Knockout

  Alyson stared, open-mouthed, at Don’s unexpected and emotionally-driven rant. Where had all of that come from?

  “And you know what else—”

  “Enough.” Jami’s stern voice cut him off, commanding both of their attention. He pulled the ear buds out and unclipped the MP3 player from his waistband, and began winding the cords around it. “I don’t want you talking to her like that again,” he said firmly, then brought his hard gaze up to meet Don’s. “Ever. Understand?”

  “You heard all of that?” Don questioned. “How long have you been listening?”

  Jami smirked. “iPod died an hour ago.”

  “Have I told you you’re a dick?”

  “Only ten times so far today,” Jami responded.

  Shoving his phone in his back pocket, Don started heading toward the door. “Then how about eleven. You’re a dick.”

  With his eyes on Alyson, Jami called over his shoulder. “See you at home?”

  “Yeah, whatever.” He stopped halfway out the door and pointed at Alyson. “You be careful with that one.”

  Jami ignored him. As soon as Don was gone, Alyson breathed a sigh of relief. Honestly, she didn’t get that guy. She thought he was just a moody old man, but he was more than that. He was a jackass. His anger toward her was unwarranted.

  “Wow, that was intense,” Alyson joked, trying to lighten the mood. “I came to talk to you and ended up getting read the riot act instead.”

  “What do you want, Ally?”

  Alyson flinched at the cold, hard tone of Jami’s voice. Observing him, he didn’t seem angry or upset in any way. Just unnaturally calm. All of that aggression he displayed moments ago was gone now, and left in its place was complete indifference. To her, that was almost worse, because at least, when he was mad at her, she knew he felt something.

  Swallowing hard, she said, “I came to talk to you about what happened earlier.” He watched her until she shifted uncomfortably and looked away. “I know I shouldn’t have come here to fight with you while you are training. I’m sorry about that.”

  The corner of Jami’s mouth lifted. “We’re in a gym. Some would say this is the perfect place to bring a fight.”

  Tilting her head, Alyson saw the playful glimmer in his eye, and laughed. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

  “What else am I right about?” Jami asked, taking a step closer.

  Alyson dropped her eyes and twisted her fingers, then realized what a weakling she must have looked like. She forced herself to meet his unwavering gaze. “You were right that I might be making a mistake, but, Jami,” she pleaded, “…it’s my mistake to make. You can’t come barging into my life and start telling me how to live it.”

  Taking another step, Jami trained all of his intensity on her. “Am I allowed to suggest how to live your life?”

  Alyson opened her mouth to argue with him when she spotted the subtle gleam in his eyes and realized he was teasing her. “You can suggest anything you want, but I reserve the right to ignore them. Deal?”

  Closing the last few feet between them, Jami gathered her to him. Heat poured from his skin, and she soaked it up like a sponge. In desperate need of a shower or not, there was nowhere else she would rather be than in his arms staring at his handsome, smiling face.

  “Deal,” he grunted, and gave her a little squeeze.

  Wrapping her arms around his neck, Alyson hugged him to her. “So are we done fighting now?” she asked, tipping her head to the side as Jami bent to bury his nose against the side of her neck.

  “Yes,” he said gruffly as he inhaled her scent. “God, you smell so good. I’ve been thinking about you all day.”

  “Me, too,” Alyson said breathlessly.

  Jami’s lips dragged up the side of her neck and over the edge of her jaw. Alyson opened her eyes and looked straight into his. “Don was right. You are a distraction. You’ve been a distraction since the night you walked into my hotel room and climbed into my bed.”

  Frowning, Alyson felt her insides begin to wither. “I don’t mean to distract you, Jami. I didn’t know.” She started to pull away, but he held on tighter.

  “Don was wrong about one thing, though. You’re exactly the kind of distraction I need in my life right now. Someone I can talk to and have fun with at the end of the day. That’s what I need right now. That’s you, babe.”

  A pleased smile began to form, and Alyson bit her lip.

