Enemy Down

by Cathryn Fox

  “Yeah, let’s go in the front, and be really quiet. I don’t want to wake anyone.”

  She nods, and for a second I think she has something on her mind, but whatever it is, she pushed it away and smiles at me. “I really had a great time.”

  “Me too.”

  We step outside, and the air is so much warmer here. I snatch the bags from the back and we quietly head inside. I usher her up the stairs and follow her to my room.

  “Home sweet home,” she says and collapses on my bed, her arms and legs moving as if she’s making snow angels. I take in her curves, the way she looks so perfect, so right on my bed.

  I open my small fridge and grab a bottle of water. I screw off the cap and give it to her for a drink.

  “Thanks, I’m parched.”

  She drinks, and hands it back. I take a big swig and set it on the nightstand, and go straight to undressing. She rolls to her side, a smile on her face as she watches me. “I’m going to jump in the shower.” I hold my hand out. “If you’re not too tired, want to join me?”

  She gives a slow nod. “I’m tired, but I think we should end this vacation with a bang, don’t you?”

  I hate hearing the word end on her lips, and I want to ask her to stay—at least until Christmas vacation—and then we can reevaluate afterward. I’m not normally a fucking coward, but I can’t bring myself to ask. What if she rejects my proposition?

  What if she doesn’t?

  I walk to the bathroom naked, and she strips, so comfortable in her skin around me as I adjust the spray and guide her in. We just stand there, letting the hot water fall over us. Her mood matches mine, mellow, lazy as exhaustion seeps into our bones. We sure as hell packed a lot into the weekend, both of us clinging to every minute and not wanting to sleep. Maybe it’s possible that she’s feeling more too. But in the end, where could this possibly go? We have different lives, different futures ahead of us.

  We wash each other with unhurried hands, taking our time touching, like it could very well be our last. She lets loose a small sigh as I remove the nozzle and spray the soap from her flesh.

  “I am so sleepy,” she says, her eyes half-lidded.

  “Me too.”

  I shut off the water, wrap her in a big towel, and dry myself off quickly. She dries off, drops the towel and climbs into bed, and I slide in beside her, our bodies slightly damp and so warm. I’ve been inside her numerous times, yet suddenly I need the connection more than I need air.

  I run my hand down her stomach and she sighs with delight. I touch her legs and no matter how exhausted she is, she widens them for me. Her inner thighs are hot as I lightly caress them, and her whimper fills the quiet in the room as I go higher and higher until I find her damp lips. But this dampness isn’t from the shower. No, she’s wet and slick from my touch. This is what I do to her and I damn well love it.

  I touch her clit, brush it lightly with my thumb, and her sleepy moans stroke my cock. I’m so goddamn tired I could barely think straight to begin with, but now, with all the blood racing to my cock, I have zero intellect left.

  I stroke her a little more, and put my finger inside her. Her hips lift, and her head falls to the side. Such a needy girl. Grinning, and wanting her to come tonight with me inside her, I climb over her, and push her legs open wider.

  “I need to be inside you, sweetness.”

  She wiggles, and the second my crown penetrates her hot pussy, something niggles in the back of my lust-rattled brain. Fuck, what is it I’m supposed to remember? Her muscles squeeze me as I enter, and that’s when it hits me, and I quickly pull out.

  “Shit, we need a condom,” I say. Her eyes go wide at first, then they soften as she places a hand on my cheek.

  “It’s okay, Christian. After our first time, I went to the doctor and went on the pill. I wanted the added protection, because neither of us want kids.”

  “Right,” I say, an odd tightness in my chest, not because I want kids, but because Maize deserves to have a family of her own, and the thoughts of her having a family that doesn’t include me in the picture simply adds to the pressure in my body.

  “So you see, we can have sex without protection.”

  “Why didn’t you tell me before this?”

  She frowns. “It takes a full cycle before I’m protected.”

