I did, but I had plenty of money. I didn’t give a shit about a payout as long as that smirk still lingered on his cocky ass face.
“This is bigger than a payout anyway. This is for your title,” she reminded me.
I blinked and turned to stare down at her. The heat that had risen through my chest began to cool enough for me to use reason. Swallowing the remaining anger, I took a step back, uncoiling my fists.
The commentator quickly made his closing remarks, ending the press conference. I still stood there, eyeing Rodriguez.
“That’s going to be a great clip for the nightly broadcast,” the old fart commentator said. “Thanks, Luke.” He grinned, sticking out his hand for me to shake.
I dropped my eyes to his hand and then turned to glare at Rodriguez again. The commentator walked off after a few seconds. Around me the reporters began packing up their shit.
“Hey man, no hard feelings, right?” Someone from Rodriguez’s camp came over to me grinning.
I started to tell him to fuck off, but then I thought better of it. Grinning, I took his offered hand in mine, squeezing it tightly. His face turned red as I pulled him in closer to me. “Tell your fucking lackey that if he or anyone on his team ever disrespects my lady again, I’m going to fucking choke the living shit out of them. I don’t give a fuck if we’re being filmed or not.” With that, I released the dickhead’s hand and watched as he gathered himself, before heading back over to the door where Rodriguez stood.
I glared at both of them as they exited the gym, along with the rest of his crew.
“They were trying to get under your skin. You let them,” Syd scolded, giving me a searing look.
“You know how delectable you look when you’re all pissed off like this?”
“Luke, be serious,” she hissed.
“I am being serious. I wanna fuck the shit outta you, right now.”
“I swear to God.” She stomped her foot and my cock jumped. Damn, I needed to hear her moan again and soon.
“Luke, we need to talk. I—”
“Luke,” Lenny called from behind Syd, approaching us both. “That was great, man. I mean, you were a little more on edge than I would’ve liked or recommended, but Gregg’s right. Your response will be a good five second clip for the sports reports tonight and going into the weekend. I’m already fielding calls from three different companies who want to offer you sponsorship deals for the fight. We need to talk this through.”
“Dammit, Lenny you really have piss poor timing,” I growled.
He frowned, looking between Syd and I. “Was I interrupting something?”
“No.”
“Yes.”
Syd and I answered at the same time, causing my face to morph into a scowl.
“You weren’t interrupting at all, Lenny. Go ahead and talk with Luke. I have to head out anyway to finish some work at home. Don’t keep our guy out too late. He’s got an early morning workout scheduled.” Syd tossed me a wink, before grabbing her handbag from the chair where she’d been sitting earlier, and headed in the direction of the front door.
To say everything inside me wanted to call her back. I wanted to pull her to me and let her know that she’d come home with me and sleep in my bed that night. Yet, she was right.
I needed to talk with Lenny about business. It was also probably a good idea to keep my distance from her for the night. Especially since I knew the following night, we wouldn’t have the distractions of Lenny and this fucking press conference.
Chapter 24
Rope A Dope
Luke
“You made me shower and change to bring me up to the damn roof?” I asked, standing behind Syd right before she pushed open the door that led to the rooftop of my gym
“No,” she said, glancing back at me before opening the door.
When she did, I cocked my head to the side and surveyed how she’d transformed the top of my building. The barebones space that was usually occupied by nothing but a couple of lawn chairs, was covered in artificial grass, new low-sitting deck chairs with huge pillows and at the center of the space sat a square, wooden table with candles on it. The most interesting feature, however, was the huge screen set up in front of the chairs.
