Page 47 of Tandem

I nodded, his words sinking in as we entered the dimly lit venue. The place buzzed with energy on the inside, the air heavy with anticipation and adrenaline. As we navigated the crowd, atall man with a microphone approached us, his grin bordering on intrusive.

“Yo, AJ! Whoa, whoa, whoa… Who’s this lovely lady you've brought with ya tonight?” he asked, his eyes traveling down and back up my body slowly as he tipped his shades down slightly, revealing his brown eyes. AJ’s grip on my shoulder slid down to my waist, his lower fingers slipping into the back pocket of my jean shorts.

“T, this is Rosalie. She’s here to watch, not to socialize with the likes of you. Keep it professional, or am I gonna have to match up with you for hitting on my girl?” T chuckled, seemingly undeterred by AJ's warning.

“Sure thing, AJ. But it’s hard not to be charmed by such beauty. I’ll catch up with you before you enter the ring.” With T moving away, I couldn’t help but feel the weight of AJ’s possessiveness. I twisted to him, smiling and blushing a bit.

“Ring?” I asked. AJ nodded and walked me toward the center of the crowd. In the middle of the storage house was a makeshift ring made out of cars parked bumper to bumper in the shape of an octagon. My mouth dropped a bit, taking in how nice some of these cars were.

AJ reached under my chin and tilted my head toward him. “Rosalie, this is where I spend a lot of my time. This is how I make most of my living. It’s not legal, and if I get caught doing it, it’s a lot of jail time. But this is the underground fight club scene of LA.”

I looked around the room and saw the different fighters watching our every move. I held on tighter to AJ, his presence beside me offered a sense of security, and he began explaining the basics of the underground fight club. He twisted back to me, putting his other hand around my waist and pulling me into his body, his lips under his mask next to my ear. He spoke low andsmoothly in my ear. “You’re the first person, let alone woman, I’ve ever brought here.”

I blinked back slowly at him, the meaning of his words slowly sinking in. This was a big deal to him—bigger than car boosting.

“I am?” I whispered back, shivering as his chuckle entered my ear, and my knees became weak.

“You are. Want to see more? Or ready to run away?” Okay, my body was tense, but I couldn’t tell if that was because a lot of the people here looked shady as heck or if it was because my pussy kept throbbing every time he spoke or barely moved his hands on me.

He moved back, and his eyes bore into mine with an intensity that sent a new wave of shivers down my spine, my breathing going faster. Before I could answer him, he shifted his hands and grabbed my wrist, pulling me out of the crowd to a row of office rooms nearby. We walked into room 2, his grip firm but not ungentle. He slammed the door behind us, and I jumped a bit. There was a mirror, water, towels, wraps for fighters’ hands, a couch, a table, and chairs in the dimly lit room. My heart raced from the sudden change of scenery as I turned to face him.

“Rosalie,” he said, his voice low and husky in my ear as he stopped me from turning, and I felt his body behind me. “I needed a moment alone with you.” I tensed as his warm breath hit the back of my neck and I felt his hand glide over my hip.

Then I spun around, and his lips crashed into mine, igniting all of my feelings of desire for him that had been building all evening. His kiss was hard and passionate. As he wrapped his hands in my hair and around my waist, he walked me backward into the wall by the couch, our desire building for each other as our kisses became more wilder, deeper, raw. As his hands trailed all over my body, my mind became so focused on each place he grazed, and my body started to move with every touch.

He tugged me closer and moved us from the wall to the couch edge. His lips trailed from my lips to my neck, my sensitive skin coming alive with the feel of his lips and the heat of his breath. I moaned, my hands clutching his shoulders as his lips kept teasing my sensitive areas.

The intensity grew with every passing moment, and my knees threatened to buckle beneath me. AJ’s touch was electric, and I couldn’t deny the chemistry that we had between us. We were like two twin turbos working in perfect unison, a collision of passion and longing that had finally found its release.

As AJ’s hands began to trail down my back, his fingers inching toward my waist, I knew we had to stop before we went any further, or we wouldn’t stop until I was left a pile of happy goo on this couch. I gently pushed him back, our eyes locked in a shared unspoken understanding. “AJ,” I whispered, my voice trembling as I panted for air. “Your fight…”

He nodded, his gaze never leaving mine. “I know, baby girl. But I needed this. Needed to blow off some of this steam before I hit the ring.”

