Knockout: A Bad Boy Billionaire MMA Romance (Athletic Affairs) Page 2

  “Maybe you can show me,” He cocked an eyebrow and stepped towards me, closing the distance between us. I held my ground. I knew this was a test of some kind, some way to assert his dominance over me, and I held his gaze as steadily as I could.

  But having him so close, smelling the scent of his aftershave mixed with the hot sweat of the fight he’d just been in…I found myself leaning towards him, my body longing to press up against his, my fingers reaching out to pull away that towel so I could see him once more…The door opened and shut behind me, and I jumped away from Jacob at once. He grinned at me, and I could tell that he knew damn well what had been going through my mind in that instant. Fuck. I needed to get myself together. We’d be working together for the foreseeable future and here I was falling for his charms on the first meeting. I needed to sort myself out.

  “Angelo, hey,” Jacob greeted his agent, and I turned around to find myself face-to-face with a forty-something guy in a neat blazer and baggy t-shirt, as though he didn’t want to admit to himself that he had long-since left his twenties.

  “Jacob,” Angelo nodded, eyeing me briefly. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to disturb you-”

  “No, this is Natalie,” he placed a hand on my back, and I felt a sharp jolt of electricity as his fingers grazed the bare skin of my neck just above the line of my shirt. “She’s a reporter.”

  “We spoke on the phone?” I extended my hand to Angelo, stepping away from Jacob’s distracting touch.

  “I remember,” he took my hand and shook it briefly, a shadow flickering across his face. “Can I help you?”

  “She’s going to be coming with us on the tour,” Jacob explained, a buzz of excitement to his voice. I eyed Angelo, who looked pissed but resigned to the fact that Jacob was always going to get what he wanted in these situations.

  “Sure, she is,” he nodded, and eyed me with a little more warmth. “I’ll drop you a message and we can get the details sorted.”

  “Sounds good,” I beamed at him, a little part of me wanting to gloat it over him but most of me knowing better. I nodded to both of them and made for

  the door, glancing over my shoulder before I left.

  “Thanks. And I’ll be seeing you both soon.”

  The door fell shut behind me, and I allowed myself a small fist-pump as soon as I was alone in the corridor. I got the interview! And way more than I expected. As I started to make my way down the corridors and out into the emptying stadium outside, I wondered what the next few weeks were going to bring, and my brain flicked back to the feeling of his fingers against my bare skin. Yeah, I had a feeling that things were going to be pretty damn interesting around here.

  Chapter Two

  Jacob

  I paced up and down in the hangar, oblivious to the blaring sounds of engines and take-offs around me. I was lost in my own head, and nothing was going to get me out of there.

  It was always like this before I did something big. And this tour was the biggest thing that I’d done in my career to date. I was traveling across the country, taking on the biggest MMA stars in every state, and I was already both terrified and excited at the prospect. My stomach was churning with nervousness, and I was already craving the booze that I knew was waiting for me on the jet.“Are you read to get on yet?” Angelo yelled impatiently over the noise. I shook my head.

  “Not until she gets here,” I reminded him. He rolled his eyes, and turned towards his car.

  “I’m heading out,” he shook his head. “I’ll see you out there.”

  “See you,” I mouthed at him, glad that I was finally getting a bit of time to myself. I needed the space to think, and that was impossible to do with Angelo hanging on my every word.

  He was still pissed at me. We’d worked together long enough for me to know when he was mad, and he wasn’t even trying to hide it now. It wasn’t that he didn’t have a right to be, but the last thing I needed right now was him pulling faces over what he perceived to be my assholeness.

  What was I supposed to do? When she turned up in my dressing room, there was never a chance that I was turning her away. Offering her a spot on the tour might have been a little impulsive, but as soon as I laid eyes on her in that tight shirt and fitted jeans, I knew I had to have her. She was a stone-cold, drop-dead fox and I was not passing up the chance to see her again.

  And again, and again. I thought initially that she was a groupie and would have been glad to reward her persistence, but as soon as she revealed that she was a reporter who wanted to tell my story, I swear that my attraction increased by about ten points. Knowing that she shouldn’t have me but that she clearly wanted me was an intoxicating mix, and I had a whole month and a half of this tour to get her into my bed.

  I had insisted on giving her a spot on the jet. Because if I knew one thing from years of seducing pretty much every woman I wanted, the jet was a major asset in getting them naked. She had tried to defer, insisting that she would be happy to take a car or a train or whatever, but I had been pretty forceful about the fact and she had finally agreed.Angelo had grudgingly told me that she had sounded pretty excited. Why shouldn’t she? I hadn’t given a meaningful interview in my whole career and she seemed confident that she would find an amazing story somewhere in here.

  I had read some of her stuff, and she was good – damn good, actually. I was glad she’d been the one assigned to chase me down. She was obviously dedicated to her craft to turn up in my locker room the way she had, and I respected that. She gave a shit, and I intended to reward her for her passion. Hopefully with my passion in return. Fuck, I would have to come up with a better line than that if I wanted to get her in my bed.

