The Mercenary and the Mortician (The Silent Hollow #1)

36. Cal Walker

Alexa, play: Fistfight - The Ballroom Thieves

I t was insane how easy it was for Ryan to trigger me. Honestly, I was pretty proud of myself for handling this situation as calmly as I did. When I walked into that cafe and heard that chick proposition him, I nearly murdered her right in the middle of that coffee shop.

The only thing that stopped me was the fact that Ryan would have, for sure, never spoken to me again. Like, even if I kidnapped him and tied him up, I didn’t think he would ever get over me breaking an innocent woman’s neck in front of him.

Sooooo, I let her go.

Womp womp.

He kept trying to talk to me in the car, but I needed a minute to gather my thoughts and figure out what I was going to do about him. The fact that I had come that close to impulsively murdering a bitch was somewhat concerning.

I was definitely a little reckless at times, but even I knew better than to off someone in the middle of a public space in broad daylight. The fact that Ryan had the power to make me that crazy was a problem.

I’m not going to lie; I contemplated just killing him and being done with it for the majority of the drive. That was why I brought us to a secluded spot.

But, when he straight up asked me if I brought him there to kill him, and he looked at me with those fucking gorgeous brandy eyes—I knew I was fucked.

I would never kill Ryan Fairview simply because I couldn’t own someone if they were fucking dead.

He was mine. As much as he didn’t have a choice in it, neither did I. So, the only option here was to make it clear that he was officially off limits to anyone else.

I’d started the conversation intending to essentially tell him that. Imagine my fucking surprise when my little ginger snap decided he wanted to make a game out of it.

The game he proposed wasn’t about whether or not we would be engaging in a relationship of some kind.

Nope.

It was about who was in charge of said relationship, which was not what I had been expecting.

The darkness that had been swirling in my chest since I had seen him sitting with that woman evaporated and was replaced with something much more safe and familiar.

My sweet, loveable little ginger snap wanted a fight for dominance, so a fight he was going to fucking get.

He was so cute and confident. He even used his ‘businessman voice’ on me, like that made him the boss or something.

I just wanted to pinch his fucking cheeks!

God, I couldn’t wait to fuck the sass right out of him.

I snatched up a bottle of lube on my way out of the car because there was absolutely no fucking way Ryan was going to win this fight. And once I inevitably beat him down, I was planning on finger fucking his ass until he agreed to all of my rules.

As much as I wanted to actually fuck him, I wouldn’t be doing that today. I hadn’t been kidding when I told him I was too big for him. There was no way I was shoving my dick up there until I had taken the time to properly prep him, so my fingers would have to do for now.

But as I followed him out into the field and he bounced on the balls of his feet, shaking his arms out to warm up, all I could think was how good he was going to look bent over with his ass in the air and completely at my mercy.

“You ready?” He asked, still hopping around like his feet were on fire.

I smirked at him.

“Oh yeah, baby. I was born ready.”

I let him take the offensive. There was no way I was giving him any chance to whine and complain that I had come at him without fair warning.

He wanted me to play fair? Fine. I would beat his ass fair and fucking square, then claim my prize.

I had to admit, he was pretty good. It was obvious he had been boxing for several years. He was no novice.

He moved like lightning, and I had to work harder than I would ever admit to evade his jabs.

I blocked his first right hook, catching it with my forearm. It connected squarely and sent a splintering shock of pain reverberating through my entire arm.

Fucking hot.

He didn’t wait for me to recover. He aimed for my gut with a left undercut and caught me in the ribs. I braced against the impact, preventing him from winding me, and almost chuckled at the flash of triumph that glittered in his eyes.

Premature cele, baby.

I cracked him across the face, directly over the bruise he was already healing, and he grunted in pain, stumbling back and away from me.

“Come on, Ryan. Rookie mistake. You’re better than that,” I crooned, doing my best to pretend I wasn’t out of breath. “Keep your fists up!”

“Fuck you!” he spat and came at me again with a devastating combo. I nearly laughed out loud when I realized he was legitimately trying to knock me out.

I blocked two jabs and dodged a cross just to get smoked with an uppercut.

He caught me so hard in the jaw that, for a moment, I worried he cracked a molar, but luckily, my cheek got in the way.

I spit out a mouthful of blood and grinned at him.

“Much better, baby,” I praised, waiting for him to come at me again. He rushed me, fists flying, and I laughed as I was forced to duck and block several well-placed strikes. We played like this for a few more rounds. Or at least, I was playing. Ginger snap was out for blood. He was really trying to actually take me out, and it was so hot I could barely get enough.

After several minutes, we were both panting and bleeding. His knuckles were split, and his right eye was swollen shut.

Fuck, hope he didn’t have a service in the next few days. He was gonna be hella pissed about his face next time he looked in a mirror.

But he didn’t seem to be worried about it right now. His gaze was on fire, and he had a half-cocked grin on his face.

He was fucking loving this as much as I was.

“Come on, Cal! Quit fucking around. I know you’re holding back!” he yelled, and I shrugged.

“Wanted to give you a chance to get all your aggression out before I bend you the fuck over, ginger snap. I won’t be tolerating this sort of behavior once you’re under me, so enjoy it while it lasts.”

“Fuck you! I would like to see you try,” he snarled, and I grinned.

“Is that a challenge?” I purred as we circled each other.

“You bet your ass it is.”

I laughed. “It’s not my ass that’s on the line, baby.”

He flipped me off, and that was the final straw. He was right. I had been holding back.

You didn’t survive in my world as long as I did by losing.

Ryan barely saw it coming when I stepped into him. He was expecting me to come in from the right since that was my dominant side. But I cut him with a left cross, followed by several quick jabs to the gut.

I hooked my leg behind his knee while he tried to catch his breath and just… shoved.

He went down.

Within seconds, I was on top of him. I flipped him onto his stomach. He was still trying to breathe past the vacuum I had knocked into his chest when I wrapped my hand around the back of his neck and crushed his face into the grass. Pressing my knee between his shoulder blades, I put my entire body weight on his back.

Leaning forward, I grazed my lips across the shell of his ear and reveled in the way he quivered beneath me.

He was so goddamn responsive.

“Undo your jeans and slide them down, Ryan.”

“ Fuck… you!” He spat and coughed, his struggle for breath made worse by my knee on his back.

I sighed and used my free hand to undo my belt and pull it out of my belt loops. I stuffed one end under his neck and single-handedly threaded it through the buckle, creating a noose.

He groaned beneath me as the belt tightened around his neck, but I knew that groan.

That was his sexy groan.

I smirked.

Kinky little freak. The quiet ones are always the wildest ones in bed.

Almost as if he wanted to validate my internal thoughts, he seemed to inadvertently hump his hips into the ground as I tightened the belt further.

“Let’s try that again, Ryan. Undo your pants and slide them down. If you don’t, I’ll tear them the fuck off you and take you home with your dick out. You choose.”