Hard Bastard(152)

She shook her head, stepping away. “Whatever. The reason I’m here is to tell you not to tell anyone about what happened between us.”

“Why? Embarrassed?”

“Our parents don’t need another scandal. It could ruin them.”

“Can’t say I care all that much, honestly. No offense. Your dad seems like a nice enough guy, but my mom has never given me a reason to give a shit.”

“Do it for me, then,” she said, exasperated.

“What’s in it for me?” I asked, smirking at her.

“I won’t tell anyone what a big fucking asshole you are,” she snapped.

“That’s no secret, sis.”

“Just don’t talk about it, okay?”

I shrugged, turning away from her. “Sure. Whatever you say.” It didn’t matter to me one way or the other; I just loved giving her a hard time.

“Okay. Thank you.”

I stripped off my shirt and began to towel off. I caught her staring at me out of the corner of my eye but didn’t say anything. I wanted her to enjoy the show. It was obvious how much she wanted me, too, by the way she reacted every time I so much as came near her.

She may have acted like I was the biggest dick in the world, but she wanted my big dick, and I knew it.

“Still on for tomorrow night?” I asked her.

She nodded, biting her lip. “Yeah.”

“See you then.” I gathered up my stuff.

“Where are you going?”

“Taking a shower. Care to join me?”

She blushed, looking away. “No, thanks.”

“You sure? I’d love to tongue your lovely little pussy while the warm water runs down your body.”

She bit her lip again and then turned and left the basement without another word.

I watched her go, grinning hugely.



The next day, I was too busy calling up my contacts in the fighting world to bother with Alexa. I found a nice spot up on the roof deck in the sun, set up my laptop and phone, and began to make my calls.

Back before I left for Thailand, I had a pretty decent career. Promoters were calling me up all the time, begging me to fight random guys all the time. I was lucky enough to get to be a little selective with who I fought and when. Now, though, I needed to take whatever fights I could get, prove that I was still worth watching.

That was something I liked about fighting. Nobody gave a shit who you were or what you looked like. If you could fuck some guy up with your bare hands, then you were good to go. Skill was the only thing that people looked for, and I had plenty of it.

Unfortunately, I had to prove that still. Even though I had just gotten back from training with Skad, which was a huge boost to my profile, I couldn’t just jump into the ring with some big-name fighter.

After maybe an hour or two, I finally had a match set up for the next week. Normally fighters wanted more time to study tape and shit like that, but I wanted to get into the ring as soon as possible. My manager wasn’t too happy about that decision, but he could go fuck himself. The fight was with some young guy who probably considered himself lucky to get into the ring with someone a little more established, like me.

But that made it a dangerous match. I didn’t know the kid and he didn’t know me, so we were going into this blind.

As I sat there Googling his name, Frank slowly came up the steps.

“There you are,” he said. I looked up from my laptop.

“Frank.” I nodded to him.

He stood near the railing, looking out over the city. “Nice view, isn’t it?”

“It is,” I said.

“I wanted to talk to you about something,” Frank said, sitting down at the table with me.

“Go for it.” I leaned back in my chair, crossing my arms.

“Cole, I’m glad you’re staying here with us. The house is usually very empty for Alex since I work so much.”

“I’m happy to help.”

“It’s just, I want to make this work, with your mother. But things are difficult. We have a lot of outside stress.”

I nodded, frowning. “Alex mentioned some of that.”

“Yes. Well. Your mother wanted me to say . . .” He looked away, clearly uncomfortable. “She wanted me to say that we hope you’ll try and help out, while you’re around.”

“Frank, did Cindy send you up here to try and tell me to behave?”

He sighed, shaking his head. “It’s not like that.”

I held up a hand. “Yes, it is. And it’s fine. I don’t blame you one bit.”

“I do mean it when I say I’m glad you’re staying. I hope you’ll at least try and be friends with Alex.”

“I’m sure me and your daughter will be very close.”