The Tornado

by Missy Blue

  My body instantly grew warm as I imagined his thick firm skin sliding against mine, his rough fingers working the magic I'd come to realize they were capable of, his lips moving against mine in the way I loved. I felt my skin flushing and tightening at the fantasy. Then, I imagined him gently parting my legs and settling in between them, and that large, hard bulge I'd felt through his pants last night moving against my core. My stomach felt tight and tingly and my breath started to hitch a little faster. Then I imagined him moving into me, invading my most sensitive and most abused area with himself, and panic settled over me like a wave. My eyes flew open as my heart began to beat erratically and fear made my vision swim.

  I took a deep breath and blew it out hard through my mouth, automatically going to the relaxation techniques I'd been working on lately, instead of my medication. I put my hands on my hips and frowned at the floor. My body had been responding favorably until my mind got in the way, and it was disheartening. I knew on a physical level, I wanted to be with Asher that way. I just didn't know how to make my mind fall in line with that.

  At least, Asher hadn't done anything more than touch me, like he’d promised, and he had made it clear he wasn't looking for any sort of reciprocity either. As I began refilling the flavored syrups behind me on the counter, I wondered when the next time he would touch me like that would be, and at the thought, I began to feel a little throb deep inside me and my sex suddenly tingled. I bit my lip, losing myself in how I felt. Suddenly I pulled my phone out of my pocket.

  Are you taking care of my mug?

  Thanks for asking me how I am. Yes. The mug is fine. I think. I'm not really sure. I left it alone at home.

  WHAT?!

  Sorry. Had work.

  I'll be needing it back from you as soon as possible. Obviously you can't be trusted with nice things.

  I saw a thousand coffee mugs between your sink and your cupboard.

  That's beside the point. I want THAT ONE.

  You're welcome to come get it from me later.

  I think I will do that. When I get off work.

  If that's what it takes to get a visit from you...I think I'll keep your mug forever.

  Highly unlikely. And don't eat dinner. Talk to you soon!

  I smiled. I knew I couldn't wait a full day to see Asher again. Hell, I couldn't even wait twelve hours to see Asher again. I wanted to see him. I wanted to be alone with him.

  I wanted to give him every part of me.

  Him

  I LOOKED UP from my desk when I heard knuckles rapping on the doorframe. I smiled when Jewel stepped into my office. I'd just finished sparring with Connor and Leon, half an hour before, and had taken a shower in time for her visit.

  I rose from my chair to step around my desk and reached for her just as she set a brown paper bag down. I perched on the edge of my desk and took her hand, pulling her to stand in between my legs. I wrapped my arms around her waist and pressed my face into the side of her neck, reaching up to stroke her back.

  She laughed a little breathlessly, unaccustomed to my forward display of affection. The intimacy we’d shared now seemed to break a barrier. At any rate, barring any real discomfort she might feel, I didn't really care if it was too forward. I'd fucking missed her all day and the sight of her, and being able to touch her now, made me feel at peace.

  I kissed the side of her neck and released her, looking calmly into her face as she flushed a little and dimpled at me. "Now that's how you treat a girl," she teased.

  "I do what I can," I smirked. I glanced at the sack as I suddenly felt hunger pangs begin to assault me. Before I'd sparred with the guys, I'd run a few miles, and then hit the weights and the bags. I hadn't stopped to take a break and hadn't eaten since breakfast. I was starving. "What’d you bring me, Nutcracker?"

  "A giant chicken and avocado wrap on a multigrain tortilla with lettuce and sprouts and some sort of boring low-calorie dressing," she replied.

  "Now that's how you treat a man," I teased back.

  She grinned. "I suppose it's the least I can do, after the supreme treatment I got last night." I knew she wasn't referring just to the dinner and the ballet by the way she averted her eyes shyly and blushed a little. She cleared her throat and reached for the sack. As she leaned past me I caught her chin in one hand and brought her face toward me to kiss her in her favorite way.

  "I have a confession to make," I whispered as I pulled away slightly.

  Her eyes were still closed. "Hmm?" she asked absently, as I traced my thumb over her bottom lip. "What's that?"

