Dirty Brawler: A Bad Boy Sports Romance (with bonus novel!) (9 page)

“What the hell, Shaun?” Nigel said in a strangled voice. “I’ve given you everything. I’ve been there for you.
I
am the one who has the relationships with the sponsors. This doesn’t make any fucking sense.”

Shaun leaned forward in his seat. His tone was stone cold. “Nigel, your job is to be my manager. You book my fights. You keep the sponsors happy by doing all the glad-handing. You manage my business affairs. PR isn’t your strong suit, and I think that’s obvious with what’s happened since Rio. Tori’s my PR agent. Anything with the press or marketing goes through her for approval starting now. We clear?”

“Crystal.” Nigel stomped to the back of the bus and sat down facing away from us.

Shaun leaned back in his seat and a push of air came out of his lips.

“Thank you,” I said. “It’s going to make my job a lot easier if I’m not getting cock-blocked every time I turn around.”

“You’re welcome,” he said. As he looked at me, I could tell he wanted to touch me. I forgot to breathe for a second. He cleared his throat and got up. “I’m sure you have work to do. I’m interrupting. I’ll let you get to it.”

I nodded, but I felt the loss of his heat as he moved away. I pulled out my laptop and did exactly what I was supposed to be doing for once. I worked.

I was stiff and exhausted when the bus pulled up outside the hotel hours later. It reminded me I hadn’t gotten a lot of sleep the night before either, but I didn’t mind the sweet soreness I felt between my legs.

Shaun didn’t look at me as he and I checked in next to each other. We were the last ones, having let Nigel, Hammer and the rest of Shaun’s small entourage check in first.

I took my key and slowly made my way to the elevator, well aware Shaun was right behind me. We stood in silence next to each other as the doors opened in front of us. I stepped in and hit the button for the ninth floor. Shaun gave a quick nod to indicate he was on the same floor.

As soon as the door closed, Shaun was in my space pressing me back against the wall. His lips were hungry and full of need as his weight settled against me. It took my breath away in the best possible way. I felt all the pent-up need in the electricity between our lips. He kissed me with everything and my tongue answered him in kind. His fingers found my tightened, stiff nipples and he teased them through my silk shirt. I moaned against his lips.

“Be with me, tonight,” he growled against my lips.

I could only nod mutely. I didn’t have any energy or willpower left to fight him, and he knew it. As soon as he had my approval, he pulled away from me. It was none too soon, as the doors opened to the ninth floor.

Gasping for air, I saw Nigel standing there obviously waiting for the down elevator. His expression turned calculating as he took in my ragged state and Shaun’s stiffened stance.

“I was just ready to go get something to eat,” Nigel said. “Anybody else hungry?”

I pulled my roller bag out into the hallway moving around him. “I’m ordering room service.”

Shaun moved out after me. “Me too. Thanks anyway.”

Nigel stepped into the elevator and gave us a smirk. “Your loss.” The doors closed, taking him from view.

“That was close. We have to be more careful than that,” I whispered to Shaun.

“What room is yours?” he asked, ignoring the rest. His hungry eyes flashed down my body. I sensed he was mentally undressing me with his eyes. “I’m staying with you tonight.”

I turned and started down the hall toward my room. This was one fight Shaun had clearly won by a knockout. It seemed a waste of energy fight it now, not when we both knew I was going to lose.

Shaun

“I hate this tie,” I said, tussling with it, frowning at my reflection in the mirror.

“It’s blue and non-distracting. You look handsome and put together,” Tori said with a sniff as she tapped away at her phone. She sat in a chair next to me with her crossed leg swinging absently. This was one thing I had learned to accept about Tori in the two weeks since our relationship had progressed to the next level. She was always working, but she was damn good at her job.

“And you are beautiful,” I said, reaching over to run my hand along the underside of her calf. I felt her defined muscle twitch under my touch. She pulled her leg away from me as she straightened in her chair. A warning flashed in her eyes.

“Quit it,” she said in a hushed voice as she glanced around to see if anyone was walking past the open door to my dressing room.

“Relax. Nobody’s around. It’s just us.”

“You can’t do that, Shaun,” she said under her breath. “No touching outside the bedroom, remember?”

I leaned toward her across my chair. “You are the only woman I’ve ever met who complains about a little PDA.”

“If I was your girlfriend, that would be different. But I’m not. I’m your employee
and
your PR agent.”

“Well, do you want to be my girlfriend? Is that what you’re hinting at?” I asked the question casually even though inside I was wound up tight, like I was in the ring with a wicked right hook coming at my jaw. It was something that had been bothering me more now that Tori and I were inseparable after hours, but she always held herself at a distance from me during the day.

