Page 89 of Until We're More
He’s my best friend, and my boyfriend, and my soul mate, and I swear if you hurt him, I’m going to climb into that cage and kick your ass.
“You, uh, okay?” Brooklyn asked, putting her hand on my shoulder. “Liam always says you can’t hold a dirty look, but if looks could kill, his opponent would drop dead.”
“I don’t want him to drop dead, but I’d totally be okay if he just dropped right now.” I winced as one of his swings landed, glancing off the side of Liam’s face.
Liam swung back, and his hit connected with his opponent’s nose, far more solid. I jumped to my feet. “That’s it, baby. Hit him again while he’s dazed.”
The bell rang before he could follow my advice, bringing the fourth round to a close. I sat back in my seat. “Five fucking rounds. I could hardly survive three.”
When I glanced at Brooklyn, her eyes were wide.
“I swear sometimes,” I said with a shrug. “Especially when someone’s beating up my boyfriend.”
Brooklyn wrapped her arm around my shoulders, pulled me into a side hug, and rested her head against mine. “It’s okay. Your boyfriend is going to take him out this round.” Not that I had any doubt Liam would win, but the fight had been brutal. Back and forth, big hits landed on both sides, and fairly evenly split rounds as far as the judges were concerned, too. “Carlos said that he sold more tickets faster than he ever has before and that it was mostly thanks to you.”
I should be proud. A distant part of me was. That part would be prouder after the fight when I could focus on something else. As much as I wanted to take all the credit, the place would’ve sold out eventually. It was the Roth name and a title fight and…Omigosh there’s so much on the line.
Liam glanced my way, and my heart tugged.I’m okay, he mouthed, in spite of the bleeding and how labored his breaths were.
I blew him a kiss, keeping my gaze on him and forcing a smile as I spoke to Brooklyn out the side of my mouth. “I know I said I was strong and that I could handle this, and I can, but right now I don’t feel very strong.”
“I completely understand. It’s hard when it’s my brothers.” Brooklyn gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze, and her eyes flicked to Shane, who was seated on her other side, before they returned to me. “But it’s a whole different level when it’s the guy you love.”
I nodded, glad she got it. Over the past month, she and I had grown even closer. In fact, I’d gotten closer to the whole Roth clan. I’d spent a lot of hours at the gym, including doing some promo work for their new classes. While I’d told them I’d help for free, they’d insisted on paying me, so Liam and I had worked out a bartering system that was light on the monetary compensation and heavy on the sexual favors. Pretty sure I was getting the better part of that deal.
Team Domination still had a way to go to regain their former powerhouse glory, but slowly but surely, it was getting there. Between their last three fights—Shane’s, Finn’s, and the one unfolding in front of us tonight—they were getting a lot of good buzz. And their newer fighter, the Tautolo Typhoon, was coming along nicely now that Brooklyn and I had friended his girlfriend. Now she felt more comfortable visiting, and since he saw her more often, his focus on his training had improved.
Instead of calling us distractions, Blake now called his fighters’ significant others lighthouses. We were what kept the guys steady in the storm.
Which was why, instead of throwing my hands over my face and peeking through my fingers like I wanted to as Liam and his opponent went to the middle of the cage to tap gloves, I forced myself to remain steady. “Come on, babe. You got this.”
Sitting became impossible, and if I was blocking the view for the people behind me, they’d just have to get to their feet, too. Five minutes could be an eternity in the cage, and as the clock hit the two-minute mark, Liam’s features changed, his attention shifting.
His opponent was tired, his fists dropping lower.
And Liam was making his move.
My heart stopped beating and time ground to a halt. Liam blocked the wild swing that came his way, then stepped forward and threw an uppercut.
It landed square on the other guy’s chin.
His head whipped back and he stumbled, no longer in control of his body as it swayed and then hit the mat.
“He knocked him out! He knocked him out!” I turned to Brooklyn. “He just knocked him out, right?” I’d seen it with my own eyes, but, like, I also needed the reassurance I hadn’t imagined it.
She beamed at me. “He did.”
Shane shifted forward in his seat, glancing from me to her. “Is this how you’re gonna get during my next fight, Bruiser?”
“’Course not, babe. I’m so sure that you’re going to win that I won’t bother worrying. I’ll just sit here like, that’s my man, and he just knocked your ass out.” He grinned, and Brooklyn mouthed to me,I’m totally gonna freak out.
“I saw that,” Shane said. “Not like I didn’t know already.”
The ref officially called the fight with twenty seconds left in the fifth round, and in that instant, Liam became the light heavyweight champion.
And the crowd went wild—but I was relatively sure I was the only one making a high-pitched squeal that only dogs could hear. Chaos always followed the end of a match, people cheering and a wave of movement going through the crowd, some surging forward while some surged for the exits. Luckily, I knew enough of the people working the venue that when I rushed toward Liam’s corner, they let me through.
Liam turned, and my breath caught in my throat as a jolt of electricity made a mess of my insides. Even slightly beat-up after five grueling rounds in the cage, he was still the sexiest, hottest, most swoonworthy dude I’d ever laid eyes on, and even better, he was all mine.