  I nod, although I sense that’s not the entire truth. Maybe she was frightened by the idea of skin on skin. I’ve never had sex without a condom, either. Never wanted to. Right now, there isn’t anything I want more in the world, although I’m afraid it could fuck me over, and that taking her with no barriers, her hot flesh on mine as I orgasm, leaving a part of me in her body, might be something I can’t quite come back from.

  “You sure about this, Maize?”

  She wraps her arms around my neck, and presses her lips to mine, answering without words, and I press my crown to her opening and jerk my hips forward, entering her deeply. We both moan as intense pleasure moves through us, and I brush her hair from her face, pressing kisses to her eyes, nose, mouth, and cheeks as my heart pounds erratically against my ribcage. We move in synch and she hugs me tighter, our chests crushed together.

  I glide in and out of her slickness, and she grows hotter, wetter with each thrust. Her body moves in rhythm to mine, our moves those of long-time lovers who know how to give and how to take. Never in my life have I had anyone like Maize in my bed, and lovemaking had never ever been this good with anyone.

  Lovemaking.

  She was right when she said that’s what we’re doing. Pretty crazy for a man who fucks and doesn’t do relationships, right? What can I say? I’m falling for this woman and there isn’t a damn thing I can do to stop it, even though it can only end with loss. She’s not looking for a future with me and I’m not looking for one with her. It could never work. Right?

  “Christian,” she murmurs and presses her lips to my neck as her muscles tighten around me, her keening cry filling the room as she lets go, and tumbles into an orgasm. I breathe deep, revel in each hard clench as she milks my own release.

  “Maize…” I murmur and pound into her. She scrapes her nails along my back and the sensations reach my balls. They tighten, and the world goes dark around me as I press my mouth to her shoulder and fill her with my seed. I groan as I spurt inside her, the lack of barrier bringing on the hardest orgasm of my life. Who knew it would be so good without a condom? Then again, would it be this good with anyone, or is every nerve ending tingling because it’s Maize in my arms?

  I deplete myself and fall over her, our mouths seeking one another. I kiss her long and deep, contentment prowling through our bodies, dragging us under. “Now we sleep,” I say as her eyes fall shut and she gives a slow nod. I roll off her and her soft sleeping sounds fill the room as I chuckle quietly to myself. She stays asleep as I grab a cloth to clean her, and I can’t help but think about her transition. When she first came here, she was jumpy, awake more than she wasn’t, and now I’m sure she could sleep through an earthquake.

  I snuggle in beside her, tug the blankets up and the next thing I know, my alarm is going off. Groaning, I reach for my phone, turn it off and make sure it hasn’t woken Maize. I find her sound asleep and the thought of leaving her in bed and going to practice make my stomach cramp.

  But I don’t want to disappoint the coach or my teammates, so I crawl out from the covers and steal one last glance at Maize. The need to wake her and beg her to stay until Christmas pulls at me, but maybe I should let her cut loose now, before I’m in too deep. A sound catches in my throat and I put my hand over my mouth to silence myself. Honestly, is there any part of me that thinks I could actually get in deeper with her?

  I quietly grab my gear and scribble a note, letting her know I had to go to practice. I don’t want her to think I just took off. I stand there, debating on asking her if we can talk later. What the hell do I do? I quickly ask if she wants to grab lunch later, and to send me a text.

  Leaving the ball in her cou
rt, I head outside, and the early morning sun shines down on me. I make my way to the field, and meet up with my buddy Linc. He throws his arm around me.

  “Where have you been, anyway? You don’t come out anymore. You don’t text.”

  “Aww, what’s the matter, is Linc missing his girlfriend?” Kyle teases.

  “Fuck you,” Linc says and I know he’s right. I’ve been so caught up in Maize.

  “Just been busy.”

  “How were the slopes?” he asks and gives me a push to back me up so we can toss the ball.

  I can’t keep the stupid smile from my face as my thoughts go to Maize. “That good, huh?” he says. “Did you get some pussy?”

  “Don’t do that,” I blurt out, and he looks at me like I might have sprouted a second head. The guys can be crude, but the thoughts of him talking about Maize like that doesn’t sit well with me. Although he has no idea she came with me. I’ve been keeping things pretty low key, wanting her just for myself.

