Take the Leap

by April Fire

  “You too,” he breathed as he slipped his hand beneath the low-cut shirt I had on and brought one of my breasts to his mouth, flicking his tongue against the nipple and let his teeth drag across my engorged flesh. He slowed his thrusts tantalizingly, making me wait, making my body keen for him hungrily – and then suddenly picking up the pace and moving fast again, fucking me deep and hard and with a passion I’d never felt before in my life. He brushed my hair back roughly from my face and our lips met again, our tongues moving in time with his movements inside me. I lifted my hips, taking him as deep as I could, my entire body filled with sensation-

  I wasn’t ready for the orgasm, but the intensity of the moment whipped through me, sending me reeling almost painfully as the pleasure rippled out through my body.

  “Fuck!” I cried out, just as he had when he’d come inside me in that dressing room a few weeks earlier. Except this time there was no doubt, no fear, no worry – no there was just us, and I couldn’t have been happier.

  He came a few moments later, my pussy still clenching around his cock as he buried it in me one last time then slowly withdrew, pulling out almost reluctantly. He kissed me again, as though he couldn’t get enough of me, and then brushed his nose against mine and looked into my eyes.

  “You’re not going to go now, are you?” he asked, and I couldn’t tell whether he was joking or not. I shook my head and smiled, pressing my forehead to his in what I hoped was a reassuring gesture.

  “No,” I promised him. “Never. I’m with you, Will. I promise.”

  He swept me off the table and into his arms, and outside the lights of the city were dimming down to dark, as though the entire outside world was getting ready for something exciting.

  Epilogue

  Will

  “I can’t believe it’s actually happening tonight,” she half-grumbled, half-muttered to herself as she tried to put in the pair of earrings I’d purchased her for the night. She jabbed herself in the lobe a couple of time before she managed to get them through the hole, and I couldn’t help but grin at how grumpy she was. She always got like this before a big event – it seemed like it was her way of venting nerves or excitement, even if it seemed kind of counterintuitive.

  “Me neither,” I stepped towards her and put my arms around her waist, pulling her close; she half-turned her head to acknowledge me and I planted a kiss on her cheek.

  “It’s going to be okay, you know,” I reminded her gently. “Really. I know you’re nervous-”

  “Hey, maybe I’m just excited that my amazing work is finally going to get an airing to the general public,” she shot back playfully, stepping away from me to grab her lipstick. We were getting ready at my apartment, and there was something really charming about seeing all the stuff she’d dumped here over the six months that we’d been together – her make-up, hair stuff, clothes, everything she needed to stop by at the last minute and spend the evening eating takeout with me. Amongst other things, of course. Those were my favorite nights, the ones we spent all curled up together, nothing but each other for company.

  Well, it wasn’t like we’d had a lot of choice before tonight. Dina had been dead set on taking the relationship super slow, and part of that meant not outing ourselves to the press before she was ready. I had never been with a woman who was so against our relationship getting out before – at first, I felt a little affronted by it, but soon enough I realized that it had nothing to do with her feelings towards me and everything to do with holding on to her privacy as things ramped up. She didn’t want to be nothing more than the girlfriend of some movie star. She wanted to be her own person, exist in her own right, and I would never try to take that away from her.

  Still, I had to admit, there was something fateful about our first time coming out as a couple coinciding with the premiere of the movie’s release. It had been months since we wrapped on Nation, and part of me felt as though it was so long ago that I was already halfway into the next project – but I was so proud of this that I couldn’t wait to see it come to fruition. It was going to be amazing. I’d watched the final cut and I knew we had managed to make something pretty special, something that I was so proud off I thought it might bust out the front of my chest.

  And I was looking forward to finally being able to talk about my girlfriend as opposed to ducking questions about the sudden cessation of my bachelor lifestyle. I hadn’t realized quite how big that part of my bran that had become until it stopped, with a few people assuming that I must have been hit by a car or something to have vanished from the dating scene so suddenly.

  I would have been pissed had it not been for Dina’s influence. She made me so utterly, endlessly happy that I couldn’t find it in myself to get pissed at the little minutiae of celebrity-hood anymore. I knew it had been a gamble when we had gotten together, and I was more than prepared for it to go wrong the way the rest of my relationships had, but so far it was just so…easy. I had even met her parents, and though they had been stunned when I walked through the door, it seemed like I made a good impression and soon enough I was pretty sure I was part of the fold.

  “You look amazing,” I remarked as she quickly ran a brush through her hair and glanced over at me and pulled a face.

  “You think?”

  “Always,” I agreed. “But especially tonight.”

  It was true – she was wearing a deep green dress that flared out over her knees and hugged her torso to show off that perfect curve where her waist met her breasts. She glanced over her shoulder at me coyly and grinned.

  “How much time do we have?” she asked, and I glanced at my watch.

  “Not long enough for me to fuck you over this table,” I replied regretfully, and she pulled a faux-grief-stricken face.

  “When we get back?”

