“Babe, you were so good!” Cassie yelled, and though John was clearly winded, he laughed and supported her weight. “Are you hurting a lot? Can I take care of you?”
“What did you have in mind?” John said with a smirk as he set Cassie back on her feet, and she swatted him playfully. Marla walked over to congratulate him, turning her back to the ring, where a few guys were disinfecting the mat in preparation for the next round.
“That was…something else,” Marla said, and John shrugged.
“It’s what we do,” he said. “I mean, it’s just a hobby for me. Some of these guys have designs on the big time.”
An image flashed in Marla’s head of the two men she’d observed who’d seemed to be observing her, too. That same thrill ignited in her stomach again, and though it disturbed her a bit, she passed it off as a side effect of the vodka she’d been sipping. But they had certainly looked serious…though whether it was about her, or the fight, she couldn’t say.
“Let me look at this,” Cassie said, rising up on her tiptoes to examine the cut on John’s head. The men around them were passing by, slapping John on the back and offering their own congratulations, which he took with a humble smile and thanks.
“It’s not so bad,” he said. “I can tell, it’s pretty shallow.”
“True, but,” Cassie said, reaching past John’s sweaty figure to grab at Marla’s bag. Marla relinquished her grip and let Cassie rifle through it before pulling out the flask. “I think some alcohol would help, all the same.”
John laughed and took a sip, passing the flask back to Cassie, who also sipped before handing it to Marla, who shrugged and indulged in another gulp of her own. She was starting to feel quite pleasantly warm and buzzed.
As John shuffled off to the showers to nurse his cut and wash off the sweat, the two girls turned their attention back to the ring. Marla released an audible gasp: the two men from across the ring were in the center, squaring off the same way John had at the beginning of his fight. Only, for whatever reason, Marla saw a lot more in their actions than she had in John’s.
The fair-haired one seemed to move like some sort of wild cat from an exotic jungle, muscles rippling like butter as he slammed himself into his dark-haired opponent, his legs forcing them into the ropes as fists pummeled his lean, cut torso.
The dark-haired man, on the other hand, was like a bear, a beast of pure power and wrath, his mouth even opening in a silent roar as he toppled the blonde to the ground; but he wasn’t on top for long. The blonde man swung his legs around the opponent, and in a display of sheer strength, flipped him onto his back, his fists ravaging his sides.
Marla was absolutely awe-struck. It was more like a choreographed dance than John’s had been. Something told her that these two men really knew what they were doing, pursued it with all their hearts, not just as a hobby. Too soon, it was over, the dark-haired man being declared the winner while the blonde spat on the ground and stormed out. Marla turned to Cassie; to her surprise, her friend was busy texting someone, and probably hadn’t caught even a minute of the match.
“Didn’t you see that?” Marla blurted out before realizing that Cassie was just there for John – why should she care about any of the other fighters? As though confirming this, Cassie looked up from her phone confusedly, scanning the room for something out-of-the-ordinary enough to pay attention to.
“See what?” Cassie asked.
“Nothing,” Marla mumbled, wondering why she herself, who really couldn’t give a rat’s ass about fighting, had been so amazed.
“Okay,” Cass said. “Weirdo. Where’s that drink?”
CHAPTER TWO
An hour later, half the gym had poured into the bar. They were surprisingly well-mannered, or at least quiet, for a gym full of pumped-up dudes. John, Cassie, and Marla had taken a table in the middle of the bar. Marla had noticed the two men who’d fought the second round were also in attendance, standing at the bar.
Marla couldn’t keep her eyes away from the two men, and it was clearly starting to show.
“Someone sees something she liiiiikes,” Cassie sang into her ear. Marla blushed and turned her attention back to the group. John was studying her with a concerned look.
“Hey, just to let you know…I mean, do whatever you want, you know, have fun, but…” he let his sentence trail off as though he wasn’t sure how to finish it.
“But?” Cassie prompted, nudging him slightly.
“I’ve just heard those guys are…intense. Kinda…out there. Or, I don’t know; they kind of stick to themselves, and they don’t really…get along with all the guys here,” he said, shaking his head slightly while taking a sip of his beer.