  “Shit, man, I’m sorry. You know I didn’t mean anything.” He eyes me. “Dude, is it Maize?”

  I swallow and reach for my helmet. “Yeah.” No point in lying.

  “You really like her, huh?”

  I nod. “She’s not like everyone said she was, Linc.” I toss the ball back to him, the need to defend her strong.

  “I never thought she was corn on the cob.” He grins at me, producing the dimple that drives girls crazy. “She seems more like a ball buster.”

  I laugh, as I think about the way she glared at me, like she wanted to neuter me after I took her down with my ball. “She’s not. Well, she is, but once you get to know her, she’s really sweet.” I frown. “We’re not really a couple.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?”

  I step toward him and lower my voice. “I just bought her.”

  “And now you like her, right? I’ve seen it happen.”

  “I’m just not sure how she feels.”

  “Then find out. How about a double date? Let me get to know her better, see you two together. You’ve been hiding out in that room of yours so much, I didn’t think you lived at Wolf House anymore.”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  “Double date then?”

  I don’t want to hurt his feelings, but Steph has never been one of my favorite people. Linc likes her and as long as he’s happy, that’s enough for me. I’d never say anything bad about her, but she walks around with a sense of entitlement, and easily fits in with the mean girls. I really didn’t like the look she gave Kaitlyn the day Maize hurt her ankle.

  “What do you think?” he presses.

  “Actually, I think Maize is moving back to her place today.”

  “Fuck, man, what the hell?”

  “It’s just messed up.”

  He eyes me and is about to ask more questions when the coach calls out to us. For the next couple of hours, we practice, and after we hit the showers, I catch Linc looking at me like he wants to talk, but I have to get to class. I check my phone, disappointed that there’s no message from Maize.

  My stomach drops. By now, she’s back at her own place. Am I seriously going to let that happen? Am I not a guy who fights for what he wants? Maybe I should go over there caveman-style and take her back. But I’m not going to do that if it’s not what she wants, and a few more months of fucking isn’t going to help me get over her.

  Head down, I hurry outside and walk home, wanting to drop my stuff off before class, but come to an abrupt halt when I crash into Kaitlyn outside Wolf House.

  “Whoa,” she says and falters. I quickly grab her.

  “Shit, I’m sorry.”

  “In a hurry much?”

  “Yeah, I… sorry.” I glance up at my window and the curtains are still drawn. It brings a smile to my face when I think about Maize’s venetian blind story.

  “Something funny?”

  “No, sorry, just some things on my mind. Are you here for Maize?”

  “Yeah, I’ve been texting, and she hasn’t been answering.”

  Maybe she’s still here. My heart leaps at that possibility.

  “She might still be sleeping. It was a busy weekend.”

  She grins like she knows all the details and it’s possible she does. They say guys brag, but I think girls are worse. I kind of like the thought of Maize bragging, and yes that makes me an egotistical dick, but I want her happy, and want to do nice things for her.

  I gesture toward the front door. “Do you want to come up with me?”

  She shifts from one foot to another, her eyes narrow in worry. “No, but can you give her a message for me.”

  “Yeah, sure. What is it?”

  She frowns and looks past my shoulders. “It’s bad news.” My heart thumps. Maize has been through enough already; more bad news is something she doesn’t need to hear. “And maybe it’s better coming from you than me.” She snorts. “Shoot the messenger and all.”

  “What is it?” I ask, my heart still thumping. Did something bad happen back home? Christ, her mother is all she has, if anything happened… I take a breath and try not to get too ahead of myself, and the truth is, her mother might be her only family, but she has others she can count on, like Kaitlyn and me.