  Focusing my attentions on her really helped dull the nerves that were pulsing through my system about this tour. I knew that Dad had seen it as a bad idea, but my brother, David, had insisted that the company sponsor me – I thought he was just supporting me but it turned out that he had run some analytics on their audience and found that they could do with attracting the attention of sports fans like the ones who followed everything I did. I hated the fact that I had to rely on them still, but I was confident that if this tour went well I would have enough leverage to push through something that was entirely my own. I just wanted to exist outside of my family for once, and this seemed like the best way to do it.

  It had crossed my mind that it was my family connections that had gotten Natalie interested in me in the first place. I usually did my best to keep it under wraps, as so many people still saw me as nothing more than a spoiled little boy who was pandered to by the entire sports world because people didn’t want to piss off my family.

  But I knew I was good, and it felt as though I had to prove myself with every single fight. But even if I had to keep proving myself until the last time I ever stepped into the ring, I would do it. I just had to ignore the whispers and comments and double-looks I got when I was forced to turn up at events for the family business.

  Most people were dumb enough to assume that I did MMA on the side, without my family knowing. But they had no clue what kind of people my family were; my father and brother would take the chance to monetize anything, including my passion for kicking the crap out of people. Even if it still bothered my mother.

  “Sir?” My assistant approached me, a nervous smile on her face. We’d been working together for three years, but Yasmin always seemed as though she was on the brink of bowing awkwardly at my feet so as not to offend me.

  “You know you can just call me Jacob,” I reminded her for the dozenth time.

  “Your guest has arrived,” she nodded in the direction of the entrance to the hangar, where Natalie was climbing out of a cab with a large back pack slung over her shoulder. She looked ever better than before; she was wearing a skirt-suit that hugged her figure in the most tantalizing i way. I wanted to stride over there and slip my hand straight under her skirt, but I fought the urge. I had to make her want me first. She waved excitedly and fumbled with her bag; I approached her quick
ly and helped her, picking it up with ease. She glanced up at me with a smile, and her eyes slid over to where the jet was sitting.

  “I can’t believe you have a jet!” She commented, her voice high and full of enthusiasm. I shrugged.

  “Only the best for my journalists,” I shot back, and the two of us carried her bag up on to the plane. I nodded at Yasmin, and she backed off, leaving the two of us alone in there as I had requested.

  “Is it just the two of us in here?” She asked once we were out of earshot of the blasting engines. I nodded.

  “I thought it would be good for us to get to know each other,” I shrugged casually, taking my seat next to one of the enormous windows. “You want a drink?”

  “Kind of early, isn’t it?” She pointed out, slowly lowering herself into a seat opposite mine.

  “Not where we’re flying to,” I pointed out, and her eyes flashed with amusement.

  “Good point,” she conceded, and I reached across to the small bar I had set up in the cabin and poured us both a scotch. I handed her a glass and she took a grateful sip, closing her eyes as the liquid slipped down her throat.

  “Mm, that’s good,” she sighed, finally opening her eyes again and looking at me. I realized I was pretty much just openly staring at her like a total creep. Well, she looked good when she was relaxed; the tension in her brow dissipated and her lips curved up into a gorgeous half-smile.

  “So,” she began, pulling a recorder out of her pocket and placing it on the table next to her.

  “Nervous?”

  “A little,” I admitted. I had half-forgotten about the article. I was so focused on getting her to bed, but it felt good to have someone to tell the truth to. Most of the people I surrounded myself with were more focused on making sure that I never let anyone know how unsettled I could get before a big fight, but she wanted the truth, so she would get it.

  I didn’t give much of a damn how I came across to the readers of her magazine; either I seemed awesome and they loved me, or I seemed like a jackass and they forgot who I was. I had spent most of my life under scrutiny for one thing or another, and she was mistaken if she thought her magazine was going to intimidate me.

  “You’ve never done a tour like this before,” She pointed out, and it was clear that she had spent a lot of time on her research. I wondered how many notes she had on me tucked into that bag of hers. “Why now?”

  “I wanted to get out of the state for a while and this way I could get it paid for?” I offered up with a playful grin. She laughed.

  “Smart,” she cocked her head to the side, and took another sip of her drink. The liquor was already loosening her up. She glanced around the plane and shook her head.

  “Sorry, it’s hard to concentrate with…all of this,” she waved her hand around. “I’ve never been in a private jet before.”

  “You’ll get used to it,” I assured her.

  “I kind of hope I never do,” she admitted, leaning back in the thickly-padded leather chair. I grinned. I liked her. She spoke her mind. She stretched her arms out on the couch and sighed heavily, clutching her glass in one hand.

  “Maybe we can just…get to know each other on the way out,” I suggested casually. “Leave the interviewing for later.”

  “I still might use some of the stuff you say,” she warned me. “But I’ll put the recorder off for now if it’ll make you more at home.”