“How do you mean?” Marla asked, brow furrowing now. Of course, I’d pick the two guys in this whole crowd that I actually shouldn’t be interested in, she thought, frustrated.
“Just, they’re the type to pick fights in the parking lot. And they go through women like underwear. I mean, there’s nothing bad about them, I guess. They just have a lot of attitude. Kind of full of themselves, you know?”
“I just don’t really get why they’re being all chummy now after beating the shit out of each other,” Cassie noted. John shrugged.
“They’re best friends. Been that way since middle school, from what they say. Everyone at the gym fights each other. Honestly, they’re probably the only ones willing to go into the ring with each other. They’re pretty cutthroat. Might go pro, from what I understand,” John said, turning his attention back to Marla.
“If you’re looking for a one-night thing, I mean, go for it. Whichever one you like, whatever. But if he starts getting rough…well, I’d just have my guard up. They wouldn’t hurt you, I don’t think, but judging from Todd, your tastes don’t really run towards the…uh…more aggressive type.”
“Well, Todd was a royal fuckass, so I think Marla should try the opposite of him on for size. And – shit – we saw those bodies. They’d certainly drive Todd into the ground,” Cassie said. Marla sighed, getting distracted by hearing her ex-lover’s name brought up so many times in a row. It made her feel anything but confident and willing to experiment with a new type of guy.
“Can we stop using the ‘T’ word?” she asked, taking a big sip of her beer in order to regain some of those good feelings she’d been having moments ago.
“Oh, shit yeah we can,” Cassie said, draping an arm around Marla. “Someone’s getting laid tonight, someone’s getting laid toniiiiiight.”
Marla could only grin and shake her friend. Cassie’s penchant for singing went into overdrive whenever she drank.
“But not if you don’t talk to them first,” Cassie said, leaning in to whisper into Marla’s ear once more. She turned back to the table. “I nominate Marla to buy the next round, and, in doing so, to get as close to those hunks as she possible can.”
As though to say that this next round should happen now, Cassie slugged the rest of her mixed drink and patted the bottom of Marla’s glass. With an affectionate eye roll, Marla glugged the last of her beer.
“You too?” she asked John, who was only halfway through his beer.
“Gotta take it slow. I’m driving you two drunks home, remember?”
“Gotcha,” Marla said, rising and swaying through the dotted crowd to the bar. There was a spot right next to the two men she’d been entranced with, and as though her presence was a magnet for their attention, they both turned to her. Her heart quickened a pace. She wasn’t even sure which one she liked more - the dark, blue-eyed one or the blonde, brown-eyed one.
You don’t even know their names, she reminded herself, answering their interested gaze with a smile. She happened to be standing closer to the black-haired man, and he stuck his hand out.
“I saw you at the fight. You seemed pretty entranced. I’m Tanner,” he said. Marla blushed, not really having expected him to be so upfront. But she took his hand, and as soon as she did she kind of regretted it. An electric shock ran up her spi
ne. He smelled like baby powder and man, even overpowering the stale beer smell of the bar.
“Marla,” she said. “You fought good.”
Two pairs of eyebrows raised, two smiles broadened slightly. Marla blushed harder.
“I mean, I don’t really…I don’t really know anything about fighting, I just kind of assumed…it was good…I mean, I wouldn’t have survived being in that ring, haha,” she said, feeling dumber by the word. The two men exchanged a strange look before the blonde moved closer, extending his hand as well.
“Cage,” he said.
“Huh?” Marla said, taking his hand but not understanding. “Oh, I thought it was a ring, but I guess cage makes sense, too…”
“No,” he said with a chuckle. “Cage is my name.”
“Oh! Ah, I see…oh, cool, well nice to meet you,” Marla said, thankful that the bartender had just noticed her and was waiting for her to place her order.
“Uh, cranberry vodka and a Shipyard,” she said, sliding a ten dollar bill across the bar.
“Double fisting tonight?” Tanner asked with a friendlier smile than he’d had previously.
