The Fighter (The High Rise, Book 1) (21 page)

I pull on a
hoodie knowing I’m going to have to put the hood up since I’m
covered in the guy’s blood. I don’t want Laney to see me if she for
some reason happens to come out of her apartment when I go by
because she’d freak out. “I gotta go. Text me after your fight and
let me know how it went,” I tell Matt. We knock knuckles and I
leave.

It’s all clear
when I get to the seventeenth floor and I jog to my apartment,
going inside quickly. I text Laney letting her know I’ll be there
at seven-thirty, and when she sends me back the eye-roll emoji with
about fifty kissy faces and hearts after it, it makes me feel
better.

I shower and
dress making sure my hair’s dry because she’d ask why I had to
shower and I don’t want to lie to her more than I already am.
Grabbing my bag, I leave my apartment stopping to knock on her
door. And swear to God, when she opens the door, it all just goes
away—all my anger, frustrations, everything.

She’s got the
biggest smile on her face and she immediately jumps on me before I
can even say hi.

“I’m so
excited!” she says before landing a big one on me.

And I’m just
completely swept away. The whole world could be on fire but as long
as I had Laney by my side, it wouldn’t matter. She makes it all
better. Makes it to where I can fucking breathe again.

When she pulls
back, she giggles. “I missed you today!”

I set her down
and put a hand to her face, running the backs of my fingers down
her cheek. “I missed you too, baby.”

“Let me get my
pillow and I’m good to go!” She runs to her bedroom which is when I
start looking around. “Two suitcases and a duffle bag? Seriously?”
I holler.

“We’re gonna
be gone three days!” she shouts back.

“We won’t get
there until ten tonight and we’ll have to leave Monday around two.
That’s a day and a half, tops.”

She comes back
into the living room giving me the evil eye as she walks over then
swinging her pillow smacks me in the shoulder taking me off
guard.

“What was that
for?” I ask.

She wraps her
arms around my waist burying her face against my chest and shares,
“I haven’t had a vacation in two years. And I don’t want to look at
it as a day and a half, so give me my three days, please.”

I know she
feels my body shaking as I laugh but I mumble against the top of
her head, “Okay. Three days it is.”

She pulls away
grinning up at me. “Thank you, honey.” She then tiptoes up to kiss
me before yelling, “Let’s go!” Running to the kitchen she grabs a
couple grocery bags before coming back and opening the door for
me.

Smiling and
shaking my head, because she’s acting like a five year old which is
cute, I put her bag on one shoulder, my bag on the other, pick up
her suitcases and head out to the elevator.

Just outside
of Crestline, Laney starts screaming and scares the shit out of me
making me swerve thinking there’s something in the road.

“It’s
snowing!” she yells bouncing in her seat.

Yes, it’s
definitely snowing. I look over at her and have to smile at how
excited she is.

“Sorry. I love
snow, though!”

I squeeze her
hand and chuckle wanting to always make her happy like this.

“When I was
four, we went to Colorado one year to ski. Mom said the whole drive
from the airport to the ski lodge, all I did was say, ‘Look at the
snow, Mommy! Look at the snow, Daddy!’ She said they got so tired
of it that she finally told me to say look at the snow just one
time. So after that we were driving along and she said I started
saying, ‘Look at the snow just one time, Mommy! Look at the snow
just one time, Daddy!’ over and over.”

She cracks up
and I chuckle with her, glancing over and thinking how lucky I am
to have her here with me. Damn, she’s beautiful.

When we make
it to my cabin, it’s still snowing and there’s also snow on the
ground. How do I know this for sure? Because she’s screaming it at
the tops of her lungs and about to break my eardrums. I leave the
engine running telling her to wait in the car while I go inside and
turn up the heat. But once I walk back out the front door to get
our things, I see she didn’t listen because I get nailed against
the side of my head with a snowball.

She starts
laughing then lets out a scream as she takes off running because I
jump off the porch chasing after her. She gets about ten feet
before I get to her, wrapping my arms around her and pulling her
down to land on top of me in the snow.

She’s giggling
as she looks down at me and says, “Gotcha!”

I grab her
face in my hands pulling her head down to give her a searing kiss,
turning us so she’s on her back and I’m to her side. We make out
for a few minutes before I move away.

“Who’s got who
now?” I ask smugly.

She suddenly
brings her hand up and smashes the other side of my head with snow
getting up and running away yelling, “Me! Gotcha!”

This goes on
for a bit, with me chasing and nailing her a few times in the back
with snowballs which only makes her giggle as she tries getting me
back, and she’s landed a couple, usually at my head.

We finally
call a truce and I take in our things while she goes inside to make
us hot chocolate. After getting situated, I build a fire in the
fireplace and we sit on the fake bearskin rug, holding our
stockinged feet to the fire, drinking from our mugs.

“I love this,
Heath.” She looks around the cabin. “It’s beautiful.”

