It had taken me a week and in all fairness, I was also taking a page right out of Tyler’s book by making myself proud, instead of working to make someone else happy for me. But I truly felt that it was going to work.
I was confident and I looked great! What could go wrong?
Once I found a spot in the club that wasn’t completely overflowing, I grabbed a high-top table and sat down. I knew that being by myself was something that would attract attention from the men who were seeking out a woman for the evening, but that was kind of what I wanted.
There was a part of me that wanted to show Tyler that he didn’t have anything on me. I wanted to be my own woman and what I chose to do, or tell anyone that I did, would remain my secret.
I wasn’t looking to get laid, but if I happened to find a nice gentleman and things escalated, I certainly wasn’t against a one night stand; if only to show Tyler what kind a woman I really could be.
I was surprised, however, that it didn’t take long at all for a man to come up and sit down next to me.
The man looked nothing like Tyler, but had his own interesting allure. I immediately picked up on the bad boy vibe, but since he was attractive — nicely dressed and seemed nice — I didn’t really pay much mind to my instincts.
However, he did look like he had been in a fight rather recently. His nose looked almost like it was broken and either eye appeared to have bruises. I thought that was a bit strange, but I wasn’t about to make a big deal out of it. I figured that it wasn’t my business anyway.
“Hey, you’re…Ashley, right?” the man said smoothly as he slid into the seat.
“Yes.” I smiled back at him, but shot a suspicious look in his direction. “I’m sorry, do I know you?”
“You know Tyler, right? I’ve seen you two at the gym together.”
“Yeah, I do,” I answered, wondering what this could be about. Go figure, I thought, trying not to roll my eyes. The first man who seeks me out knows that I have a connection to Tyler. Still, I was hopeful that this was where his knowledge of me and Tyler ended, although I knew that I couldn’t be so sure. His questioning made me a little bit leery.
He slid closer to me and answered, “So…I have a question for you.”
“Yes?” I asked, trying to be diplomatic over the whole thing.
“If I were to buy you a drink, would Tyler be okay with that?”
I beamed, happy that he wasn’t here on behalf of Tyler, or at least I didn’t think so. Besides, if he were, I was going to make it very clear about where I stood. So, I made it a point to smile in an alluring fashion before I looked over at him and answered, “Let’s just say that I couldn’t give a shit what Tyler thinks.”
He laughed before he said, “I heard that you were his.”
“You couldn’t be more wrong,” I answered and then after a pause, I glanced around before looking straight back at him and asking, “So, how about that drink?”
The man smiled at me and moved away toward the bar and as I watched him, another man caught my eye. Immediately, I was aggravated.
I wondered why he would be here, when all I wanted was some peace, and quickly concluded that he must be following me.
“Hey…” He said before smiling in a strange fashion.
Is he jealous? I couldn’t help but wonder. I hope so.
“Hi,” I answered stiffly.
Tyler leaned heavily against the table before he answered, “So, what are you doing here?”
“Minding my own business, which is something that I wish you could do for one night,” I spat harshly. “Are you following me?”
At this, he glared at me and answered, “What? No! Shit. I just happened to go to a club. Is that a crime?”
I looked over at him with a careful stare before I answered, “Well…No. I guess it isn’t…So, you’re just here?”
“In the flesh,” he answered, spreading his massively attractive arms out as he stepped away from the table slightly, as though to illustrate his presence further.
“Um…okay.”
“Do you want a drink?” He motioned to my empty glass.
I shook my head. “No. That’s okay.”
Before I could explain that I already had someone getting me a drink, as though right on cue, the man returned and slid past Tyler, making it clear that he was with me. Since they knew one another, I thought that was slightly strange.
“Hey sweetheart,” he answered in a sly tone that was different from the one he had used with me before. I didn’t like the way his eyes slid between me and Tyler. Suddenly, there was a sense of awkwardness between the three of us, growing stronger.
I wanted to make Tyler jealous, but this seemed to be something else entirely.
“Is he bothering you?” the man asked.
“Him?” Tyler snarled at me.
I looked between them and couldn’t tell what was going on. “I thought you two knew one another.”
“Yeah, I guess you could say that. He’s a squirmy little piece of shit,” Tyler answered heatedly, looking pugnaciously at the man.
“Aww, would you look at that,” the man teased in a mean fashion, which made me automatically dislike him. “I guess Tyler minds a little more than you thought he would.”
“Yeah, I do fucking mind. Get away from her,” Tyler answered, staring at the man with a hard look in his eye.
“What is the matter with you? Don’t like a little friendly competition? Can’t take it? Do you feel out of your league?” The man continued to press Tyler, who just grew angrier.
I wasn’t sure what was going on, but I suddenly realized that it was not about me at all. The man didn’t like me, or if he did, that wasn’t his prime reason for buying me a drink. It was all about Tyler. For some reason, this man made it clear that he needed to get back at Tyler for something. However, if he thought that I was the way to do it, he couldn’t have been more wrong.
As angry as I was with Tyler, I wasn’t going to go with a random guy just to spite him; at least, not like this.
