Shadowboxer

by Cari Quinn

  I wasn’t aware of wrapping my hand around the back of his neck and hauling him close, but I must’ve because his lips pressed hot and hard to mine. Our tongues tangled and I couldn’t breathe for how desperately I wanted more of him inside me. Any part I could get. His fingers surged deeper and he groaned, somehow giving me permission to surrender.

  Discordant sensations crashed through my body. I was so hot that the water singed my skin. So chilly that goose bumps rose on my arms. Warmth unfurled deep in my core, increasing my urgency. Anticipation had me nipping his tongue, his mouth. I wasn’t careful, and he didn’t seem to care. Mindlessly, I ground myself into his palm, moving in a manic, instinctive rhythm.

  “Tray,” I gasped, the only warning I could give him. Even that took all the air I had left.

  I came hard, my nails raking his neck. My hips flailed for purchase while my thoughts scattered. Heat rolled over me, chasing away the last of my fear. My entire universe centered on his fingers, and his lips, and the erotic way he panted directly into my mouth as if he were feeding me oxygen.

  My overtaxed lungs cramped, and I sobbed for breath. Still, I hungered for more. He didn’t move his hand away, and I couldn’t stop whatever the hell was happening to my system. My thighs were shaking so hard that water kept sloshing over the sides of the tub, but I wasn’t even close to satisfied.

  This was my drug, and he was my pusher. If I didn’t die from sheer bliss, we’d flood his bathroom and probably drown.

  I could think of worse ways to go.

  When I couldn’t take any more, I grabbed his wrist and whimpered, not capable of actual speech. He chuckled and kissed me, sucking on my sore lower lip until my eyes flicked open and met his.

  “I’m addicted to watching you come. To giving you pleasure and watching you take it,” he whispered.

  Barely, just barely, I resisted shrinking away and ducking my head.

  He chuckled again, then glanced down at the floor. “Oh, shit.”

  I dragged myself up from my half sitting, half reclining position and peered over the side of the tub. The mat under his knees was soaked. Water and bubbles everywhere.

  Shock wound through my limp body. “Got a mop?”

  Yet again he stunned me by laughing. Nodding, he got to his feet and turned off the water. We’d, ah, sort of forgotten about that.

  “Yeah. I’ll be right back.” He looked down at me and caught his tongue between his teeth. “You really don’t need to get dressed.”

  With that, he was gone.

  I buried my head in my hands. And grinned. Like a dolt.

  Like a girl who’d just had probably three orgasms back-to-back. I couldn’t tell where one ended and the next began.

  I’d finished dressing by the time he returned. Thank God I’d set my clothes on the toilet. Since his shirt and hoodie hadn’t fared as well, he threw those in the washer while I mopped. He insisted on taking over a few minutes later, so I did what I could with paper towels and elbow grease.

  In under half an hour, the bathroom was back to rights, and I was falling asleep standing up. My sex adrenaline rush had finally worn off. In another minute, I’d be ready to curl up on the damp floor.

  “It’s late.” Fox brushed a hand down my hair as we stared at our work.

  “How late?” I’d left my purse and phone near the front door.

  He tugged his phone out of his jeans. “Three-eleven.”

  “Are you shitting me?” I whirled on him and punched his shoulder. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

  His lips twitched. “We were a little busy for me to be watching the clock.”

  Whoops, I hadn’t fulfilled my part of the deal. I dropped my gaze to the front of his jeans. He wasn’t fully hard, but he wasn’t exactly soft.

  Was he ever?

  “Sorry, I forgot. Did you, um, want me to—”

  “You forgot?” His grin crept into his voice. “Wow, kill a guy’s ego, why don’t you?”

  I didn’t grin back, but I came awfully close. “I don’t think anything could kill your ego.”

  “Oh, sweetheart, if anyone could, it would be you.”

  I didn’t know what to say to that, so I stared down at my socks. Nice to see I hadn’t lost my inherent lack of social graces.

  “Come on.” He turned me toward the door. “Let’s get you home. Unless you want to spend the night?”

