Linc (A Cocky Cage Fighter Novel Book 3) (5 page)

"You paint?" I ask in amazement. I'm tryin’ really hard not to think about all the assholes that touched her when she didn't want them to. Luckily for them, there's just one thing I'd rather do than jump up and go break all of their hands and necks, and that's have her keep sittin’ on my lap. "Do you paint nude men or what?" I tease to try and keep her talkin’. My joke works. She smiles and shakes her head. I really like makin’ her say no just to see her hair bounce. I'd give anything to run my fingers through it.                  

"Not nude men. Mostly, um, nature, like outdoor scenes. You know, beaches and lakes, sunsets over fields, that sort of thing," she responds in a hurry.

"Wow, that's...surprisin’, but I'd love to see what you've painted."

"I'm not good or anything. I just do it for fun and can only afford cheap paint-" She stops abruptly again, lowerin’ her eyes like she's embarrassed after admittin’ she doesn't have a lot of money. I never thought porn stars were rollin’ in dough, but I would've thought they would do well enough to buy art supplies. That's fuckin’ sad as shit. I'm two seconds away from emptyin’ my wallet just to wipe that look off her face. But then she finally seems to relax, lowerin’ herself so that she's sittin’ down all the way on my lap. Feelin’ her weight on my cock sucks all the air from my lungs.

"So tell me, Linc Abrams, what do you like to do for fun?" she asks, givin’ me a smile that says she knows just how close she is to makin’ the Cock Ness Monster explode.

I swallow down my groan and order my tense hips not to do what they’re beggin’ to do; thrust my hard cock up into her. Back in control of myself, I’m eventually able to respond. "Since I've been out of the cage with a broken arm," I tell her, holdin’ up the brace, "Mostly helpin’ coach the younger guys and watchin’ porn."

"The cage?" she asks, her eyes widenin’. 

"MMA, mixed martial arts."

"Yeah, I know what all that is, but
you
fight people, like, as a living?"

"Uh-huh."

She tilts her head and examines every inch of my face. "You don't seem like the type of guy who would hit people."

"I don't?" I ask, knowin’ exactly what she’s thinkin’, and like usual, it pisses me off. She’s gonna say some bullshit like I seem too fuckin’ sweet or nice.
Oh, baby, you have no idea how fuckin’ violent and destructive the beast inside of me can be
.

"Nope, you don’t. My little brother Mason is a cage fighter and his face is always messed up. Yours is…" Her fingertips brush gently down the side of my face, right along the path of my five o'clock shadow. And now I want nothin’ more than for her to close the inches between us and kiss me. "Definitely not messed up. I could see you as an adrenaline junkie driving a race car or riding a bull, but not beating up other dudes."

"How do you know I beat up other dudes? Maybe they kick my ass."

"Then, like I tell Mason, you're an idiot for letting them keep hurting you," she says, nodding to the brace.

"This is the first time I've ever really been hurt. My arm snapped while I was defendin’ my IFC World Welterweight title for the fifth consecutive year." I can’t help but brag just a little. This is the girl of my dreams and I want to impress her. With more than just my big cock.  

"Ouch," she says with a wince. "How bad was it?"

"Hurt like a motherfucker."

The fact that I'm havin’ a discussion about my injury while a naked porn star sits on me in a strip club is surreal. Definitely not what I had in mind when I decided I should meet Eve Kelly. No, what I had in mind included me also bein’ naked in the equation and not many words bein’ exchanged. I know that makes me a total jackass for not only thinkin’ she'd actually want me but for thinkin’ she fucks every man she meets just because of her profession. She's not a whore, I get that now, and I’m ashamed of even thinkin’ such a disrespectful thing for even a second. In fact, Eve’s so far from bein’ slutty in person that it's hard for me to wrap my head around the fact that she fucks men on camera for a livin’.

"How do you do it?" I blurt out in wonder.

"Do what?"

"You seem so shy and...inexperienced. How do you, you know, let them record you fuckin’ a bunch of men?"

She opens her mouth as if to answer and then closes it again before finally sayin’, "Drugs. Lots and lots of drugs."

I reel back from her at that confession, ‘cause I just don't see this classy woman as a user and it breaks my heart. "Really? So you have to...get doped up so that you can..."

