by London Casey
I looked at the glovebox. I always kept a gun there, just in case shit went wrong after a fight. You know, if a guy lost on me and came after me. Or someone trying to get to Marcos comes after me.
It was always smart to have protection.
I parked at the apartment and opened the glovebox to get the gun.
I was going to find out everything Penny knew.
By any means needed.
I put the bottle of beer on the counter. The gun was in my back pocket. Penny put her hand to mine as she tried to take the bottle from me. She tugged at the bottle and I squeezed it tight.
“What are we doing?” she asked. “Is this you flirting?”
“If I wanted to fucking flirt with you, my tongue would be between your legs writing you a love letter.”
Penny’s mouth fell open. “Okay…”
“Who are you?”
“Penny.”
“Is that your real name?”
“Yes. Do you want to check my driver’s license?”
“Maybe I do.”
“Then come find it.”
I opened my hand and she took the drink.
I kept my eyes locked to hers. “This isn’t good.”
“The beer? It tastes fine to me. I prefer draft…”
“You know what I mean,” I said. “Don’t play games right now, Penny. For all I’m supposed to know about you, you like to come to fights and you like to fuck.”
“Check and check,” she said.
“But now my best friend was put in charge of kidnapping you. To take you to the guy who handles all our business. Why?”
“Don’t worry about that part.”
“I’m involved now. So I’m worried.”
“Hey, I didn’t ask you to knock that guy out.”
I shook my head. “You know what he wanted to do?”
“Yeah. Stuff his dick in my mouth.”
“That doesn’t bother you?”
“I would have bit it off.”
“No you wouldn’t have,” I said. “Do you even give a shit?”
“About what?”
I lost my cool. I slammed my beer on the counter and it started to overflow out the skinny neck of the bottle. “I put my ass on the line for you. I’m going to get killed for this. And I have no clue why.”
“That doesn’t seem like a smart decision.”
“You keep running your mouth. Watch what happens.”
“You going to cut yourself again?”
I walked along the counter and stepped into the kitchen. Penny turned and started to move back. The cut on my arm was still fresh, still bleeding.
“Noah, I was kidding,” she whispered. “I’m fucking terrified right now.”
I reached forward and touched Penny’s waist. Half of me wanted to toss her on the counter and devour her. The other half wanted me to take the gun out of my back pocket and shoot her.
This was why I didn’t bother with women other than sex…
“I have no clue why someone wants me,” she said. “Okay? I came there tonight just like I always do when you’re fighting. I was at my car and felt someone approaching. I thought maybe it was you. So I stood there and next thing I knew, there was a hand over my mouth and I was thrown into a car.”
“Wait a second,” I said. “You only come to my fights?”
“Yeah. I mean, recently, yes. I used to go here and there. Observing. Taking mental notes.”
“Of what?”
“Nothing,” she said. “Just there. Okay?”
“But lately it’s just been my fights?”
“Yeah. Is that a problem?”
I thought about Marcos’s suspicions of me being on drugs. “Yeah, it’s a big problem. You’re in danger.”
“I got that hint when I was taken and almost killed.”
“What do you do for a living?”
“I’m a writer.”
“What do you write?”
“Words,” she said.
I reached back and put my hand on the gun.
Could I do it? Could I really hurt a woman?
“You have to stop lying to me,” I said. “I can’t help you if you hide.”
“Then let me hide.”
“You can’t run from Marcos. He’ll track you down. Bad enough what I did, but at least I bought us some time to talk.”
“How’s that?”
“Seth is a horrible drunk. I’ll tell him that I found him on the floor, passed out. I saw you bleeding and figured you were there for a reason. You were upset and trying to escape so I brought you here so nobody would find a thing. I left Seth there because I couldn’t trust you alone for a second. That part is easy, honey. The hard part is what comes after that.”
“You’re telling a good story,” Penny said. “Keep going.”
“My story is done. You talk or I’m…”
My hand started to move the gun from my pocket.
“Or what? What are you going to do?”
I hesitated.
We were in silence staring at each other.
The only thing that broke the silence was a loud thumping at my door.
“They’re here for us…”
I brought out the gun and Penny let out a gasp. “You have a gun?”
“Of course I do,” I said. “Stay the fuck back.”
“You were going to shoot me?”
“Thinking about it,” I said.
I rushed around the counter to the door.
There was more pounding.
“Who is it?” I yelled.
“Yo, it’s Dalton.”
“Shit,” I whispered. I tucked the gun in my back pocket and opened the door. “Dalton. Shit. Hey.”
“You okay?” he asked.
“Yeah, fine.”
I backed up and he stepped into my apartment. Dalton came in, a gym bag slung over his shoulder. He had an old pair of gloves - my gloves - on the other shoulder.
“I, uh, oh…” He stopped talking and nodded toward Penny.
“That’s Penny,” I said. “She’s a friend.”
“Yeah, a friend,” Dalton said. “Sorry, Noah. I’ll, uh, take off…”
“No,” I said. “You okay?”
“I’m going to use the bathroom,” Penny said. “Where is it?”
