by Day, Laura
He put his hand on the center of her chest and gently pushed her back down onto the massage table. He came up with her and knelt between her knees. His hands ran up and down her thighs over the thin fabric of her exercise pants. She raised her hips toward him, wanting him to touch her everywhere.
He pulled at the waistband and slid them and her panties down over hips and then her knees and then past her ankles. He tossed them to the side. Marie felt suddenly self-conscious lying there naked in front of him. She tried to close her legs and cover her breasts with her hands.
“What are you doing?” he asked as his hands ran down the seam of her thighs. He slipped his hands between them, and she felt the rough touch of his fingers tracing a path of electricity along her. Her breath hitched as his hand moved between her legs and gently separated them. He pushed her knees down until she was spread out before him. “You’re beautiful,” he whispered into her ear as he leaned forward and hovered over her. He kissed her breasts and licked the sensitive space between them. Marie felt a bolt of pleasure pulsed through her body at his touch. He slid a finger into her center. He moved easily inside of her. She was wet and ready for him, and she squirmed under his touch as his finger drew longs stroked inside of her.
She moaned as her desperate hips writhed beneath his fingers. He was so gently slipping his finger over her clit making her jump with pleasure with every stroke. She grabbed his shoulder and whispered the word yes into his ear. She licked his earlobe and then took it between his teeth as he growled in pleasure.
She was rocking against him. She was desperate for him to keep going. She clung to his shoulders as his fingers continued to spin fire and pleasure inside of her. Her orgasm was building up slowly inside of her. The sensation was almost too much. She both wanted to finish and never ever wanted his fingers to stop. “Please,” she breathed the word into his ear as her desire grew. She was so close. Her body felt out of her control. Her hips were bucking against his hand. She was so desperate for completion that nothing could have stopped her. She would have begged; she would have done anything to finish.
His touch was feather light inside of her and her hips were rising off the table as she yearned for contact between his rough hands and her most sensitive place.
“Yes. Yes!” She cried out as his fingers slid over her again and again. She was so close, at the tipping point and with one last stroke her entire body tensed and then convulsed as her orgasm pulsed through her, a fire coursing through her veins and obliterating everything in her path. Crying out in pleasure and gasping for breath she his fingers continued to stroke as she rode her orgasm to the end.
Her eyes had been clamped shut and she blearily opened them and looked around the white massage room. She was still breathing deeply and she felt like she was floating above her body. But Axel wasn’t done yet. He was biting and licking at her neck and slipping out of his gym shorts.
Marie sat up and crashed her lips against him. Her hair was plastered to her skin and she couldn't have cared less. This was perfect. It was exactly what she wanted. Marie scooted to her knees and now she pushed Axel back. His cock was hard and she reached down and gently stroked up the shaft and caressed the head with her thumb. Axel groaned and closed his eyes and her hands continued to work.
“Come here,” he ordered putting his hands on her hips and pulling her forward.
“Wait, we need a condom,” she said, looking around.
He nodded and stood up, leaving Marie sitting naked on the masseur’s table. He grabbed his gym bag, which had been in the room, and he pulled out a condom from his wallet. He came back up to the table and laid down on his back and, with a wicked smile, Marie took the condom and rolled it over his penis. She threw one leg over him and settled down on top of him. She took his hard cock in her hand and she lowered herself down over it.
Axel was larger than Austin and she winced as her body stretched to accommodate them. Her head fell back as she took all of him and every inch of it was inside of her. Axel’s hands massaged her breasts as Marie began to slowly move her hips. She could feel him as he moved inside of her. Her was filling her up and she moaned as she put her hands on his shoulders.
Marie leaned forward as Axel moved with her. His hands were clutching her back as he pulled her down to be closer to him. She could smell the cologne he was wearing and taste the salty sweat on his neck. Their bodies matched in a slow rhythm as his hands urged her to continue. His cock was sliding along her clit, and she could feel the head of his penis where it touched her g-spot. She shuddered as his hands stroked the soft skin of her back. Then he switched it up, grabbing her hips and her ass firmly, pulling and pushing her as he groaned loudly.
Then he spun her over, never pulling out of her. He was on top and she pulled her knees on either side of him. He looked down at her and pulled himself all the way out before plunging all the way back in. Marie threw her head back and cried out as he crashed into her. Her eyes were clamped shut again and he leaned down and kissed her. He whispered into her ear, “Open your eyes.”
She complied and looked up into his blue eyes. His fingers were between them. He remembered where her clit was and he was on it, stroking it as his shaft stroked inside of her. She couldn’t come again. Her body still felt strained and swollen from the orgasm she had experienced only a few moments ago and she didn’t think she could handle another one.
“Yes,” she cried as she raised her hips to meet his as they fell together. Her skin was buzzing with pleasure and she forced her eyes to stay open as she looked at him. She ran her hands up his firm chest and over his strong shoulders as he plunged into her. “Yes,” she repeated as if it were the only word she knew. It was the only word that mattered.