“Oh, uh, no, one is for my friend, Cass, she’s dating John?”
“Oh, sure,” Cage said. “John’s good.”
“Yeah, I mean, I guess, he won and all so…”
A moment passed in silence, and Marla’s brain skipped like a record, looking for something to add to the conversation. Her heart rate was still well above normal, and that beer couldn’t come fast enough. She wanted to retreat to the safety of Cassie and John, and admire these two spectacular specimens from afar, as she had been.
“Listen,” Tanner said. “You’ve been looking at us all night.”
Marla blushed harder than she thought was humanly possible. If she’d been drinking something, she would have choked on it.
“Uh…I…uh…”
“It’s cool, you look…cool,” Cage added.
“Why don’t you give your friend her drink, and then come sit with us?” Tanner said.
Marla almost wanted to scream. This seemed so…unnatural. All her relationships, be they one-night stands or three-year affairs, had started with the same getting-to-know-you, will-you-or-won’t-you, interested-or-not song and dance. The upfront way in which Cage and Tanner invited her interest as a given, and acceptable to them, was…well, it seemed almost inhuman.
“Uh,” Marla said, seeing the bartender return, relief a physical experience to her knotted stomach. “I…I don’t know. I’ll…I’ll see!”
She grabbed the drinks and ran off, nearly hopping back to Cass and John’s table.
“Oh my God,” she said, breathless. “They just like…they just totally like…said they saw me looking and…and totally asked me to sit with them! Just like, out of nowhere! Like, not even awkward about it!”
Her usually impeccable English skills were failing her. She felt like she sounded like a crazed hormonal teenager whose crush just asked her to the dance.
“Uh, so why are you back here?” Cassie prompted. “Go on and get you some, girl!”
“But you don’t think that’s weird?” Marla argued, mind still reeling. “Not at all strange?”
“Um, no. It’s confident. Confidence: something you lack in spades, Marla,” Cassie said, turning on her lawyer voice. John glared at Cassie, his look not lost on Marla. But Cassie would have none of it.
“I swear, Marla, if you don’t at least flirt with one of them, you’re doing yourself a hell of a disservice. It’s not like they asked you to go back to their sex dungeon. They asked you to sit and talk with them. Probably because you’re hot. And they’re hoping you’ll be interested enough in one of them to go home with them. I can’t tell you what to do, but you’re never going to get over…him…if you don’t realize that you’re a catch, and that he was an asshole for not seeing that,” Cassie said, sitting back in her chair like she’d just presented an open-and-shut case in a courtroom. Marla’s eyes flitted to John.
“What do you think?” she asked. He shrugged.
“Like I said, just, you know, be on your guard. But you probably could use a little confidence boost, so maybe doing something outside of your comfort zone would be good for you,” he said.
Marla bit her lip and looked back. Cage and Tanner were looking at her, aloof but interested. Her stomach flipped. Heart raced. She remembered that strange reaction she’d had to shaking Cage’s hand. She looked back at her friends. Closed her eyes. Took a deep breath.
“Okay,” she said. “Wish me luck?”
“You don’t need it, you hot-ass bitch,” Cassie said flippantly. But then she looked up at Marla with a smile that said: you can do it, just have fun. Marla took a mental snapshot of that smile and logged it away, just in case she needed it.
With another huge gulp of her beer, she breathed deeply and turned towards the two men. As soon as they saw her walking back, they stood up. When she was a few steps away, they began to walk to one of the less-crowded tables in the back of the bar.
As soon as she slid in across from them, she knew she’d made the right decision.
CHAPTER THREE
Three beers later, Marla was more than tipsy. Tanner had come around to her side of the booth, and across from them, Cage was regaling them with a story of being stung by a bee on the beach. Something about his telling of the story made it a lot funnier than it really was. Marla felt comfortable with Tanner’s arm draped around her shoulders. More than comfortable, really.
That slight ignition of excitement she’d felt the first time she saw the men had only been amplified the more time she spent with them, the closer they got. She was dazzled by Tanner’s intense blue eyes and charmed out of her mind by Cage’s crooked smile. She’d never had such attention paid to her by such attractive men, and she thought it felt damn good. Better than good. It felt amazing.
