by Jessica Ashe
He was so huge. Even when he pulled most of the way out, he still filled me more than most other men.
The fire burned in my core. I tried to draw out the pleasure as long as I could, but it had been so long. I couldn’t hold it back. The fire spread and began to consume me.
“Come for me, Nora,” Riker commanded. “I want to feel you come on my cock.”
The mental image of his cock slick with my juices turned the fire into an explosion. I groaned and clamped my legs around him, while my pussy clenched around his thick shaft. His cock pulsed inside me, but he didn’t release.
He let go of my legs, but made sure to stay inside me, as I collapsed down onto the bed in a sweaty, breathless heap.
“You look so beautiful when you come,” he murmured, as his hands squeezed my breasts firmly.
“I look like a hot mess,” I replied with a satisfied smile.
Riker growled before lowering his lips to my nipples and biting gently. His teeth on my skin earned a gasp, as he kept thrusting inside me, each time somehow managing to go deeper than the last.
I encouraged him with my hips, needing to feel his own finish as much as I’d needed my own. My wetness made it harder for him to stay inside me, but Riker kept thrusting and eventually I saw his release coming from the intense stare in his eyes.
Riker grunted and buried himself deep into my sex, before he stiffened up and ejected heavy spurts of his hot pleasure inside the condom.
His finish lasted for at least four heavy spurts, and I began to wonder whether the condom had any room left inside it. What I wouldn’t give to have that filling me right now. I wanted to feel the sticky liquid dribble down the insides of my thighs as a reminder of his passion.
Riker collapsed down besides me and threw the condom in the trash.
“I needed that,” I gasped. “God, I needed that.”
“I could tell,” Riker replied. “You were dripping wet before I’d even touched you. Just like that night in the bar.”
“I’m not going to complain if you want to let your hand linger between my legs a little longer than necessary.”
Riker stroked my thigh and slowly moved up to my aching sex. “Like this?”
I reached out a hand to push him away, assuming I wouldn’t be able to take anymore, but instead I found myself pushing his thick fingers inside me.
Riker fucked me with his fingers until his cock was ready to take over the work.
That didn’t take long at all, and neither did I.
Chapter Seventeen
Nora
I usually slept like a baby after sex, and with the amount of sex we had, I didn’t expect to wake up before midday. Instead I struggled to fall asleep, as my mind started challenging my actions.
My mind was my own worst enemy. Why did you sleep with him? You’ve just made things awkward. You should have played hard to get. Ugh.
The date had crept up on both of us unawares, which meant my brain hadn’t been in a dating mood at first. I’d showered after the training session, so at least I was clean, but I hadn’t shaved my legs—or anything else—for a few days. Not that Riker had complained.
I suppose after you’ve seen an adult spill food down themselves—and on the floor—you lowered your expectations a bit.
Talk about an ice-breaker. When your date has to show you how to eat your food, you know you can give up on any of the usual pretenses.
Even with that embarrassment, the rest of the date had gone smoothly. There were no uncomfortable silences, and we continued to gel like we did while training.
I woke up in the morning and heard Riker leave while muttering something about needing to get home to change and then head back to the gym. I was too tired to argue. To be honest, I was relieved that he hadn’t wanted to have sex again in the morning. My body was far too tired—and sore—to take any more.
I drifted off back to sleep, but my phone vibrated aggressively on the bedside table. Alison had emailed, asking why I hadn’t responded to her previous message. Or the one before that. She’d been trying to catch up for days, but she was only free in the evenings, and my evenings were all about training now.
I didn’t have anything to do until training this evening, and it was a weekend, so I invited Alison round for coffee. She didn’t live far away, so I got started grinding the beans while she walked over.
The coffee I made was better than most of the trash sold in coffee shops around here. It meant taking a thirty-minute walk to a fresh food market to get the beans I liked, but for the next week I would be drinking coffee that kept me awake all day and tasted sublime.
I’d need the coffee today. In addition to being tired, I knew I was going to get an earful from Alison. She’d been worried about me meeting Duke, and I’d ignored most of her emails. I was a shitty friend sometimes. Alison wouldn’t take long to remind me of that.
“Good to see you’re still alive,” Alison said, as I handed her a cup of coffee.
“Morning, Alison,” I replied.
“I haven’t heard from you in weeks.”
“Sorry, I’ve been busy.”
“I take it the meeting with your father went well?”
“Yeah, sure,” I replied. “I don’t see him as my dad yet, but he’s cool enough to have around. We’re never going to be as close as you and your dad, but I’m glad I met him.”
“You would say that though. Otherwise you’d have to admit I was right, and you’re far too stubborn for that.”
I’d never thought of myself as stubborn, but at some point, when enough people told you the same thing you had to start taking them seriously.
“Maybe you could meet him one day,” I offered. “He’s… interesting.”
“He’d better be to justify all this time you’ve been spending ignoring me.”
“You could be happy for me, Alison. I’ve just found a father I didn’t think existed.”