  “First, let me thank you for getting our deadbeat landlord off his fat ass. He’s been getting things done around the place,” she says, and I nod, wanting her to get to the point. “The bad news is, they were banging around, and a pipe broke. The place is a mess, and we won’t have any hot water for a while.” A stupid ridiculous smile tugs up the corners of my mouth and I scrub my face to hide it. “I know it’s an imposition, but is there any chance she can stay with you a little longer. I know it’s a lot, and you’ve put out—”

  “ I like to put out,” I blurt out like an idiot, and she bites her lips to hide her smile. “I mean, sure, if that’s what she needs. She’s more than welcome to stay for as long as she wants. She’ll be going home for Christmas, but until then…” Why am I babbling and why do I have this ridiculous need to keep her until the next holiday?

  She shakes her head and kicks a pebble. “Bad luck seems to follow her.”

  “Yeah, that’s too bad.”

  Too bad for her, but great for me. Best I keep that to myself.

  20

  Maize

  “Freedom!” Christian blurts out as he comes racing into his room, excited like a child on Christmas morning, and with the holidays just around the corner, why shouldn’t he be?

  I spin, his loud voice and high energy surprising me. I love his enthusiasm and I am excited to go home for a couple of weeks, but maybe I’m a little less excited than he is, which sounds awful and selfish. After spending all my time at Christian’s—thank you, broken pipe—I’m not quite ready to go home. He’ll be going his way, and I’ll be going mine, and honestly since the accident, I’ve not gone more than a day without seeing him. He still disappears on Sundays for a few hours, and whatever he’s doing he’s keeping it secret. I have to respect that—and try not to read too much into it—because I know he’s a very private person. But even when he was on the road for a game, we always texted or video messaged. I’ve gotten entirely too used to it.

  “I take it you did well on your exam,” I say, as I fold our laundry. Crazy that we’ve been doing our laundry together since Thanksgiving, our clothes and underwear mingling in the washer and dryer. It’s odd how that makes me giggle just a little bit.

  “Fantastic. How did yours go?”

  I crinkle my nose. “It went.”

  “Come on, you’ve been studying for weeks. You must have nailed it. Or maybe you weren’t studying like you said you were. I could never find you when I went to the library. You always just seemed to have…” he pauses to do quotes around the words, ‘Just finished.’ He arches his brow playfully, but I don’t miss the questions lingering in his eyes—was I really at the library, and if not, why would I lie about it? He’s going to find out soon.

  I gaze at the ma
n who has worked his way into my heart. Honestly, I don’t want our time to be over and I’m damn tired of being afraid that he doesn’t care for me the way I care for him. He’s kind, sincere, always there for me. I can’t help but think he wouldn’t be if he didn’t want something deeper. This goes beyond responsibility for hitting me with the ball. This morning when I woke, I came to the conclusion that right after Christmas, when we agreed this arrangement would end, I’d have a talk with him on the way home in the car, and get to the bottom of where we stand once and for all.

  “Yeah, your timing really sucks, and speaking of nailed it,” I tease, wanting to change the subject, because he’s right. Most times I fibbed, saying I was at the library, even though I wasn’t. I don’t like to lie, but those little ones were quite necessary. Living here with him, and being together all the time, prevented me from having too much alone time, and alone time was needed for what I’ve been planning.

  “Oh, something on your mind?” He pulls me into his arms and plants a kiss onto my mouth like it’s the most natural thing in the world…like I’m his and he’s mine.

  “We both rushed out of here so fast, with nothing but a granola bar in our stomachs, I’m thinking of food.”

  “You want to grab a late breakfast before we hit the road home?”

  I give him a mischievous smile. “Something like that.”

  “Drive to Juleps Café?”

  “Actually, I was thinking more along the lines of having breakfast here.” I run my hands through his mess of hair, and smooth it back to showcase his handsome face. Unable to help myself, I lean into him and press a soft kiss to his lips. I linger there for a moment, and expel a contented sigh.

  “I can make us something,” he says.

  “Nope, I’m cooking,” I whisper back. “I am your servant, right?”

  He laughs. “You know I was kidding. I just wanted into your panties.”

  I grin. “Still, I want to cook.”

  He slaps my ass. “Okay, let me wash up and we’ll cook.” He goes into the bathroom and he speaks over the running tap. “You must be excited to see your Mom tonight.”