  "I've been thinking about kissing you all day." She flushed even deeper. I leaned in again, cupping her jaw in my hand gently. "Don’t make me wait, Jewel," I growled against her lips before kissing her deeply again. She grabbed at the front of my zip-up sweatshirt and returned my kiss, and after a while, I completely forgot about my meal, my office, the gym. The only thing that mattered right then, was Jewel pressed against me and that I was finally tasting the full lips I'd been thinking about all goddamn day.

  Taking a load off this morning, did fuck all.

  I wanted the real thing.

  Connor came barging into my office then, the door flying open. Jewel tore her lips from me and jumped a foot in my arms. She half hid behind me. I remained where I was, only lifting my eyes to glare at Connor.

  "Oh, sorry, man!" Connor yelled, sounding anything but. I wanted to punch that smug grin off his face.

  "The next time you come in here without knocking first, you get demoted to human punching bag," I warned gruffly. "The hell you want?"

  Connor still had the little shit-eating grin on his face when he handed me a flat cardboard envelope. "Here," he said. "This was just couriered over for you." He handed off the envelope and stepped back, fixing Jewel with a wider grin. "Nice Asian flush there, Mac," he smirked.

  "Connor, get the hell outta here before you smash you through that wall," I barked. Connor snickered and backed out of the office, making a show of shutting the door gently. I shook my head after him and glanced over at Jewel. She looked at me from under her lashes and dimpled.

  "Forgot where we were for a minute," she teased.

  I smirked. "Me, too." I looked down at the large envelope in my hand and tore off the perforated strip, tossing it onto my desk. I reached inside and withdrew a few sheets of paper, looking them over.

  Jewel folded her arms and shifted her weight as she watched me quietly flip through the sheets of paper. I could practically feel impatience radiating off her and glanced up at her.

  "You doing all right over there?" I asked.

  "What's that?" she asked.

  I smiled at her nosiness. "None of your damn business," I teased. She narrowed her eyes playfully then shrugged.

  "You're probably right," she replied. "I am horribly nosy."

  "No, it's fine," I reassured her. I held up the sheets. "This is my notarized tournament contract, my fight itinerary and my schedule of events."

  "Oh, so you're all set then?" she asked.

  "Sort of," I answered. I folded my arms and glanced at her. "Just wondering if I'll have some company or not." My tone was teasing but my eyes slid over her in a way that made her putty.

  "About that…" she said, and I lifted my eyebrows at her. "…Um. Well, I do want to go with you. I just had to think things through a little. For me, sometimes I can't just make a decision like a normal person would. I have to think about everything—I mean, everything."

  "I get it," I replied. "And for the record, I don't look at you as abnormal. I look at you as…unique."

  She smiled. "Thanks…" she said, and I watched her eyes flutter. "…Anyway, here's the thing. My father will chain me to a chair in their apartment to keep me in Pittsburgh if he doesn't speak with you first." She rolled her eyes. "I know, I know. I'm twenty-three. But you don't understand. I'm the baby of the family. My dad is Sicilian. He is extremely overprotective. I don't think that will ever change, even if I get married or something. He—
"

  I lifted a hand. "Jewel, it's cool," I replied. "I always intended to speak to your father anyway."

  She was surprised. "You were?"

  I lifted an eyebrow and nodded. "Yeah, of course. You think I'd take someone's daughter out of town without clearing it with them first? If I had a daughter, I would insist on the same thing. In fact, I probably wouldn't let her fucking leave." I shrugged.

  Jewel was floored. "Wow. Well, okay." She beamed at me. "I guess that's settled then."

  I looked at her steadily. "Jewel," I said, in a tone that was almost stern. "Why do I get the feeling that you're not being completely honest with me?"

  "About what?" she asked, but she found herself unable to meet my eyes.

  "About coming with me to Buffalo," I replied. "I don't know if you know this about me, but I'm really good at reading people. And I can tell you're still not sure. Why don't you just talk to me about it and tell me what's on your mind?"

  She let out a heavy sigh. "Okay," she began. "God, you’re worse than Ruby, being all detective on my ass.”