  Not wanting to ruin what had turned into a semi-decent evening—okay, I was lying to myself, so sue me—I mumbled something about not sleeping well anywhere but in my own bed. He nodded and led me to the door.

  I’m sure he was thrilled with me right about now. First, I’d told him I didn’t want a boyfriend, then I’d helped flood his bathroom and forgot to get him off. Now I insisted on going home in the middle of the night when it was snowing and cold as fuck out. Most likely I wouldn’t be getting an invite to return anytime soon. Just as well.

  My clit sent up a weak throb of protest. After tonight, the possibility of no sexual activity from here on out made me want to punch something. Hard. Maybe I’d need to invest in a toy after all. If I could get over my embarrassment, I’d ask Kizzy what she recommended. That girl could practically recite the Kama Sutra from memory.

  Once Fox had grabbed another hoodie from the peg in the front hall, he pulled it on and we headed outside. To my utter relief, he flagged down a cab and waited for me to tell my address to the cabbie. I was about to suggest to Fox that he stay home when he nailed me with the look and I fell silent.

  I stewed throughout the short ride to my building. We were already falling into uncomfortable patterns. He wasn’t responsible for my safety and therefore did not need to accompany me home. I’d been taking care of myself for years.

  And I certainly didn’t need him to pay the cabbie or walk me to my door, though he insisted on doing both. By then the look was practically a death glare so I chalked everything up to the overall craziness of the night.

  We headed up the hall in silence, both deep in thought. Deep in something. At least the shit we’d stepped into smelled good.

  Damn his stupid, sexy as hell cologne.

  A sliver of light under my apartment door caught my eye. I stopped walking and stared, sure I had to be imagining things. I couldn’t face anything else tonight. My tank was so empty I was operating on fumes.

  Fox stopped walking too, his gaze following mine. “What is it?”

  My throat went tight and hot, making it difficult for me to formulate words. My exhaustion had disappeared in a flash. “There’s a light on.” My voice quivered, much to my disgust. Had to be exhaustion. “See?”

  “You didn’t leave one on?”

  I gritted my teeth. God, did I really need to deal with him right now too? “Would I be panicking if I had?”

  “You might’ve forgotten—” He fell silent at my death glare and nodded. “Okay. Let me handle this.”

  “Excuse me?”

  Without responding, he shuffled me behind him like the little woman he obviously thought I was. He was too busy moving stealthily toward my door to pay me any mind so I thumped him on the shoulder without checking my strength.

  That got his attention. “What the fuck, Mia?” he demanded in a low voice.

  “It’s my apartment. I’m not some wussy woman who can’t deal with her own stuff.”

  I used his moment of surprise to dart in front of him and try the knob. The door was unlocked. Panic bubbled in my stomach as I shoved it open, only to be tossed aside at the last second by my charging hero. We burst through the doorway like a comedy duo from a fifties movie, coming up short at the fearsome sight that awaited us.

  A petite woman in a fuzzy bathrobe and green face mask stood next to the couch, a spatula covered in what looked like brownie batter halfway to her lips. She blinked her big blue eyes then let out a whoop and launched herself in my direction. “Ame!”

  “Ame?” Fox muttered. “Who the hell’s Ame?”

  But I didn’t have time to wo
rry about him right now. My sister was here.

  Carly careened into me and nearly sent me sprawling to the floor. I clutched her waist and we dance-rocked back and forth, mumbling mostly incoherent babble. We hadn’t seen each other for a month, not since Christmas, and even then we’d only had a day together before I had to get back to the city for work. Tears sprang into my eyes and I sobbed into her neck, totally consumed with emotion.

  Totally forgetting we had a witness.

  “Shh,” Carly murmured into my hair.

  It reminded me so much of what Fox had said earlier that I reared back and gazed at her with streaming eyes. Then I glanced at Fox, who was staring at me in stunned disbelief.

  “Well, well. Who are we?” Carly pitched an eyebrow at me before she marched forward and stuck her hand out to Fox. He shook, limply.