  “Obviously,” I agreed, and I heard the buzzer on my apartment go.

  “That’ll be my driver,” I sighed. “We should get going.”

  “Oh shit, I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” she ran her hands through her hair and stared at herself in the mirror, her eyes suddenly full of nerves. “Do we have to?”

  “We don’t have to do anything,” I assured her. “We can go separately if you want.”

  Her eyes travelled over to meet mine, and I saw her chest deflate as she let out a long breath.

  “I want to do this,” she assured me, taking a step forward and placing a hand on my chest. “I’m just…nervous, that’s all. I’ve never been a movie star’s girlfriend before.”

  “You have, just not in public,” I pointed out. “You’ve been doing it pretty damn successfully for the last six months, if I’m not very much mistaken.”

  Her eyes met mine, and I knew what I was going to say at once. It was something we’d held back on till then, but something that was obviously true for the two of us. Without hesitation, I spoke.

  “I love you.”

  The words hovered between us for a moment, and her eyes widened – but a few seconds later, a grin broke out over her face and she leaned up to kiss me again.

  “I love you too,” she replied, almost a little breathless. It was the perfect moment to say it, and it had never been truer than in that moment, because every second that passed I felt as though I loved her more deeply than before. I pressed my forehead to hers and both of us shut our eyes for a second, lost in the moment, until the door buzzed again and ripped us from our little reverie.

  “Come on,” she took my head and stepped into her heels, using me as balance. “Let’s get out of here.”

  We headed for the elevator, smiling at each other dizzily as we waited for it to arrive. I let her step in first, and she caught my eye in the mirror and knew damn well that I was taking the opportunity to get a look at her perfect ass. I joined her, standing at her side as the door slid shut, and we looked to each other and swapped a nervous, excited grin – I had no idea how this was going to go, but I couldn’t wait to try. Every second with Dina felt like a perfect movie moment.


  The End

  Cutting Ice

  April Fire

  Chapter One

  I would have cried all the way there if I wasn’t driving myself.

  I had never been so torn about making such a huge life decision; every other time, the obvious answer had presented itself to me and I’d gone with that. When it came to break up with my high school boyfriend to go to college across the country, I knew exactly what I was meant to do, so I dumped Darren and hopped on a plane to New York. Hunting my first job, I wondered briefly whether leaving my entire life behind so I could pick up an editorial position in a small but prestigious paper all the way back across the states was the right decision- but I knew that it was in my heart. But this time, when the call had come through, I was left completely unsure as to what I was really meant to do.

  The call, which my editor Paul directed straight to my office, was from one of our higher-ups, the head of the publishing corporation that owned the paper. They were pitching a story- a story that Paul knew would be right up my alley. I’d written about sports for as long as I’d written, and was currently doing a weekly column for the paper that had been pretty well-received so far. So, when head office got in touch and said they wanted someone to go immerse themselves in an up-and-coming hockey team across the country and write an investigative piece on their rise to notoriety, there was only one person they were ever going to send out to cover it. I remember nodding my way through the phone call as though they could see me, before I hung up and stared at the opposite wall for five full minutes.

  I really thought I would be here for at least the next few years or so. Yeah, the article wouldn’t take forever to write- I would be gone six months at the most- but it was another upheaval. I had hoped that when I chose to come to the Herald, I would finally find some of the stability I’d been craving since I left home. And I had found it- I had found it with Joel.

  We’d met through work- I was covering the opening of his new restaurant back when I first arrived, and we hit it off at once The age difference didn’t seem to matter too much (he was thirty-one when we met, a full decade older than me), and we soon fell for each other and moved in. I’d been so busy with work before that I had never much bothered with relationships, and he was the first- I loved him with every inch of my being, more than I thought it was possible to love someone.

  Loved. That was the operative word, I thought, as I finally saw the lights of the town I would be living in for the next few months on the horizon. When I told him about the opportunity I’d been given, I assumed that it would be a bit of a change for us, but that we would stick it out- it wasn’t forever, and after all, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right?

  “I’m not waiting for you that long,” Joel snapped, wiping his hands on the towel next to the stovetop. I leaned up against the counter, gripping on for dear life.

  “Why not?” I demanded. “We’ve been together two years. I won’t even be gone that long!”

  “It’s not you going,” he sighed. “It’s that you don’t…you obviously don’t want to settle down yet.”

  It took me by surprise, but he was right. He had ten years on me, and he would be looking at starting a family and getting married and here I was, running off across the country to pursue a story and leaving him behind.

  So, we broke up, and I packed a bag full of clothes and pictures and threw everything into the back of my car. At least I didn’t have to worry about finding a place to stay- the paper was paying for my accommodation, so I wouldn’t have to slink back to my family and ask to crash on their couch for a while. Still, it felt as though my heart physically ached- I had thought we were forever, in the foolish, certain way you think your first love will last. I had known it was wrong from the start, if I was honest with myself, known that we were at different places in our lives, but I had ignored it in the hopes that we could figure something out one day down the line. Turns out I had just been putting off the inevitable.