  “And every time you do that, you distract me more,” Jami complained, pulling her lip from her teeth with his thumb. “What’s your answer now?”

  Alyson thought about it. “Maybe,” she said, grinning widely when Jami dropped his head to her shoulder and groaned.

  “What am I going to do with you?”

  FIFTEEN

  Alyson had officially survived her first week with her new roommates. Since she and Jami were officially in a good place in their relationship, she was looking forward to spending more time with him, but as much as she would have liked to go out and do something fun for a change, she wasn’t willing to leave her guests alone in her home yet, beyond when she had to work.

  It wasn’t that she didn’t trust them to be alone in her apartment. She just didn’t feel right about abandoning them so soon after everything that had happened. She felt protective over them. Not to mention, she and Jami had settled into something of a routine over the last couple of weeks. Jami never wanted to leave the house, and while she could respect his desire to relax after spending an entire day in the gym working his body until he was dead on his feet, that didn’t mean that she wasn’t dying for a change of pace.

  Even so, Alyson decided that tonight was not the night to start upsetting the balance they had struck. More than anything, she just wanted to keep things between her and Jami moving along smoothly, because she had decided that she wanted him.

  More to the point, she intended to keep him.

  Earlier in the week, after they made up, Jami had informed her that he had successfully moved into the next weight class, and that he had a fight scheduled for the following weekend.

  While she was worried in general for his well-being, this guy they called the “‘Lion”’ didn’t sound so menacing to her. Jami said the “‘Lion”’ was slightly shorter and leaner than he was, and he didn’t seem worried about it at all. Maybe that’s why she wasn’t experiencing her usual pit of butterflies—his confidence had rubbed off on her. But this other guy, the one he would be opposite if he beat out “‘Lion”’ was a different story. His name alone sounded dangerous.

  The “‘Iron Fist”’ struck as more of a monster than a man to her, and although she would never say it out loud, she was more than a little scared for him. The last thing in the world she wanted to see was Jami get hurt, but just like a man, he had promised her he wouldn’t be the one getting hurt. He seemed to be under the impression that he was invincible, which she attributed to his clean record. But records were made to be broken.

  On the table, her phone buzzed. Glancing at the clock as she went to answer it, she knew it wouldn’t be Jami, because he was due any minute, and he was never late for anything. She frowned as she picked up the phone. The number wasn’t one that she recognized, and while it went against her better judgment to answer strange calls, she wasn’t entirely sure that it couldn’t be Jami.

  “Hello?” Alyson paused to listen, hearing no sound at all coming from the other end. “Is someone there?” she asked, aware that those were the classic last words of a soon-to-die heroine in every bad horror flick ever made. Unnerved, she hung up and sat the phone down, staring at it as though it might jump up and bite her.

  A sound knock at the door made her jump out of her skin. Laughing at herself, she took a deep, cleansing breath. The call forgotten, she crossed the room calling over her shoulder, “He’s here! Hey,” she said coyly when she opened the door to find Jami standing on the other side. The mere sight of him standing there, looking scrumptious in a pair of dark jeans and a green Henl
ey that perfectly complemented his tan skin, made her knees go weak.

  He gave her that sexy, crooked half-smile she adored, and Alyson almost melted into a puddle at his feet. “Hey,” his deep voice rumbled. He leaned in to kiss her. “Ready to party?”

  Alyson laughed as she grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him inside. “If you call renting movies and eating snacks a party, then let’s boogie.”

  She and Jami were laughing and trading jokes when Miles and Victoria entered the living room carrying trays piled with snacks and drinks for everyone. Their expressions were notably guarded, especially Victoria’s, as she laid the tray she was carrying on the coffee table and mustered a small smile.

  “Victoria, Miles, this is my friend, Jamison Weston,” Alyson hurried to introduce them in hopes of quelling their unease, but she understood their reluctance. Too much water had passed under their bridge to allow another man into their lives so easily, especially a man as big and intimidating as Jami was.

