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Only For You
by Naima Simone
 
Copyright © 2016 by Naima Simone. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.
 

Chapter One

Grunts. The wet suction of metal slamming into flesh and jerking free. The dark crimson splash of blood. The tangy, wet-penny scent of it heavy in the air.

The large, meaty fist crashed into Killian Vincent’s jaw, and his head snapped back. He welcomed the hot blaze of pain. Loved it.

More.

Another blow to his jaw. A red haze dropped over his vision.

The clang of a steel door closing. The stygian darkness. The walls and ceiling inching closer…closer…sucking the air from his lungs. “I can’t breathe. I’m going to die…”

He shot his arm out, the swing a bit wild, a lot desperate. But accurate. Bone connected with his knuckles, transmitting a jagged, almost pleasurable vibration up his arm, into his shoulder.

Yes. More.

His opponent, probably some frat boy slumming it for shits and giggles, grinned. “What’s the matter, bitch?” he sneered, flashing a cocky smile that had probably cost his parents thousands. “You look a little tired there. Not used to having your ass kicked?”

Less talk. More punching. As long as flesh connected with flesh and pain white-washed thought, the memories didn’t choke him.

He cranked his jaw from side to side, then ducked the fist flying toward his throat. Killian slammed his own into the preppy, wannabe badass’s kidney. The fresh meat doubled over, and Killian jacked up his knee, ramming it into the guy’s face. Blood spurted, splattering Killian’s skin and the dirty cement floor of the abandoned Boston warehouse. The crowd surrounding the makeshift ring roared, the sight of so much blood rousing them into a fury. But Killian backed off, balancing on the soles of his booted feet.

C’mon, man. Fight, he silently urged the preppy. The demons in his head hadn’t quieted yet, though their noise had muted some since the fight began. But not completely.

The guy stumbled backward, dropping his guard and clutching his bleeding nose. Growling, Killian advanced and let loose with a flurry of punches to the abdomen, chest, and finally, to the jaw. The other man dropped to the ground, his head bouncing hard off the crimson-spattered cement.

Get up, damn it. He wasn’t ready to call it quits. This bout hadn’t lasted nearly long enough. The memories still lurked in his head, flickered in the shadows.

When the preppy didn’t move after several long moments, Killian strode out of the makeshift ring in disgust. When the asshole eventually came to, it was going to be a long, painful ride back to Beacon Hill or whatever rich part of Boston he’d traveled from.

The yells and shouts of the hyped-up crowd rose to a deafening din, bouncing off the bare walls of the warehouse. Men in business suits or jeans and T-shirts. Women in short, designer dresses or cutoffs and skimpy tops. Rich, poor, black, white, gay, straight. Watching one man beat the shit out of the other was equal opportunity entertainment.

Killian ignored them all, pushing through the mob of bodies. They parted for him, but more than a few women grabbed at his arms or stroked a hand over his chest, grazing his nipple piercing. If he stopped, they would all issue the same invitation: Want to fuck? Some of the women came to these things specifically to ball a fighter. But none of them interested him.

Not that he wasn’t down to screw.

Fighting and fucking… They were the only things that quieted the incessant drone buzzing under his skin and the memories clawing at the inside of his skull.

“Vincent.” The harsh, smoke-blackened voice halted him as he snatched up the T-shirt he’d dumped in the back corner before his fight.

Glancing at Rick Lester, the organizer of these underground fights, Killian dragged his shirt over his head before answering. “Yeah.”

“You keep knocking ’em out that quick, people get disgruntled about not getting their money’s worth. And it’s becoming hard to find someone to go up against you.”

Killian shrugged. “I don’t know what you’re getting at. I’m not taking a dive for anyone. So get better opponents.”

Even in the dark warehouse, Rick’s eyes gleamed like the sly ferret he resembled. “Tomorrow night. I can line you up with Ben Trainor. What’d you say? You up for it?”

Ben Trainor. The man had a reputation for being brutal, merciless. Known for fighting dirty.

Perfect.

“Yeah. I’ll be here,” Killian growled.

Half an hour later, a roll of cash in his pocket, he handed his keys to a valet and looked up at the huge, converted brick warehouse that dominated most of the block in Boston’s upscale Leather District.

Lick.

The club he and his best friends, Rion Ward and Sasha Merchant, owned together. The three of them had come from nothing—broken homes, screwed-up parents, the Irish mob. Through jail, getting shot…and worse…they’d survived and finally escaped a world that would’ve eventually left them dead or back in the hell also known as prison. Now they were legitimate businessmen, owners of Boston’s newest and most exclusive aphrodisiac club. They were their own men, their loyalty to no one but each other and the two new women in Rion and Sasha’s lives.

Anger, bright and hot, flared inside him as he turned into the side alley bordering Lick. Women and loyalty. Not his strong suit. Being narced out to the cops by one didn’t foster trust.

