of a fighter about to pounce on his opponent.
He held his hands out in front of him. “Calm down. It’s just me.”
“T-tony? W-what the hell are you doing?” She looked side to side as if trying to figure out what was happening.
“You were asleep.” Suddenly he felt ridiculous. “Outside.” He pointed his thumb toward the door. “You fell asleep outside. I couldn’t just leave you there.”
Still standing by the bed, she said, “What are you even doing here?”
What was he doing there? What the hell had been the point? Oh, yeah…he was going to give her a piece of his mind, but instead, “What’s up with your hair?” came out of his mouth.
She looked at him as if he’d grown a second head, then brought her hands to her hair and pulled out the rubber band holding it in place. “What the hell, Tony?” She ran to a mirror and began removing her makeup with some sort of wipe thing. “I wasn’t expecting company.”
She was in the middle of smoothing out her hair when he put his hand out to stop her. “I didn’t mean it in a bad way, cariño.” She looked up when he used the term of endearment. “I’ve just never seen you look…not perfect. Do you sleep in suits?” He reached forward and touched the lapel of her white oxford shirt.
“Oh, stop.” She shooed his hand away. “I fell asleep.” She was still fussing with her hair. “I didn’t know you’d be stopping by.” She pointed at him. “Speaking of clothes, I’ve never seen you dressed up.”
He looked down at his slacks. “I went out.”
“Figured you would,” she said, her hands on her hips.
He ran a finger down her arm—he couldn’t help it. He wanted to stop, but he needed to touch her. He’d wanted to touch her for months. “You look beautiful. You always look beautiful.”
She stepped back and crossed her arms. “You still haven’t told me why you’re here.”
“Honestly?” he asked sincerely. She nodded. “I don’t really know. But now that I am, I just want to kiss you. I’ve wanted to kiss you for months.”
“A few hours ago you told me to fuck off. You weren’t thinking about kissing me.”
He moved closer. “Trust me, I was,” he confessed, “and if my face didn’t hurt so fucking much I might even attempt it.”
Her steely demeanor softened and she smiled wryly. One moment he wanted to shake her into being nice, and the next he wanted to bend her over and have his way with her on the nearest flat surface.
“Come on.” She gestured for him to follow her to the bathroom and had him sit on the edge of the bathtub as she rummaged for supplies. Sitting there watching her move around relaxed him somewhat, and as the adrenaline subsided, the pain escalated. She stood in front of him and said, “Tilt your head back.” He did as she instructed, looking up at her hazel eyes and full lips.
Apprehensively, she touched his face, her warm breath and soft hands on his skin helping to melt away some of the anger. She cleaned his wounds with alcohol swabs, putting ointment and butterfly bandages on the bigger cuts. When she was finished, she sat down next to him. “I don’t think you’ll need stitches, but you should clean them out a few times tomorrow. Maybe put ice on your…well, everywhere, I suppose. I’m guessing your shoulder took the brunt of the beating.”
“Yeah.” He rubbed his shoulder. “Thanks for patching me up.”
“You’re welcome,” she said, seemingly uncomfortable with the man’s closeness.
She stood up, took a step back, and began cleaning up. “About earlier tonight—”
“You don’t need to apologize,” he said. “I know you were just trying to make a point.”
“Apologize?” she scoffed. “I wasn’t going to apologize. I was going to say that I really think you could be a great fighter again if you just trained a little harder, partied a little less.”
“What the hell? A great fighter again? I’m already a great fighter.”
“No, you used to be a great fighter, and we could get that back. Together, we can work on your techniques and make you great again. You lost tonight. You lost big and you need to accept that.”
“It was fucking rigged and you know that!” He had his hands on his waist and glared at her.
“Are you seriously still blaming everyone but yourself? You know what? I’m done arguing with you about this. I’m trying to help you, Tony!”
“How? By insulting me?”
“Because I’m not telling you the things you want to hear, I’m insulting you?”
“You know what? Forget it! Just…fuck you! I’m outta here!” He turned out of the bathroom and for the second time in one night told her to fuck off and walked out.