Cage finished his story and stood, saying he was going to get a refill of his drink, leaving Tanner and Marla alone at the table. Usually, Marla would have been struck with shyness, especially realizing how close Tanner really was. But, to her surprise, she only leaned in slightly closer, taking in the smell of him, the heat baking off his body.
“Enjoying yourself?” Tanner asked, and Marla nodded, giggling.
“You guys are great,” she said. “Really fun.”
“And you’re not taken?” Tanner asked suddenly, the brazenness of the question reminding her of their confidence at the bar. Some version of Marla wanted to lean back and pout and ask what that had to do with anything, that she was just hanging out. “Just seems odd, someone like you should be all wifed up already.”
She just blushed harder.
“No, I…I, uh, just got out of something,” she said. When she felt Tanner’s strong hand land on her thigh, brushing her skin with his thumb, electricity rocketed up her spine. Her mouth actually dropped open in surprise.
“You know the best way to get over getting out of something,” Tanner said. “Is to get into something else. Meet me in the bathroom in five minutes.”
With that, he slipped away, leaving Marla’s skin still tingling from where his thumb had caressed her flesh. Immediately, she felt her desire awakening, slowly at first then all at once. When had Todd’s touch ever left her so aroused? Even his most sensual massages never came close to the way Tanner’s hand, merely laid on her thigh, a single stroke of his thumb, made her feel lit up like a Christmas tree. Blushing bright red, she pulled out her phone.
OMG hottie asked me to join him in the bathroom! She texted with shaking fingers to Cassie, praying her friend’s phone would be on so that she wouldn’t have to dive through the sea of people to find her. To her relief, her phone immediately dinged with a reply.
Which one? And why are you still sitting at that table?!?!?! Realizing Cass must be near enough to see her, Marla looked up, scanning the bar. She sighted the blonde standing near the door, staring right back at her although she was among a larger group.
/> Black hair, blue eyes. And because that’s like, weird???? Marla texted back refraining from including the very real and very strange detail about his hand on her thigh, and what it had done to her body.
You’re crazy!!!! Go for it!!!! I’m right out here if something goes wrong! Cassie replied. Marla bit her lip, considering. The minutes were passing by quicker than she wanted. And where was Cage, anyway? He should have been back with the drinks…
Looking up, she caught Cassie’s eye once more. The blonde stomped her foot dramatically, pointed to the bathroom door, and mouthed one word: go.
Marla closed her eyes. She thought of Todd, half Tanner’s size with a quarter of his good looks, in bed with some other girl. She thought of the way her skin had crawled so deliciously when he’d put her hand on his thigh. She thought of how she could blame it all on the booze in the morning. She thought of the royal nagging she’d endure from Cass if she didn’t. And then she thought of that hand again and…
The bathroom was surprisingly clean. It had a single stall, being a unisex bathroom, and a mirror and sink, but not much else. Tanner was leaning against the sink when Marla entered. She caught a glimpse of her own face in the mirror behind him when she entered and stood before him, a shy smile on her face, blushing beet red.
“I…I don’t usually…”
“Come here,” Tanner said, a wicked grin crossing his face. Marla chewed her lip, swayed forward without actually taking a step. But before she could blink, she felt herself being pressed forward, Tanner’s larger figure walking her across the bathroom until her heels hit cold tile.
Just like in the ring, she thought dazedly; it would be the last coherent thought she’d have for some time. Tanner’s lips closed over hers, firm but soft, pressing urgently, his tongue demanding entrance to her mouth. Marla’s eyes fluttered closed as she allowed him, his tongue running along the inside of her lower lip before moving further in, his arms closing around her waist. He pulled her away from the wall, into the center of the room, his tongue slipping against hers, tickling the roof of her mouth, dancing against her cheeks until she was moaning.
ROMANCE: THREESOME : Billionaire Brothers' Party (MFM Menage Romance) (New Adult Contemporary Threesome Short Stories) Page 33
