Her words came out in a whisper. “Show me.”
But his hands were already at her hips, tugging up her dress as he deepened the kiss. Almost frantic with need, Marcy yanked open his belt and worked the buttons of his fly, her fingers trembling with an urgency she didn’t understand. Sure, it had been a while since she’d been with a guy, but she wasn’t desperate. And it wasn’t like he was about to cut and run like Preston. He didn’t know anything about her secret desires, and he never would.
“Fuck.” Jax slammed her against the door and slid his fingers along the edge of her panties. “You got any sentimental attachment to these?”
“No.” She brushed her lips over the stubble on his jaw, shuddering at the tiny burst of pain.
Jax tore her panties away with one firm tug, and her breath caught in her throat. Even when Preston had agreed to give her kink a try for one night, sex had never been like this. Raw, wild, uninhibited. She had a feeling if she growled and bit Jax, he would bite her back. Her mouth watered at the thought, and for a moment, the words danced on the tip of her tongue. Bite me. Hurt me. Spank me. Whip me. But years of suppressing her desires made her hold them back.
Swallowing hard, she shoved his jeans down his thighs, then freed his erection from his boxers. His cock, thick and hard, bounced in her direction, and she wrapped her fingers around him and squeezed. Jax groaned and covered her hand with his own, tightening her fingers around his shaft.
“Condom. Back pocket.”
With her free hand, Marcy reached around and found the condom. “Convenient.”
“I aim to please.”
She gave him one last hard stroke, then released him to open the condom. “And please you do.”
He threaded his hand through her hair, tightening his grip as she rolled the condom over his erection. A burst of pleasure-pain shot straight to her clit, and she bit back a moan. He seemed to know what she liked without her telling him. Maybe he would see into the darkest recesses of her heart and make her dreams come true.
She’d only just finished unrolling the condom when Jax cupped her ass and lifted her against his hips, bracing her against the wall as he commenced a full-on assault with his mouth. Forehead, cheeks, nose, chin, and lips. Nothing was left untouched. His hand cupped her breast, squeezing through the cotton of her dress, his thumb gliding back and forth until her nipple peaked beneath her bra. She wanted his hands on her skin, his lips and teeth on her nipple, but with the zipper at her back and his cock prodding at her entrance, she wasn’t prepared to wait.
“I want you inside me. Now.” With her arms around his neck, she levered herself up. Jax pulled back and slid one hand between her thighs and over the curve of her sex.
“Who’s in charge?”
Who’s in charge? Did he know how long she’d yearned to hear those words? To have someone who knew what he was doing take control? To give herself over in trust? Was Jax the kind of man who could dominate in bed, or was he just playing around?
Swallowing hard, she said, “You.”
He gave a satisfied grunt and pressed his lips against her ear. “Yes, that’s right. Me. You do what I say when I say, and you get only what I want to give.”
Marcy shuddered, and her pussy slicked with heat at his tone: firm, commanding, unyielding. No, Jax wasn’t playing around, and she held her breath, waiting for more.
“Are you ready for me?” He stroked along her soaked folds, then pressed one finger deep inside her. A low guttural groan was the only answer she could give as he withdrew.
“Good girl.” Jax’s fingers curled into her ass, and he lifted her, then slammed her down hard over his cock.
Marcy gasped. Oh god. So big. So thick. His shaft pressed against her inner walls, and she felt at once unbearably stretched and deliciously full. But before she could adjust to his size, he lifted her and slammed her down again. This time, it was all pleasure. So much pleasure moisture flooded her sex, and she tightened around him.
“Fuck, yes.” He lifted her again, sliding her up against the cool wood surface, the head of his cock teasing her entrance. And then he thrust in deep and hard, yanking her down until he was in so deep the tip of his cock hit her cervix. Marcy clutched at his shoulders and moaned.
“Take it.” His voice dropped to a husky growl as he lifted her and pulled her down again. “Open for me and take it all until there isn’t an inch of your pussy I haven’t touched. I want you, Marcy. I want you to be utterly and completely mine.”