“Shaun, we’ve talked about this,” she said. A small pleading note had entered her voice. “My job.”

There it was. The sucker punch right to the gut. “That’s right. The job. Which takes precedence over everything else about us.”

She stood up and moved closer pretending like she was adjusting my tie. “We are just getting things back on track for you. I’m starting to get the right kinds of phone calls from people wanting you to meet their kids, speak to their loved ones, and share your story with their support groups. The press is eating it up. What would it look like if it got out you were screwing your PR agent? Suddenly, all of that goodwill we’ve created would be called into question, not to mention I would get fired from a job I happen to love. Is that really what you want?”

I reached up and stilled her hands. I felt the slight wobble of her stance as she looked at me with those wide, doe eyes I wanted to drown myself in. “I just want you.” That was the simple truth. It didn’t want a label or anything else. What I needed to know was if she at least felt the same way. If her job wasn’t a constant thorn in our sides, did she think that what was happening between us was the real deal?

We both heard the footsteps behind us announcing the arrival of someone. Tori’s attention was about to be stripped away again. “Tori,” I whispered, urgent.

She cast her eyes downward and broke away from me. Her phone was out in her hand a moment later just as the assistant PA came into view in the mirror behind me. “Mr. Nichols. Ms. Kenwood is ready for you.”

Georgie Kenwood was the host of the most highly viewed late-night entertainment show in the country. Tori worked double time to land me a coveted spot in the night’s line-up of guests.

“Terrific,” I said, trying to show the appropriate level of enthusiasm. I stood up and followed the PA out into the hallway. I barely heard what she said as she led me through the maze of hallways and rooms to the backstage waiting area. I saw Georgie on the monitors above our heads giving her opening monologue to the audience. They ate out of the palm of her hand.

“You nervous?” the PA asked.

I snorted. “When you’ve been on one TV talk show, you’ve been on them all.”

“Georgie is excited about meeting you. She apologizes she had a prior commitment that ran over so she couldn’t meet you personally before the interview.”

“It’s no problem,” I said, mentally shaking myself. I had to get my head in the game. Everything happening with Tori was starting to cloud my thoughts. I straightened my collar and the cuffs of my sleeves as Georgie called my name.

I pushed through the heavy curtains in front of me and was momentarily blinded by the bright studio lights. As Tori kept coaching me, I made sure the smile was on my face as I emerged. I raised my hand to the studio audience. I heard the cheers and the catcalls, and waved even as I made my way over to the low stage where Georgie waited to greet me.

Settling into the chair next to her desk, we waited for the audience noise to quiet, which took a bit longer than I expected.  Georgie leaned over and said into my ear, “The ladies sure do seem to like you.”

I smiled wider. That was part of the image, after all—Shaun the ladykiller. The screams and yells from the crowd did have a distinctly feminine tone to them. I waved again and they finally started to settle.

“Shaun, it’s a real pleasure,” Georgie said.

“Thanks for having me,” I replied.

“You are the biggest name in boxing right now. That must feel pretty exciting,” Georgie said as she expertly scanned the notes lying flat on her desktop while appearing entirely focused on me.

“It was something I found I was good at pretty early on in life, and I’m lucky that I get to make money doing what I love, every day.”

“That’s the All-American dream, to be sure,” she said with a nod. “You’ve had quite a streak ever since you started your latest tour. Five knock-outs since the initial fight that resulted in a tie in Chicago. It seems like you’re back on your game in a big way.”

“I’d like to think so.” I crossed my leg up onto my knee. No matter what I had told the PA, I was nervous. There were a few hundred pairs of eyes staring at me from the audience and millions more behind the lens of the cameras that felt like they were practically in my face. I resisted the urge to put my hand up to block them out.

I caught sight of a familiar face just off to stage left. I saw Tori give me a thumbs-up with a small smile. Instantly, I relaxed. She went over the questions with me a million times giving me pointers on different inflections and wording so I would come off as polished but not practiced. Relaxed and not stiff. Warm and not distant. She was a hell of a teacher.

“With so much going on in the ring, it must be pretty frustrating not to have things going as smoothly in your personal life,” Georgie said, adding a shrewd smile.

I felt my face muscles stiffen even though the smile was still glued to my face. This wasn’t one of the questions we had rehearsed.

