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“And after that?”

“I’ve got a fight tonight.”

She didn’t flinch, but I saw the half-second pause, the way her breath caught before she smoothed it out. “At the gym?”

I nodded once. “Private match. Closed door.”

There was a long pause. Then, with a voice too even, too light, she asked, “Can I come?”

I set my coffee down with a soft clink.

“No.”

She blinked. “No?”

“You’re not going to the fights anymore,” I said, my voice stern, my word final. “Not alone anyway. Not without me by your side and I can’t be there with you if I’m fighting in the ring.”

She leaned back in the chair, arms crossing slowly over her chest, her chin lifting just enough to tell me the fight was coming. “You’re serious?”

“I don’t want you putting yourself in danger.”

She pushed her chair back, just enough to scrape against the floor, and narrowed her eyes at me like I’d just insulted her intelligence. “You brought me into this world,” she snapped. “You can’t keep me locked up here for the rest of my life.”

I stood slowly, rounding the table. The air shifted the second I reached her. I didn’t touch her. I just leaned in until my mouth was near her ear, my breath warm against her neck.

“If you walk into that gym again without me, baby girl, I’m going to take my belt to that pretty little ass,” I said quietly.

She stopped breathing for a second.

She didn’t reply, but she didn’t need to. I pressed a slow, tender kiss to the side of her neck, letting my lips linger long enough to make her shiver.

Then I straightened, grabbed my keys off the counter, and gave her one last look.

“I’ll be gone a few hours,” I said. “Don’t leave the penthouse.”

She didn’t promise anything, and I didn’t ask her to because I already knew what she was going to do.

She was going to disobey me, and I was going to have to punish her. I grinned as I made my way out of the penthouse.

Truth be told, I was looking forward to it.

CHAPTER 30

Sloane

I didn’t leave right away.

I waited. Watched him walk out the door with the same cool, collected energy that made my pussy clench and my toes curl. I studied his broad shoulders under his tailored shirt, belt still looped through his slacks, thick leather that I couldn’t stop looking at.

Couldn’t stop thinking about.

The door shut behind him with a soft, final click, and for a moment, I just stood there in the kitchen, heart pounding as his threats echoed inside of my head.

Don’t leave the penthouse.

The command echoed in my head like it was already tattooed there, written in the low growl of his voice and the heat of his mouth on my throat.

If you walk into that gym again without me, baby girl, I’m going to take my belt to that pretty little ass.