And then he was hammering into her, using her momentum and the thrust of her hips to drive deeper, thrust harder, sending her desire spiraling out of control.
“Don’t stop, Jax. Don’t stop.”
He stopped, his cock buried deep inside her, his chest heaving, slicked in sweat. “Who’s in charge?”
She panted the words, the ache in her pussy overshadowing her fear that what was so arousing to her was only a game to him. “You are.”
“That means I decide if we stop.”
She gritted her teeth and nodded. If he didn’t move in the next thirty seconds, she was going to kill him.
“Say it.” His quiet command sent her pulse racing.
“You decide if we stop.”
He studied her for a long moment, then pulled out in one long, slow movement, until the head of his cock rested just inside her slit, enough to tease but not enough to satisfy. A whine escaped her lips, and she rocked against him.
“Shhh, I’ll take care of you.” Bracing her against the wall, he slid one hand between them and spread her moisture up and around her clit, his thumb circling closer and closer but never touching where she needed it most. When every muscle in her body had tightened, her need to climax so great she was prepared to beg, he thrust into her hard and fast, then pinched her clit between his thumb and forefinger, sending her tumbling over the edge before she could catch her breath.
Marcy screamed into his shoulder as pleasure crashed through her in thunderous waves, rippling out to her fingers and toes, fuzzing her brain until she tasted the tang of blood and realized she’d bitten him.
But if he noticed, he gave no sign. Instead, he pounded into her, drawing out the last waves of her orgasm. Jax stiffened inside her and came with a shout, his fingers digging into her ass.
Heart thudding, Marcy sagged against Jax’s chest and inhaled the scents of sweat and sex and the sharp, fresh tang of his cologne. If this was the only time, she wanted to remember everything. Every touch. Every taste. Every sound. Every scent. And the sheer blissful feeling of letting someone else take control.
He stroked her hair, his cheek pressed against her temple, the gentle gesture making her chest tighten with emotion. Jax was only here for a few weeks, and then he’d be gone. Her best-case scenario. No ties. No lies. No attachments. No risk of wanting to share that secret side of herself and the concomitant rejection that would follow. And yet, a sliver of longing had worked its way into her heart.
She sighed and leaned into his touch, wondering why their brief encounter was causing her so much angst. She’d had one-night stands before and walked away in the morning without any regrets.
* * *
Damn.
He could feel her pulling away, her emotional withdrawal evident in the stiffening of her body and the clench of her fist against his chest. Given the nature of their professional relationship, he’d come on too strong, but what the hell was he supposed to do when she’d made it clear what she wanted from him? He’d been holding on to his control by the thinnest of threads, but the moment she’d yanked open his belt, he was gone.
And as for getting her out of his system, he already knew one time wouldn’t be enough. But something was wrong with his little fighter, and he wasn’t going to find out what it was standing in the hallway at half-mast.
Jax excused himself to dispose of the condom and grabbed his clothes on his way to the bathroom. Yeah, he wanted her again, but if he didn’t heed the warning in her silence, it would be over bef
ore it began.
When he returned, Marcy was curled up on the couch, her tank top and pajama pants a message he couldn’t ignore. Still, he wasn’t a man easily put off. He settled beside her, throwing his arm over the back of the couch and tucking her against him, her head resting on his chest.
“You’ve never been so quiet.” He stroked a finger along her arm, delighted when goose bumps rose on her skin. So, she wasn’t unaffected by him, after all.
“I’ve never been so confused.” She softened against his chest, and Jax let out a breath. Okay, he hadn’t totally screwed it up.
“What’s confusing?”
“This.” She looked up at him, her eyes clouded with emotion. “We shouldn’t have done this. How will I train with you now? I’ve got a big event coming up, and there isn’t enough time for Reid to hire someone new.”