The man looked over at me and said smoothly, “Come on, Ashley. Let’s get out of here.” He smiled at me, but I pulled away.
“No thank you,” I said politely and began to walk away from them both, feeling far more nervous than I tried to let on.
However, just as I turned away, I felt the man’s hand curb around my arm and pull me back. “Come on, Sweetheart. Finish your drink, at least.”
“No!” I insisted and moved to pull my arm out of his grasp, but he just clamped onto me tighter.
“Let go of her, now!” Tyler boomed, his eyes aglow with fury.
“You stay out of this,” the man answered, but barely got the statement out of his mouth before Tyler balled up his fist and punched the man so hard that he instantly fell to the ground.
As he fell, Tyler grabbed me and effortlessly put me behind him, before he pulled the man up by his collar until his feet could no longer touch the ground.
“I swear to God, if I ever hear that you even looked in Ashley’s direction, I will hunt you down and kill you, you fucking piece of shit. Leave her alone! I won’t ask you again.”
At that, he threw the man back, toppling over the table. This caused a slight disturbance from the rest of the people in the bar, but most didn’t even notice.
As I looked at Tyler, who simply turned around and walked out of the bar, I couldn’t help but think about how impressive and attractive he was to me at that very moment. I could barely stand the feelings of allure that were welling up inside of me.
I followed him closely, now slightly fearful of what the man might do once he untangled himself from the table and chairs that he was thrown into.
Once we got outside and onto the street, I moved next to Tyler and grasped his arm.
“Are you okay?” he demanded, in something of an angry tone.
“Yes,” I answered, lowering my eyes to the ground, slightly ashamed of what I had almost done. “I’m sorry.”
“Whateve
r,” he answered quickly. “I don’t give a shit that you’re moving on, but at least do me a favor and pick men who aren’t just trying to specifically steal you away from me. It’s degrading to you and pisses me the fuck off.”
“I didn’t know,” I answered. “He just came up to me, and we were talking…He bought me a drink. Who was that guy anyway?”
“Some asshole I beat the shit out of at the gym a little while ago.” Before I could say anything, he explained, “He called me out. He challenged me. I warned him. I won.”
Putting it together, I answered, “So, he thought he could come in there and…Oh…Sorry.”
He shrugged. “You didn’t know and you’re a free woman. You can fuck whoever you like, but if I see them, I might kill them. Just keep that in mind.” He smiled at this, but in his eye, I could still see a flame of passion and anger ignited.
“I’m sorry,” I said again, feeling terrible for what had happened.
“Stop fucking apologizing,” he demanded and then he shrugged. “Go enjoy the rest of your night. If you need me, call me, okay?”
I nodded and watched as he turned his back on me and quickened his step, as though he was serious about leaving me alone.
I knew that I couldn’t have that and so, before I could overthink what I was about to do, I called, “Tyler?”
He turned around and as he did, I ran up to him, threw my arms around his neck, took his mouth unto my own and kissed him passionately.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Tyler
The kiss didn’t amount to much, but she did come back home with me. The two of us talked for a little while and I decided it wouldn’t hurt to ask her to help me train for the competition.
I felt like such a fuckin pussy for being happy when she said yes, but I also couldn’t deny that she was one of the best trainers I ever had; not that there were many. I basically trained myself for the majority of my competitions, but for me to stay with her and allow her to help me, beyond just working toward the goal myself was a big damn deal for me.
Usually, the only person that I considered, especially when I was training, was myself.
However, for the next two weeks, Ashley stayed by my side. Every morning, without fail, we were both up at four-fucking-thirty and running down the beach by five.
Once we ran, which was more of a light jog for me, but a real workout for Ashley, we made our way toward the gym, where my actual workout began.
I would lift weights and do pretty much whatever I could to improve myself, both physically and mentally, while Ashley kept tabs on my progress.
Finally, a few days before the competition, on our way back from the gym, dead tired and ready to return home just to fall into bed, I felt like I should say something to her. She had worked so hard to get me into shape.
“Hey, Ashley, thanks for being there for me.”
She smiled back at me. “It’s been fun and you are far less moody when you’re working out…” She shrugged in a teasing way and answered, “You talk less too, which is really nice.”
“Ha! Ha! Ha!” I barked before I added, “I’m trying to be fucking nice to you.”
“Yeah, well, you suck at it,” she teased back and I shoved her playfully.
She giggled and moved forward with all her might, trying to plow into me, in order to move me the same amount that I had moved her, or at all, but she just hit me and stopped.
I chuckled as I grasped her arm so that she didn’t fall down. “Uh…I didn’t think I had to tell you this, but you shouldn’t do that. I am a brick fucking wall. There is nothing that is going to get past this shit,” I said in a cocky way as I smacked my perfectly formed abs with my large hand.
I was proud of my body and throughout the training, I had actually grown in my ability, more than I had in years, which I was sure would give me even more of an advantage.
“No, you’ve been doing really well!” Ashley exclaimed.
