Page 16 of Single-Dad: The Mountain Man

Are you doing this for me?

He knocks Mike to the canvas and his grin is a silent roar and beating of his chest. But he quickly helps the other man up, embraces him, and helps him out of the ring.

“Any other challengers?” he roars.

I look around, is no one else going to accept his challenge?

“Right here,” I say.

I hate being the center of attention and almost wilt when all eyes point toward me. I even hear Cassie whisper my name, but when I meet his startled blue eyes, the entire room fades out and my courage bubbles up in my chest.

Stepping through the ropes, I head for him.

“Willow?”

I block out the husky register of his voice, ignore how sexy he looks and swing for him.

I’ve never thrown a punch in my life and I have no intention of hitting him. I just want him to stop this madness.

And as predicted, he easily evades my strike. But I’m undeterred and throw another.

I step back. But I continue to throw, again and again and again.

“Come on, fight me,” I say, breathlessly. Missing my target saps my energy like no one’s business. “How do you expect me to hit your candy ass if you keep running?”

His chest heaves and I eat up his large pecs and delicious abs. No, no, no. This isn’t the time to appreciate the godly body in front of me, I am here to teach him a lesson.

When he glides around the ring to avoid my barrage of punches, I catch a glimpse of Cassie who looks on in awe.

And that’s when I feel it, it’s not that he has me beat without having to lift a finger, it’s that this 250-pound mountain man of muscles clearly can’t bring himself to stand against me. His whole badass facade is exposed in front of his gym.

Then he stops, a few feet away from my fiery fists, and fixes me with his intense gaze.

“Everybody, out,” he barks.

It takes the audience a few seconds to react, they’re mostly likely in shock from what they’re seeing. Shane, who breezed through Mike effortlessly, is now breathing heavily. Beads of sweat dots his brow and his lips are parted.

I almost catch him a few times because his gaze can’t stop falling to my sports bra and a tingle goes through my body whenever his hot, fierce expression locks onto my breasts.

The sexual tension is palpable.

We stop and lock eyes as everyone scatters from the room.

“What’s the matter?” I ask. “You don’t want people to witness me hand you your first loss?”

“No, I don’t want them to see me claim my prize,” he says before he goes for me. One second I’m bracing myself for whatever he throws at me, the next he pins me to the canvas with my wrists over my head.

* * *

Shane

I win the match,but lose the fight.

The fight has always been against my insatiable desire to take what’s truly and rightfully mine. To mark every inch of her body as mine.

I take advantage of her immobility to the fullest extent by leaning down and brushing my lips over hers, in a quick, whisper-soft caress. She murmurs sexy little sounds into my mouth as I pepper her with kisses and slowly devour her.

I’m so ravenous that I lose track of any reason why I shouldn’t show her that she’s mine.

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