Hayden's Kiss: Submit to Me Trilogy, #2

By Laura Day

Hayden's Kiss is book 2 in the Submit to Me Trilogy. Book 3, Hayden's Heart is available everywhere now!

I BREAK THINGS. I RUIN LIVES

HAYDEN
I break my opponents in the ring, and I break women’s hearts every morning.
F*** and forget has been my motto my whole life.

But then came Sela.
With so much innocence that it’s almost a sin to put her next to me.

It was supposed to be a single night. She was supposed to be gone in the moring.
But somehow I can’t get her out of my head.

And every time I see her…
… I can’t help hear my own voice growl “MINE.”

SELA
I wanted to live that night. To be reckless.
Wild.

He showed up like a whirlwind with strong hands and dark gaze full of promises.
He left me craving him… 
Every taste, every touch burned in a way I had never felt before. 

And the next day? We’re enemies.

At least, I thought so. 
Because if we hate each other so much, why can’t we stop coming back for more?

• Language: English
• Publisher: eBook Publishing World
• Release date: Nov 15, 2017
• ISBN: 9781386198369

Book preview

HAYDEN’S KISS: Submit to Me Trilogy, Book 2

By Laura Day

I BREAK THINGS. I RUIN LIVES.

HAYDEN

I break my opponents in the ring, and I break women’s hearts every morning.

F*** and forget has been my motto my whole life.

But then came Sela.

With so much innocence that it’s almost a sin to put her next to me.

It was supposed to be a single night. She was supposed to be gone in the moring.

But somehow I can’t get her out of my head.

And every time I see her...

... I can’t help hear my own voice growl MINE.

SELA

I wanted to live that night. To be reckless.

Wild.

He showed up like a whirlwind with strong hands and dark gaze full of promises.

He left me craving him...

Every taste, every touch burned in a way I had never felt before.

And the next day? We’re enemies.

At least, I thought so.

Because if we hate each other so much, why can’t we stop coming back for more?

CHAPTER 1

Hayden could barely move the next morning. His left eye was so large and bruised he could barely pry it open. His ribs ached and throbbed any time he dared to move. His split lip stung. His head was pounding. He tried to sit up, but he struggled to lift his back off the bed before ultimately falling back down. He put his hand on his stomach and winced. This was worse than he thought it would be.

With a heavy huff he managed to roll over onto his side, grunting as he used his arm to push himself up. There were two ibuprofens and a bottle of water by his bed. He swallowed three pills with a few chugs of his room temperature water; then he felt like he deserved a break. Sitting up and then picking up the water had taken a lot out of him.

He knew he needed to do some training today. He always made Axel fight after a tough training. No sulking, he used to say. How had he managed to forget how hard losing a match was? It felt like his body had been put through a meat grinder and then made into a hamburger and eaten by someone. How was he supposed to train when he could barely move?

He heaved to his feet and made his way to the bathroom. He had to get up and get back in the ring; if he were a coach that’s exactly what he would make his trainee do. But it would be too easy to just flop back into bed and lie there for the entire day. That was the danger. There was no one else pushing him. There was only Hayden; he needed to be his own coach. He couldn’t let himself get weak. He couldn’t give in to his weaker desires. He had to think of the big picture and remember what he was fighting for. So, he decided that if he could get up and move around, he could train. He just needed to give his painkillers time to kick in.

Once he was in the bathroom Hayden leaned heavily against the sink. He raised his eyes to look at his reflection and physically recoiled. His eye was not only black and blue, but also a sickly yellowish green in certain places. The bruise was huge, his forehead was bulging out, his eye was nothing but a narrow slit surrounded by bruised tissue. He looked like a monster.

He managed to splash a little water on his face before making his way to the kitchen where he grabbed an ice pack and gingerly put it on his eye. It hurt like hell when it touched the bruise, giving him a stinging and throbbing pain all at the same time. But slowly the throbbing and stinging subsided as the coolness from the ice spread to his damaged face.

He would sit for a few minutes with the ice and then he would go to the gym and do some cardio, lifting, and stretching for a few hours. He would spend another half day in the gym for the next two days and then he would be back to his full schedule.

He couldn’t let one loss knock him out. He had come out here to prove he could be a fighter. He didn’t need a coach because he could be his own coach. He could push himself as hard as he needed to. He could do this. He wasn’t going to let Dalton Reeves scare him out of the ring.

His phone buzzed. He looked down and saw a message from Sela. Still on for Saturday? Saturday was in two days. He couldn’t meet with her two days. He would be training in two days. He needed to put his training first. He liked Sela, but he had just had taken a beating; he needed to train harder and spend more time in the gym. He couldn’t let a woman distract him, no matter how amazing she was. No woman was better than victory.

She was amazing, though, and the sex had been phenomenal, but it just seemed too complicated to have her in his life. He couldn’t split his focus between her and his fighting career. He didn’t have the time to train and date at the same time. He could only focus on one. Besides, she didn’t know who he really was. She didn’t know his real last name or what he had done. Was he going to start a relationship based on lies? How long did he think he could keep something like that going?

It took him twenty minutes to get dressed and another twenty to get to his motorcycle. Every step he took was agony. Every laugh or sneeze a personal torture. But he was moving, he was walking, and that was all he needed. If he could walk, he could train.

He pulled up to the gym and made his way to the front door. It was, as always, a stunningly beautiful day. The skies above him were a pristine blue dotted here and there with the occasional white cloud. He hadn’t spent much time outside since he had been there. He remembered the park Sela had showed him; it had dark green grass and clear blue pools. Maybe he didn’t need to spend every day in this gym. There were other places he could train.

He pushed the doors open and smelled the air of the gym: a dampness mixed with the plastic of the mats and the general smell of sweat. It wasn’t an unpleasant smell to Hayden; it was too familiar for that. With confidence he walked into the gym nodding at Sean who was leaning back in his chair reading a newspaper. He lowered it down slowly and let out a low whistle as he looked at Hayden.

You look like shit, Sean said, shaking his head.

Yeah, Hayden agreed with a wince as he lowered his pack. I got my ass handed to me the other day.

But you came back in. That shows some real strength there, kid.

I joined this gym to train and I signed up for the whole year. I don’t like to waste my money.

That’s a good philosophy. I don’t like wasting money either. But look, just between the two of us, and here he leaned over the counter and motioned for Hayden to