by P. A. Jones
“Is that a problem? Am I in trouble, princess?” I slapped her head lightly. I was a part-time owner for her, who visited the book store a few times during the week.
“No, nothing like that. I’m sorry if I sounded that way.”She smiled slightly, and said, “You never been to the book store this early in the evening.”
“I was kidding, don’t worry.” I stretched my muscles; it felt so good. Nikki really worked magic on me and I was feeling so good that I was eager to get back to the punching bag. The down side was that I was still feeling sleepy, because the feel of her hands over my bare back had kept me awake most of the night. When was the last time? Yes, it had been almost six months since a girl had touched me like that, and it felt so good coming from Nikki.
Damn, I sound so desperate.
I wasn’t desperate for a woman’s touch, but it was a good feeling. Her touch was a sensual feeling that was lacking in my life, maybe in any woman I had ever touched. What’s so special about this girl? Nikki Jordan. I closed my eyes and I could see her again, running her hands on my bare back, her fingers working on my knotted muscles and the warmth they passed to my body. Damn, what is happening to me?
“Tristan,” Trisha called, and I was snapped out of my fantasy.
“Yes, what happened?” I was back to my senses. I was sitting on the chair and Trisha was standing across the counter.
“Nothing. I wanted to ask you something,” She paused and looked at me, her head cocked to one side.“Never mind.”
“Hey, Trisha, what happened? Tell me.” She was unsettled, moving her weight from one leg to another. She was bothered about something and I didn’t like that. I always treated my employee as friends and with dignity. “Anything bothering you?”
She looked down, “Can I leave early today?”
“Yes, of course you can. That’s not a thing to be afraid of. Don’t worry, I can manage the book store for one evening,” I smiled back at her. “Who’s the lucky guy?” She wanted to go early and she was in her early late teens ,so I guessed it would be some guy she was going out with.
“I wish…” Her words were followed by a deep sigh. Her face turned dark and a small tear rolled down her cheek.
I must have touched some sore nerve.“Hey, Trisha, are you all right? Is everything okay?” I stood up and held her shoulder to make her sit.“You can talk to me if you want or you can go now if you’d rather.” She was a small girl and she was like sister, which I never had. From day one of the opening of this branch, she joined in. All along, she’d worked very hard and I liked her very much, but she never had been sad like that. Heck, she had always been happy. She was one of the only people I never saw sad.
“I’m sorry, Tristan. I don’t want to trouble you with my problems.”A sob came out.
“You can trouble me as much you want, Trisha, you are like my little sister so go ahead and speak up.” I consoled her. I wasn’t good at it, but I had to try. I couldn’t stand seeing that little girl crying.
“My mother…” She wept in sorrow.“She is in the hospital. I’m afraid, Tristan. Afraid for her. She had been sick over a week now and the doctors couldn’t diagnose anything.”
I stood up and half hugged her.“Don’t worry, sweetheart, everything will be all right. Where is your father, by the way?” I felt sad for knowing so little about her.
“He died a few years ago and whenever found out why. I’m afraid that Mom will leave me, too.” She started crying hard. I couldn’t think of a way to stop her. Stopping a crying woman was really out of my league. I just held her closer to me.
After few minutes, her crying slowed and she wiped her tears.“Thanks a lot, and sorry I bothered you. I’ve never opened up with anyone before.”
“That’s fine, Trisha. You can always tell me anything you want.” I looked at her; she was still wiping her eyes with a tissue.”Do you need some money Trisha?”
She looked at me with a faint smile. “No, I have some and Mother’s treatment is covered by insurance, so I can manage.” She was a prideful little girl. I liked her for her attitude.
“Ask me anything you need, just anything, and I’ll help you,” I replied.
“Thanks, Tristan. You are a real good person.”She smiled.
“Hello.” A sweet voice appeared from nowhere.
With a jerk, I looked to the book store door. Nikki was standing there in a light blue dress that matched the blue shade of her big eyes, the biggest I’d seen in anyone. Those eyes would kill my heart someday.
