Love TKO

by Selene Chardou

  I grinned before I dragged on my cigarette. “You truly think a whore can make your brother happy? Newsflash: he’s nothing like you and he is judgmental. He won’t want me once he knows what I am and what I do—”

  “—he’s gonna be pissed…no doubt about it but…he’ll get over it. At least you’re honest and up front with your shit. No one is perfect and no woman is a saint. He’s kiddin’ himself if he lets you go because he thinks anyone better will come along.”

  “I suppose you’re telling me all of this because you know him so well?”

  “Not really. No one knows Torin but Torin. All I can tell you is he’s got a great big heart and he may not wear his emotions on his sleeve but he’s not as tough as he appears to be. Just go easy on him and try not to break his heart.”

  I laughed out loud. “He’ll probably break mine first.”

  Torin walked out of the gym wearing a pair of black jeans and a black t-shirt. He managed to pull off sexy, casual and good enough to eat all at the same time. Suddenly I was no longer hungry. I just wanted to go somewhere so he could devour me.

  I ground out my cigarette in the nearby ashtray, and spritzed myself with a small sample size of perfume. I popped a few Altoids in my mouth and smiled as he walked towards me.

  “I see you met my younger brother. By the way, Neil is asking about you. He wants you to spar with Castaneda—”

  “Jesus Christ, Tor, the guy hits like a fuckin’ bitch—”

  “—which is why he wants you to spar with him, Kieran. Your break is over.”

  “Nice to meet you, Chiara.” Kieran smiled at me before he glared at his brother and pointed his right index finger at his chest. “I’ll call you later.”

  “Don’t bother,” Tor began as we started to walk and he looked over his shoulder at his brother. “I’ll call you.”

  Kieran smirked knowingly and I laughed nervously.

  “He may not seem like much but the guy is sharp as a tack, smart as a whip and can naturally fight. He’s better than me because it’s just an innate talent for him. It’s not even something he has to work very hard at…must be nice to be so gifted, huh?” Torin explained as he guided me to his silver Escalade, which looked like a cross between an SUV and a luxury pick-up truck.

  “Actually, I know what it’s like and sometimes it can be curse as much as a gift. He’s very nice and will make a great husband to a special lady when he decides to settle down with her.”

  “He told you about Tara?” Torin opened the passenger door for me and I slid inside before he shut it behind me.

  “Is that the woman he plans to marry?” I asked as he hopped into the truck on the driver’s side.

  “Yes. It’s rare. He doesn’t usually do a lot of talking to women I mean. Not except for Tara and Honor—she’s Neil’s daughter. He must have ESP as well. I planned on keeping you around for as long as you’ll take me.”

  “Is that right?” I looked toward the window as he pulled out of the parking lot. “Well, I can definitely stick around for as long as you want me.”

  “In that case, it might be forever.”

  I smiled again before my expression faltered a bit.

  How did Kieran know my name?

  I’d never formally introduced myself to him.

  LUNCH TURNED OUT to be a delicious meal at PF Chang’s, which we both enjoyed tremendously. I was breaking all kinds of rules with all the carbs and calories I’d consumed with Torin but I had a feeling we would work it off sooner rather than later.

  We talked more about our various childhoods, life philosophies and his upcoming match that had him more nervous than usual.

  “I mean, don’t get me wrong,” he began as he wiped his mouth and swigged from his imported lager. “I get nervous every time I fight but this one feels different. I worry all the time about broken bones and how much pain I’m in before the fight has even begun. Not that pain is new…I don’t think you can be a professional athlete and live a pain-free life. It’s just not possible.”

  I chuckled, knowing exactly what he meant.

  I wasn’t a professional athlete but the same applied to my profession as well. There were times I was so sore, it hurt to use the toilet and I’d never suffered from an STD or urinary tract infection in my life. It was just one of those perks to the job along with a sore jaw. Sex was work, and it could be particularly hard on a woman, especially when I wasn’t in the mood or just didn’t feel like it. However, my schedule did not function by my moods, it worked on how much I was requested.