  I supposed I’d shocked him with my display. Served him right for making me come so much and trying to save my life.

  “That’s Tray Knox,” I said when it became obvious he wasn’t going to answer. I rubbed the back of one hand under my nose and waved the other at him. “He’s just leaving.”

  “Is he?” Carly’s eyebrow was going to get stuck near her hairline if she didn’t relax her features soon. “He doesn’t look like he’s in a hurry.”

  “I’m not.” Finally recovering, he turned his typical Fox smile on Carly and dazzled her with about one-hundred-fifty watts of pure sex appeal.

  I didn’t get wet again. Seriously, I didn’t.

  “Now that you know who I am, you would be?” he asked Carly.

  “I’m Ame’s sister. Carly.” Carly cocked her head and looked back and forth between Fox and me. After a full minute of checking us out, she grinned. “Holy shit, Ame has a boyfriend!” Before I could dispute that assertion—hotly—she poked a finger into Fox’s chest. “Dude, you really are real, right? I’m not dreaming this, am I?”

  “I’m real.” His annoying grin never wavered. “Promise.”

  What he didn’t say? That he was not my mothereffing boyfriend.

  “He’s not my boyfriend.” I turned and marched to the galley kitchen on the opposite side of the living room. Opposite side in this case meant a couple hundred feet. I did not have a fancy ass place like Fox, but it suited me fine. It was great.

  Everything was so fabulous I was practically aglow with joy.

  “It’s almost four in the morning, Car,” I called as I turned on the faucet. “A little late for one of your bake-offs.”

  “Late or early, depending,” Carly called back, not sounding the least bit apologetic.

  Carly baked whenever she was stressed, a habit she’d started in childhood. Back then she’d had our mother to help her whip up her manic feasts. I didn’t know what she was worried about now, but I figured it had to be fairly big if she’d shown up without warning and let herself into my apartment. She’d never done that before. If something was wrong with our aunt, she would’ve told me right away, which meant it must be emotional crap I had absolutely no hope of being able to handle.

  How many times in one day did I need to be reminded of my own inadequacies?

  I banged pots and pans on the kitchen counter while I cleaned up Carly’s mess. Not only were brownies baking, she’d also made what looked like biscuits. I had to be in the gym in a few hours and had work after that. With Fox, since he couldn’t even leave me alone at my job.

  Now my stomach was growling.

  Snatches of conversation drifted over to me but I ignored them while I tidied up. Whatever they said to each other didn’t matter. I would find out why Carly was here on a school night in the middle of the week as soon as Fox left, then I would send her home in the morning. After that, I would deal with Fox for a few more weeks until I could kick his ass and get my money.

  Then I was getting the hell out of Dodge.

  Footsteps thudding on the cracked tiles made me stiffen. I started to turn, but I was too slow.

  Fox caged me against the counter with a hand on either side of my hips and spoke close to my ear. “Pick a fight with me and I’ll tell her what we did tonight. In graphic detail.”

  I whirled around, my mouth dropping open in sheer outrage. “She’s a minor, you sick bastard.”

  He laughed. “I bet she’s done way worse.”

  “Damn you, take that back.” My hand came up toward his face before I realized what I was doing.

  Fox had the quickest reflexes of anyone I knew who wasn’t me. He stopped me cold an inch from his stubbled cheek. “Cool it, hothead. You need to get some rest.” He sniffed the air and glanced at the stove. His too-pretty-to-be-real eyes crinkled at the corners. “And maybe have a snack?”

  I didn’t want to laugh, but the hope in his question was too adorable to resist. Damn, my emotions were all over the place tonight. “You’re not having a snack. Go home.”

  “The brownies are almost done,” Carly declared from a few feet away. “If you guys can stop bitching at each other long enough to eat.”

  He inched closer to me and sniffed my hair instead of the brownies. “Mmm, I’d like to eat you. You smell like a grape jelly donut.”

  My face heated as I looked at my sister. “Fox was just leaving.”

  Her brows drew together. “Fox? I thought his name was Tray?” Then she tucked her hands in the pockets of her bathrobe and giggled. “Though he so is.”