  It was a seven-hour drive, and I did it in a day, desperate to put as much distance between myself and him as I could. I had been given the name of the town and the location of the training ground that I’d be hanging out at for the next few months, and that was it- the team management had agreed for me to come cover the team in the hopes of attracting a few sponsors, but Paul reminded me that that didn’t mean I had to produce a flattering story. I hadn’t written an investigative piece on this level before, and I was nervous about pissing someone off- the team, the players, my editors. I just had to trust that they wouldn’t have sent me here if they didn’t think I could do it.

  It was late when I pulled up to the apartment they had put aside for me- I fumbled in my pocket for the key I’d been sent a few days prior, and unlocked the door and made my way upstairs.

  I found my apartment, opened the door, and flicked on the light- it was small, a studio, but it was just what I needed after leaving Joel. I didn’t want acres of empty space that only I could fill. The smallness of the place made me feel a little less lonely.

  I dumped my suitcase next to the bed, and fell face-first into the threadbare mattress. And, although I’d been fighting the urge to cry since I left the city, I found that the tears weren’t forthcoming. Maybe I was too tired, maybe I was too nervous about tomorrow- but I didn’t want to cry. I flipped on to my back, and stared at the ceiling, and wondered if this escape might have been a better decision that I thought.

  Chapter Two

  “Hey man, you coming out tonight?”

  As I pulled off my pads and stripped out of my sweaty clothes, I shook my head.

  “Nah,” I replied with a shrug. “Boss wants to talk to me.”

  “What have you done now?” Derrick rolled his eyes teasingly at me and closed his locker, leaning up against the cold metal and observing me with amusement.

  “Nothing!” I protested.

  “That you remember,” he flashed me a smile, and went to grab his stuff. “I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

  “Yeah,” I waved him off. “Catch you then.”

  I slammed my locker door shut and stared at my distorted reflection in the metal in front of me. I flashed myself a smile, trying to psych myself up- boss wouldn’t want anything serious with me. I was killing it in training, and I’d scored four times in our last couple of matches.

  I wondered if this had anything to do with the guy in the stands I hadn’t recognized- he’d sat in at training today, and seemed to be paying plenty of attention to me. I didn’t think much of it at the time, too focused on the game at hand, but now I thought about it, it was kind of out of character for Boss to let anyone else see our training methods. It must have been something big.

  I made my way through to his office, pausing for a moment when I found myself face-to-face with the plaque on his door- Johnson Mapplethorpe, Coach. We always joked amongst ourselves that he had two last names for a name, and I smirked slightly at the memory- I wiped t hurriedly from my face. Last thing I wanted was to be caught out grinning like an idiot at some joke at his expense. He wouldn’t take kindly to that.

  I pushed open the door, and Johnson looked up- his glasses were pushed to the top of his head, and he quickly whipped them off. He never liked to be seen with his glasses on.

  “Sam, come in,” he nodded to the seat opposite him. “Take a seat.”

  I did as I was told, glancing down at the paperwork on his desk- it was covered up by an enormous unfolded newspaper, something called the Herald. He had it open to the sports pages, with a column circled in blue pen. I looked back up at him and managed a smile.

  “What’s up?” I asked, hoping that I was going to like whatever answer he gave me.

  “Sam,” he steepled his fingers and looked over the top. “I’m not going to beat around the bush here. An offer has come in.”

  “Huh?” I wrinkled my nose. We were barely out of the local leagues. Surely, no-one was paying that much attention to us?

  “A scout from the Phila
delphia Soars was in the stadium today,” he continued matter-of-factly. “He liked what he saw, and they’d like to make an offer for you.”

  “What the fuck?” My eyes widened. The Soars? They’d been around for decades, one of the best teams in the country. I had to be getting screwed with. Johnson cocked an eyebrow at my language, and I lowered my eyes apologetically.

  “You don’t have to go,” his voice was a little softer, hopeful, as though he didn’t want me to leave. “But they’ll need a decision by the end of the month.”

  “This month?” I exclaimed, parroting every word that came out of his mouth in my surprise. He nodded.

  “That’s right,” he affirmed. “If you go…they’re offering quite a price for you, Sam. It would be a big boost to the team’s finances if you went…”

  My jaw hung open, and he quickly dismissed that line of reasoning.

  “But it’s up to you, Sam,” he promised, reverting to the Dad-like kindness and sympathy that he could occasionally display for his platers.

  “Is that it?” I asked. I needed to get out- felt as though the walls of this office were closing in on me and I might be trapped forever unless I got out now.

  “That’s it,” he nodded, and I got to my feet.

  “Sam?”

  I turned to look at him, my fingers already wrapped around the door handle.

  “Take your time with this.”

  I nodded sharply but didn’t answer, opening the door and heading out into the corridor. I could hear the squeaking of the shoes of the kids who came in to practice after we did. I headed to my locker to grab my stuff, and then out to my car. I sat there for a few minutes, my brain spinning. How had this happened?