  “Sure,” I nodded. I just didn’t want recorded evidence of my seduction of her, that was all. Although, it would be an interesting form of sex tape to leak…

  She leaned across the seat and flicked off her recorder, taking another long sip of her drink. The plane rumbled into life below us, and she turned to look out the window as we took off and left the city far behind. A huge smile broke over her face, as if she couldn’t contain it a moment longer.

  “What is it?” I asked, mirroring her joyous reaction.

  “I just…” She shook her head. “I haven’t been on a plane since I was a kid. It reminds me of taking holidays when I was in grade school, you know?”

  “Me too.” I bowed my head. My trips had been to Europe and Asia as my father tried to hand over the reins of the company to me, but there was no need to mention that. Stay focused on the task at hand.

  “You must be used to this life,” she waved her hand out the window, at the rapidly-vanishing city below us. “You must do this all the time.”

  “This is the first trip I’ve taken in a while, actually,” I shrugged, eyeing her. She held herself with such poise, her back straight and her legs crossed elegantly at the knee. She looked so different from the woman who had burst into my dressing room and not let my nakedness throw her off. Instead of the ragtag journalist chasing a story, she looked every bit the old-school professional. Especially with the glass of scotch in her hand. It suited her.

  “Yeah?” She prompted, leaning forward.

  “Yeah, it’s not like I have any girlfriends to sweep off across the country,” I replied. “And the fighting keeps me in one place most of the time. This is the first time I’ve gotten out of the state in --, I don’t know, a year?”

  “No girlfriends?” She reeled back my statement a little bit. “You’ve never had a girlfriend?”

  “No girlfriends, no,” I shook my head, slyly looking up at her as I spoke to get a read on her reaction. “Plenty of hook-ups, but no girlfriends.”

  “No one you like enough?”

  “Not until now,” I replied brazenly, and watched as she shifted in her seat. It was clear that she was trying to figure out whether or not I was talking about her. I was. Come on, let her put the pieces together. I had never treated anyone the way I was treating her right now, surely that had to count for something. Surely that had to let her know how much I wanted her.

  “Oh yeah?” She cocked an eyebrow, trying to act cool, but I could see a flush working its way up her neck. It was clear that I’d thrown her, but she was quick to regain her footing.

  “Yeah,” I shot back, shifting in my seat so that our knees were bumping together. “I’ve never let anyone on this jet except my staff before now.”

  “Why did you invite me on this thing, then?” She asked, her voice dropping a little, a breathlessness sweeping over her body.

  “I figured you deserved to travel in style,” I replied, a small smile playing at the corner of my lips. “And I want to make sure you have the best possible impression of me.”

  “You hoping to bribe me into writing a decent story?” She ran her hand across the leather of the arm of the chair. “You’ll have to do better than that.”

  “Oh yeah?” I felt a jolt of excitement in my stomach as I realized that she was flirting back.

  “Like what?”

  “Use your imagination,” she suggested. The rumble of the engine below us seemed to whip our words away before they could sink in, but I didn’t need telling twice. She downed the last of her drink, and crossed and re-crossed her legs like something out of that movie, Basic Instinct. My cock twitched with interest as she flicked her tongue across her bottom lip, and that was all the invitation I needed.

  I moved towards her, climbing off the seat and standing over her for a moment; she looked up at me, lips tight and cheeks flushed, as I reached down to tilt her chin towards me. I ran my thumb lightly over her mouth, and she parted her lips as if on instinct. And then I dropped to my knees in front of her, taking her by surprise.

  “What are you-” she asked, but I had pushed her skirt up over her hips before she could complete her question. I took a second to admire her – her panties were an off-white, and I could see the outline of her lips through them – before hooking my fingers around her underwear and yanking them down her legs.

  “Fuck,” she murmured, running her fingers through my hair as I ran my lips up the inside of her thigh and towards her pussy. I hovered my mouth over her for a second, reaching around to sink my fingers into her ass, and pulled her towards me.

  I thin
k my favorite thing about eating Natalie out for the first time was the way she reacted. There was no embarrassment, no coyness, no holding back – as soon as my lips found her clit, she had handed herself over to me, her body squirming beneath my mouth and her skin pulsing under my caress.

  She interlocked one set of fingers with mine and clasped them tight to her chest, slipping them beneath her top and her bra so I could find her nipple. She seemed determined to take as much pleasure out of this as she could, indulging herself in every way conceivable. I sealed my lips around her clit and sucked lightly, flicking my tongue out against her sensitive nub and using my other hand to nudge up against her slit before slipping two fingers easily inside of her.

  God, she was already wet; my cock hardened beneath my pants as I imagined her sitting on the ride over to see me, thinking about doing something like this and getting soaked just at the thought. I moved my tongue in long, lazy circles across her entire pussy, slowing down just enough to guide a series of moans and mewls from between her lips as she seemed to beg for mercy above me.