The Champ: Bad Boys Book 5 (The Bad Boys) (2 page)

Wyatt

***

"Well fuck, I'll give her diamonds. Hold my jacket Chad, this might get ugly, I see the vultures swarming already." I passed my ridiculously expensive jacket off to my brother and rolled up the sleeves of my cashmere Black label sweater.

This wasn’t my norm, for one thing I don’t even know her, we hadn’t met. For another, since I’d gone pro I made it a point not to throw my arm outside the ring because the fuckers were now insured. Add the fact that if I fucked somebody’s shit up the law would throw the book at me because my shits are lethal weapons. None of that mattered though when I saw the intent of some of the bar’s less than upstanding occupants.

It's a good thing I'd worn jeans and ass kickers. I couldn't have fought as well in loafers and it looks like I'm going to have to kick some ass before the night was over. These good ole boys were raised on oats and steel and had heads like granite. I know; I’ve fought my share of oxen before I went pro and none of my challengers had anything on these homegrown louts.

The first motherfucker to put hands on her was going down hard all the same. That was all mine. I'll have a little talk with her about advertising my shit in public just as soon as I've had her under me maybe twice or three times. Women tend to get testy about the overbearing male telling them what to do. I give a fuck about that. I know if I find her ass so appealing that others will too as was obvious by the fucking leers, I’m not down with that shit.

My dick was taking in the show and giving her the stamp of approval, this was a good thing but I needed to seal the deal first before he got out the gate. The throb was a little harder than it has ever been at this point in the game, and I had to do a little shift and pat to keep him down.

"Quiet boy we're gonna go get her." My dick could be a bit unruly when he sees something he likes. The fuck was going crazier than usual though, which is how I knew I was in trouble. I kinda got an inkling when I found myself unable to look away, and had spent the last half an hour silently willing her to look around so I could finally see what face went with that amazing ass. That one look had only sucked me in deeper.

I sped up my pace and my laid back attitude was gone with the wind when I got half way across the room to her. There seriously was a roomful of assholes ogling her, no doubt salivating over her ass. I’ll fuck them all up if I have to.

***

Traci

***

I knew this was a bad idea. I saw the hairy behemoth making his way towards me from the sidelines and prepared myself for an embarrassing showdown. I quelled the fear that threatened to choke me even as my limbs trembled and my palms began to sweat.

I’d already slowed my movements down to a slight sway as I thought of my next move. It was obvious there was no way I was gonna be able to avoid this guy because he was coming in hard and fast.

When he smiled my stomach actually curdled. Now that could be because of the alcohol I'd consumed, or from the yellow tinge of his teeth. I was about to take flight having decided that I wasn’t ready to deal with any kind of confrontation, not yet, I wasn’t exactly back in fighting form. Too late, he was right there before I could make good my escape.

“Come here little darling.” Just as he was about to reach his grubby paw out to snag me, I felt myself being lifted up and back. I didn't have time to react before I found myself turned against a broad, hard chest. I got a quick glimpse of topaz blue eyes before my lips were covered.

It’s such a cliché, but I went up in flames. For a split second in time everything went out of my head and all I felt was him. The room disappeared, the sounds, sights and smells. There was nothing but the feelings bombarding me and the hard body pressed so deliciously close to mine.

A loud groan flowed from his lips to mine and entered my lungs. I didn’t understand the ‘fuck’ he growled at me when he finally let me go, or the possessive way he ran his eyes all over me. “Trouble.” He ran his eyes over me like he was staking some kind of claim.

My heart gave one big thump at that look, but that's all it had time for before I was being passed off to someone behind him. I heard the behemoth roar something but my mind was no longer there. I kind of know how Alice felt when she fell down that damn hole. My lips were still tingling when the room came back into focus.

What the hell? It was the guy from the table and his friends. They'd all lined up behind him. The one he'd handed me off to had a tight grip on my arm as he shielded my body between his and the guy next to him. The only thought in my head was, ‘these guys are huge’. Not behemoth huge, but they had to be at least six four or thereabouts.

"Take care of my woman Chad let me take care of this shit."

The big one he'd passed me off to, shoved me behind his back. I was beginning to feel like a sack of potatoes. I looked around his shoulder to see sexy eyes rolling his neck from side to side as he faced down the giant who had been coming after me.

For whatever reason the behemoth was not happy about being thwarted and was making enough ruckus to wake the dead. The way he was carrying on you’d think I was his long lost love. This was so embarrassing, now everyone in the club was taking in the action. I wonder if I could slink out of here without being noticed?

"Sic 'em Wyatt." I looked at the one he'd called Chad. Was he crazy? That overgrown ape would crush Wyatt. Wyatt wasn't exactly scrawny, I could see the cord of muscles in his arms, and I'd felt that chest, but there was no way he was going to take that ape. That thing was a good hundred pounds heavier than he was.

"Stop him, he's gonna get hurt."

He must've heard my hiss to his friend because he turned to me with a grin on his face.

"Worried about me are you?" He threw me a cocky wink over his shoulder.

I lowered my eyes and bit into my lip, what else was I supposed to do? I don't know this guy other than that he's hot and he's been staring at my ass all evening. Still, I didn’t want him turned into minced meat because of me.

I lifted my head and looked back at him, he still had his eyes on me, and the look in them made me blush. He winked at me again before turning back to what he was doing. Why were his friends just standing there doing nothing? My fear was back tenfold.

"Don't take too long Wyatt, I came here to drink not clean up your road kill." One of his friends called out to him before taking a sip from his beer, like this was just another day at the park. Giving no care to the fact that his friend was about to get the hell knocked out of him.

"Give me five Jace, he's at least ten pounds heavier than the last one."

