Page 11 of Love to Stay

What the fuck was that? Is he pissed at me? Mick and I had never joked about sex before, but that was back in high school, when neither of us had dated. Was he annoyed by the thought of me kissing someone else?

No way it’s jealousy. Mick has never made any kind of move on me. There have been instances in which I have shamelessly bent over in front of him or leaned over close to him to make my breast rub against his arm. I never got a reaction. This must be some big brother complex.

I follow him into his bedroom, not wanting him to be angry with me. Usually, it's me who gets annoyed with him, not the other way around. I don't like it.

“Mick, I’m–” I cut off when I see he is as naked as he could be. More than that, his cock is hard and pointed upward. I swear I hear myself swallow, and my mouth suddenly feels like a damn desert. I guess Mick is big all over. “I’m sorry.” I finally find my words. Heat rushes to my face. I quickly cover my face with my hands.

“Shit,” he mutters. When I try to flee, I turn around and run into a wall. With my hands blocking my line of sight, I totally misjudged which way to go. “Josie.” Mick rushes over to me. “Are you okay?” His big hands cup my face to look me over.

“I’m okay,” I try to reassure him.

My mind screams at me to not look down, but of course I do. Mick’s cock is pressed against my stomach. That throb between my legs grows.

“Mick.” I whisper his name, but neither of us move. Even his hands stay cupping my face. His eyes drop to my mouth. I swear time stands still. Unable to handle what might happen next, I let my eyes fall closed. I can't face him rejecting me, but I'm not sure what a kiss will do to me either. Not knowing what I’m missing would probably be best. But I have to admit that I really want to know what it feels like to have his mouth on mine.

Warm breath tickles my lips before a loud bang has me jumping back. Mick’s hands fall away. It’s followed by another.

“Probably the food.”

“Right.” I step back. “I’ll get it.” I turn and rush out of the bedroom.

“Don’t answer the door!” he calls after me. I stop right before I’m about to flip the lock. “Did you even look through the peephole?” Mick scolds, coming out of the bedroom with only a pair of gym shorts on.

"I, ah—" I'm too flustered to get a full response out. Instead, I move away from the door and back to the computer. Mick answers the door himself. It is in fact our food.

“I hope you're hungry.” He sets the bags down and pulls out some plates.

“Starving,” I respond. If I thought things were awkward before, they are even more awkward now.

Was he thinking about kissing me, or did he feel bad that I closed my eyes and he believed he had to so I didn’t make a fool of myself? I can’t find the will to ask. Instead, I shove my mouth full of food, eating more than I have in weeks.

Exhaustion starts to take over. With the travel, my emotions all over the place, a full stomach, and my lack of sleep, it all catches up to me at once.

“Hey,” I mutter when Mick lifts me into his arms, carrying me to bed. I’m barely awake. Hell, I might be dreaming.

“Sleep.” He lays me down and then pulls the blanket over me. When he turns to leave, I snag his hand.

“Lie down with me.”

“Jojo, I’m not sure–”

“Please,” I whisper. “I feel safe when you’re with me.”

With that, he slips into the bed next to me. In my sleepy daze, I let my body do what it wants, turning so I’m closer to him. I lay my head on his bare chest, my arm falling across his stomach. Sleep quickly pulls me fully under.

Chapter Nine

MICK

If championship belts were given for self-control, I would deserve the world title. While Josie is asleep, my erection is raging, but I’m keeping my hands locked behind my head. Despite the discomfort, I wouldn’t move if Pedro was at the bottom of my bed telling me that I’d never step inside a gym again.

Josie is not the vulnerable type. She wears a pretty hard armor and pretends like nothing can hurt her. I guess it’s because she’s been left to take care of herself and her dad for years with little money and no other support. She’s had to be tough or she would have been eaten up. Plus, there were the years she spent online battling other people—mostly guys who never had anything good to say about female gamers. You couldn’t be sensitive and survive in that environment.

Seeing her soft like this is a privilege very few ever get. I’ve gotten glimpses in the past, like at the end of a long night of gaming when she was tired, both physically and mentally. Sometimes we would crash in her living room and talk about escaping. We’d make a lot of money—me in business and her in gaming. After we earned some cash, we’d move out with our loved ones. I’d buy my sister her own salon. She’d buy a placeon the shore where her dad could sit on a porch and listen to the waves.

My big finance plans never went anywhere because I didn’t have the money for college, and my job prospects were bleak after getting caught stealing shit with a bunch of guys in my neighborhood. It was a boneheaded move when I was sixteen, and I’ve regretted it ever since. Then I got caught on a bogus charge after I found some designer handbag lying on the sidewalk. Like of course I picked that thing up. One of the guys I was hanging out with took it to the pawn shop because like me, he was desperate. Unlike me, he had a longer rap sheet so I took the fall for him. If my sister hadn’t hooked up with Griff, I might be growing mold in a prison cell, but he pulled some strings and got me out. Then he told me if I didn’t straighten up, I’d end up dead or at least making my sister miserable.

He was right, so I got a job at his gym, started boxing, and now I’m here in Las Vegas because they think I could be the next boxing champ.

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