Jax bristled. “You don’t need someone new. I can still work with you—”
“It changes everything.” She scrubbed her hand over her face and gave him a half smile. “All I’ll be able to think about if you’re mounting me or putting me into submission is sex.”
“That’s pretty much all I thought about before,” he said, hoping his honesty would ease her tension.
Marcy gave a light laugh. “Same.”
He pressed a kiss to her forehead. “Then nothing changes. We’ll still work together to help you reach your goal.”
But how? Although dominant in the ring, Marcy was submissive in the bedroom, and he suspected that aspect of her personality was holding her back. For some reason, in the ring, her mind sent a signal to submit instead of fight, just enough to freeze her at a critical moment as her conscious awareness tried to push it away.
Jax sighed. She’d responded beautifully to his commands. How could he train her to fight submission when she so readily embraced it? He had to ensure she could maintain a barrier between personal and professional.
Not easy to do with Jax straddling the line.
* * *
Two days after her encounter with Jax, Marcy pushed open the door to Reid’s office and frowned. “So, what’s so important that you have to drag my sorry ass in here just as I was about to go home and sink into a nice hot bath?”
She tossed her gym bag on the floor and threw herself into the chair across from Reid’s desk, annoyed at being summoned before she could escape the gym after successfully avoiding talking to Jax about anything except training for the last two days. And yet, the memory of their heated encounter lingered, teased and taunted her senses. Distracting.
Reid shoved a piece of paper across his desk. “I’ve just received the new rules about the state championship. For a shot at your weight title, you need to be in the top four fighters in Washington State. If you’re in the top eight, you have a chance as an alternate. You’re number ten. They make their decision in six weeks, so if you want a secure place, you’ll need to improve your ranking.”
Marcy sucked in a sharp breath and leaned forward in her seat. “Have you heard from that new promotion, ROC, about the fight in two weeks? I could boost my ranking with a win at that event if they pick me.”
“They picked you. I just heard from them today.”
“That’s great.” A smile creased her face. “And perfect timing. A win will kick me up to number eight and…” Her breath hitched when Reid frowned. “Why the long face?”
He scraped his hand through his hair and leaned back in his chair. “Jax doesn’t think you’ll be ready.”
She looked at him, aghast. “Not ready? I’ve been training for this kind of opportunity all year. Until the last fight, I was four and oh, and that fight doesn’t count on the circuit because it was just for show. I’m ready. My issue will be sorted well before the event.”
Reid gave an uncomfortable shrug. “He doesn’t think so.”
Marcy’s blood chilled. Why had Jax told Reid there was a problem before discussing it with her? And what the hell was he thinking getting in the way of her dreams? Why had he been with her the other night? Did he know about the upcoming event? Did he feel sorry for her? Was it a pity fuck?
“You’re my coach,” she said, her voice uncharacteristically sharp. “Not him. You signed me up for that event before he even came to Excelsior. If you thought I was ready then, I’m more than ready now.”
A pained expression crossed Reid’s face. “You’d never been knocked out before I signed you up. You’d frozen before but never when it was a life-or-death situation. I don’t have the skills to deal with that kind of problem. Jax does. So I have to listen his advice, and his advice is not to put you in the ring.”
Her hands tightened on the armrests of the chair until her knuckles whitened. “You can’t pull me from the event now. My name is on the card. And I want to fight, Reid. I’ll fight and I’ll win and I’ll get a place on the list.”
“Jax thinks it would be a mistake, and I agree.” He leaned back in his chair. “You’re number ten. The state championships are a few months away. Plenty of time to deal with the problem, and maybe by then a few people will have dropped off the list.”
“That’s not a risk I’m willing to take.” She didn’t wait for his response. Even if they weren’t done, she couldn’t stay there another minute. Jax had some explaining to do.
“Marcy.”
She paused on her way out and looked back over her shoulder, smoothing her face into an expressionless mask.
Reid’s throat tightened as he swallowed. “I’m sorry. I thought he’d talked to you about it.”
Not trusting herself to speak, she walked away.
Chapter Seven
“Bastard!”