  “Jewel.”

  “Fine…don’t get me wrong. I do want to come and support you. I really do. It's just that I haven't been back to New York since I left, and I haven't traveled anywhere without my family. So I guess I'm just sort of scared of the idea that I'll be doing something all alone...without them. Which I know sounds really infantile."

  "No," I replied quietly. "It doesn't. I can see why you would be intimidated." I rose from the desk and stepped toward her. I knew how imposing I could be. I was tall and heavy with muscle, brutality radiating from my every pore. She'd told me she’d seen me in the ring countless times, had seen me in my violent element on TV and knew how scary I could be. But she wasn’t scared of me. Not anymore. I had gained her trust slowly. I would never break it, never break her.

  I took her hand. "If you don't believe anything else I say, believe me when I tell you that you're safe with me," I said quietly. "I will not allow anything bad to happen to you as long as I'm alive. Okay?" I lifted her chin to scan her face with my eyes as though I needed to check and make sure my message had been received.

  She smiled. "Roger that," she said, and I returned her smile.

  "Now, will you let me eat in peace?" I joked. I reached for the bag but she closed her hand around the top of it and looked at me sternly.

  "I want my mug," she insisted. "You take me to my mug, and you get to eat."

  I sighed. "Your mug is at home. Safe. I told you this."

  She let an impish smile dimple one of her cheeks. "Then I guess you'd better take me home," she said teasingly, looking surprised with her boldness. She glanced around at my neat-as-a-pin desk. "I think your work here is done, anyway. Don't you?"

  I glanced around and laughed. "It's never done. But I don't have any evening appointments, if that's what you mean." I sighed. "You're starting to be bad for my work ethic," I said.

  Jewel shrugged and let go of the sack. "Okay," she said calmly. "I'll get out of your hair then." She started to stride past me for the door, but I merely laughed at her and grabbed her arm as she passed. I slammed her against my body and gripped her waist hard.

  "No, you won't," I commanded. "Not until I say so."

  "You're not the boss of me, Officer," Jewel returned childishly, lifting her face to me. I tilted my head down to take her lips hard and then pulled back. "No more until I get my mug," she panted.

  "To hell with that mug," I muttered, smirking at her. She turned her face and I sighed, releasing her. "Fine. Let's go. Be careful with my food or the mug gets it."

  Jewel snatched the sack from my desk and followed me out of the office. I locked up and walked through the gym. It was surprisingly busy for a Friday evening, but there were lots of guys around the ring, and as usual, there were also lots of angry groupies. I saw Jewel noticing the dirty looks she received as she followed me through the gym. She didn't seem to pay any attention to it, which made me smile.

  "What you smiling at?” Connor asked, when we passed.

  “Mind your damn business,” I grunted, hiding my smile.

  “You out, boss?"

  I nodded. "Make sure you and Leon lock up tight tonight," I ordered. "The other morning when I got here I saw that you missed a lock."

  "My bad, won't happen again," Connor replied. His attention was back on ESPN before me and Jewel even made it out the door.

  "I see you're driving yourself around more and more," Jewel said, spotting my car parked down the street. "So much for saving gas money."

  I laughed. "Just for today," I shot back. "This crazy cat girl wouldn't let me out of her apartment last night. Almost made me late for work. I had to drop her off at her job and everything."

  "She sounds much too good for you," Jewel commented as I pulled her door open for her.

  "She is," I replied once she got settled in her seat. She smiled up at me and I leaned into the car to give her a quick kiss before shutting her door and jogging around to my side to get into the Charger.

  It wasn’t long until I was pulling up in front of my building in a part of town that was made up of mostly middle class citizens. The apartment building itself was very clean and smelled like a mixture of sawdust and vanilla. It wasn't very well lit, as several of the bulbs in the wall sconces were going out, but I led her to my first floor unit. I used a little metal computerized chip to unlock my door and with an electronic zing, I pressed down on the handle and stood back to let her in.

  She glanced around, smiling as I reached around her to flick on a light. "Expecting company?" she asked. "It's so clean in here."

  I smiled and shrugged. "Nah. I just like it neat."

