I don't.
"Your eye's still bleeding," I say softly.
Danny touches it absently, looks at the blood on his fingers like he'd forgotten about it. "It's fine."
"It's not fine. You need—"
"Joanna." He steps closer. So close now I can smell the sweat and copper tang of blood on him. So close I can see his chest still heaving slightly. "Why are you really here tonight?"
My mouth goes dry. "I told you. To thank you."
"You could've done that next time you saw me. Could've waited until I wasn't—" He gestures vaguely at himself. At the blood and sweat and violence still clinging to him. "Like this."
He's right. I could have waited. Should have waited. But I'd traded shifts specifically to be here tonight. Had rushed through getting Daisy settled. Had driven too fast and parked too quickly and walked into this warehouse knowing his fight might already be happening.
Because some part of me needed to see him. Needed to watch him do the thing he does, the thing that should terrify me but instead makes me feel... something.
"I wanted to see you fight," I admit. The truth feels dangerous but I say it anyway. "I wanted to understand."
"Understand what?"
"You. This. Why someone like you would—" I stop, swallow hard. "I just wanted to see."
"And now you have." His voice has gone quiet. Intense. "What do you think?"
I should lie. I should say it was horrifying, that it confirmed every reason I have to stay away from him. But I'm tired of lying.Tired of pretending I don't notice him. Tired of fighting this pull I feel every time he's near.
"I think you're the most controlled person I've ever seen," I say. "I think what you do in that ring is terrifying and brutal and somehow... beautiful. In a way I don't understand. In a way I probably shouldn't think is beautiful."
He sucks in a breath. "Joanna—"
"I should let you decompress," I interrupt, suddenly embarrassed by my own honesty. "I'm sorry. I broke the rules. I shouldn't have—"
"Don't apologize." His hand lifts like he's going to touch my face, then stops halfway. Drops back to his side. "Don't ever apologize to me."
"Your hands," I try again. "Please let me help with your hands. There's a first aid kit in the back. Just let me—"
"Okay."
I blink. "Okay?"
"Yeah." He smirks. "Okay. You can help."
"Follow me."
This is probably a mistake. Probably the start of something I'm not equipped to handle. But as I push open the door to the storage room and Danny follows me inside, all I can think is that some mistakes are worth making.
Chapter 5 - Bruiser
The storage room is too small.
I realize this the second the door closes behind us and suddenly we're in eight-by-ten feet of space that's mostly taken up by shelves of cleaning supplies, boxes of trash bags, and a metal folding chair that's seen better days.
And Joanna.
My cock's already half-hard just from following her in here, and now we're enclosed in this tiny space and I can smell her: strawberries, sweet and clean, cutting through the warehouse stench of blood and sweat that clings to me, and it's taking every ounce of control I have not to back her against that wall and...
I need to fucking stop. I’m being a fucking animal.