Alison sighed, and wrapped her arm around me for a quick hug which nearly made me spill my coffee. “Sorry sweetie,” she said softly. “You’re right. I’ve just missed you and I was worried you’d gotten in over your head a bit.”
I’d completely gotten in over my head, but that had nothing to do with Duke.
I told Alison about Duke and mentioned Gayle, but kept my relationship with Riker a secret. Alison had worried about me meeting my father; if she knew I had just gone on a date with a man convicted of attempted murder she’d never let me leave my apartment.
“How is the study going?” Alison asked “Are you still going to turn it into a paper?”
“What study?”
Alison rolled her eyes. “You said you were only hanging out at the gym to study your future clients.”
“Oh yeah,” I said, vaguely remembering the social study that I’d been intending to do before I’d met Riker. “I decided against that. It felt too invasive. I spoke to some of the members, but didn’t like the idea of publishing their stories.”
“I expect most of their stories have already been published in newspapers and court reports,” Alison replied snarkily.
“They’re not all criminals. And even if they are, that doesn’t mean they’re bad people. They’re trying to get back on their feet. That’s admirable.”
“Okay, okay. I just want you to be careful. Wait a minute, if you haven’t been doing the social study, why have you been spending so much time at the gym?”
“I’m training,” I replied.
“Training?” Alison looked at my body for the evidence of my extra work. “I knew there was something different about you. You’re more toned. Nice work.”
“Thanks. It’s hard not to get involved when you’re watching everyone else working up a sweat. I started to feel lazy, so I got stuck in. Plus, Duke wanted me to learn how to fight.”
“Wait, you’re learning how to fight?”
“Just the basics,” I replied. “For self-defense.”
“Fucking hell, Nora. Please don’t tell me you’re
going to get involved in that little fight club he’s running?”
“Of course not. One of the fighters is training me. It’s fun. You can come along if you want.”
Please don’t come along.
“I think I’ll stick to the treadmill. Maybe I’ll swing by and watch one day. Will your dad let me in even though I’m not a member?”
“Sure.”
Gayle had spotted the attraction between Riker and I from a mile away. Alison would notice the moment she walked in the door. Watching us training would be like watching softcore porn.
Alison used to be my go-to person when I wanted to talk about men, and she still should be, but I just didn’t feel comfortable talking to her about Riker.
She wouldn’t understand. Alison and I had always dated the same type of men—quiet, educated guys who either already earned a lot of money, or who would soon. Neither of us had ever gone for the “bad boy” type, other than a bit of dancing after a few drinks.
The second Alison knew I was dating an underground fighter, she’d try to pull me back onto the straight and narrow. I’d told Alison that I’d spent plenty of time growing up around either criminals or suspected criminals because of Mom’s job, but she didn’t understand that world at all.
To her, anyone who needed a lawyer in the first place was likely guilty of something, even if it wasn’t the crime they’d been accused of. She wouldn’t take to a man who’d been convicted of attempted murder.
I had two choices. I could keep Riker a secret from Alison, or I could tell her and hope that she would give him a chance like I had done. Riker had won me round, eventually, and I thought he would charm Alison, given time.
I didn’t want to lie to Alison, but Riker and I were in a weird no man’s land at the moment, and we didn’t need the added complication of an overprotective friend getting involved.
“What’s going on with you?” I asked Alison. Her social life tended to be as uneventful as mine usually was, but her job as a doctor meant she could usually be relied upon for interesting stories.
“Same old. I’ve been on ER duty the last week, so I’ve seen more blood and broken bones than I care to remember. And those are the good cases. The things I’ve seen recently...” she shuddered. “Enough to make me want to quit.”
Alison had talked about people dying while in her care before, and I knew she took it personally, despite her attempts to remain detached. “Just think about how many people you saved,” I said. “You can’t dwell on the ones you don’t.”
“Oh, I wasn’t talking about that. No, the haunting images this week are of people getting objects stuck places. Seriously, how do you get a roll-on deodorant stuck up your vagina?”
I laughed. “You should advertise the safety benefits of vibrators next to the posters for nicotine patches.”
Alison shivered again, and cringed as she tried to block out a mental image from work. Being a social worker wouldn’t be easy, but I could never do be a doctor. That was another level of crazy.
“You have today off work?” I asked.
“Yep. I have tomorrow off as well actually. Fancy going for a drink tonight?” Alison asked. “This coffee’s great, but I could do with something stronger. Or do you not drink alcohol now that you’re all fit and healthy?”
“I ate Chinese food last night,” I said, not mentioning that I hadn’t eaten it alone. “I might be exercising more, but I’m not healthy. Let’s do it.”
“Great. And who knows, we might meet the perfect man.”
I smiled and agreed, but I had a strange feeling I’d already met mine.
Chapter Eighteen
Riker
Nora wasn’t my only client. I had to remind myself of that sometimes.
I now went through the group fighting sessions on autopilot. The women still flirted with me, but I barely noticed them. I had my eyes on someone else. Or more accurately, I was doing everything in my power not to keep my eyes on someone else.