"Uh-huh.” She nods. “So high I don't remember my real name."

"Jesus, baby. Why would you do that to yourself?" I ask, barely resistin’ the urge to put my arms around her and pull her to me in a crushin’ hug. The only reason I don't is because they'll throw me out, but that is so fucked up. Now I feel really damn guilty for gettin’ turned on watchin’ her movies, knowin’ she’s miserable. 

"For the easy money," she replies simply, with a shrug.

Easy money that she apparently doesn't have much of. I'm about to say as much when the door flies open again despite the fact that I'm keepin’ my hands to myself. Maybe Goliath is psychic, sensin’ how close I was to breakin’ the rule again.

"Time's up," he bellows when he sticks his enormous head in the room. I notice the sleazy man who I paid for the lap dance is standin’ right behind him.

Eve scrambles uncoordinatedly off of my lap and picks up her bikini top and bottom from the floor to redress, but apparently not fast enough. "Hurry up. You've got two more dances-" the scrawny dickhead says.

I stand up to grab my shirt and pull it on quickly as I watch Eve’s face turn bright red with what looks like anger when she glares at the man.

"No!" she exclaims with her skimpy top and bottom clutched to her, tryin’ to hide her nudity from him and the bouncer. Her obvious modesty in front of them hits me like a kick to my nuts, and now I’m not really happy about them seein’ her undressed, either. Her soft voice shakes like she’s on the verge of tears, snappin’ my heart into when she tells him, "I can't...I'm not doin’ it!"

"We'll talk about this in
private
," the asshole says through clenched teeth. It's clear by his tone that after this "talk" of his she'll damn well do what he says.

There's somethin’ about the way he treats her in those thirty seconds that wakes the sleepin’ beast inside of me. The one that's been hibernatin’ while my arm's been healin’, and now he's absolutely ravenous. Without him, yeah, I'm a big softie without a care in the world. But with him awake, well, you better fuckin’ watch out. There's only two things that he ever wants, to fight or fuck. Heaven help the bastard who gets him wound up on a night like tonight when he's got a cravin’ for both.

In two seconds flat, I’m in front of the dickhead, shovin’ his chest so hard his back slams against the wall on the opposite side of the hallway. Then I get in his face that's half a head shorter than mine. "She said no. Do I need to teach you what that fuckin’ word means?"

The beady-eyed asshole looks over my shoulder at the bouncer who I can still feel towerin’ behind me, tryin’ to determine if he's gonna step in and help him out. I tense, prepared for his giant, meaty fists to pull me off of the asshole, but nope, the asshole's on his own. Bigfoot is only here to look out for the girls.

"When I tell her how much money it is, she'll change her mind," the jerk starts explainin’ to me when he realizes no help is on the way. He thinks she'll change her mind, probably like he had to
change her mind
to get her to fuckin’ step foot in that room with me. I don't know who I'm more pissed at, him or myself for puttin’ her in a situation she was uncomfortable in by wavin’ money around. But I'll be a sonofabitch if I let any other fuckers get to see her naked tonight.

"How much?" I ask him.

"A grand each." That’s only half of what I paid this sleazy asshole and I'm willin’ to bet they
will
be expectin’ more than a fuckin’ lap dance for that amount of money.

"Here's what I'm gonna do," I tell him. "I'm gonna go over to the ATM beside the bar and get her two thousand dollars and then you're gonna get her the fuck out of here. Got it?" I ask. 

He glances over toward the main floor and then back at me. "The withdrawal limit is four hundred."

"Not on my card." 

I leave him squashed like a bug against the wall and head for the machine, tryin’ to take deep breaths to calm myself down. Rememberin’ the awful stench and unpleasantness of bein’ locked in a jail cell is enough to cool my blood pressure somewhat. There’s also the most important reason not to go apeshit in public, I don’t want to end up gettin’ kicked out of the IFC for some shady ass motherfucker.

There are two other guys in line for the ATM in front of me, and the wait is long enough that my boys eventually find me.

"So, is she as hideous and bitchy as you hoped?" Nate asks.

"Not even a little bit of either," I admit with a sigh.

"And you're pulling out
more
money?" Senn asks, noddin’ to the machine.