Pleasure was building up inside of her. His fingers and cock were rocking her together, each one working a separate place inside of her. He groaned as he pushed himself even farther inside of her. Marie grabbed onto his neck. Pleasure started where his fingers moved and it poured through her body, taking her over. She thrashed underneath him her body out of control as it sought a deeper touch from him. He was rubbing circles around her clit and she was desperately grabbing at his shoulder.
He thrust into her and his finger spun and then it was suddenly too much. She hit the tipping point as her body again convulsed around him. Her eyes closed and she screamed out his name as her body shook and trembled. Her orgasm washed over her, and pleasure pulsed through her body over and over again until she could finally open her eyes and breath. With a grunt and a final thrust he finished and then collapsed on top of her.
Marie stared at the ceiling. She was falling back down to earth, the realities of her life and her situation pouring over her. She looked to Axel, searching his eyes trying to figure out what he was thinking. Axel stood up and quickly began to dress. Marie looked at him confused. Was that it? No snuggling, no holding each other, no talking about what had just happened?
“I gotta...um...go back to work. You know your way out, right?” Axel asked as he pulled his shirt over his chest.
Her face flushed Marie hopped off the table and scrambled for her clothes. There were tears in her eyes as she fumbled to find her bra and panties. How had this happened? She had just gone from extreme pleasure to desperation and disappointment. Was this what casual sex was like? Shouldn’t she be enjoying this more?
Axel left the room without another word. Feeling dirty and used, Marie dressed quickly, feeling more embarrassed and humiliated with every second that passed. Once she was ready she wiped the tears from her eyes and ran out of the gym and out onto the street.
Chapter Fifteen
Marie fought back tears as she walked out of the gym. She focused on keeping her head up and her shoulders straight, she refused to run or rush. She kept an even, relaxed pace, determined to look like nothing was bothering her. She was not going to be known around town as the girl who ran around crying everywhere. She wanted people to think she was stronger than that. She wished she were as stro
ng as she was pretending.
Her jaw ached from holding back tears. They fell anyway. She swiped at them angrily before they could make any progress down her cheeks. She pushed open the door of the gym and stepped out into fresh air and dim sunlight. She turned towards the mansion; she was four blocks away from home, then three. She could make it without bursting into sobs on the street. She just needed to run right upstairs to her apartment and then she could finally let her tears fall.
She walked up Main Street, ignoring the people who passed her. She looked past them or away from them with as much dignity as she could muster. She wrapped her arms around herself, hurrying up the sidewalk. The day was grey around her, a perfect match for her mood. She turned off Main Street and the giant Hawks Mansion appeared before her.
It didn’t look scary or intimidating to her eyes. It looked like a fortress, a safe place where she could hide and cry alone. She could hole up in this mansion as long as she wanted. It was old and strong and impenetrable; it could shield and protect. She hurried up the main staircase and opened the heavy mahogany doors. They opened silently and Marie closed them behind her and then scurried inside and up to her apartment before the grad student who was currently working on the collection noticed her.
Her feet thudded on the stairs until, finally, she was in her sanctuary and she closed her door and fell back against it as tears cascaded from her eyes. They poured down her face and soaked her shirt. Her body was wracked with sobs, her chest was heaving and she was gasping for breath. She tried to stop her tears and control them, but every time a she tried a new sob would shudder through her and new tears would come.
She thought it would never end. She thought she would spend the rest of her life sobbing on this floor with the images of her tryst with Axel flooding her brain. But eventually she grew uncomfortable on the floor and was able to pull herself up. She struggled to her feet and lurched to the bathroom, reaching out to tables and the couch, anything that could support her shaking legs. Once in the cold bathroom, she ripped off her sweat-stained clothes, struggling with her shirt and her bra before finally removing them and tossing them into a pile on the floor. She stepped into the steaming hot shower where her tears mingled with the warm water and fell to the bathtub floor.
She felt dirty and used. She felt ashamed and embarrassed. She felt powerless. He had treated her like she was nothing. Like she was just some doll he could pick up and put down at will. He didn’t care about her. He didn’t know where she had come from or what she had experienced and he didn’t seem to want to. He had gotten what he wanted.
Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? How many times had she heard Austin say that? When one of his buddies complained about a woman who was getting too clingy, that was the first thing Austin would say. He and his friends used to gather together and laugh at those women who put out too soon. They called them desperate losers. They weren’t even worthy of pity, only ridicule. Now she was one of them.
On television shows and movies other women did this. They hooked up with their trainers and laughed about it at lunch. Why couldn’t she? Why couldn’t she just accept it for what it was and move on? Axel was always out of her league. She should have known this would happen. She was nothing to him. She was just a way for him to pass a bored afternoon.