“Second door on the right,” I said. “Don’t try jumping out the window.”
Penny smirked.
Damn, she was cute as sin.
“Hey,” Dalton said as Penny walked away. “I’m really sorry, Noah. I didn’t know you had a girl over.”
“She’s not a girl, Dalton. She’s a woman. And it’s not what you think.”
“You’re not hitting it?”
I smirked. Yeah, I’m hitting it, Dalton. And she’s wanted dead by my boss and I helped her escape. All because of her beauty and body.
Maybe I had been hit in the head too many times.
“Are you okay?” I asked.
“I’m fine. I was waiting for you. You said you’d give a shout.”
“Oh, shit. Dalton…”
“Nah, man, it’s cool. I see what you have going on. I’m out. Don’t let me get in the way of that.”
He backed up.
“Dalton, wait.”
“What?”
“Let me give you a lift home.”
“No. I just got done training. I could use the walk. You know? Helps to relax my mind. I’m not going home to some beautiful woman.”
“You have that cash?”
“Yeah. Thank you.”
“You shouldn’t be walking with that much cash. Assholes can sniff that out.”
Dalton made fists. “I’ll take ‘em on. Street style. That’s how you learned to fight, right?”
“Trust me, you don’t want to be anything like me.”
“I don’t know about that,” Dalton said. “A woman that good looking…”
“Okay, get out. I’ll catch up when I can. I, uh, I have some personal stuff going on. It’s…
just lay low, Dalton. Stick to the gym. Okay?”
Dalton shrugged the boxing gloves off his shoulder and gave them to me. “Maybe you need these more.”
I laughed. Boxing gloves weren’t going to help. But the gun in my back pocket would.
Dalton left and I shut the door.
When I turned, Penny was standing there, hand on her hip. “Mind telling me what the gun is all about?”
I had had enough for the night.
I reached back and locked the door. Then I grabbed my gun.
“Yeah, sure,” I said. I pointed the gun at Penny. “You either tell me everything I want to know or I shoot you.”
Chapter 11
(Penny)
He looked even hotter holding the gun. I figured he would maybe be uncomfortable with it, but he seemed legit about shooting me. I couldn’t remember the last time I had gotten so turned on.
I pointed to my bag on the counter. “I told you already. I’m a writer.”
“And what do you write about?”
There was no use in lying to Noah anymore. After all, he was the one with the gun.
“I write articles.”
“Like a reporter?”
“Sure. Call me that. I go for off beat stories. The fighting thing has been sort of an obsession for a long time.”
“Jesus Christ,” Noah said. “You’re following me and writing about what I do?”
“I’m not using names,” I said. “I wouldn’t do that to you. Plus, nothing has been printed. I doubt it will. This is my thing. My boss wants a personal story, but I haven’t given it yet.”
“A personal story?”
“You, Noah.”
Noah looked at the gun and then looked at me. “So you’ve been fucking me to get a story out of me?”
“I wanted something out of you,” I said. “I got that part.”
“Don’t fucking joke right now. That’s why Marcos wanted you. He found out. He had Seth grab you. And I stepped in.”
“You saved my life,” I said.
“I signed my own death warrant tonight,” Noah said. He slowly backed up. He put the gun away. “Holy shit.”
He walked to the counter, grabbed his beer, and drank the entire thing. He went to the fridge to get a new one.
“It has to be more than that,” I said.
Noah froze mid drink. He turned his head and curled his lip. “What?”
“My boss hasn’t done a thing yet. Yet he keeps asking about it. I haven’t given him anything.”
“But you’ve written stuff?”
“Of course. I’m a writer. He wants some kind of personal piece. Me and one of the fighters. You, Noah. To see the life and understand what goes through a fighter’s mind. But I haven’t given him a thing. So why would I be the enemy.”
Noah slowly smiled. He put the beer down. “You don’t get what you’re against here.”
“Then explain it.”
“Why? So you could put it in a story?”
“Does it look I’m in the mood to write?”
Noah moved at me, fast. His hands were at my waist. He lifted me and pinned me against a wall. He held me up so we were eye to eye. My hands grabbed at him, touching rock hard arms. The boulders that made up biceps were more than flattering as he just held me like I weighed nothing.
“You want to know what it’s like? It’s like death. You stand there and stare at another man. Another human. Someone who maybe has a family. A kid to feed. A wife. A girlfriend. Maybe a sick mother and they’re trying to make some money because they can’t afford to survive in this shit world. But the thing is… I assume I need it more. I do need it more. If I lose, I don’t lose money. I lose my life. My everything. It’s survival. It’s always about survival. Nothing else.”
I swallowed hard. I slid my left hand up his arm to his shoulder. Then to his neck. I touched the scruff on his face.
“Noah, it’s not what you think,” I whispered. “My boss pays me to dig around. I’ve never had a story like this. Meeting up with you is… it’s more personal than business. I swear.”
“You pissed off the wrong people. And I’m one of them.”
“You can look at anything I’ve ever written. Nothing about fighting has been published. I’ve given small pieces. I’m building it up.”
“For what? To lie to your boss? Or to lie to me?”
