outside Hollywood.
Even so, Sam felt a grudging admiration for the women in that ring. The matches may have been choreographed but the girls were taking some damn serious hits. She could see the mat scrapes on knees and elbows and one of the blondes really gave it to a small brunette as she came flying off the ropes. Sam knew enough about martial arts and momentum to know that the brunette was really gasping for breath after a slam to the mat.
After the diva matches came the elimination matches for the right to join forces against David. Sam winced and closed her eyes several times and nearly jumped out of her skin when one of the hapless wrestlers came flying out of the ring and landed smack in the row of seats two rows ahead as spectators ran for safety. She realized numbly that all five of the young men were on their feet, ready to catch any flying bodies that appeared to be coming too close. She grinned as she realized they were taking their jobs as bodyguards very seriously.
When the match between the towering, menacing Wolfman and another heavyweight with a bald head and a big belly began, Greg was on his feet like a madman, cheering on the Wolfman. Sam recognized the giant from the match she’d seen on TV in Council Bluffs and she held her hands over her mouth as she watched. He was seriously
At closer quarters, Sam could see that most of the slamming blows she’d thought were terrifically hard were, in reality, quite gentle, considering the size and weight and sheer animal power of these huge men. But “gentle” was only a relative term, because if any of those men hit a normal person that hard, it would knock them for a loop. She grimaced as she thought about what damage David Chance could do to her if she angered him. She gave a little shudder and hoped he was in a really good mood tonight.
When the Wolfman picked up and body slammed his opponent, she realized that the mat absorbed about fifty percent of the slam as it recoiled and bounced back. “Way to go, Wolfman!” Greg shouted at the top of his lungs, but she was sure there was far too much noise for the man to have heard him.
The huge wrestler held his opponent up against the ropes and slugged him in the head five times in quick succession, but she could see that he was not applying full force. He was pulling his punches and allowing his half- curled hand to close so that it looked like he was really slamming the guy in the head hard.
”That’s gotta hurt!” Greg was swinging air punches and howling.
After the eliminations ended, another match gave the big guys a breather and then the place went crazy as the Wolfman, another hulking bald-headed giant and one totally huge Japanese sumo-looking wrestler all entered the ring to greet their nemesis, Chance Braza.
Oh. My. God. The sight of those three waiting for her dream lover left her trembling in genuine fear for his life, despite the fact that this was all supposed to be a well-rehearsed act. The pyrotechnic display was enough to scare the hell out of the local fire marshal as the crowd rose to its feet with a roar and Joe pulled her up with him. “It’s Chance!”
She wasn’t tall enough to see over the heads of the two rows of jumping, shouting fans that separated her from the aisle and so she sat back down. But Joe and Greg dragged her back off the seat and hoisted her by the waist high enough for her to see him walking down the long ramp to the ring, wearing that ornate championship belt about his massive body. The sight of him was enough to set off all her inner alarms and make her wonder if she had a damn brain in her head to agree to come here and give him another shot at her screaming libido. She swallowed hard and, as he mounted the metal steps to the ring, they lowered her back to her feet.
“Thanks, guys.” Her voice was shaky. Like her legs. And her body.
“No problem, Ms. Hastings,” Joe grinned.
She watched as Chance jumped onto the ropes and held up his fists and shouted and the fans went crazy. Then he was standing on the ropes on her side of the ring and she bent her head and put her hand over her face, suddenly afraid that he might see and recognize her.
“Who’s the best?”
His deep voice boomed out over the audience and everyone around her was screaming “Chance Braza!” at the top of their lungs. Joe grinned down at her and nudged her in the side with a teasing elbow.
“What’re you hiding for? I’d be up letting him know I was here.”
“No thanks. I’d rather not.” She blushed hotly.
Then the announcer gave the rules for the match. There was only one rule-when a man was knocked out of the ring, he had one minute to get back in or forfeit. The last man standing in the ring would own the ornate championship belt that David was now hoisting over his head as he turned in a slow circle in the center of the ring.
Her eyes drank in the hot, rippling body that she remembered so intimately and she put her hands to her cheeks to cool them. What if he got hurt? What would she do? Would she faint? No. She’d probably go up there and beat the crap out of the guy who hurt him. She bit her lip and tried to remember that he was a big man, with a great deal of physical power and that he had been doing this stuff for a very long time.
When the match began, the four big men taunted and circled, until the big sumo-looking wrestler slammed a fist into David’s gut and Wolfman tried to toss the bald-headed giant over the ropes to eliminate the third challenger. After that, they seemed to pair off in twos, with the Wolfman still going after the hulking giant and the huge sumo-looking guy charging David, head down.
While the other two slammed each other, threw each other and slugged each other, David had his hands full with the four-hundred-pound sumo. He was about two hundred pounds lighter than his opponent, who seemed to be oblivious to the hardest blows to body or head. He got a hold of David and hoisted him over his head, flinging him into the other pair of men, which resulted in those two ganging up on David while he was down on the mat, as well.
Sam whimpered and covered her face several times but Joe kept saying, “He’s okay. He’s back up.”
She tried to not look at the ring and instead let her eyes wander around the crowded arena and it was only then that she realized the event was being televised. Cameras were rolling from the back of the arena, from the area just behind the floor seats and from ringside.
And then Joe was pointing at the huge screens that were fifty feet in the air above the ring, so that the fans in the upper reaches could get close-ups of the action-and she followed his gaze to see her own face as she sat, her hands covering her mouth, looking stricken.
Holy shit!
“Oh no!” she gasped, ducking down and hiding behind the people in the seats in front of them.
The cameraman on her side of the ring had apparently been alerted by someone that the woman Chance Braza was searching for was in the arena, sitting at ringside. From the videos being shown overhead, it was obvious that he had been moving closer and closer until he’d gotten a good, clear shot of her face in the reflected light from the spots on the ring, and had been recording her face and reactions. They were cycling her shocked looks and wide eyes onscreen whenever David took a particularly hard slam or blow.
After she ducked, the cameraman turned his camera back to the ring but the video footage they already had kept playing again and again at appropriate moments.
She imagined that David had to be aware of her presence by now. The whole damn arena was aware of her presence. She noted heads craning to see her and she groaned as Joe nudged her again with that sharp elbow. But David seemed to be too hard pressed by three opponents to acknowledge her in any way.
She returned her attention to the ring just as all hell broke loose around her and David came flying over the ropes as if launched from a catapult. People in the two rows in front all scattered as his heavy body slammed into the chairs right in front of her with a sickening crash.
Joe and Greg were on their feet as David struggled up from the bent and broken chairs and turned toward her. The pain on his face was very real but when his eyes met hers, a crooked grin replaced the grimace of pain as he flung two chairs aside and towered over her, much to the rabid, screaming delight of twenty-five-thousand wrestling fans.
Joe gave a whoop and shoved her to her feet and before she could blink or move out of David’s way, she was being dragged into his arms, against his perspiring, blood-spattered body and being kissed silly in front of the entire wrestling world.
Oh, how good he tasted. How good he felt. Her body melted as he dragged her against him, letting her feel