“Did you say something?” The girl with the blue eyes spoke, my heart trampled by her voice. Whenever I looked into those blue eyes, I felt like they were talking to me. I felt like drowning in the ocean spread across the horizon. She blinked her eyes again.“I said hello.”Her pink, lush lips parted slowly. An urge to kiss her shot up inside me. What’s happening to me?
“Hello, Miss. May I help you?”Trisha went forward to help her. She must have mistaken her as a customer.
“Trisha, she is here for me. I’ll see to her,” I said without taking my eyes of her lips, the urge to kiss her deepening more. My nerves were shooting tingles all over my body. “I want to kiss you.”
“What?” Nikki said, “Did you say something?”
What the hell am I doing? I looked around; Trisha was smiling at me. She must have heard me.
She smiled at me and looked deep into my eyes; her eyes glowed with a blue light as she tried to talk with me through her gaze.
“Why are you here?” I asked when what I really wanted to ask her was how she was doing. My tongue was tied to my brain and it wanted to know why she was in my book store and how she knew about it.
“To see you.”
“You can go now. You’ve seen enough of me.” I was still looking in those deep blue eyes. Why am I attracted to her eyes and her lips? Why am I feeling something like I could never forget her eyes and lips in my whole life?
“I want to talk to you, Tristan.” She looked determined.
What the hell? I need to know this girl better. “Let's grab a coffee, then,” I said, “Trisha, if I’m get please go ahead to the hospital. And if you want me to come with you, just give me a call.”
“Thanks, I'll be here for few more hours and if you don’t come back, I'll close up and go.”Trisha winked at me.
I walked outside the book store. a nice coffee shop was just near my book store and I was curious about what Nikki wanted from me.
“Black coffee.” I ordered one for me.
“One for me, too,” Nikki echoed.
“You, too?”
“Yes, any problem?” She looked in my eyes.
“Nope, just checking if you are stalking me now.” I chuckled.
A few minutes later, we were sitting at a table sipping our coffee.
“This is good,” she said as she sipped the coffee.
“It's a special one. I enjoy the coffee in New York much more than L.A.”
“So you are from L.A. basically?”she asked.
“Nope, Santa Ana, actually,” I replied. I wasn't so comfortable in talking about my life with anyone, but with Nikki, things had been turning strangely different.
“Nice place. I’ve been there once with my Dad.”
“What do you want from me, Nikki?” I asked. I couldn't control my curiosity any longer.
“I want you to train me, Tristan. I need to train.”
“Any of your dad's employees can train you, in that case. He seems to be a man with lots of power. So why me?” She could actually ask that Chase guy, too.
“No, you are not understanding me.” She slapped her coffee cup on the table.“I need this, Tristan. Please try to understand.
“Why do you want to train in first place? Are you planning to enter in your dad's illegal MMA league?” I'd heard about this so-called MMA battle ground earlier. It was a death wish. People died there and it was completely illegal.
“I can't tell you that.” She looked at the brown table we were s
itting at. She extended her hand and took my hand in her palms.“Please, Tristan, I need to train and only you can teach me how to fight.”
“It's not a public service, Nikki. there should be some reason for every fight and I need one from you.” I looked in the blue depths of her eyes, and I again felt like I was looking at a unending ocean.
“I wish I could tell , but…” She stopped and drank the remaining coffee.“I should probably go home.” She sounded disappointed.“Thanks for the coffee.”
Did I make the right decision? It wasn't a likable decision from her point of view, but I had to know why she wanted to fight when she had everything she could ever dream of. I watched her walking out of the coffee shop and then driving away in her car.
I paid the bill and drove back home. While driving back I was still thinking about her, sometimes about her eyes and sometimes about her urge to fight. What was she hiding from me?
Thanks to her, my hand was fine and that meant I could train more. Training was the only thing I wanted in my life that moment, because it worked on my terms. I changed into comfortable track pants and started running on my treadmill.