“I don’t think that far in advance.”
“Survival,” Noah whispered. “That’s what I see in your eyes.”
“Is that so bad?”
There was a pause between us.
I could tell he was angry with me. He had every right.
He didn’t know the real truth either. I had given him just a sample. Because I didn’t want my heart to be on line with this.
“What happens now?” I whispered. “With your boss?”
“I’ll deal with that tomorrow.”
“Until then?” I asked.
My body was already on fire. My fingers curled, digging at his face. Noah had the darkest, sexiest eyes I’d ever seen in my life. A man of toughness and muscle, but there was plenty broken inside. And that turned me on because he actually had a story to tell. A story I wanted to know.
“If I’m going to wind up dead tomorrow because of you, then I better enjoy tonight.”
He pressed his body against mine and kissed me.
Finally.
Our lips met and the kiss was instantly hot. I felt his cock growing in his jeans, pressing against me, throbbing from inside his jeans. His hands slipped around to my ass, digging through my jeans.
His tongue was strong, beautiful, kissing me until I was a mess between my thighs. As though he knew I was wet, Noah broke the kiss and ran his soft lips down my neck and around to my throat. His teeth grazed my skin for a second and he kissed my neck.
Then we were on the move.
Noah carried me to his bedroom and put me on the bed. I sat there, almost eye level with the bulge in his jeans. My hands touched his legs and hurried to cup his dick. He reached behind me and took handfuls of my shirt. He ripped it off me and threw it over his shoulder. A second later, one hand touched the clasp of my bra. His other hand touched my face, his thumb stroking my cheek.
When our eyes met, we were battling. He was trying to figure me out, and I was doing the same to him. We had such an intense thing going on mentally, yet physically it was so basic. We both just wanted to feel each other.
With my bra on the floor, Noah gently pushed me down to the bed. He hovered over me, leaving me scrambling to grab at the covers. I squeezed tight as his mouth was just an inch from my left breast. I had always been self conscious about my chest size. I was one of the first to get breasts, but then they kind of just stopped growing.
I watched as Noah’s mouth slid over my left breast, engulfing me. When he sucked, I arched my back and groaned. It felt so fucking good. The tip of his tongue cut left to right across my nipple. I dug my ankles to the back of his legs, wanting us to be naked, wanting him to be inside me.
His mouth pulled away, his teeth touching my sensitive nipple, making me yell and shiver with the excitement of pleasure and a fear of pain. But he was perfect. Of course he was perfect. Before he could lift all the way up, I managed to let go of the covers with one hand and grab at his shirt.
“Off,” I moaned. “Off…”
Noah stood and stripped his shirt off.
The muscle was just unfair. I reached out and touched Noah, my mind trying to convince me it couldn’t be real. It was like he had been carefully chiseled. Wide shoulders, a round chest, stomach muscles that began where his chest ended… and stomach muscles that ended only because they were blocked by his jeans.
It was the first time I touched his body when it was dry and smooth. No nasty sweat or blood from fighting.
A second later, Noah was back at my body, kissing my other breast. Teasing with soft kisses down my breast, kissing my nipple, and then he kept moving down. When he touched my stomach,
I shuddered. My breathing became erratic, stuck between pleasure and a ticklish feeling. He kissed down past my belly button and his hands touched the top of my pants. He opened my jeans and I lifted myself up. He stripped me down as he kept kissing me. My jeans were at my knees when the tip of his tongue curled at the top of my sex, pulling at me, finding my clit.
He applied the right amount of pressure as I wrestled to kick my pants and panties off. His hands then touched my knees, opening my legs, my body completely his. I looked down at Noah, those dark and wild eyes staring at me. His tongue slid down my folds, tasting my desire. As he licked up, he thrust, penetrating me. His mouth pulled against my sex, still moving slowly, up and down, leaving me in a state of torture.
When he moved away, I caught myself thrusting at him, not wanting him to leave.
Noah then stood up, towering over me like a monster. He reached back and took out the gun. I was on his bed, fully naked, my body raging for him, on the brink of orgasm. He didn’t break our stare as he put the gun on the nightstand. Then he opened his jeans and shoved them down.
His dick popped free, hard and ready.
I reached for him and Noah grabbed my wrist. “No. I’ll take care of it.”
I bit my lip, shocked at his intense power over me. I was usually the one in control. But with Noah, I was a mess.
He then placed my hand down to myself. My fingers slid along my wetness.
“Get fucking ready,” he said and gripped his cock tight.
I pulled at myself, opening as much as I could. Noah would have to do the rest for me.
Which wasn’t a fucking problem at all.
He touched me with the heavy tip of his dick. I was used to all this being fast and wild. Him sitting me on the bathroom sink, jamming two fingers into me, then ripping me open with his cock.
Now, he went slow.
Inch by inch, he thrust and pulled back. My thighs quivered, a tingling pleasure working from my core up through the rest of my body. By the time Noah was completely inside me, my back was arched again, my body falling off the edge of climax. His lips ran across my breasts again as he took himself halfway out and thrust forward with force.