Jax grabbed a towel and wiped himself down as Marcy stalked across the mats, her shout echoing in the near-empty gym. Eyes glittering fever-bright, jaw tense, body trembling, she was breathtaking in her fury.
Don’t go there. Their nightly training sessions had become one erotic torture after the next. Rolling across the mat with Marcy’s sweet body tucked against him, wrapping himself around her and coaxing her to fight submission without giving in to his base desires had introduced a whole new level of hell for his self-control. He should never have let things go as far as they had. Talk about a major fucking disaster.
She pulled up short in front of him and drew in a ragged breath, her fists clenching and unclenching by her sides. Jax’s skin prickled. Except for the brief time they’d been intimate, he’d never seen Marcy anything but calm and controlled and maybe just a bit flustered. This was a different Marcy. Marcy in full armor.
“You told him I wasn’t ready,” she spat out. “If I don’t fight in the ROC event, I won’t have a shot at the state championship.”
His stomach tightened. Damn Reid. Their conversation was meant to be confidential, at least until he’d had a discussion with Marcy. But Reid was up against a deadline and hadn’t given him a choice.
Still, it didn’t change the facts, and he had never been one to dance around an issue.
“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t lie to him. And he’s worried you’ll wind up in the hospital again. He didn’t want to risk your safety.” Neither did he, especially not now.
Her nostrils flared. “You’re supposed to tell me first. Let me explain or fix things. Update me on my progress. I could have worked harder, trained more…”
He held up his hands, palms forward. “It doesn’t work like that, Marcy. There’s nothing else you could do. It’s a process.”
“A process.” Bitterness tinged her words. “That’s what our training has been? A process?”
The pain in her voice sliced through him with the accuracy of a surgeon’s blade. He knew exactly what she was saying. He could read between the lines. But he couldn’t give her the reassurance she so obviously needed. And he didn’t want to raise the concern that was keeping him up every night. He didn’t want to destroy her dreams, especially if he wasn’t one hundred percent certain he was right.
“Yes. It doesn’t happen at once.”
She bristled. “What about the other night? What was that? Did you fuck me because you felt guilty? Or out of pity because I’ll have to train another full year for a shot at the title? Was that your twisted way of saying sorry?”
His stomach clenched at the pain and anger in her voice. “I didn’t go looking for you the other night thinking things would turn out as they did. But you were already under my skin. I couldn’t stop thinking about you. And when I saw what you’d been hiding from me, it was too much. You’re impossible to resist. I wanted more of you than I get in the fight ring. I want the softness under your armor, too.”
“I hate you.” Her voice rose in pitch, drowning out his words. “I knew I didn’t need a coach. Especially someone who would mess up my career. If it weren’t for you, I would be on that card with the full support of Reid and the team. Now I have to fight knowing he doesn’t think I’m ready to be there.” She turned away, and he reached out and clasped her shoulder, spinning her to face him.
“Wait.”
“Don’t. Touch. Me.” She wrenched herself away, and then, as if a dam broke, she hit his chest, one frenzied blow after another until he grabbed her wrists and pinned them behind her back.
“Stop, Marcy. I don’t want to hurt you. What happened at the Tri-Star event would’ve happened even if I hadn’t been here. Reid had doubts about you before, and has the same doubts now.”
Chest heaving, chin quivering, eyes glistening with tears, she met his gaze. “Too late. You already hurt me.”
He only meant to kiss the tear away. But as his lips glided over her cheek, she turned into him and pressed her lips to his, so soft and sweet he ached with pleasure. Before she could back away, he cupped her head with his hand, holding her still, and kissed her with infinite tenderness, showing her in his gesture what she refused to hear in his words.
“Don’t.” Breaking their kiss, she choked back a sob and leaned her forehead against his chest. “I told Reid I was going to fight anyway. I want it so much. I’ve worked so hard. I’m not about to let it slip away for something so intangible I’m not even sure it’s real.”
Yield to Me Page 6