I nodded, my cheeks fully red now. We shared one more lingering kiss, a promise of what was yet to come before AJ turned to prepare for his match. As I watched him wrap his hands, I couldn’t help but wonder about the fight. Tonight, I would watch him fight. I’d never seen people fight up close before. Would I like it? What if he loses? Wait, what was I thinking?! AJ was amazing, there was no way he wasn’t amazing at this, too. I was going to go out there and watch him, and I would yell at the top of my lungs so he would hear me cheer him on.

AJ fixed his clothes and looked in the mirror one more time before he took my hand and led me out into the bustling backstage area. The atmosphere was charged with energy as fighters and their entourages hurried about, preparing for thebouts ahead. AJ found a spot for me on the side of the stage, making room for me in the crowd. His protective nature kicked in once more, and he glared at the people around me before turning back to me. “Stay right here, Rosalie,” he said. “I’ll be back as soon as I wipe the floor with the clown I’m fighting.”

With a final reassuring squeeze of my waist, he slipped away into the throng of people, leaving me to watch the match on my own. I couldn’t help but feel a knot of anxiety in my stomach as I watched him go, but I knew he had to focus on the fight ahead. The crowd around me was electric, their excitement palpable. But I couldn’t ignore the pack of girls around me that gave me looks. Some of them whispered to each other, some flipped me off, and others looked sad. I guess AJ was really popular here.

One of the girls nearest to me snickered to her friend and said to her loudly, “Damn, AJ’s tastes sure have changed from when we used to fuck. She doesn’t even have a nice pair of tits!”

I spun away and ignored her. The last thing I needed on my mind was some girl trying to make me upset at AJ when I was already all nervous for him. The anticipation was thick in the air as the announcer who hit on me earlier, T, took the stage. His voice boomed through the venue as he introduced the fighters.

CHAPTER 28

AJ

The momentI stepped into the ring, the crowd’s deafening roar surrounded me. To me, hearing the crowd call my name, my adrenaline always spiked from it. Only this time, it felt different. This time, it was personal. Time to take back my title, one that had been stolen by Jabari's cheating ass last year. T walked out and stood at the center of the ring, his voice booming through the venue.

“Ladies…” He flashed a big smile toward a section of women before continuing, “And gentlemen, we got a real treat for you tonight! In one corner, the reigning champion, the man who’s held this title for a year, Jabari!” The crowd erupted into cheers, and I saw Jabari smirking across the ring, his confidence oozing as he soaked up the adoration. But I wasn’t here for the cheers of the crowd. I was here to prove a point. I was here to take back what was mine.

“In the opposite corner of the ring,” T continued, his voice dripping with anticipation. “The challenger, the man who’s been clawin’ his way back to the top, AJ!” The crowd’s response was mixed, with some cheering and booing. But it didn’t matter. I had a score to settle. We walked to the center of the ring, taking our stances and waiting for the start, T standing in the middle,his arm stretched in between us, glancing each of our ways. He barely nodded at me, his big-ass smile knowing I wasn’t going to go easy against him at all.

T raised his hand and jumped back, running out of the ring, sliding over the hood of a low car, and the fight began. Jabari came at me with a barrage of punches, each thrown with calculated precision. He was a jackass and cocky as fuck, but he was also fast, and he was skilled, but I wasn’t about to let him take this from me. Not again.

I dodged his attacks, swing after swing. He tried to push my back against a car, but I stood my ground. Then I heard a new song come on the stereo, and my smirk grew. “‘Till I Collapse” by Eminem. My movements went from defensive to offensive, and I countered with my own right uppercut, barely connecting with his jaw. It wasn’t enough to throw him off-balance, but it had enough force for him to need to jump back a few feet and go on the defense. Jabari’s trash talk started early, taunting me with every bounce from foot to foot.

“You think you can beat me, AJ? You’re a has-been. I’ve owned this ring for a year, and I’m not giving it up. And when I win? Think I’ll take that pretty little bitch you brought with you home tonight, fuck her like a real man.” He twisted to look at her in the crowd, and seeing him lick his lips like he was staring at his next meal made my insides burn.

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