We hadn’t heard any more of that asshole who had tried to take Ashley from me and I was glad, but the experience had made her a lot more comfortable around me. In a strange way, I thought that shit had brought us closer together. It was weird, but I wasn’t complaining.
I was beginning to feel closer to Ashley then I had felt to anyone in a long time. Even though we had our arguments and neither one of us was completely sure what we were to one another, I was still enjoying that journey, wherever the hell it might lead.
The night where I had to beat the shit out of the asshole had proved to me that I could be decent and that there were a lot of men who were worse than I was. That, in a strange way, gave me hope that I could end up not being such a dickhead.
Just don’t fucking kill her and you should be good, I thought whenever I would contemplate where our relationship was going. This thought haunted me, but there was no way in hell, even as close as Ashley and I had gotten, that I would share something like that with her.
I hadn’t pressed to have sex with her, because I knew that might only make her uncomfortable. However, for once, I realized that just spending time with her was enough, at least for now.
Over the past two weeks, my mother and her father had pretty much left us alone; once again extremely happy that they didn’t have to entertain us in any way. They could go and fuck to their hearts’ content and they wouldn’t have to worry about a thing.
“Your carrying has improved a lot and if you could just get your deadlifting flawless, your performance would truly be unbeatable.”
“Shit, my performance is unbeatable now. There is no way any of these dick-less pussies in this beach town know anything about a strong man competition.” Even though I bragged, I knew that she was right.
Another thing that I liked was that she was taking the time to learn what it was like to be me. She didn’t stop at the exterior and run away; she was really getting into what I was into and learning more about the man behind the curse words and muscles than anyone had ever either cared or had a chance to learn.
Even in the short time that we were hanging out, I wasn’t even sure my own mother had looked past my act of defiance, and although it was new to me, I was quickly learning that it meant a great deal.
She laughed and answered, “All right. That’s fine, but you aren’t competing to beat them, you are competing to beat yourself and so you need to always be getting better. You can’t just be some complacent lump on a log.”
“Excuse me?” I demanded. “Do I look fucking complacent to you?”
“No, but you also had better never get that way.” She smiled at me and I rolled my eyes.
“Complacent my ass…” I grumbled.
“Just remember, even if you beat the whole world, internally, you will still have to strive to beat your own best.”
“You sound like a fucking sports shrink. Don’t give me that pansy sports pep talk. You’re a trainer, not a cheerleader.” I glanced over her body and allowed my eyes to rest on her breasts, before I picked my head up and answered, “Even though you might look the part.”
“Eat your heart out,” she spat back, glaring playfully at me.
“That’s not the only thing I’d like to eat out…” I said under my breath, just loud enough for her to hear.
I watched with pleasure as her face grew slightly horrified. This time, she really did throw herself into me enough so that I stumbled a few inches to the side.
When I recovered, I laughed outright and answered, “I’m sorry, was that not fucking romantic enough for you? It’s not like we’re…”
She glared at me now and smacked my arm. I stopped speaking, realizing that we were in the middle of a town where virtually everyone knew who she was, if not who both of us were, and I would really hate to get caught just by something that I said; especially if I wasn’t even getting any at the present moment.
So, I just chuckled at her extreme reaction and continued toward the beach house.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Ashley
; When we arrived back at the house, it didn’t take me long to realize that, not only was I no longer the least bit tired, but I was also feeling extremely horny.
The teasing, along with the week of being so close to such a perfect, manly specimen without taking more than the occasional kiss from him, when all I really wanted to do was rip the remainder of his clothes off and have my way with him had really taken its toll.
Honestly, I had tried to be good. For two weeks we had hung out constantly, from the moment we woke up until the moment we went to bed and maintained what was basically a platonic relationship.
However, now, with the invitation that presented itself by the fact that neither one of our parents were home and we had the house to ourselves made me want to take advantage of him.
As much as I hated to admit it, Tyler was right. His lovemaking was the absolute best and even though I tried my best to stay away from it, I would think about the night we shared together constantly. And now, that was legitimately the only thing that kept popping up inside my mind.
Therefore, when we locked the doors and plopped ourselves in front of the television, without either of us turning it on, I looked over at him just to see if he was also staring at me.
He smiled at me and raised his eyebrows, but made no other advancement.
“So….” I said as I scooted toward him, knowing exactly what I was doing, but trying to make it seem as though I was doing it subconsciously.
“So…” he answered carefully, but did not make any attempt to move closer to me.
Was he trying to be respectful? I wondered, but did not dwell on it, considering I really, really wanted him. I smiled in a way that I intended to be suggestive, but I wasn’t sure if he got it, so I locked my eyes on his and made sure that our gaze explained everything that I was feeling.
It didn’t take long after that, for his eyes portrayed the question to the answer in my gaze.
It happened so quickly, I was never quite sure who even made the first move. It just seemed like suddenly, the two of us went from gazing to one another, sprawled out on opposite sides of the couch, to becoming wrapped in one another’s arms, interlocking our lips and wandering tongues with a passion that my body was aching to feel again.
Dirty Stepbrother - A Firefighter Romance (The Maxwell Family) Page 101
