“Oh gods,” I groaned as the two men in the metal cage pounded away on each other.
Lyla only laughed and screamed just as loud as everyone else in the warehouse.
I didn’t have an issue with professional fighting. After Lyla told me where we were going, I’d been excited to watch. When we took our places in a roped-off area near the cage and the first guy came out, I’d still been anticipating the fight.
Then my Beast came out, with people screaming his name, obviously the fan favorite of the event for the evening, and I’d lost the excitement.
Beast was going to be fighting. Letting someone pound on him while he pounded back. The thought alone of him bleeding, broken, hurting made my stomach turn, and I’d been nauseated ever since.
“Don’t cover your eyes,” Lyla yelled over the roar of the crowd so I could hear her. “He keeps looking to see if you’re looking. You’re going to distract Beast.”
I’d found tha
t out when he came out too. “The Beast” was his name. It was fitting and explained all the Belle shirts I’d seen at least ten chicks wearing.
Dropping my hands, I focused on the cage again, and sure enough, his dark eyes were looking my way even as he was hitting his opponent in the kidneys. Blood sprayed from the other guy’s mouth. I thought his name was Chopper, but I honestly couldn’t remember much about the fighter once Beast stepped out of the locker rooms in the back.
Lyla had told me this was going to be bloody, but I didn’t realize how right she would be. Or that I would care so much.
There was a cut above Beast’s left brow, and it was bleeding uncontrollably, making his entire face red with it. Even his beard was soaked, blood mixed with sweat dripping from the ends of his facial hair.
His head snapped back when he took a punch to the face and I couldn’t help crying out, but I didn’t cover my face again. Beast’s nostrils flared, and he uppercut Chopper.
The other fighter dropped back, falling to the mat like a ton of bricks, and the place went wild while the ref began counting to ten.
I held my breath, but Beast walked over to the cage, grinning at me through the fencing. Wait, was that a dimple under his beard? The temperature in the room skyrocketed a good twenty degrees at that realization. I gulped and he winked, making the ache between my legs double. At least five feet separated me from the cage, but it might as well have been only inches the way he was looking at me, like he was going to devour me the second he touched me.
Dear gods, I needed some fresh air. No one had ever affected me like that before. Up until right then, I wasn’t even sure I had much of a libido because sex had never really been on my list of priorities. That didn’t mean I hadn’t done it before, but the one time I had, I’d messed up everything.
Looking away from Beast, my heart gave that familiar painful squeeze whenever I thought of Jordan. I missed my best friend, but I couldn’t even look him in the eye after the night everything changed between us.
“Mia!” Lyla grasped my chin, turning my head so I was looking at Beast once again.
He had a broody scowl on his face, the devilish grin from only moments before long gone, and I felt myself shiver as he stood there watching me so intensely.
“Ten!” the ref shouted, and the place was suddenly deafening with everyone screaming and clapping their hands.
Walking over to Beast, the ref lifted his arm, announcing him the winner.
Those dark eyes went from me to Lyla. He mouthed something, and she nodded before tugging on my arm. “Come on,” she shouted in my ear. “He wants you to go to the locker room.”
Part of me kept saying I should just leave, but I really wanted to hear his voice for some stupid reason. Lyla guided me through the chaos of the crowd. This time, people didn’t get out of her way as easily in the excitement they were still feeling after the fight.
As if out of thin air, Howler appeared in front of us, moving people out of our way until we reached a side door. Opening it, he stepped back, motioning us through.
The noise level was considerably dimmer once the door shut behind him, and we walked down a narrow corridor until we reached another door. Against the wall on either side stood groupies, all of them wearing Beauty and the Beast-themed shirts of various kinds.
Howler pushed the door open and walked ahead of us this time. “Lyla’s here,” he announced.
My eyes moved around the locker room, but there was only one other person, and he was sitting on a bench with a beautiful German Shepard at his feet, rubbing her back. When his dark head lifted, I couldn’t help but grin at his familiar, handsome face.
“Hi, Braxton,” I greeted, moving toward him.
“Mia,” he said with surprise, getting to his feet. Meeting me halfway, he gave me a small hug. “I didn’t expect this to be your scene.”
I glanced at my roommate. “Me either. Lyla dragged me along.”
Shaking his head, he snorted. “Yeah, she’s bad about that.”