted.

“I’ll make sure it’s OK Dad - I promise - I love you.”

“I love you too Baby. I’ve got a meeting in La Rochelle. I’ll fly the chopper down after lunch.”

She rang off as Freddie walked in with just a small towel around his waist.

“Did you tell him his little angel is running off with some prize fighter?” He smiled, sitting beside her and kissing her neck. She quivered as jolt of electricity shot through her.

“I’ll tell him when we’re face to face. You haven’t told your mother.” She said, trying to distract him. If her father didn’t know, then it was all still a dream and she would be able to wake up without all the consequences. Her father would tell her mother and then the hounds would come yelping out of hell to chase her down. Her beautiful princess, who had run off to live in the gutter, was now to marry a brawling gorilla!