  "Something to drink?" I asked, moving to the kitchen.

  "Just water," she replied. "Thanks."

  She took a seat on the dark grey couch, stretching her legs in front of her when I reappeared. I held a plastic bottle of Gatorade in one hand and held her mug in the other. I smirked at her and set the mug in front of her. Jewel saw that it was filled with water and ice. She chuckled.

  "Killing two birds and all that," I said, guzzling a swallow of Gatorade.

  “Is this your way of sneakily keeping my mug here? Making me drink from it so you’ll have to keep it to clean it?”

  “You think too much,” I said, wiping my mouth with the back of my hand.

  Jewel picked up the mug and sipped at it demurely. She set it back down and turned to face me. "I really don't care about the mug," she said. "It was all a ploy to see where you live. See how dirty you really are."

  "Ah," I replied. "Well done." I smiled at her. "I’m pretty sure I’ve shown you how dirty I can be." Jewel blushed. "Everything good?" I asked.

  "No," she answered, getting up from the couch.

  “No?” I asked. “What’s wrong, Jewel?”

  “Asher…” She bit her lip and her eyes became heavy-lidded. “Take me to your bed.”

  Her

  I SUCKED IN a breath when he scooped me up off the floor into his arms. He carried me to his bedroom, pulling my face toward his again to take my mouth deeply.

  My arms and legs wrapped around him and a surge of thrilled anticipation went through me. The familiar throb of desire crept between my legs as he stepped into his large bedroom. He tossed me onto the king size bed and then crawled over me, like a panther, deftly pushing my top off my shoulders before he pressed me down onto my back. He held his weight over me on his arms as he slipped his tongue into my mouth, and I fisted into his T-shirt tightly as I frantically kissed him back, feeling overwhelmed with lust.

  His fingers untangled from my hair and slid down my side and over the front of my hips. He pulled away from me long enough to brush his fingers over the button and zipper of my shorts, meeting my gaze for a sensual beat. I couldn't nod, couldn't speak, couldn't do anything but stare at him and breathe raggedly.

  He took my silence as affirmation and slowly unbuttoned my shorts before pulling the zipper down. He
paused again, gauging my reaction and didn't miss the way I bit my lip. His fingers hooked into the waist of my shorts and he slid them down over my hips and then down my legs. I helped him a little by pulling my knees toward my chest and out of the leg holes. My heart was pounding from a mixture of nervousness and excitement, the way it always seemed to lately. Asher had twice touched me between my legs, but he had never removed clothing from my body before, and somehow, it made the situation all the more...dangerous.

  He tossed my shorts to the side and leaned over me again, teasing my lips with his tongue to entice mine to come out and meet his. I obliged him and pressed up on my arms to meet him, to try and kiss him back as deeply as I could manage. His eyes dark and intent, he balanced his weight on one hand while the other slid underneath my shirt, over my trembling flesh. His hand brushed over one of the cups of my bra as his lips moved to my neck. I tilted my head back and closed my eyes, marveling at how my arousal ratcheted even higher at the feeling of his full, firm lips moving all over my throat.

  A fevered moan escaped me as I gradually became aware that his lips were moving lower and lower, pausing in the hollow of my throat before moving down to the tops of my breasts. My entire body was consumed as he pushed my shirt up to my ribs and moved his mouth to the skin of my abdomen. He kissed a soft line over each set of ribs before moving down to my belly button. I froze, positive that he wasn't about to do what it seemed like he was about to do.

  I was still up on my elbows, watching him, as he lifted his head and met my eyes again. It felt like a lightning bolt striking me when I saw his eyes were seething with desire. He hooked his fingers into the sides of my lace bikinis and I held my breath. My heart suddenly pounded in my chest, so hard, I thought it might burst. I felt my eyes go wide then as he inched my panties down over my hips.

  I was so caught off guard, and my body had turned to jelly, that I couldn't help him this time, so he moved my legs for me to get my panties off, and then slowly pulled my thighs apart. I was completely dumbfounded and speechless as he gently pressed a hand to my chest, forcing me to lay flat on my back.