Page 11 of King

“About fifteen hundred.” My mouth dropped open, as though I was catching flies. “In two fights I’ve made over four grand.”

“Shit,” I was shocked. I couldn’t get over the amount of money he had on him right now, not that I thought it made it right, but I guess it helped to know this was the prize.

“At this rate, we’ll have enough money for a deposit on our own place. That’s all I want for us, and then maybe, I could open my own gym, go legit. I want this Nix. You know, teach kids that there is something out there for them, and they don’t have to survive on the street with hardly anything.”

When he put it like that it made it hard for me to be disappointed in the illegal fighting. “I wish there was another way, that’s all. I hate worrying that you might go to a fight and not come back. I’m not sure I could handle that.”

His wallet landed on the bed and he tugged on my hand. I threw my leg over his thighs and sat on his lap, guiding my arms around his neck. I held him tight and pressed my lips to his. I wanted to let him know that I supported him, I was just scared. I’m sure with the desperation in my kiss though, he totally got it. His tongue twisted with mine and he held me as tightly as he possibly could. I felt safe in his arms, that was something I could never deny. As the kiss came to an end, I licked my lips and stared into Jacobs dark eyes. He had a little bump in his nose where he’d been hit and his eye was dark, coloured with purple, obviously from the fight today. On his other eyebrow the cut he’d gained the other week was still healing and had a plaster over it. My hand moved to his hair, and I pushed my fingers through the short dark strands.

“What are you thinking?” he asked as I ran my fingertip softly over the healing cut on his kissable lips before tracing the edge of his pout.

“I love you,” I answered, totally unashamed. I didn’t care if that made me vulnerable, because the urge for him to hear the words meant more. “But I want you to promise me something.”

“More promises?” he rolled his eyes, I wondered if there was a meaning behind that statement, but I dismissed it and went on,

“Promise me that you’ll only do this until we have enough money to get by, and do what we need to. At least until I’ve finished Uni. Then, we’ll have a proper wage and you’ll be earning, too. Even if it’s not being a boxer.”

“A nurses wage? come on Nix, one nurses wage isn’t going to cover us forever,” he pulled my hands from his face and held them between us. “I need to provide for us, Nix. Just let me figure this out.”

I pushed back on his legs and huffed. “I didn’t realise we lived in the dark ages, Jacob.”

“Oh, come on, don’t get fucking arsey. I was just saying. I thought we were having an adult conversation,”

“We were,” I cut him off in his tracks, “but then you have to turn it into some male chauvinistic argument.”

Attempting to move from his lap, his hands anchored my legs and held me still before he turned my face back to his. “It’s not an argument, and I don’t mean to be that kind of prick. We’ve got another two years before you graduate from Uni. Even then, you’ll still be training. I’ve got this, baby,” his brows lifted as his head dipped and he looked me in the eye. “Are we okay?” With a slight shift of my head, I agreed. “Good, now kiss me.”

“I could say no.” I answered grumpily.

“But you won’t.” My brows pinched tightly at his cocky reply, and my head tilted with a cocked brow. He chuckled and brought his arms around me. I attempted to shrug out of his arms but his hold tightened on me. I knew I needed to give up at that point and let him win. Something he loved doing. My eyes rolled as his gorgeous smile took over his rugged features as he brought our entwined bodies to the mattress. His lips captured mine and he kissed me exactly the way I wanted him to. My resistance soon slipped away.

CHAPTER EIGHT

PHOENIX

Over the next few weeks, we fell into a regular routine. Jacob’s fights had conveniently dropped into place around us and while things had calmed down, I knew we couldn’t be too confident. Jacob had more than enough confidence in himself for the both of us.In fact, he was getting arrogant with it. The last couple of weeks though we hadn’t spent as much time together either and I was beginning to wonder why.

As I left the Uni grounds, an unfamiliar car slowly pulled up alongside me. I carried on walking regardless as I saw the window roll down beside me, and the driver leant across the passenger seat. “Hey gorgeous, fancy a ride in my car?”

My feet stopped when I heard Jacob’s voice, and I turned, looked over the shiny paintwork of the car that had been crawling alongside me, and bent over slightly to look inside. “I’m sorry, but my boyfriend wouldn’t be very happy if I did that.”

I stood upright and pulled my rucksack further onto my shoulder and started walking again.

The car began crawling along again as he replied. “Yeah well, I’ll kick his arse.” I stopped my journey and smirked as he smiled through the open window. “How about it?”

Moving towards the car, I smoothed my hand along the roof and learnt down again. “Who’s is this?”

“Get in,” Jacob said excitedly. My bag dropped from my shoulder as I opened the door of his new black Focus ST, and I slid into the leather seat before dropping my rucksack in the footwell.

“This is nice,” I pulled my seatbelt across my body. “It’s not yours though, is it?”

He leant over and cupped my chin, brought my lips to his and kissed me quickly. “Yeah, picked it up earlier.”

“You didn’t tell me you were buying a new car.” I looked around me. It was really nice; his old car obviously wasn’t good enough anymore. I mean, it might have been a banged-up, fifteen-year-old Astra, but it still got him around. Boys and their toys. I’d heard my dad say this and never thought anything of it, until now.

The dashboard gleamed like it had just been waxed and the interior smelled amazing, hints of woody, musky notes mixed with smoke and Jacob’s natural masculinity. I almost drooled. My eyes scanned his face as he pulled away and smiled, it was nice to see his face clear of any cuts and bruises. It was now a regular thing to see.

“No fight tonight?” I asked hesitantly. I just wanted to spend some time with him, and not have to worry about him.

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