With a cracking sound, a window in my exercise room opened. I stopped for a second to check on it, and Nikki was hopping in. She was in workout clothes and I smiled at her. Somehow her entry didn't surprise me.
“Sorry I didn't use the front door.” She smiled.
“That's okay, I was expecting you.” I lied to her.
“I came to check on your injury. Are you planning to train with the boxing bag today?”
“Maybe, but I will start with yoga first.” I needed more flexibility and yoga could strengthen my muscles, as well.
“Do you mind if I massage you first?”
“Why should I mind when a sexy lady wants to massage my bare body.”
Her cheeks turned pink; she was blushing. Her cheeks also revealed a slight dimple on her face. It looked cute on her.
I laid down in front of her and she started her finger magic on me. After half an hour, she stopped.“You can train now. I want to see you training.”
I got up and started doing yoga. To my amazement, my body was much more flexible than I thought, maybe because of her work. I did some training with the speedball later and even that didn’t hurt. Her work was amazing and I liked that.
“You should come prepared tomorrow,” I said while wiping the sweat out of my forehead, “The training is going to be hard and I don’t train lazy students.”
She clapped her hands and hugged me tightly. Her curvy breasts were pressed against my bare chest and that sent tingles shooting through me. I pushed her away; if I hadn’t, I would have kissed her.
“Thanks.” Her cheeks turned pink again, my eyes glued to every emotion on her sweet face.“I should get going. It’s late already.” A glowing smile spread across her face.
I kept staring at her appealing ass. It’s not going to be easy for me to train you, babe.
Chapter 8
Nikki
When I hugged him, his muscles tightened and the color of his face changed completely. I enjoyed that feeling and I pressed myself on him more. He didn’t even seem to think to hug me back; he just stood there, confused and awkward. Hell, I enjoy him like this.
I was on the verge of giggling to myself and it was hard to control my laugh.
“Did anything happen? Why are you laughing?”he asked with a confused face.
“No, nothing,” I replied. ”“It’s just your face. Are you afraid to hug me back?”
“Who? Me?” He looked more confused.”“No. I’m not.” He wrapped me in his arms and clenched me tightly. Still, his face looked confused, his eyebrows knitted together.
I waved goodbye and left before I could burst out laughing and making him feel more awkward.
He was a strict and strange man on the outside, but on the inside, he looked cute and soft. He looked too naive about touching a girl. Maybe all MMA fighters are like this.
“Come prepared tomorrow,” he shouted from inside the house.
“Time to be serious, lady,” I muttered. I never thought he would agree to train me after what I had made him to go through.
Still thinking about him, I opened my Range Rover door and hopped in. I turned on my stereo to listen to Bryan Adams and started my car. But when I pushed the gas pedal, something happened. The car was acting weird. It was leaning to the left more than usual. I stepped out and checked, slapping my head with my hand as I realized a tire was flat and I had no spare. “Not now.” I kicked the tire. Shit, what am I going to do now?
The shades of darkness were already lingering over the surroundings. Tristan lived in totally the opposite corner of the city and I didn’t have a spare to change the tire, nor did I know how to do it.
“Hey, any problem?” Tristan walked out of his house, still in his boxing shorts with a t-shirt on. He must have been watching me from inside.
“My tire is flat.” I shrugged my shoulders, staring at the deflated rubber.
“Don't worry, I'll drop you off at home.” He looked at my car, “I'll get it fixed tomorrow morning. It's late and nobody will come to this side of town to change your tire.”
“That's fine. Thanks, I appreciate it.”
He walked back and took out his car, but the moment he stopped in front of me, a whistling sound came out of his tire, too. His tire was also punctured.
“Not again,” he cried in disappointment.
“Not now…”
“This happened yesterday, too, and I used my spare. Now it's punctured again.”
“Never mind, I'll call a cab.” I took my cell out to call a cab and suddenly rain started pouring down from the sky. In less than fifteen seconds, we were drenched.“What the heck? What is happening with me today?” I looked up to ask god.
