One Night of Sin(14)

His concern absolutely touched her. Honestly, she had no idea why he thought he sucked at relationships. He had an intense side, sure, but he also went out of his way to make sure her needs were met. Hell, he’d even cooked her dinner the other night. And he liked to snuggle. That already put him way ahead of her previous boyfriends.

“No, I want to see you fight,” she told him. “I’ll just chug some coffee at the end of my shift and I’ll be wide-awake.”

“You sure?”

“Positive.”

“I’ll pick you up at nine thirty then.”

She was grinning like an idiot as she disconnected, same way she’d been grinning all week long. It was probably a good thing her roommates were always out, sparing her a ton of merciless teasing about how besotted she was.

She didn’t understand it herself. Gage was the furthest thing from her type. Big, burly, and tattooed. Strong and silent. Lots of baggage. He avoided talking about his background, but she knew it haunted him, whatever it was. Still, the fact that he kept so much of himself hidden only made her want to work harder to unlock him.

Skyler ducked out of the employee lounge and spent the next hour tending to her customers and trading wisecracks with the chefs over the pickup counter. Since they were closing early, there weren’t a lot of patrons left to serve—only two married couples, and a group of young men taking up residence in one of the rustic wooden booths against the back wall. The males flirted shamelessly with her as she dropped off their bill, but none of them sparked her interest. Nope, Gage was the only man capable of doing that.

She felt it the moment he walked into the steakhouse. Warmth flooded her body, the hairs on the back of her neck tingled, and sure enough, she turned to see him standing at the hostess stand, his hot gaze zeroing in on her like a missile. As her pulse sped up, Skyler smiled and gave a little wave, then gestured for him to wait at the bar.

He didn’t smile back, just swept those gray eyes over her body, a slow and deliberate up-and-down that heated her cheeks. Her uniform was by no means indecent—black pants and a fitted blue dress shirt—but the way he looked at her, she might as well have been naked with a big bow tied around her.

Skyler swallowed, scowling when she glimpsed the amused gleam in his eyes. He knew how easily he got to her. Knew what he did to her with one sultry look.

As he wandered over to the bar, her gaze stayed glued on him. He wore a long-sleeve black shirt and faded blue jeans that hugged his taut ass. God, that ass. She knew firsthand how firm it was, how amazing it felt to dig her fingers into it while he moved on top of her.

“Holy moly, who is that?” One of the other waitresses sidled up to Skyler at the drink station, pretending to fan herself.

She couldn’t wipe the enormous grin off her face. “My date.”

Megan almost dropped dead from visible envy. “Goddamn it, girl, you did good.”

“I know, right?”

It felt like forever before her shift ended. Once all the customers cleared out, the staff quickly began dragging tables to the center of the room to create one long eating area for the incoming party. As Skyler stacked chairs, she caught sight of her manager Naomi approaching Gage at the bar counter.

Naomi gestured to the door, clearly informing him he had to leave, which prompted Skyler to hurry over to the bar. “He’s my ride home,” she told her boss. “Is it cool if he hangs out here until I’m done?”

Naomi looked from Skyler to Gage, then back at Skyler, and gave an honest-to-God wink. “You know what, hon, why don’t you take off now? We can handle the setup without you.”

“Really?”

“Really. Go.” With a barely restrained smirk, Naomi sauntered off.

“Jeez, I need you to pick me up more often,” Skyler remarked. “Think of all the shifts I could have skipped out early on.”

Gage slid off his stool and brushed a kiss on her lips, soft and fleeting and yet it still succeeded in curling her toes.

She fought to stop the goofy grin from resurfacing. “Can I wear this to the fight or should I go home and change first?”

He leaned in, his fingers toying with the strip of lace peeking out from her shirt. “What’s this sexy lacy thing you’ve got on?”

God, his voice was like a drug. Deep and addictive.

“It’s a camisole. But it’s kind of skimpy—I usually wear something over it.”

“Skimpy is fine. Trust me, the chicks at the arena will be wearing less clothing than that.” He held out his hand, and she took it, shivering when their skin made contact.