  Miles took Jami’s measure. To Alyson’s amusement and gratitude, Jami stood back, stuffing his hands in his pockets, and allowed the boy to assess him. Alyson knew better than anyone the type of picture he presented—tall, muscular, and fierce, he probably resembled the kind of man Miles’ dad was, yet despite his questionable history, he was the kindest, most caring man she had ever come across. They just had to get to know him.

  “You’re a fighter?” Miles asked skeptically.

  Standing tall, Jami smirked. “I am.”

  “My dad is bigger than you.”

  “Yeah? Who’s your dad?”

  “Tony Michaels,” Miles said with a sneer in his voice. “They call him “‘The Killer”.’

  Beside her, Jami tensed. Alyson frowned. “I’ve heard of him,” Jami said cautiously. “He’s good.”

  “The best,” Miles said shortly, and with unveiled hatred.

  “Tony is the undefeated champion in the heavyweights division,” Victoria added quietly, and everyone turned to look at her. Alyson caught Jami’s frown as he took in the light bruises still left on her face, but he hid it quickly. “He’s good with his fists.” Victoria’s eyes turned misty just before she turned and fled from the room. A moment later, they heard the bathroom door close and the faucet turn on.

  Alyson’s stomach twisted in sympathy. Of course, she knew the kind of man Victoria had married, but she hadn’t considered the repercussions of Jami being a part of the sport, until now. How hard it must be for this woman and this boy to share space with Jami, who was not only judged by his gender, but his choice of profession. They called him The Judge, but here, in her living room, he was the one on trial.

  “Are you going to fight him?” Miles asked. As Alyson watched the exchange, she could see the man lurking just beneath the surface, as Miles stood tall in front of Jami, challenging him to answer his questions without so much as a hint of what the right answer might be. He would be leaving tonight with either a new friend or a new enemy.

  Jami weighed his words before he answered, and Alyson held her breath as she waited to hear what he was going to say. “After I kick some other guys’ asses first, yeah, maybe.”

  Miles stared Jami down for one insanely intense second. His eyes narrowed briefly, and then he said, “I’d pay to see that fight. I bet you could kick his ass.”

  Alyson breathed a sigh of relief, and a smile exploded across Jami’s face.

  “Miles Anthony Michaels, what have I told you about language?” Alyson turned to see Victoria entering the room with a stern motherly look trained on her son. Her eyes were tinged red and a little puffy, but Alyson could see the hard outer shell was back in place. “What do you have to say for yourself?”

  Miles looked down in consternation. “Sorry, Ms. Blake, for cussing in your house.”

  “It’s okay,” Alyson said, winking at him to let him know she wasn’t offended in the least.

  “I’m afraid that was my fault,” Jami spoke up. “I cussed first. Bad habit.”

  Tension was still evident in the lines around her eyes, but Alyson was happy to see that Victoria was trying to be accepting of him. She gave him a friendly smile. “I guess I’ll have to keep my eye on you then.”

  They stood in a circle facing one another, wondering what to say next, when Jami tilted his head back and sniffed the air. “Something smells good.”

  “Oh, that would be the Chinese,” Victoria said, perking up.

  “You ordered in?” Jami asked, and Alyson could see him shutting down. He had told her that he needed to eat cleaner, and that meant no take-out of any kind until his season was over.

  Victoria stopped halfway into the kitchen and spun around. “Nope, I’m making it from scratch.” She grinned, obviously very pleased with her culinary abilities.

  “You can do that?” Jami passed a quizzical look to Alyson, who shrugged. When Victoria had first announced her plans for dinner, she had been just as baffled as he was.

  “My mom makes the best sweet and sour chicken on the planet,” Miles said proudly as he wandered over to the couch and seated himself in front of the television. He picked up a gaming controller belonging to the system she’d purchased for him so he wouldn’t mope around looking so bored all the time, and held it up to Jami. “Do you play?”