“We’d better get inside quick. Grab your phone or you’ll really be stuck,” he shouted, ”and ran back inside the house. I was dripping wet by the time we got inside. I looked over at Tristan; he was as wet as I was. His t-shirt was fused to his body and I could see the contours of his hairless chest through it. When I looked up, I caught him staring at me, and his eyes were filled with something dark. He was checking me over, like an alpha male checks his woman. A shiver passed through my body and my cheeks turned pink. After a moment, I had a feeling that someone was hugging every curve of my body.
“You’d better change out of those wet clothes, or you’ll be sick on the first day of training.”He was still looking at my body, and I thought I saw hunger in his eyes. “And I don't like sick students, so you’d better change into a pair of my shorts and one of my shirts.”
A few seconds later, he came out with a dark blue t-shirt, a towel and black shorts. “You can use the bathroom in my room.” He pointed down the long hall to his bedroom.
I nodded and walked inside. I wanted to get away from him before he turned my heat on, and I was curious to check out his bedroom. To my surprise, it was the most minimalistic room I’d ever seen. Only one double bed, a wardrobe and nothing else, not even a TV. How could this man leave without a TV in his bedroom?
With a surprise I walked in his bathroom and started stripping down. He had a full-length mirror in his bathroom. I liked it; I could see myself completely naked in it. I held my breasts and shook them to see if any fluffiness was there, but none. They were as firm as two years ago. I looked at my naked body with pride. Everything looked as it should. About a year ago, I was little fat here and there, but with a ton of exercise and dieting, I’d reduced every inch of fat from my body. The fat remaining was only on my breasts and hips, where it mattered. I smiled and pulled his boxing shorts on, but before I could get in his t-shirt a big spider came out of nowhere.
“Oh, my God. Tristan help me, please,” I shouted in panic. Spiders scared me to death and I couldn't be around them. When I was little, maybe five years old, a spider bit me and it put me in the hospital for a few days. From that day onwards, I feared them more t
han anything in the world. I couldn't even watch Spiderman.
“What happened?” Tristan banged the door and slapped it away to get in.
“It's…” I pointed towards the mirror and hugged him tightly.
“What? Who?”he asked me.
“A spider, damn it. Can’t you see that big spider?” I screamed and hugged him tightly, still panting in fear.
“A spider?”He started laughing.” You’re afraid of a spider?”
“Yes.” I hugged him more tightly, my eyes squeezed shut, trembling.
“Okay, I'll deal with him. Let's get out first.” He lifted me a little and walked out; I was still in his embrace.
Suddenly, I realized what condition I was in. I was half naked, hugging him, and the irony was he was bare-chested, too. Damn. I was holding him so tightly that his muscular diaphragm was crushing my breasts like someone squeezing a tomato and that wasn’t helping me at all. A warm heat was covering my body so rapidly that I was afraid he would notice it any minute. I could feel his hard skin on the tip of my nipples; my heartbeat quickened and I liked it. I liked being crushed by him like that.
What the hell was happening to me? I never imagined in my wildest dreams that I would fall into such a cheesy situation. I looked up; he was looking at me with his brooding eyes. I could feel the heat radiating from his body. He slowly tightened his grip on my back. He pulled me closer until my breasts were squeezed and crushed by his chest. My breath choked in my throat as he lowered his mouth to me. I closed my eyes, anticipating his lips meeting mine. I was dying to feel his lips and check how he tasted; the smell of his body was filling me from inside and arousing my sensual feelings. Hell, I’m giving up to him.
But nothing happened. In a few seconds, he loosened his grip on my back. He withdrew himself completely in a flash and a towel covered my bare body. I kept my eyes closed, but my heart was burning in disappointment. I wanted to taste his lips, I wanted to brush my body against his. But nothing happened.
“I'll wait for you outside.”I heard him heading back to the workout room, my heart sinking lower with every step.