Hand in hand, they left the restaurant and walked to the black Jeep Cherokee at the curb. Once she’d settled in the passenger seat, Skyler unbuttoned her shirt, noting with a grin that Gage’s gaze followed every minute motion of her fingers. When the shirt parted and she slid it off her shoulders, he released a growling sound that heated the car.

“Damn, that is skimpy. I love it.”

Pleasure danced inside her. His appreciative gaze did wonders for her ego. She was fully aware that she wasn’t supermodel-gorgeous, but gosh darn it, Gage made her feel like she was.

His hand rested on her thigh during the entire drive across town. What he’d referred to as the arena ended up being an enormous warehouse in the city’s west end. Gage pulled into the jam-packed parking lot in front of the sprawling gray building and drove up to a row of reserved spaces. After he’d killed the engine, he hopped out and rounded the vehicle to open Skyler’s door.

And her friends said chivalry was dead.

Two minutes later they strode into the building, and Skyler was astonished by the number of people crammed inside of it. Bleachers spanned three of the arena’s walls, while the fourth housed a bar area with a mile-long line.

The crowd was surprisingly eclectic. The Irish folks were easy to spot thanks to their thick brogues and the pints of Guinness in their hands. The hipsters looked bored by it all—they were probably there ironically, anyway—and Skyler also glimpsed several groups of businessmen in the bleachers. Some people were covered in tattoos, some weren’t. Some women wore sneakers, others wore heels. And almost everyone was screaming their lungs out, all eyes focused on the cage in the center of the room. It boasted ominous chain-link walls, and a large fighting surface covered with faint reddish stains. Blood, Skyler realized. Wiped away, but not entirely.

Two men were locked together in the corner of the cage, one curled over on the mat and locked into submission by the one above him. Even from where she stood, Skyler saw the veins bulging in the captive man’s forehead. He was red-faced and gasping, meaty fists pounding upward at the man trapping him in the hold. But to no avail. Several seconds passed before the man’s shoulders slumped and he slowly tapped the mat.

As the crowd roared, the winner hopped up and raised his arms in a victory pose.

“I asked for an early slot, so I should probably head over to the locker room now.” Gage led her to the bleachers and found an empty seat, then gestured for her to sit. “You’ll be okay here, but if anyone gives you trouble, tell them you’re with me.”

She nodded. “So what do I say to you? Break a leg? Kick his ass?”

“Good luck will do just fine.”

“Good luck then.” She stood on her tiptoes and smacked a kiss on his cheek.

He smiled, and a second later he was swallowed up by the crowd.

Skyler turned her attention to the cage, where the next fight was starting. This one featured an African-American man with full-sleeve tattoos and a beefy opponent with a shaved head that gleamed beneath the bright lights. While the previous match had resembled wrestling, this one looked more like boxing.

Skyler watched with wide eyes as the fists began to fly. She couldn’t hear anything but the roar of the fans, but she imagined the sounds of flesh slapping flesh, hard thumps and sickening crunches. Two women next to her screeched like banshees, cheering for the dark-skinned man, while a group of guys in the row behind her boomed out encouragements for the stocky fellow.

Lord. She was definitely leaving here tonight with a migraine.

By the time the buzzer sounded and the final round ended, Skyler was wondering what all the appeal was—and then she spotted Gage, and the answer became pretty darn clear.

He was barefoot and bare-chested, black shorts hanging off his trim hips and skin already glistening from the hot, stifling air. His sculpted muscles were sheer perfection, and his tattoos stood out against his tanned flesh. He looked like a warrior. A deadly, sexy warrior, and her body instantly reacted to the waves of raw masculinity rolling off him.

The announcer stepped up to introduce the two fighters, and a spark of displeasure ignited in Skyler’s belly when she registered the obscene amount of female screams triggered by Gage’s introduction. Clearly her man had a fan club.

Gage’s opponent was bulkier but several inches shorter, with a scary-looking skull tattoo that spanned his entire chest. Definitely someone she would run in the other direction from if she saw him on the street, and yet the second the thought struck, she scolded herself for being so judgmental. For all she knew, Skull Tattoo was a really sweet guy. A guy who liked to stay home and watch Everybody Loves Raymond reruns with his wife and only fought on the weekends to make money for their couples’ pottery classes.