  Jami lifted his eyebrows and darted a hopeful look at Alyson. Before he answered, he hooked her around the waist, tugged her against him, and kissed her quick on the lips, and then walked over to sit with Miles.

  Miles gave her a fleeting smile that made her blush, and then he started explaining the game and its controls to Jami. “The goal is to capture the other team’s flag. You cover my ass and I cover yours,” she heard him saying as she walked into the kitchen.

  “I’m sorry about earlier,” Victoria said. She stood at the stove, tossing cut vegetables and breaded chicken around in the Wok that usually hung on Alyson’s wall as decoration. “It’s hard talking about Tony sometimes.”

  “That’s fine,” Alyson said as she came to stand beside her. She picked up a wooden spoon and stirred a pan filled with a dark pink sauce that smelled slightly of vinegar.

  “For what it’s worth, your friend seems like a good guy.”

  Alyson smiled fondly. “He is.”

  A few hours later, after eating the best dinner Alyson had ever eaten, even compared to Jami’s expert cooking, and the movie was over, Victoria and Miles stood and told Jami goodnight.

  “You should all come visit me at the gym sometime,” Jami offered.

  Miles’ face lit with excitement. “Can you teach me how to pin someone?”

  “Absolutely. I can even teach you how to make them submit.”

  “I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” Victoria hedged as fear bubbled to the surface.

  Jami’s smiled faltered and he gave her a look of understanding. “I know you must be leery of men like me. I get that, I really do,” he said, giving Alyson a knowing look, “but I can assure you that not all of us are what we do. Give me a chance to show you the good guys.”

  “Can’t we go, Mom?” Miles pleaded with her. “Please?”

  Alyson could see Victoria teetering on the edge of indecision, and she could understand her hesitation. She still had trouble being in certain situations, like when she had attended the fight, because it dredged up memories she’d rather forget. But Miles looked so hopeful…

  “Okay, but just once,” Victoria finally agreed.

  “Awesome!”

  “Good.” Jami smiled. “And to sweeten the pot, I’ll even promise to teach you two some basic self-defense,” he said to Victoria and Alyson.

  Alyson nodded. “Sounds good to me.”

  “We should head to bed,” Victoria announced. “It was nice meeting you, Jami.”

  He tipped his head as she turned to walk toward the bedroom with Miles following close behind.

  “Are you coming over again to play soon?” Miles asked hopefully.

  “You bet. Next time I get to
pick the maps, though.”

  Grinning Miles said, “It’s wasn’t the maps, man. You just don’t know how to shoot a gun.”

  “What can I say? I’m better with my fists.” Jami was still smiling after Miles shut the door. “He’s a cool kid,” he told her, reaching out to wrap her in his arms.

  “Yes, he is.” Tying her arms around his waist, she looked up at him. “Tonight was nice. I think you made a new friend.”

  “I did, didn’t I?” Jami lifted his chin proudly.

  “Yeah, you did.” Hugging him, Alyson felt a sense of rightness overwhelm her. She couldn’t put her finger on it, but it felt like something good was happening here.

  “I’m sorry I was such a dick before,” Jami said as he swayed gently from side to side. “I see why you did what you did now. They’re pretty remarkable, especially the kid. I’m proud of you.”

  Alyson’s cheeks heated at the compliment. “It’s nothing,” she said modestly. “If it wasn’t me, it would be someone else.”

  “No,” he said firmly. “You put everything on the line for someone else. I don’t know anyone else who would do that.”

  Alyson didn’t argue. She knew he was right. There were a lot of people that helped others every day, but not a lot of people would take a risk like the one she did.

  “You’re a good person, Ally. The best.”

  Tipping her head back so she could see him, Alyson looked into Jami’s warm eyes. “You’re a good person, too.”

  He started to shake his head. Popping up on her toes, Alyson stopped his protest with a kiss. “The best,” she said fiercely when she broke away, then opened the door and pushed him out, laughing at his bewildered expression as she shut the door in his face.