No, I had to let her come to me. I was sure she would, too. No way could she deny the magnetic pull between us.
Sure enough, during intermission she made her way around the ring and sat down next to me. “What are you doing here?” she asked, giving me a level look.
“You didn’t call me,” I said, raising an eyebrow at her.
“No, I didn’t,” she said. For a moment, she looked uncertain before she pressed her lips together in determination. “You know as well as I do that we can’t do this.”
“Why not? You really let your brother choose your boyfriends for you?”
“Of course not,” Lucy said, running a hand through her hair. “But I’m also not going to go behind his back and date his competition.”
“Then we’d better not date,” I said, giving her a look to make sure she knew what I meant. There was a lot more to life than dating.
Lucy rolled her eyes. “That’s even worse,” she said.
“I get where you’re coming from, but we’re grown adults, aren’t we?” I asked her.
Lucy sighed. “Look, fine, I’ll admit it: the sex was great.” She kept her voice low so that no one would overhear, but her tone had been confident. She paused and looked towards the ring, although there was no one in there yet. Suddenly, she blew out a breath. “There’s a bar not far from here, Oceanside. I might be there after this match is over.”
Without another word or a backwards glance, she stood up and headed back to her seat. I couldn’t help but grin as I got to my feet. No reason to stay any longer; I had everything I needed now.
It wasn’t hard to find the bar: it was just as close as Lucy had claimed. It wasn’t quite a dive bar, but it wasn’t exactly the nicest joint in town. Perfect for making it feel like we weren’t on a date, but an okay spot to be meeting with someone as pretty as Lucy.
I ordered a beer and grabbed a seat, figuring I had about half an hour of waiting before she’d get here. I didn’t mind the wait, but I just hoped she would actually show up. And that she was the one who showed up, and she didn’t sic her brother on me. She didn’t seem the type, though. If she had her way, Bobby would never know about us.
All the better for me, I figured. I wasn’t afraid to fight him, but I didn’t need this kind of drama.
A little while later, Lucy dropped down onto the seat next to mine and ordered a beer from the bartender before turning to me. “So?” she asked.
I raised an eyebrow at her, unable to hide my amusement. “So what?” I shot back. I liked to rile her up.
She rolled her eyes. “You were the one who showed up at the ring looking for me,” she pointed out.
“Maybe I was just there to watch the fights,” I countered. “You know, getting to know my opponent.”
Lucy shook her head, not believing a single word I said. “You’re not the type, and I know it,” she replied. “I grew up around boxers, remember. You’re not the type to size up your opponents before you’re in the ring with them.”
I laughed, surprised at how accurate she was. Damn, she was good. “You’re right,” I agreed. “I was there to see you. But only because you didn’t call me.”
Lucy shook her head. “You can’t be that desperate,” she said. “You’re hot. I bet half of the women in Boston would sleep with you.”
“Yeah, well, I don’t want to sleep with half of the women in Boston,” I said, giving her a heated look.
Her cheeks colored at my words, and she quickly looked away while taking a sip of her beer. Didn’t she realize how sexy she was? This cat-and-mouse game was getting under my skin.
“Look,” I said, “I know your brother doesn’t want you sleeping with me, and I know he thinks he has eyes all around this town, but I’ll be straight with you: I really want to fuck you again. This isn’t a long-term thing—I’m only in Boston for the tournament and then we can both forget all about each other. What do you think?”
Lucy turned to me, looking undecided, before slowly nodding her head. “Okay,” she said. “But don’t do anything dumb like coming to the ring to find me again, okay? Bobby’s bound to notice that.”
“Well, next time don’t make it so hard for me to find you,” I said, rolling my eyes. “If you had just texted me, I wouldn’t have had to track you down.”
Lucy gave me a smile and I counted it as a win.
EIGHT
LUCY
I didn’t know what the hell I was doing, yet again. This seemed to be a recurring theme, whenever I crossed paths with Dylan. Not that this time it had been random. He had come to the ring looking for me, I was sure of it. He didn’t fight that day, and he didn’t seem like he was paying any attention to what was happening during the matches. Instead, his piercing eyes had been glued to me for the entire time.
I kept looking around, waiting for Bobby to materialize, but he didn’t. That didn’t mean that he wasn’t going to hear about this later, but I didn’t have to deal with him right now. It was a small relief.
It was why I’d finally gone over to talk with Dylan in the first place, since maybe if I talked with him, he’d quit staring at me and I wouldn’t have to deal with Bobby later.
Of course, I hadn’t said any of the things that I’d meant to say to him, and I’d said
