Page 46 of Craving the Edge

“I don’t need a coach.”

“Yeah, you do,” he said. “The Sydney fight is on, Dec. One more win, then we’ve got Tokyo locked in. This doesn’t change a thing. That world title is yours.”

For a second, I couldn’t breathe. It wasn’t a fracture. My one clean exit had just evaporated.

“If we get you to Sydney in the next few days, you can do your final week of training there,” Rhys was saying. “No distractions.”

The sound of the shower running in the bathroom seemed to get further away. Char was in there and Rhys was talking about shipping me off to Sydney like a piece of prize meat. And by distractions he meant her.

A hot surge of anger burned through the dread. “Whatever.”

I hung up before he could say another word.

I dropped my phone onto the tangled sheets. The promise of waking up with her, of driving her to the gym, of a normal fucking day—it all felt like a lie now. A brief moment of make-believe before reality crashed back in.

I looked at the closed bathroom door.

What was I supposed to tell her? Good news, Char. The fight’s still on. My career isn’t over. I’ll see you never.

She knew what that world was. The cameras, the bullshit press conferences, the travel. It was the part of me she hated. A part of me knew she’d hoped the injury was permanent. Not because she wished me harm, but because it meant an end to all of that. It meant I might actually get to be a person.

Just Declan and Char…getting to know one another.

My fingers curled into a fist, my knuckles white. The phantom ache in my right hand was nothing compared to the fury coiling inside me.

It wasn’t aimed at Rhys, not really. It was aimed at the signatures on a dozen different multi-million dollar contracts. Pieces of paper that owned my body, my time, and my entire fucking life.

But one more win would save a lot of financial bullshit. After that, I could think. After that, I could figure out what the fuck to do about the rest of my life.

How could I walk into that bathroom and tell her? Watch the light in her eyes die as I explained that nothing had changed. That the man she’d woken up with was being replaced by the fighter she couldn’t stand. That I’d leave her in a couple of days.

I couldn’t. Not today.

She woke up in my bed. She smiled at me. She’d trusted me. We’d shared something raw and real. I wasn’t going to let the stupid Sydney fight steal that. Not from me…and not from her.

I pushed myself up, the tangled sheets falling away, and crossed to the bathroom. The door opened steam billowed out. She stood with her back to me, water sluicing over her shoulders, her dark hair plastered to her skin.

I stepped in behind her. The sudden heat was a shock to my system. She jumped when my arms slid around her waist, her body instantly tense.

“It’s me,” I murmured, my lips close to her ear.

She relaxed into my hold, her head falling back against my shoulder. I rested my chin there, my hands sliding up from her waist, over the slick curve of her stomach. My palms found the weight of her breasts, my thumbs tracing the hard peaks of her nipples.

She turned, wrapping her arms around my neck, and kissed me.

Tomorrow, I thought losing myself in her taste. I’d tell her tomorrow…

CHAPTER 16

CHAR

Two days later and the feel of his skin against mine still hadn’t faded.

I found myself staring into space, my mind going back to his apartment. Back to his mouth on my clit, the heat of it making my whole world shrink to nothing but pleasure.

I’d never come for a man like that. Never. I’d always been a spectator even in my own body, lucky to get a little spark of an orgasm, but with Declan… He’d pinned my wrists over my head, driven into me, his eyes locked on mine, and I’d simply unravelled. The memory of him inside me sent a fresh jolt through my body. It was a connection I hadn’t known I was capable of feeling. A total surrender.

I’d let myself fall into him, let him see a part of me that I kept buried. He looked at me like I was something he’d been waiting for, something he wanted to keep…but I knew better.