  I knew Friday wasn’t all bad because Raymond was offering me a way out. In fact, I hadn’t had sex since the night Torin and I shared together and before then, it’d been about two weeks. My clients had been older gentlemen who needed to be seen with a pretty piece of eye candy for political dinners and gambling tournaments. I’d been given a reprieve, so to speak.

  For every older gentleman though, there was a freak who thought it would be great to pop two Viagra instead of just one and want me in every position known to man. Or the wronged spouse who wanted to treat me like he would treat his cheating wife if he had the balls to stand up and actually let her know he knew she was having an affair.

  I’d dealt with this crap for over nine years and the thought it was coming to an end and my life would once again be my own was a feeling that could not be described. I was elated and overwhelmed but for the first time I could remember, I was happy and there was no better feeling than that.

  “What’s so funny?” he asked me after I realized I’d spaced completely.

  “Nothing. I can…relate to your issues but I want to know why Friday’s fight feels different than the any of the others you’ve fought?”

  Torin glanced at me intently with those gorgeous blue eyes. “Well, for one, I’ve never had anything to lose and now, I have everything to lose.”

  I knew he wasn’t talking about the fight anymore and my right hand shakily reached for my glass of wine. “I’m not sure if I catch your drift exactly.”

  “I think you do,” he whispered. “I haven’t ever felt like this before and it’s happened so quickly so please excuse me if I don’t know how to quite act. I don’t want to lose you and I don’t want you ever to be hurt or…mistreated. I couldn’t handle that. You deserve the world and everything in it. I don’t want to play the white knight but I will if it means I can take you away from all your problems.”

  I smiled slyly. “Tor, nothing is going to happen to me. I’m fine, and whether you win or lose, I’ll be there to support you. I’m not caught up in all the hoopla and nothing that happens Friday could ever change the way I feel about you.”

  “You have no idea how relieved I am to hear you say that. I was a bit nervous because I didn’t want to think I was in this all by myself—”

  “You’re not in this alone,” I interrupted in a solemn voice. “I don’t know what to offer you until Friday except my body but I know everything changes. It’s very difficult to be intimate with anyone when you’ve been a commodity for so long…” I trailed off and thought about what I’d said again.

  Torin grabbed my left hand and held it in his own. “I know, and that is why it would kill me for you to think about us being together without it meaning anything. I need to know that if we decide to go down that road again, it’s something we both want and you’ll be there with me. You won’t treat me like I’m just another…”

  “No, of course not.”

  I sipped from my wine again and realized we’d been dancing around my profession this whole time.

  He knew.

  Yet he couldn’t bring himself to say it because the words would make it so, and on a conscious level, he wasn’t ready to face he’d fallen for a whore. I understood all too well and I wish I could say it but I was so scared I would break the magic between us and I couldn’t stand that.

  I was intoxicated all right but the wine had nothing to do with my inebriation. My brain was heady with all of the insane thoughts I
had about Torin, about him being my one and only chance at love and happiness. How could I not be scared to the depths of my very soul? I’d never felt so strongly for a man, and yet, I couldn’t help myself from tumbling down the rabbit hole like Alice. The only difference was my drug of choice was a certain man and I was high on the feelings of being with him.

  I squeezed his hand gently as he leaned toward me. “You wanna get out of here and go back to my place?”

  “Yes,” I whispered before I finished the rest of my wine, and looked him directly in the eyes.

  Our server came back and he asked for the bill, paid it in cash, and we both stood before he grabbed my hand. His other arm snaked around my waist and we walked out to his truck. He unlocked the door and I slipped into the passenger seat. I didn’t need him to close the door for me, I could do that myself while I tried to keep my legs closed. Thigh clenching wasn’t exactly an attractive thing for a woman to do. I certainly didn’t want him to think I was extremely desperate to get him back in bed, even if I was.