A new pang of sadness plunged through her chest. More tears came to her eyes. How was it possible she had more tears to give? How could she find new things to be sad about? Why was this so hard? If only she could go back and stop it. She should have restrained herself. She should have held back. Now she was just another notch on Axel’s belt.
She got out of the shower and went to her bedroom where she fell onto her bed. She curled up on her side and stared out the window. The tears were almost done. Every now and again a new one would spring forth and slip down her cheek, but, now, she mostly felt empty.
I wonder who used to live up here? Marie thought as she stared past the white curtains, which were gently flapping against the window. How many other eyes had stared out this window? This used to be the servants’ quarters. There would have been young girls sleeping in this room. They would wake early and start the fires and make breakfast for the family. They would work from morning until night for pennies and they would be glad for it.
She wished she could go back in time and be one of those simple girls. She would work in the mansion, get her hands dirty, and break her back with labor. She would go to bed too tired at night to even think about sinning. She would marry a local butcher or a one of the Hawk family employees. Her life would have been harder, but in another way it would have been infinitely easier, simpler at least.
Her eyes were growing heavy. She reached for her phone and set the alarm to three, when she needed to leave to pick up Cate from daycare. Her face felt warm against the soft pillow and her body sunk into the bed. Eventually her eyes closed and she fell into a deep sleep that lasted the entire afternoon.
She woke to the gentle chime of her alarm. The first thing she realized was how thirsty she was. She downed two full glasses of water and then changed out of her robe into jeans and a t-shirt. Her hair was ruined from sleeping in it wet and she pulled it back into a messy bun. She looked at herself in the mirror. The sleep had done her well. The redness of her eyes was gone. Her face looked dewy and well-rested.
She was able to breathe without crying. It was a step in the right direction, at least. She was able to move around without sobs taking over her body. She felt…not better exactly, but different in some way. She realized she was making the same mistakes again. She was letting some man push her around. She was letting someone else dictate her feelings.
She wasn’t going to hide in this house. She didn’t have anything to be ashamed about. She was a modern, single woman; she could sleep with whomever she wanted. She had just made a bad choice; that was all. Axel was exactly the man she thought he was. She remembered calling him rude at the gym. She had been right about him then. He was brutish and cruel. He was a fighter. His job was to beat other men bloody and then collect the reward.
She stepped out into the street, wincing in the bright sunlight. The grey had burned off and the day had turned bright and cheery. She headed towards the daycare center. The gym was on the way and she didn’t go around it. She didn’t hide from him. She wasn’t going to change her life to avoid him. They had hooked up and that was it.
But why was that it? Why had he just left like that? Had she been bad at it? Had she done something wrong? He had just left her lying there on the massage table like she was trash waiting to be thrown away. She frowned as she walked. Who was he to treat her like that? Marie was a good woman. She worked hard; she tried to be nice and think of others.
She deserved respect. She deserved to be treated better than that. Fuck Axel Connelly and fuck the tears she had cried over him. If this was how he wanted it to be, so be it. But Marie was not quitting the program. She would call and ask for a different trainer. She would tell anyone who asked that Axel wasn’t a good trainer and that was why she went with someone else. She clenched her jaw as the gym came into view. She walked past the windows with her head held high. She didn’t even bother with a glance inside. It didn’t matter to her what was going on in there; she didn’t care.
She was going to learn how to kick ass and she was going to do it in Axel’s gym and if that made him uncomfortable, good. Let him be uncomfortable. Let him feel the awkwardness. It would be good for him. He could use a good punch to his ego, a reminder that he wasn’t the end all be all of her world. She was going to keep living, she was going to keep moving forward and nothing, certainly no man, was going to stop her.
Chapter Sixteen
“Why is this bin filled with dirty towels?” Axel demanded, his voice echoing through the gym.
Several people looked up at him with annoyed expressions on their faces. He had interrupted their routines. He shook his head furiously at the full bin as one of the trainers jogged up to him.<
br />
“These are supposed to be emptied every four hours whether they’re full or not,” Axel said to the trainer.
“It hasn’t been four hours since the last time we changed them,” the trainer said as he looked at Axel confused. “It’s only eleven o’clock. I don’t need to change it until twelve. The bin’s not even half full.”
“Well change it now,” Axel spit. “It looks disgusting. I don’t want this place to smell like old gym towels. I don’t want customers coming in here and seeing piles of disgusting, used towels just sitting around.” He slammed his hand onto the wall and stalked off leaving a confused employee in his wake.
He stalked down to the boxing gym and into his small office. He closed and locked the door and slumped down in his chair. He had handled that badly, very badly. He shouldn’t have done that. He should not have slept with her and certainly not in the gym. He had handled every part of this badly.
He shouldn’t have left her like that. He should have at least helped her dressed and walked her to the door. Instead he left her naked and alone on a massage bed in a strange place. He didn’t know why he felt this way. This was far from his first random hook-up. Girls at the bar, girls at the fights, even a girl he met on a plane once, all those times he had his fun and moved on, but not this time.