  “See? Told you.” I snapped the band of his boxers against his drum tight abs and grinned.

  In retrospect, that was probably a bit too intimate of a gesture for someone who was profoundly not his girlfriend. Oops.

  Carly’s lips parted. “Whoa. Whoa.”

  For his part, Fox didn’t look too concerned. He stepped back and fumbled on the dinky kitchen table for something. Then he approached me while pulling the cap off a marker with his teeth.

  So not hot at all. Barely even lukewarm.

  Before I could protest, he grabbed my wrist and pushed up his jacket to bare my inner arm. He wrote down his number and then, as I gawked, added a very prominent heart. With an arrow through it.

  He handed me the marker. “I’ll see you later.”

  “I—why—I’m not—”

  He leaned down and kissed me, shutting my mouth with his in a very effective manner. My only complaint this time? That he stepped back way too soon.

  Even after he said his goodbyes to Carly and left, I couldn’t stop staring at my arm in a dazed, dumbfounded way. Had all that really just happened?

  “That’s his coat, isn’t it?” Carly walked over to me and poked at the leather bunched over my shoulders like it was still alive. “Looks expensive.”

  “I’m sure it was,” I said vaguely, still fixated on my arm.

  What was I supposed to do with his number? He couldn’t think I would actually call him to chat. Maybe he thought I’d dial him up for a booty call?

  Absolutely not.

  Well…maybe. It depended how fast I could get my hands on one of those sex toys. I wondered if Kizzy could possibly be up yet. She was a morning riser.

  I smothered a groan. I’d officially finally lost my mind.

  “You’re completely obvious. I knew you two were together the instant you came through the door. He had that look in his eye,” Carly continued, evidently unaware of my mental hysterics. “Like you were his.”

  I snapped my attention back to Carly as I replayed Fox’s earlier statements in my head.

  Mia.

  Mine.

  I’d ignored the growl in his voice when he uttered those words in the alley outside the bar. People said all sorts of things when they came. One guy had called me “Mother Maria” while I’d been sucking him off. It didn’t mean anything.

  I wouldn’t let it.

  “It’s not like that, Car.” I turned to check on the brownies.

  “How dumb do you think I am? I can tell you guys were together tonight.” She slapped her hand next to mine on the controls on the stove. I hadn’t managed to turn the
dial yet. “Sex together.”

  “What do you know about it?”

  “Nothing yet. I’m hoping you’ll fill me in.” She waggled her brows and crossed her arms over her gaping robe.

  Cripes, had she flashed boob at Fox? Unlike her older sister, Carly actually had breasts. Nice ones I would’ve been jealous of had I not thought tits were basically a pain in the ass.

  “So? Spill it. Is he amazing? He has to be amazing with a body like that. Even his hips swivel just right when he walks. I bet he fucks like a stallion.”

  What the what? Was that really my baby sister talking that way? I absolutely couldn’t take any more for one day.

  “Your brownies are done. Probably the biscuits too.” I pressed a hand to my temple. It throbbed like a bitch all of a sudden. I needed ibuprofen and I needed my bed. “You’ll still be here in a couple of hours?”

  “Yeah. I’ll be here a while.” She laid a hand on my cheek. “You feel hot. Are you okay?”

  Tears from the unexpected comfort of having her with me again swam into my eyes. I ruthlessly battled them back. No more tears today. “I’m fine.” I pulled her close. “I love you.”

  “I love you to the moon and back,” she responded as she always did, reminding me so much of our mother. Right then the memory was reassuring, not painful.

  The pain would return. It always did. Now I’d settle for comfortably numb. Or even better, comfortably unconscious.

  “Go get some sleep.” Carly gave me a light shove.

  I nodded and obeyed her, too tired to do anything else. My bed was calling me like a lover. A loud and lusty one.

  I had just made it to my bedroom when I heard her voice again.

  “Fox must’ve worn you right out,” she called before I shut the door behind me.

  “Jesus.” I turned and dropped my forehead to the cool wood.

  What had happened to my baby sister?