It’s only one
bedroom, but all the rooms—the kitchen, living room and
bathroom—are spacy giving it the feel of being bigger. The previous
owners updated it and it’s pretty damned nice. There’s a rough-hewn
pine beam down the middle of the living room ceiling and a stone
fireplace with another beam as the mantel. The bathroom is awesome
with a clawfoot tub along with an all-glass shower that’s huge. And
the kitchen has all stainless steel appliances.

She sets her
mug on the coffee table and lies back putting her head on one of
the pillows I’ve thrown down from the couch. I do the same and we
stare at the ceiling.

“What’s your
super-sucky?” she asks contentedly.

I look over at
her. “Not sure what that means but it vaguely sounds like that
scene from
Full Metal Jacket
.”

She laughs,
turning on her side to face me and smacking me on the arm. “No.
It’s something I made up when I was eight or nine and I forced my
family do it each night at dinner.” I give her another look. “I had
a big imagination. I was practically an only child so I guess I got
bored.”

“Huh. So this
isn’t anything like your wanting to sucky sucky me then, right?”
She smacks me again. “Tell you what, I’ll give you ten bucks if
you’ll say, ‘Me so hawny. Me love you long time.’”

She bursts out
laughing saying, “You’re so rotten! No, a super-sucky is when you
tell what was good about your day, the super, and what was bad, the
sucky. So what’s yours?”

I turn to face
her, reaching a hand out and moving the hair off the side of her
face. “My super is being here with you.” She blushes prettily. “My
sucky?” I could tell her about my fight but decide against it.
“Probably not being with you earlier.” I lean over and kiss her
letting her know I mean it. “So what’s yours?” I ask laying my head
back on the pillow watching her.

“My super is
being here with you too.” She smiles, reaching over and lacing her
fingers through mine. “Oh! And the snow!” I chuckle. “My sucky is
probably… not being with you earlier too.”

I nod making
her laugh when I comment, “Very original.”

We make love
on the rug in front of the fireplace. Later, we shower together and
I make her come so hard she starts crying and I have to hold her
until she stops shaking. After drying off and brushing our teeth,
we get in bed and I hold her close as we lie facing each other.

“Baby, what
happened earlier?” I say quietly.

“It was just
so… intense… the emotions… I didn’t… expect it,” she whispers.

I nod because
I understand what she’s saying. The emotions are fucking with my
head too.

I kiss her
forehead and we drift off to the complete stillness of being away
from the city
.

Seventeen

I’m
terrified
.

I’m falling
hard for Heath and it scares the crap out of me because I really
don’t want to get hurt. Can he really be as good as he seems? God,
I hope so.

Sunday at Big
Bear is perfect. We sleep late then make love. Next we get up and
have brunch at a local dive in town before coming back to the cabin
where I talk him into building a snowman. It didn’t turn out quite
as cute as I wanted it to. It kind of leans to the side and the
pieces of gravel I used to make its face makes it look sort of
crazed. But it’s my first snowman, so I tell Heath to cut me some
slack. Back inside we’re both freezing, so we shower together
making sure to warm each other up, and afterward he broils steaks
while I prepare a salad and steam some veggies.

Now we’re in
front of the fireplace lying on the rug staring up at the ceiling
again.

“Super-sucky?”
I ask.

After a moment
he answers. “Super was sleeping late and waking up to you. Sucky
was you talking me into making that ugly-ass snowman.”

I laugh. “Poor
guy is kinda ugly, isn’t he?”

“Not gonna get
a denial outta me.” He snorts. “Yours?”

I think for a
second. “Super has been everything about being here with you.” He
moves his hand over entwining his fingers with mine. “Sucky has to
be when I slipped a little on that patch of ice at the restaurant
and you laughed at me.” I let his hand go coming up on my elbow
quickly and look down at him grinning smugly. “But then there was
another super when you slipped right after!”

“I did that to
make you feel better.” He grabs my hand pulling it and yanking my
elbow out from under me making me fall back on my pillow.

“Hey!” I cry,
pushing myself up and crawling on top of him, straddling him. I
take his wrists from my waist and pull his arms up to the sides of
his head and hold his hands to the floor. Then I lean down as if
I’m going to kiss him, laughing when he puckers his lips a little
bit, before I cheer, “Pinned! I win!” I sit up, clasping my hands
together and holding them over my head shaking them from side to
side and making a crowd noise with my mouth.

The next thing
I know I’m pinned underneath him so fast I’m shocked.

“Who’s the
winner now?” he asks cockily, holding my wrists above my head in
one hand while he pulls the t-shirt of his that I’m wearing up with
his other hand, bending down and sucking my nipple into his hot
mouth.

“Me,” I gasp.
“Me… I’m still winning.”

We get naked
and he pulls an afghan off the couch to cover us.

When he slides
smoothly inside me, his eyes staying on mine even as he starts
moving, I know I’m the winner for sure.