  We’d spent the vast majority of our time outside of the bedroom, and it was a refreshing change. I knew what I did for a living but the fact that I hadn’t had to work since we met was a major plus. I still had an issue with my profession and I was glad he hadn’t embarrassed me with actually spelling it out.

  I know I was being silly and immature but at the same time, I knew that meant he was a gentleman because most men would have brought it up as if it was something to hold over my head. They could never make me feel awful because they were just as culpable; after all, they’d paid for me.

  Torin had never paid for it but Jesse had paid for Yvanka, Alexis and I to be at that party. That was just as bad and I still had been a paid for item the first time we’d had sex though it hadn’t felt that way. It would never change that’s how we’d met. It wasn’t exactly a great story to tell the kids, if we ever had any—if we were together past Friday.

  I couldn’t think about that as I grabbed the hand not on the steering wheel and held it in my own. I concentrated on the feel of his calloused palm as he drove us back to his home, the place where our whole journey had begun the previous week.

  This time felt different. He parked in his garage and I opened the door with a slightly shaky hand. I wanted this to happen between us, more than I’d wanted anything in a long time so why was I nervous? I was hardly a vestal virgin but all the sudden, I felt like this would be my first time.

  In a way it was…it would be the first time I was having sex with a man I felt anything other than revulsion, fear or outright apathy for. That’s what made this feel so new, even after Torin met me on my side and closed the door behind me. I didn’t realize I’d been backing away from him as he advanced until my back pressed against the car door.

  The look on his face contained so many different emotions including lust but there was also genuineness there. He didn’t just want to fuck me, he wanted us to come together and experience something much more than sex.

  “You’re not feeling regretful about coming back here, are you?”

  I shook my head because my mouth had suddenly gone dry and I couldn’t think of anything but those lush lips willing me to kiss him. His gorgeous blue eyes wanted to devour me but they were also searching all the way down to the depths of my soul. My heart thudded fiercely in my chest and my breath came hard and fast.

  Torin grabbed my hands until I was closer to him, and then he grabbed me by the waist with strong arms. “You’ve got nothin’ to fear, darlin’. I would never hurt you.”

  “I know that.” I finally found my voice; it sounded husky yet breathless.

  His lips teased me by starting at my jaw line and delivered soft kisses along the contour. I felt the whole tense feeling, which had taken control of my body, as it melted away, and I suddenly became pliable in his arms.

  My skin tingled as an overwhelming sense of butterflies fluttered wild in my stomach. I’d wanted this to happen between us for so long, now that it was happening, I didn’t know how to react except to surrender to the pleasure. I didn’t know how much I could take; waiting for him to kiss my lips was torture in itself as his mouth explored my neck. His tongue felt hot, and seared my skin as my desire for him bloomed until my whole body responded to his touch.

  “Take me upstairs,” I breathed out, not recognizing my own voice.

  Torin’s fingers dug into my flesh around my waist as he pulled away reluctantly. He stared into my eyes so intently, I looked down and although we were close to one another, there was space between us. The feelings of desire and lust he felt for me were quite apparent based on the hard-on he sported in his jeans.

  He picked me up like I weighed nothing. I don’t know how we got upstairs because my attention was too focused on his lips that kissed me like I was the last woman on earth. I surrendered to the many different conflicted feelings my body and brain signaled to me; once he laid me on the bed, it was all over. He slowly worked my dress off my shoulders and down my body. When had he unzipped my dress or were his fingers that deft, I hadn’t noticed the subtle movement?

  I wore black lingerie underneath; he studied my body before he pulled his shirt over his head and undid his jeans before he joined me on the bed. I felt naked even though I was wearing the equivalent of a bikini but that had to do with the look in his eyes more than anything. He leaned over me, careful not to put any of his weight on my body, and kissed me again.