"The last one?" What, did this guy go around fighting apes in bars?

"Yeah, Wyatt's the reigning UFC king."

I watched as he stared down the behemoth, who by this time, looked ready to tear his head off with his bare hands. If I had any sense I would make tracks and get the hell outta there, but I felt responsible for what was about to happen to this poor guy and that amazingly beautiful face. I almost whimpered at the injustice of it all.

My heart was beating a mile a minute, because no matter what his friends said, there was no way he could fight that ruffian. My stomach churned for a different reason now. I knew what it felt like to be on the receiving end of an overgrown bully’s wrath. I felt the old bitter fear edge its way up my spine as the familiar taste of abject terror burned in the back of my throat.

This guy might be a fighting champ, and though I don’t know much about UFC or whatever they’d called it, I was pretty sure this wasn’t going to be a fair fight. I looked over at my friends who were taking in the action like they were at the movies, before looking back towards my-would-be protector.

He lowered his head and whispered something in the other man's ear. The scowl that formed on Yeti's face promised dire retribution and he puffed up his chest and stepped closer to the Wyatt guy. My knees went weak at the menace on his face and the way he towered over sexy Wyatt.

Wyatt pushed ape-man back with one hand to the chest and actually moved him backwards a step or two. That's when I started wringing my hands. I knew I shouldn't have listened to Christine, that girl's been getting me into scrapes since the second grade. Now this poor guy was gonna get the stuffing kicked out of him for coming to my rescue.

Old junkyard dog took a wide swing and then there was a flash of movement and he was on the floor clutching his gut and his throat and Wyatt was walking back towards us. My mouth was somewhere in the vicinity of my chest and my mind was trying to process what I'd seen.

"What was that? What did he do?"

"Well little lady, that was a cross between Brazilian jujitsu, kickboxing and Krav Maga. They're trying to come up with a name for it but for now we just call it the Hunternator."

One of his friends, the tall skinny one, informed me of this. I didn't have much time to process any of it because the next thing I knew, I was being swung around and lifted up against that rock hard chest of Wyatt's again, and his mouth was covering mine like long lost lovers. When he deemed it fit to release my mouth he gave me this cheeky grin that made me want to grin right along with him. I was quick enough to restrain myself though, he was way too sure of himself.

"To the victor go the spoils." That's all he had to say before he carted me off to his table. I looked over his shoulder at Cris and the rest of my girls who were grinning like fools. Couldn't they see the danger here? I'm petrified of big manly men, the man is like twice my height and size, he'd squash me like a bug. And all that power, I was way out of my depth here.

I glared at Cris and the others telling them without words to come save me but they seemed to think this was all fun and games, so I turned my attention to my abductor instead. “I can walk you know.” I didn’t know what else to say, what could I say? This was so beyond my norm as to be unbelievable.

He took his seat and planted me firmly on his lap, not even out of breath. If I hadn't seen it I wouldn't have believed he'd just been in an altercation. “You straight Red?” Red, who’s Red? Apparently my answer wasn’t necessary because he squeezed my side and picked up his beer.

I took stock of myself, this might be the one and only time I’d be up close and personal with anything this hot but I knew I would have to put an end to it soon.

He not only looked good he smelt like hot sin. It was the kind of scent that made you want to run your nose along his neck and suck it all in. His hand, I could feel the weight of it low on my hip and my skin burned beneath my clothes.

That close to him, instead of the fear I’d half expected, I somehow felt-safe; something I hadn’t felt in a long-long time. Just then he turned those eyes on me again and I felt myself weakening. There were no words spoken between us, just a shared look that conveyed so much.

He had this way about him that although we were total strangers, I felt anything but. He was so matter of fact about it the way he was so relaxed with me there, the way he just grabbed his beer and took a swig before turning his attention back to me, as if it were something he’d done a thousand times.

Those eyes of his were lethal. This close I could see little specks of silver in his irises and his face was a work of art. If not for the hard cut of his jaw you could almost call him beautiful. I wanted to trail my finger down his perfectly formed nose to that top lip with the dent in it. To feel him under my fingers.

My breathing accelerated as I studied him with what I was sure was longing in my eyes. His nose flared as he looked back at me and I felt his thigh stiffen under my butt. Oh boy! “You’re gorgeous.” He kept hitting me with these little zingers and keeping me off kilter.

Before I could give in to the urge to cuddle closer, I resolved to put an end to our little dance before I bit off more than I could chew. Although he’d just saved me, I knew there was no way he could be interested in me for anything more than an easy lay, and the way he kept running his eyes all over me only enhanced that belief.

Like I said, guys who look like him are never interested in girls like me, not for the right reasons anyway. I guess that’s part of the curse of having the body of a pinup doll. We’re okay to bed but not marriage material. At least that’s what I’ve been told.

"I have to get back to my friends." My voice was squeaky and just this side of wary, but at least I got the words past the sudden lump in my throat.

"That's a no babe, if they want you they're gonna have to come over here. Chad, go get the girls." Excuse me?

"Why do I always get the grunt work?"

"That's because you're my wingman bro, now stop bitching and go round them up."

"Round them up? They're not cattle." Shut up Traci you won’t survive this one.

"Ooh she's a feisty one there Wyatt, you better watch out, I don't think this one's gonna let you get away with your shit." His friend grinned like an idiot as if it was the most natural thing in the world for his pal to have a strange woman seated on his lap. For all I know that could be true.

"Not to worry Jace, I know just how to tame this little lady."

"You...tell me, this fighting thing you do, you get a lotta knocks to the head?" He threw his head back and laughed. I guess I forgot to be scared there for a second or I maybe wouldn't have sassed him, but even his laugh sent a thrill through me. He stole another quick kiss before picking up his drink for another sip.