Nora would ‘accidentally’ show up to the gym an hour or two before our lesson began, pretending to forget the time, and even appeared on her rest nights for a spontaneous workout.
We snuck around like a couple keeping their relationship secret, which we kind of were. There was no relationship yet, but something was brewing, and neither of us wanted that to happen under the watchful eye of Duke and Gayle.
I risked a glance at her whenever I could get away with it, and occasionally I would catch her doing the same thing. She’d smile and I’d lose track of where I was and what I was doing. One student had punched me in the chest because I’d forgotten to block.
Nora probably wouldn’t want to watch me fight next month, but even if she did, I’d have to tell her to stay away. She would prove to be far too much of a distraction. Ring girls never distracted me during a fight, no matter how pretty they were. I’d fooled around with them after fights—never right before—but they were quickly forgotten.
The evening’s class was nearly over, and that meant I’d be able to go over and chat to Nora. I’d have to shake off the women here first, but I had added motivation now. I wouldn’t be giving any of them extra lessons tonight. None of the women here could be a distraction.
None. Until Tracy walked through the door.
I knew instantly that this wasn’t just a coincidence. Tracy wasn’t here to use the gym. She wanted to talk to me, and whatever the news was, it didn’t look good.
A quick bit of mental arithmetic told me that she couldn’t be pregnant—not with my kid anyway. We’d last slept together six months ago, but her waist was as slim as ever. That should have been a relief, but it just had me worried for whatever news she had instead.
Tracy wasn’t exactly the quiet type, so I expected her to storm right up to me and demand to talk, but instead she took a seat on one of the benches and waited patiently. That freaked me the hell out almost as much as a round belly would have.
I ended the class five minutes early, and heard a few disappointed groans as I walked away from the group and straight over to Tracy. Duke’s office looked empty, so I motioned for her to follow me to the back of the gym.
We had to walk right passed Nora, but this time I couldn’t make eye contact with her. She wouldn’t be smiling at this, not if she knew Tracy was an ex-girlfriend.
I closed the door behind us, but Duke wouldn’t hesitate to walk straight in anyway. If Nora wanted, she’d be able to listen to every word we said by standing outside the door. The walls were so thin they barely blocked any sound, but Nora wasn’t the nosy type. At least, she didn’t seem to be, but what did I know? We’d only had one full night together.
Tracy and I hadn’t ended on particularly good terms, but I’d grown up with her brother so we had to keep it civil. As much as I wanted her to leave, I could tell she was struggling not to cry and needed some support. I could do that much at least.
“Hi,” she said, trying to force a smile. “It’s good to see you again.”
It’s only been a few months, Tracy.
“Sure, it’s good to see you too.”
What do you want?
“I don’t really know how to tell you this,” Tracy began, looking down at the floor the entire time. I’d never seen her look scared before. “I’m posting a message about it online tonight, and I’ll send out a few emails, but I wanted to tell you in person.”
This sounded fucking serious. I took a step closer to her to try and be supportive without actually putting my arm around her.
“You have me a little scared now,” I admitted.
Tracy gave a little laugh, but it disappeared again just as quickly. “Like you could ever be scared of anything.”
She meant it as a complement, but it left me feeling rather uneasy. Had she always thought of me as being so… robotic. Sure, I wasn’t scared of the usual physical threats that might bother some people, but I sure as hell knew fear.
I’d watched people get shot in front of me. I’d watched people die. Fear is
being in charge of the family at the age of sixteen. Fear is not knowing if your brother is ever going to draw another breath. Fear is watching him die.
“What’s wrong, Tracy?”
“It’s Nick.”
I should have known. Nick had been a good friend over the years, but the guy had issues. I’d done everything in my power to keep him out of prison, but I shouldn’t have bothered. He still broke the law every other week.
She probably needed bail money. She’d come to the wrong guy. I beat people up in an underground cage for money; I was hardly flush with cash.
“What happened?”
“He died.”
For a few seconds, I couldn’t feel my feet on the floor. The walls appeared to move further away, and Tracy’s voice was distant in my ears.
My brain desperately reached out to recollect the last time I’d spoken to Nick. I couldn’t remember. Too long ago for such a close friend.
“He’s dead?”
Tracy nodded, and burst into tears. I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her in so she could cry onto my shoulder. It had the added benefit of letting me hide my own emotions from her.
I’d never cried in front of a woman, and I didn’t intend to start now. Not so that I could appear strong and brave, but to support her as best I could. I’d lost a friend, but Tracy had lost a brother.
“What happened?” I asked.
Tracy lifted her head from my shoulder and pulled a tissue out of her bag to dab away her tears.
“I don’t want to talk about it here,” she said, looking around at Duke’s messy, dirty office. “This place holds too many bad memories.”
Nick used to train here, and Duke had tried to recruit him as a fighter, but whereas I had knuckled down and got to work, Nick had messed around and hadn’t taken it seriously. He’d been destroyed in his first fight, and had quit the next day.