Unlocking a steel door, he stepped inside a tiny, dimly lit vestibule. Like every night, sweat popped out on his forehead, neck, and arms. His chest constricted, as if a vice grip slowly tightened and tightened, compressing the air out of his lungs. Gritting his teeth so hard, his jaw twinged in protest, he punched in a five-digit code on the lit pad next to the second door. As soon as the light flashed green, he pushed through, entering his office with a loud expulsion of breath, followed by a greedy gulp of air.

He stood still on the other side of the entrance, eyes closed, hands curled into fists at his sides. In. Out. In. Out. He drew air in his nostrils, blew it out through his mouth until his body relaxed, and bit by bit, the panic eased its claws out of his psyche.

The two doors with the coded entry were added security measures, but goddamn, every night, he suffered a measure of hell just to enter the building.

Fucking claustrophobia.

Opening his eyes, he rolled his shoulders back and cracked his knuckles. The blissed-out moments the fight had given him were already ebbing. Growling, he stalked to his office bathroom, showered quickly, and changed into a black, long-sleeved shirt and black pants. With efficient movements, he swiped a rubber band off his desk and gathered his dark, shoulder-length hair into a bun at the back of his head.

A knock sounded at the door, and a glance at the bank of monitors on the far wall revealed who stood on the other side. He crossed the room and pressed a button on the underside of his desk, and the lock disengaged. Sasha Merchant entered the office, his blue-gray gaze locating Killian and scanning him from head to toe, pausing on the small bruise he felt darkening along his cheekbone. Wasn’t the first, wouldn’t be the last.

“You should see the other guy,” Killian drawled. A cliché, but, in this case, definitely true.

Sasha grunted, striding across the room. “You just getting in?”

“Yeah.” Killian scrubbed a hand over his chin and jaw, hair bristling against his palms. He’d passed five o’clock shadow about twenty-four hours ago. Narrowing his eyes, he studied the other man. Noted the taut set of his shoulders, the grim set of his mouth. “Why? Is something wrong?”

Rion and Sasha understood Killian’s need to fight, to release the tension, ease the noise. They didn’t give him shit the two or three nights he arrived at Lick after the doors had opened. In charge of security, Killian had hired a professional and skilled team, and they were more than capable of handling any issue that arose in his absence. Still, if Sasha was in Killian’s office—instead of out in the club or up in The Loft—wearing an expression that promised an ass-beating, then there was a problem.

“What is it?” Killian asked again, bracing himself for anything from drug dealers in the club, to overzealous guests trying to snap pictures of celebrity guests in the VIP lounges, to reporters sneaking in and trying to sniff out rumors about a “sex club.”

Not that the rumors were false, but they didn’t need the press hounding the clientele who paid obscenely for discretion and privacy. The second level of Lick—The Loft—offered a safe haven for certain members to indulge in and enjoy their particular desires and fetishes. And the last thing those members wanted—or Killian, Rion, and Sasha needed—were photographs and articles written in detail about the aphrodisiac club on the second floor of Lick.

Sasha nodded toward the monitors behind them. “Pull up the camera behind bar two.”

A sense of dread rose in his chest as he turned around and faced the console behind his desk. With a few taps on the keyboard, he brought up the live feed from the cameras behind one of the long, glass bars that dominated each side of the converted warehouse.

“The one on the far end near the dance floor,” Sasha instructed.

Another tap, and a view of one of their registers, Point Of Sale systems, and bartenders filled the screen. For several long seconds, he scrutinized the images. The bartender filled glasses and rang up drink orders. She didn’t pocket money or over-pour alcohol. So she wasn’t who or what Sasha needed him to see.

Killian shifted his attention to the people filling every available space around the bar. Guy with too much gel and obviously too little game chatting up a woman who wore a frown that practically screamed “kill me now.” Two women sipping cocktails and giggling together. Hmm. They appeared a little on the young side. He needed to have their IDs double-checked to ensure they were actually twenty-one. Another group of women gathered in a tight semi-circle. One, a blonde who seemed vaguely familiar, tipped her head back, laughing. The dark-haired woman on the right lifted her head, smiling directly into the camera…

Holy. Fuck.

The hair was longer, the makeup more understated than he remembered. But those lips. Goddamn, those lips. They hadn’t changed, and he could still easily recall how they were slow to smile, but when they did, the sight had filled him like helium in a balloon, lifting him higher and higher. How they opened so willingly for his tongue, for his kiss.

And the eyes. Christ. Those deep, heavily lashed, purple eyes had glittered in anger, shined in laughter, darkened with lust, and gleamed with love.

Or so he’d thought. The love had been a lie. A cruel, fucked-up lie.

No, regardless of the different length of hair and amount of makeup, he knew that face.

It was the face of the woman who’d once owned every piece of his heart.

The woman who had betrayed him, sent him to hell, and damn near destroyed him.