Page 42 of Make Me, Break Me

“Then let’s hope to fuck he doesn’t cheat, because Nelson’s shit in a fight,” Falcon muttered. “And there’s a whole lot more of them than us.”

“This is us, man. We do this right, we have more of us to go around.” I held his gaze.

He nodded slowly.

Swell the ranks. That was the whole point of this endeavor. Falcon needed allies away from his father. I needed assistance on a little side job. Nelson needed…well, Nelson needed a lot of things. I wasn’t sure what topped the list, but a lifeline came first if he kept flirting with Sylvie and buying Beau’s girlfriend teapots.

“Time to go.” Nelson skidded to a stop beside me, no teapots in sight, strangling his bowtie, and grinning like a loon.

“What’s made you so happy?”

I shoved the second offer of hand wraps away from Falcon.

“I just met the other lord.”

“Who?” I raised my head from running through everything I knew about Beau Bennett.

Left handed, vicious bastard, captain of the lacrosse team, aggressor from the get go, likely had a huge depth of stamina. He had a proclivity for BDSM—apparently the pretty Sylvie played up as his sub/brat. Falcon eyed her off one too many times, and the frat head had a word in his ear. He weighed in with less muscle than me, but I wouldn’t out last the asshole. Which meant I needed to end this quick, and early.

Nelson drew a deep breath. “Barclay Augusts Chesterfield, famously involved with his French manservant and another female fling at the same time, just asked his crush on a castle date, Earl of?—”

“You’re up.” Falcon tapped me on the shoulder and saved me from what I suspected would be a long winded explanation of a lineage that only one person in the crowd apart from the person who belonged to it cared for.

“I’m happy for you, mate.” Nelson’s Brit was rubbing off on me.

“Kissy for good luck?” He puckered up on cue.

I face palmed him, shoving him back with a snort. “Thanks for the offer.”

I turned away, feeling Falcon's clap against my back but my gaze was on Zinzi where she hadn’t moved from my window overlooking the lawn area behind the house. Her gaze locked on mine as I kicked my knuckles and raised them to her.For you, sweetness.She didn’t know it yet. And she might get pissy with me later, but also I knew she’d understand.

Eventually.

“Ready?”

A different voice broke into my reverie.

I nodded, and turned to face Beau who faced me bare knuckled and bare chested. Lean muscle, ink and scars decorated his chest in a jigsaw that I spent the next thirty minutes studying at various angles, having failed to do what I intended and put him down early. What my opponent lacked in musculature, he made up for in speed, agility and quick thinking.

My respect for him grew through my patience for his games waned.

“I’ll be glad to get this done,” I said to Falcon on my third and final break. We’d agreed to limited rounds, and the next to fall down, stayed down.

“If it works out in your favor.” Falcon doctored the damn cut over my eye that refused to stay shut. Neither my hand nor myribs played up, though something on Beau cracked with the last blow I landed to his side.

“Thanks for the heads up. I’ll remember you for my next positivity Ted X talk.” I clasped hands with Falcon and nodded to Nelson who texted quickly from his seated position. I suspected he played both sides of the fence, chatting alternately with Zinzi and Sylvie to keep them in the loop and not worrying.

“Look after the girls,” I said quietly. “We’ll be done soon.”

He nodded, and didn’t look up.

I turned back to the temporary ring and walked in, rolling both shoulders and taking stock. No part of me wanted to get cold and while the frat boys might want this event to take all night, I was used to knocking through fights a whole lot faster.

“Come on, old man,” I called to a round of ribald cheers.

Beau watched me with a strange smile on his face, and I knew at that moment what the outcome of this round would be before he stepped foot back in our impromptu ring.

Hell, I even started counting out the blows we traded.

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