Page 111 of Undisputed Player
Later, as Sierra showed me around their beautiful penthouse while the men discussed the upcoming fight, she looked at me closely.
“I'm really glad you're here,” she whispered sincerely. “It'll be nice to have someone around during the fights. They get intense sometimes.”
“Do you go to all of them?” I asked, watching her face.
“Every one,” she said without hesitation. “It's hard to watch sometimes, but...” She glanced through the doorway at Connor, her expression softening. “Being there matters to him.”
I thought about Jax's request. His assumption, really, that I would be there for his title defense. Watching him fight, watching him riskinjury, seeing the violence I'd only glimpsed hints of directed at an opponent.
“I don't know anything about boxing,” I admitted, feeling a little silly. This was nothing like the world I grew up in. I’d never imagined flashing cameras or screaming crowds before.
Sierra smiled warmly. “Neither did I, at first. But you learn. And honestly,” she lowered her voice, “you won't be watching the sport. You'll be watching him. That's different.”
Her wise words stayed with me for the rest of the evening, through dinner and dessert, and Leo falling asleep against my side as Adrian and Avery constructed an elaborate pillow fort in the corner of the living room. When it was time to leave, Connor surprised me by speaking directly to me for the first time in hours.
“Saturday,” he said, more a statement than a question, though the option was there. “You’ll be sitting with Sierra?”
I blinked, caught off guard. “I?—”
“She'll be there,” Jax answered for me, his hand warm and steady on my lower back. “Won't you, princess?”
Four pairs of eyes watched me: Jax's confident, Connor's assessing, Adrian's amused, and Sierra's soft and understanding.
I realized I'd already made my decision.
“Yes,” I murmured, the word feeling like a commitment to something far beyond a single fight. “I'll be there.”
Jax's smile was brilliant, possessive, and deeply satisfied. “Good girl.”
As we rode the elevator back down to the garage, Leo asleep in Jax's arms and Avery nodding off against his hip, I thought about the strange, beautiful world I was stepping into. About the man beside me who had crashed into my careful life and turned it upside down.
I didn't know if I belonged in Jax Easton's world, with its penthouse views, designer clothes, and beautiful, dangerous men. But I knew I wanted to belong.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
Jax
It was after school on Friday, the day before the big fight, when I pulled the Bentley out of Jovie's driveway.
Leo's laughter still echoed in the car, his excited squeals when Avery had dragged him toward her treehouse in the back.
Estelle had watched them go with that familiar worry between her pretty brows, her fingers twisting in her lap. I'd seen that look before.
“He'll be fine,” I promised, capturing her restless hands. Her skin was silk beneath my thumb as I traced the delicate bones of her wrist. "Jovie's got enough snacks to feed an army, and Avery's been planning this sleepover all week.”
She turned to face me fully, and I felt that familiar punch to the gut at her beauty. Honey eyes that could bring me to my knees, lips that had wrapped around my gun and driven me insane.
"I know," she said, but her voice carried that edge I'd learned meant she was focused on the negative. "But what if Leo gets homesick? What if he doesn't sleep well? Whatif?—"
"Princess." The word cut through her spiral, and I watched her shoulders relax at the familiar endearment. "Trust me."
She studied my face for a long moment, then nodded. But instead of the shy duck of her head I'd expected, she lifted her chin with that regal tilt that made my cock twitch. "Fine. But if he calls crying, we’re coming home.”
There was my little princess. Demanding, imperious, absolutely fucking perfect when she let that mask slip.
"Deal," I smiled, bringing her knuckles to my lips and pressing a kiss to each one. "Come on. I've got something for you at home."
My beach house appeared down the long coastal road as twilight bled into darkness. The waves sounded, a constant rhythm that matched the blood in my veins whenever she was near.