  Our tongues touched, and it sent a powerful jolt through my body as my right hand reached up to stroke his erect cock. I admired a man who could get away with wearing a pair of pants without underwear and successfully pull off the look when his clothes came off.

  He moaned into my mouth as I wrapped my left arm around his neck and pulled him closer to me. I felt it was my duty to get him off before he in turn did me but he, apparently, had other plans.

  His long, thick length slipped from my grasp as he ended our passionate lip-lock, and kissed down my body. My breathing came hard, keeping up with the rhythm of a fiercely beating heart. He easily slipped off my lace thong and spread my legs, taking the sight of me all in before he parted me with his fingers and his hot tongue licked my clit. I felt my whole body flush with excitement; I hadn’t bothered to use my Rabbit vibrator since he’d brought me to multiple orgasms the previous Friday.

  My legs fell open wide as he pleasured me using his whole mouth. At first he was gentle but he became increasingly aggressive. The feeling of pure pleasure started at my toes before it worked its way up to my ankles, calves and then my thighs where his bare arms were wrapped possessively around. When his tongue stroked me several times over my swollen nub, I shattered with a mind-numbing orgasm.

  “Oh. My. God.” My eyes rolled up in the back of my head and I didn’t know what to do other than lay there and revel in all my own satisfaction.

  Torin approached me with the stealth of a lion scoping out his prey as he kissed my lips again. The moment his tongue snaked into my mouth, I felt the taste of my own desire on his lips. His hands undid my bra and freed my breasts, which were dying to be touched and caressed. He dipped his head down to my nipples and began to suckle and bite them but the pain was exquisite.

  I moaned out loud. “Fuck me.”

  “Is that what you want me to do?” His voice sounded harsh and strangled at the same time but I needed that rawness from him.

  He’d treated me like I was a piece of china but there was nothing special about me and I needed him to be rough and treat me like the whore I was; there was something freeing about a man taking control. I’d gotten my pleasure and I needed him to be selfish for a moment and make me administer only to his needs.

  “I want to give you what you like,” I whispered as his eyes met mine.

  “Careful for what you wish for, babe. I just might do that…fuck you until you beg me to stop and until you’re so sore, you won’t be able to stand and walk properly.”

  “Yes,” I rasped out.

&
nbsp; Torin didn’t bother to ask for permission before his cock slid into me and I shuddered at the feeling of him inside me.

  What the hell?

  Was he fucking me bareback?

  I was safe and that wasn’t the point but he had to know that wasn’t a wise decision. He wasn’t drunk; he knew exactly what he was doing. However, the last time we’d been together, he used condoms that only protected against pregnancy and not ones that could stop me from transmitting a sexually transmitted disease to him or vice versa.

  My brain shut down and I wrapped my legs around his waist as he thrust in and out of me at a pleasurable pace but he was still fucking me, not making love to me and that’s exactly what I needed.

  “Holy shit, you feel so fucking good. So warm and wet.” He bit my earlobe softly as he thrust harder inside of me.

  Torin flipped us over and I was on top of him but I’d unhooked my legs in time. He sat up and I used my leverage by gripping his strong shoulders while his cock worked in and out of me. I found his rhythm and matched his thrusts as he smiled at me with blue eyes clouded over with lust.

  “Ride me hard and fast,” he commanded.

  I followed his orders and did just that as one of his hands fisted my hair and pulled my head back to expose my neck where he kissed my flesh. I moaned out loud while my eyes closed.

  “Fuck, that’s it, ride my cock. You like the way I feel inside of you?”

  “Yes,” I whimpered.

  “Say your pussy belongs to me, Chiara.”

  I hadn’t heard my name in a while and my eyes opened on auto-pilot as I looked him deep in his eyes.

  “My pussy belongs to you, Tor.”

  “You got that right. You’re my bitch, my whore—you understand that? I own this shit right here.”

  I nodded and didn’t realize, although he was still deep inside of me, I wasn’t moving any longer. His dick twitched inside of me but it was like I was having an out of body experiment.