"You're insane," I muttered with a smile as he dropped me down onto his bed, then covered me with his naked body. "But I think I like you anyway."
He arched a brow at me, running his hands down my bare sides possessively. "Like? Hmm, I think you more than like me, Hellcat." His eyes were pure mischief. "I just have to work harder to shake loose that mental filter."
I bit my lip, not disagreeing. Also, I really wanted to see what he considered working harder.
As Steele reached over to his bedside table for lube, then flipped me on my stomach, I made a mental note to thank Scott. If not for him, who knew when I'd have had this opportunity to reconnect with Steele.
And he was right. I did more than like him. But the trust wasn't fully rebuilt, yet. We were getting there, though. Every day it was getting easier, and every interaction showed he was one hundred percent on my team.
No matter what.
38
Archer's charity fight was on Saturday night, but the rest of the week disappeared quickly with the amount of training Kody put him through. The two of them left early Saturday morning to drive to the venue for weigh-in and press shit, so Steele and I planned to meet them at the fight.
It was a decent drive to the town where the event was being held. So, because the event was being held at a hotel, we had booked rooms for the night. I was all kinds of excited for it, too.
Steele eyed my outfit with amusement as I skipped down the steps to where he waited beside his car and handed him my overnight bag.
"What?" I asked, propping my hands on my hips when he kept staring.
"That's what you're wearing?" He laughed, dragging his thumb across his lower lip like he couldn't decide if he was annoyed or turned right the hell on.
I beamed, smug as hell. "What, you don't like it?" I twirled to give him the full effect. It was a hoodie I'd actually ordered before the fight on Riot Night, but it hadn't arrived in time for me to wear it. When I'd gotten back from Cambodia, I'd found it tucked into the back of my closet and this felt like the perfect time for it.
"He's going to fucking die," Steele muttered, running his fingertip across the text emblazoned across my breasts. "Are you even wearing any pants under that?"
The hoodie had been way too big for me, reaching halfway down my thighs, so I'd made a last-minute decision to ditch the skirt I'd planned on wearing.
I shot him a wink. "Nope." Just a pair of deadly, knee-high stiletto boots, not dissimilar to the ones I'd worn on Riot Night.
"Fuck," Steele groaned, shaking his head. "Alright, get in the car before I change my mind and drag you back into the house."
Leaning into him, I placed a teasing kiss on his jawline. "Archer won't mind if we're late..."
Steele barked a sharp laugh. "Are you kidding? He'll probably break my damn face if his good luck charm isn't there in plenty of time. What's the threat if he loses, anyway?"
I smirked, sliding into my seat as he stepped aside, then waited until he came around the hood and took his own place behind the steering wheel.
"What makes you think there's a threat? You know I took sex off the table until he won." I gave Steele my best innocent eyes, but I wasn't fooling him for even a second.
He shot me a bullshit look. "He could have talked his way around that. There must be a threat on the line if he loses, too."
My grin spread wider, and I repeated the consequence of Archer losing this fight, verbatim. Steele's brows shot up, and he cast an interested look at me as we passed through the front gates. He gave a quick wave to the evening security guard—Dave—then turned out into the street.
"Well shit, Hellcat," he muttered after a moment of silence. "Now I want Archer to lose."
I gave him a casual shrug. "No reason we can't do both."
He drew a deep breath, his nostrils flaring and his chest rising. "Shit yes," he breathed on his exhale. "One of the many things I love about you, Hellcat. You think outside the box of societal norm."
His compliment warmed me. For the next while we just drove in companionable silence while the stereo played an epic selection of In This Moment, Amatory Riot, Vanth Falling, Aviva, and Indecency.
"Killer playlist," I murmured to him as one of my favorite songs came on, and I cranked the volume.
About half an hour into our drive, my phone started ringing. I fished it out of my bag, then sighed heavily as I saw the caller ID.
"Scott again?" Steele asked, guessing correctly. "He really doesn't give up, does he?"
I grimaced, rejecting the call. I'd lost track of how many calls I'd rejected from him now. "Apparently not." My phone immediately lit up with another incoming call from Scott. "Maybe I should just answer and let him say whatever he needs to say."
Steele shrugged. "If you want. But put him on speaker phone so I'll know if he insults you again."
I licked my lips with a grin. "And then what?"
He shot me a deadly serious look. "And then I'll break one of his bones for every word of that insult."
I swiped my thumb across the screen of my phone. "Scott," I said, switching the call to speaker. "Didn't I make myself clear the other day at school? I don't want you calling."
"Maddie, thank god! I thought something had happened. Did they hurt you?" Scott's voice was panicked and a bit nasal, like maybe his nose was blocked. Or broken.
I frowned, shooting Steele a confused look. He just shrugged back at me, as confused as I was.
"What? Did who hurt me?"
"Those fucking bastards who think they control you," Scott spat, enraged. "Do you know where I am right now? Do you know what they did to me?"
I rolled my eyes at his theatrics. He did seem to lean pretty hard on the drama of any situation.
"I'm in the hospital, Maddie," he answered his own question, not waiting for me to respond. "They broke my wrist, my nose, four ribs, and gave me a concussion. I look like I've been run over by a car!"
I wrinkled my nose, rubbing at the bridge and trying to give Scott the shocked reaction he was hoping for.
"Well, it sounds like you learned not to call anyone a desperate slut again, huh?" Whoops, that wasn't supposed to come out my mouth. Oh well, too late now.
A strangled sound came down the phone, and I got the impression that wasn't quite the level of sympathy Scott had been fishing for.
I sighed. "Look, Scott—"
"They're changing you, Maddie. This cold, bitchy attitude isn't you, it's them." His voice was filled with venom and loathing, and it hurt my brain just listening to him. As if I didn't have enough drama in my life without Scott whining about what I'm sure was a minor ass-kicking.
"Okay, sure," I agreed, not really giving a shit about his opinion. We simply weren't good enough friends for his words to hit home with any weight. "Actually, Scott, I have something I want to ask you."
"What?" he snapped back, apparently irate at my lack of fucks given.
"Did you steal all my underwear and leave a creepy message in the bottom of my drawer last week?" I met Steele's eyes as I asked this and didn’t even tense up when he took way too long to return his gaze to the road. Maybe the guys were slowly curing my fear of car crashes. Slowly.