Total pages in book: 31
Estimated words: 29494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 29494 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 147(@200wpm)___ 118(@250wpm)___ 98(@300wpm)
Warm breath tickles my lips before a loud bang has me jumping back. Mick’s hands fall away. It’s followed by another.
“Probably the food.”
“Right.” I step back. “I’ll get it.” I turn and rush out of the bedroom.
“Don’t answer the door!” he calls after me. I stop right before I’m about to flip the lock. “Did you even look through the peephole?” Mick scolds, coming out of the bedroom with only a pair of gym shorts on.
"I, ah—" I'm too flustered to get a full response out. Instead, I move away from the door and back to the computer. Mick answers the door himself. It is in fact our food.
“I hope you're hungry.” He sets the bags down and pulls out some plates.
“Starving,” I respond. If I thought things were awkward before, they are even more awkward now.
Was he thinking about kissing me, or did he feel bad that I closed my eyes and he believed he had to so I didn’t make a fool of myself? I can’t find the will to ask. Instead, I shove my mouth full of food, eating more than I have in weeks.
Exhaustion starts to take over. With the travel, my emotions all over the place, a full stomach, and my lack of sleep, it all catches up to me at once.
“Hey,” I mutter when Mick lifts me into his arms, carrying me to bed. I’m barely awake. Hell, I might be dreaming.
“Sleep.” He lays me down and then pulls the blanket over me. When he turns to leave, I snag his hand.
“Lie down with me.”
“Jojo, I’m not sure–”
“Please,” I whisper. “I feel safe when you’re with me.”
With that, he slips into the bed next to me. In my sleepy daze, I let my body do what it wants, turning so I’m closer to him. I lay my head on his bare chest, my arm falling across his stomach. Sleep quickly pulls me fully under.
Chapter Nine
MICK
If championship belts were given for self-control, I would deserve the world title. While Josie is asleep, my erection is raging, but I’m keeping my hands locked behind my head. Despite the discomfort, I wouldn’t move if Pedro was at the bottom of my bed telling me that I’d never step inside a gym again.
Josie is not the vulnerable type. She wears a pretty hard armor and pretends like nothing can hurt her. I guess it’s because she’s been left to take care of herself and her dad for years with little money and no other support. She’s had to be tough or she would have been eaten up. Plus, there were the years she spent online battling other people—mostly guys who never had anything good to say about female gamers. You couldn’t be sensitive and survive in that environment.
Seeing her soft like this is a privilege very few ever get. I’ve gotten glimpses in the past, like at the end of a long night of gaming when she was tired, both physically and mentally. Sometimes we would crash in her living room and talk about escaping. We’d make a lot of money—me in business and her in gaming. After we earned some cash, we’d move out with our loved ones. I’d buy my sister her own salon. She’d buy a place on the shore where her dad could sit on a porch and listen to the waves.
My big finance plans never went anywhere because I didn’t have the money for college, and my job prospects were bleak after getting caught stealing shit with a bunch of guys in my neighborhood. It was a boneheaded move when I was sixteen, and I’ve regretted it ever since. Then I got caught on a bogus charge after I found some designer handbag lying on the sidewalk. Like of course I picked that thing up. One of the guys I was hanging out with took it to the pawn shop because like me, he was desperate. Unlike me, he had a longer rap sheet so I took the fall for him. If my sister hadn’t hooked up with Griff, I might be growing mold in a prison cell, but he pulled some strings and got me out. Then he told me if I didn’t straighten up, I’d end up dead or at least making my sister miserable.
He was right, so I got a job at his gym, started boxing, and now I’m here in Las Vegas because they think I could be the next boxing champ.
I close my eyes and force myself to get some rest. It’s important that I have a good training day tomorrow so that if Pedro finds out I’ve got a girl at my place, I can point to my stellar performance as proof she’s not a distraction.
When I wake up, the moon is still hanging in the sky. It’s time for a run. I slide out from underneath Josie’s body. She murmurs something and tries to keep me next to her. I want to stay, dammit, but I can’t. I pluck her fingers off and press a kiss against the fingertips. “Got to go make a living for us, Josie babe. Stay here. Wait for me.”