Page 68 of The Billionaire's Secret

He slams one gloved fist into the other. "Tired already? Heard you had trouble with your performance with some woman the other day. You losing your touch, motherfucker?"

I bare my lips. First, that slip of a woman had made me lose control completely. Now, this tosser actually thinks he can defeat me? "I’ve never lost a fight with you before."

"Always a first time." He hunches his shoulders, takes his stance. "You going to attack or are you going to yammer all day like a pussy?"

"The fuck?" Anger claws my insides. It’s not at my douchebag of a friend, who’s grinning like the joke’s on me…which it is… I mean, I am not that far up my own arse that I don’t see the signs. Coming undone around a woman while trying to figure out what the hell her game is and drawing a blank every single time? Not advisable. Especially when, clearly, she doesn’t share the same feelings I have for her… Hold on. Hold… The fuck... On…Feelings?

Who the fuck talks about feelings?

There is none of that here. This is pure and simple, a challenge I took on… And purely because she intrigues me. And yeah, she had belonged to the motherfucker who had ruined our lives… And he is dead... But so what? Doesn’t mean I can’t make him pay by owning the woman who had been his wife. Possession is 9/10ths of the law , or what-fucking-ever that means. There. I have admitted it to myself. It’s a chance to get some retribution for what was done to me and the rest of the Seven. That is the only reason I had embarked on this crazy mission. That’s all.

"You okay, Saint?" Arpad frowns.

"The fuck you going on about, dickhead?"

"Just," he rolls his shoulders, "you were mumbling to yourself."

"I wasn’t."

"Yep." He nods, "So, it’s true then."

"Do I even want to know what you are yodeling on about?"

"You tell me."

"Nothing to confess… And PS, the last time I checked, you weren’t the priest among us."

"But I am the best to forgive your sins, considering nothing you say or do could ever shock me." He leans forward on the balls of his feet. "After all, with Jace and Sinclair out of the picture, you and I head up the list of most-wanted felons of the carnal kind."

"When it comes to pleasures of the flesh, I’m ahead of both of you," a new voice chimes in.

I jerk my head as Weston enters the room.

"Too bad you don’t fight," I rub the back of my neck, "else it would have been satisfying taking you both on at the same time."

"You know I can’t get in the ring. Have to save my fingers," he flexes his digits, "for important procedures."

I smirk, "Is that the operation theater or the theater of operations you’re talking about?"

"Both," he chuckles. "So you have some of your faculties left about you?"

I throw up my hands, "What the hell are you two nattering on like gossiping women about? I—"

My neck snaps back. "Fuck." I reel back from Arpad’s blow. The world tilts. I glance up from my prone position on the floor of the ring, to meet Arpad’s snickering expression.

I spit out blood, "Fucker."

"My pleasure." He holds out his arm and when I take it, he hauls me to my feet. My ears ring; pain fills the cavity behind my eyes. I shake my head to clear it. "Asshole." I train my gaze between the two grinning idiots.

"Now that we have that out of the way..." Arpad uses his teeth to undo the straps on the gloves.

"So..." He turns to me, "What’s gotten your knickers in such a twist, that you went down in the first round?"

"None of your business." I strip off my own gloves, drop them to my feet.

"Oh, but it is." Weston steps into the ring.

I glance up as they close in on me.