"Uh-huh."

"Well, just so you know,” Nate starts tellin’ me and then has to grab onto my shoulder to keep his drunken self upright. “I put your Benjamins to good use. It was so awesome that I'm not even ashamed to admit that I came in my pants." I can't help but shake my head at the goofy ginger. Since I have millions and all my boys can barely rub two pennies together, except for Senn who’s currently ranked thirteenth in the world in the light heavyweight division, when we go out it's always my treat. What's the point of bein’ rich as fuck if you can't spend it on your friends? Or beautiful, broke porn stars.

"You look like you're on the verge of knocking someone out, and I can't fuckin' wait to see it go down," Senn remarks. He may weigh thirty pounds more than me, but he knows from trainin’ together for five years that I can take him any day. Well, any day my arm's not jacked up. So if he can't beat me in a fight, neither can anyone else. Ah, except for the club's Not Very Jolly Green Giant. Oh, and of course, the new IFC Welterweight Champion of the World and my now good friend, Jude fuckin’ Malone.

"I really want to knock someone the fuck out," I admit, crackin’ both sets of knuckles. I'd love nothin’ more than for my bare fists to flatten that sleazy asshole's face.

"Dude, your arm's about to get cleared in a week.
One
week! Don't fuck that shit up." Nate, as always, tries to be the voice of reason. The irony is not lost on me that Senn's talkin’ me into shit like he's the devil on one of my shoulders, while the drunk, soulless ginger is the closest thing to an angel that I've got tryin’ to keep me out of mayhem. Between the two of them and the angered beast I’m seriously fucked.

I stretch out my left elbow that's gone from a hard cast to just the hinged brace I’m wearin’ now. It feels almost back to normal.
Finally
, after weeks of painful therapy. I know better than to brawl in public anyway. Criminal charges are the quickest way to get the IFC league to kick my ass to the curb for good, and I've already used up my one get
out of jail free
card for this lifetime. Unlike last time, any new charges and that shit will follow me around forever. 

"I'm just pissed. I'm pretty sure I won't hit anyone," I reply. "And if I do, I'll only use my right hand." Now my turn at the machine, I step up to the ATM. Because of how much I have in the bank, I had a talk with the bank manager and insisted they make an exception to withdrawal and spendin’ limits on my debit card. If I want to buy somethin’, I don't want to have to wait for their fuckin’ approval to make the purchase.

"I'll be right back," I tell my boys once the cash is in my hand. I head down the hallway to where I assume Eve and her asshole manager are still waiting. Sure enough, Slick Rick perks up and smirks when he sees me approach, only instead of handin’ him the money, I offer it to Eve. If she wants to give him a cut, that's up to her, but I'll be damned if I let him pocket anymore of my money meant for her.

"Here, gorgeous." I lift her hand even though I'm not supposed to touch her, and put the wad of money in her palm.

"No, you don't have to do this. It's too much-" She shakes her head and tries to pull her hand out from under mine, but I fold her small fingers over the roll of cash, makin’ her take it.

"I would gladly pay any price to keep the sadness off of your beautiful face," I tell her honestly.

"You shouldn't...I can't..." She continues to try and decline my offer.

"How about this then, I'm payin’ you to paint me somethin’. An Eve Kelly original. You can send it to me at
Havoc
in Cary when you're done. Now can we call it even?"

She blinks those light blue eyes up at me before she finally concedes on a heavy exhale, lowerin’ the fist full of cash to her side. "I would never take this much money for myself, but um, my sister, she could really use it to get out of the mess she's in."

"Baby, it’s yours. You can do anythin’ you want with it," I tell her, although I hope she'll keep some of it for herself.

The next thing I know, her arms are wrappin’ around my neck, plasterin’ her mostly naked, fucktastic body to the front of mine. Her soft lips press firmly to my parted ones that open on my gasp of surprise. As soon as the initial shock wears off, I grab the smooth skin of her hips to hold her against me while I kiss her back. I needed to grab on to somethin’ to keep me grounded as my heart races out of my chest and the earth shakes beneath my
Vans
. The first time our tongues meet, my cock jerks like it felt the warm, wet flick all the way down in my pants. I get lightheaded from the speed at which blood is summoned south.