“My personal life has been great. I’ve had an opportunity to do a fair amount of charity work in the last couple of months that has been especially rewarding,” I said, deciding it was better to stick to the script. This appearance was going to be my first national platform for the work I had been doing in little doses on a much smaller scale all across the country.

“Of course, it’s made quite a splash,” Georgie agreed.

“Leukemia is a devastating disease, and we need more voices as we search for a cure,” I said. I tried to see if Tori was paying attention to what was happening, but she had moved out of my line of sight. I grasped wildly at straws because I had no idea what was happening. “My sister was one of the lucky ones. I’m fortunate she is still part of my life today.”

“Speaking of important women in your life, how’s your love life these days? It was the number one question on our Twitter feed when people found out you were going to be one of our guests tonight. Inquiring minds must know,” Georgie said with a chuckle.

I stared at her. Because I was so close to her I could see the layers of make-up caked on to make her appear more youthful, not to mention the brittleness of her expression. It matched the emptiness in her eyes. It dawned on me I was being set up for something. That was the only reason Georgie would decide to go off script without telling me. She had something else far juicer planned, and I was nothing but a dying fish flopping around on the line as she reeled me in.

“My charity work keeps me busy when I’m not training for my fights,” I said. I heard a collective groan go up in the audience. I sensed they were hanging on my every word, and that wasn’t the answer they wanted.

Georgie wasn’t about to let me go. “Come on now, Shaun. Stop being so humble. You’re a good-looking fellow. Surely there’s got to be some special lady out there that you’re smitten with,” she said, adding a lewd wink.

I shook my head slowly. There was a part of me that wanted to shout from the rooftops I was seeing somebody special, that she was amazing, but that’s not what Tori would want. Right now the only place she was willing to let me claim her was in bed. And I was so pussy-whipped I let her box me out of every other part of her life without putting up much of a fight at all.

I cleared my throat. “No. No one special.”

Georgie clucked her tongue. “That sounds incredibly lonely. It wasn’t all that long ago it seemed like you never lacked for company, if you wanted it.”

Now I felt the rise of anger deep in my chest. Anyone who had read the gossip rags on me would totally pick up on the insinuation I drugged women to get them into bed. I was about to say something when Georgie managed to quiet the crowd, who had been laughing hysterically at her commentary.

“Now, this is interesting.” She held up a piece of poster board. I saw that there was a grainy, black and white picture on it. My stomach twisted as I recognized what it was. It was taken from a distance down one of the hallways at one of the random hotels where we had stayed on the tour.

My face was recognizable despite the distance because I was facing the camera. With my shirt entirely unbuttoned, and my shoes in my hands, it was obvious what I had been up to inside the room. Tori’s back was to the camera, which I said a silent prayer of thanks for. Her long dark tresses hung in a wild mane down her back, and she was pushed up on her tiptoes with her arms wrapped around my neck, in the midst of a passionate kiss.

It was my least favorite part of the night or early morning hours—the time when I had to leave Tori’s room and return to my own. There had been a part of me that wondered why we bothered with the pretense of separate rooms at all. It wasn’t as if I ever slept in mine, but Tori had insisted on it for appearances sake. Just like she had insisted on keeping every part of our lives separate and above board whenever there was a chance the rest of the world might see.

Why was she so adamant about that? I know she said she’d get in trouble with her boss, but it wasn’t as if this was some casual one-night stand. I liked Tori more than I was ready to admit, even to myself just yet. I wanted her to let me in.

But as I sat there under the harsh lights of the studio confronted with the reality of what we had so desperately been hiding, I knew this wasn’t the time to stand up and speak my truth. If Tori had told me before I came on stage she wanted what we had to be something more, I would have spoken my truth, to hell with what happened. But every time I brought it up, she wanted it pushed under the rug like some dirty little secret.

I forced my cheeks back into the fake smile. It had become ingrained on my face. “Well, what can I say, Georgie? Looks like I might have gotten caught with my pants down.”

She laughed, just as I expected her to. “So, you’re saying this isn’t a special lady that has won your heart?”

I looked directly into the camera. “For the record, I am unequivocally single.” I shrugged. “You can’t blame a guy for taking a pretty girl home every now and then to blow off some steam after a big fight, can you?”

Georgie started fanning herself with the picture. “Honey, I’ll make sure you have my number next time you’re looking to blow off some steam.” She laughed again, and I joined her, even though the rattle through my chest felt like physical blows.

I refocused on what Georgie was saying and refused to think about if Tori even cared what I had said about her and about what I thought we had. If she was so intent on keeping it a secret, so be it. She just became another one of Shaun Nichol’s hallmark one-night floozies.