by Riley Ashby
“I’m sorry I left,” I whispered against his ear. My breathing was coming too fast, the words a little too hard to get out. My clit was pushed against his skin, sending vibrations through my core to the base of my neck.
“Don’t speak of it again,” he whispered. He bit my neck.
“H—”
“Harder, I know.” And he bit me so hard it broke the skin.
***
The sex nearly killed him.
He said afterward the climax hurt more than it helped, as every muscle in his body contracted even though they had no energy left to do so. He was breathing hard, a fine sheen of sweat on his brow, leaving salt on my lips as I kissed him softly until the wrinkles on his forehead smoothed.
I set about checking his cuts and reapplying bandages as necessary. He hadn’t started bleeding again, but the cut above his eye had never completely stopped oozing fluid. I smeared on a little more antibiotic and carefully tapped new gauze over the gash. Coach and Alonso were banging on the door as I finished, and I helped Jamie shuffle into his shorts and move to sitting on the bed before letting them in.
“I hope you two weren’t up to anything last night,” Coach said with a scowl. He pointed one warning finger at Jamie. “You don’t have the energy to be messing around. Let your muscles rest.”
“We were up to nothing last night, Coach. I swear.” I held my fingers up in a scout salute. Alonso winked at me.
Coach looked at us suspiciously but said nothing more. “Let’s get you walking around. You have an appointment for an X-ray in an hour.”
Alonso handed Jamie his shoes, but he was completely incapable of bending over. I crouched to tie his shoes. He tried to pat my head as though I was a dog, so I snapped at his fingers like one too.
It took all three of us to get him to his feet. He kept up a good face while we walked down the hall, but once in the elevator, he slumped against the wall.
“I’m not sure how far I’m going to get,” he said with a gasp. “My legs are jelly.”
“A little bit farther,” I whispered, putting my arm around his waist, avoiding the bruises that marked his damaged ribs. “Once we get in the car, you can collapse.”
He did just that the moment the door closed behind him, the glare of the hot Vegas sun blocked by the tinted windows. I thought he fell asleep on the drive to the office. But he kept up a good face through the doctor’s appointment and seemed almost proud when he was officially diagnosed with three subluxated ribs. Everyone kept telling him how lucky he was not to have gotten injured worse, except for every single muscle in his body being beaten to a pulp.
Back at the hotel, I sat with him while a masseuse gently worked over his muscles. Every touch made him groan, but he was able to move a little easier after. I forced him to stretch a little, and then we spent the rest of the day in bed.
The next morning, we loaded onto a plane and flew home.
I helped him up to his apartment and tried to repeat the gentle massage he’d gotten the day before, but he was in even more pain than the day before, so we didn’t get far.
“You need to try to pull yourself together.” I scrolled through the calendar on my phone while he soaked in the tub. I was sitting on the edge with my feet in the water, and he kept pulling at my toes. “You have a meeting tomorrow with your agent. He got you a few more deals. You’ll need to book another fight in the next few months in order to keep your name out there, but with this new backing, you might not have to put in as many hours with the janitor work.”
“And what about you? What’s your job going to be?”
I sighed and set the phone aside. “I honestly don’t know. Ellery’s leaving it up to me when I officially transition off, but if I’m being honest with myself, I don’t think I’ll need more than a month to make sure I’m comfortable with this guy.”
His hand wrapped around my foot and slid up my ankle, spreading warm water along my calf. “I mentioned this to Coach a while back, and he was on board with it. You could look into leading some yoga classes at the gym. That would give you some teaching to put on your resume at least.”
I raised my eyebrow at him. “Meddling in my life again, Kemp?”
He gave me that lopsided grin again. “Boyfriend things, Tori. If I’m allowed to use that word.”
I grabbed his hand and kissed his palm. “I guess so.” It came out as a whisper. I didn’t look at him as he sat up and leaned closer.
“I’m sorry, what was that?”
I sighed. “I said, I guess you can call yourself my boyfriend. Oh my God, do NOT—”
But he had his hands tight around my waist before I realized what he was doing and he pulled me into the tub with him, clothes and all, splashing water over the edge as he held me against his chest and kissed me.
“Your ribs,” I gasped when he finally let me go, holding myself off him as much as I could to avoid putting pressure on him. But he seemed not to notice as he grinned up at me like an idiot and shifted so I was more on his uninjured side.
“You’re my girlfriend, and I’m your boyfriend.” He looked so fucking proud of himself. “I like the sound of that.”
“Don’t be such a dork about it, or I’ll make you take it back.”
“Not gonna happen.” He hugged me again, resting his cheek on the top of my head. “I waited for you for a long time, Tori. I’m holding you as close as I can.”
*Three months later*
She refused to get out of the car, choosing instead to stare through the window at the door to the prison. I was standing with her parents in the sun, making light chitchat about how training was going and what I was doing to prepare for my next bout in a few weeks. It wasn’t going to be as big a deal as the first fight, but the arena had sold out anyway. If I could win this fight, I had a few advertising deals in the bag. Tori had drawn up a plan for me to quit my side job for a full year as long as I could secure a few more sponsorships with a win. It turned out she had gathered quite a few good PA skills during the short time she worked for Ellery.
Tori, for her part, had started some personal training sessions with some of the younger girls at the gym—sisters of the guys who had been working out there for years but hadn’t been taken seriously by their parents. In addition to the income from her growing yoga training, she was making a good living and refused to take any money from her former boss. I wasn’t too thrilled with the location of her apartment, but she was over at mine so often either to help out with Harold or to just be with me, it hardly mattered. I had almost worn her down to moving in with me.
There had been delays in Aaron’s release, in part due to the prosecutor who had advocated for his long sentence and raised a stink about him being released so early. But eventually everything had been cleared. Tori’s parents had no idea I’d been involved in helping secure her brother’s release, and the three of us had decided to keep it that way. We’d discussed it during a visit to the prison a month ago. None of us wanted them to feel like they owed me anything. His release had been set for ten a.m., but it was half past eleven now, and we were still waiting. I had heard these things could take a while, so I’d taken off the entire day from training in order to be here if Tori wanted me around.
Her parents and I jerked our heads in unison as the door opened and a tall, broad-chested man stepped out. He raised his hand in a wave and smiled at his parents, walking toward the final fence that separated us from him. Tori reached him first, tearing from the car in a blur and rushing the fence, jumping on him the moment he took his first step outside the prison that had held him for nearly a decade. He hugged her so tight I thought they both would break. They finally parted and walked back toward us. I wrapped my arm around Tori’s shoulders as Aaron embraced his parents.
“Doing okay?” I kissed the top of her head softly.
“I’m doing fucking great,” she said, wiping tears from her face hurriedly before breaking down again with another sob. “He’s here, Jamie.” She beamed up at me. “Y
ou got me my brother back.”
I kissed her briefly before facing Aaron. He held his hand out to me with a grin, and we shook heartily. “It’s good to see you out here, bro.”
“Happy to be out. Can we get some food?”
We all piled into the car, the family chatting happily while I drove. We took Aaron to his favorite restaurant. He was planning to crash with Tori for a while until he got a job and his own place. He had some good prospects thanks, again, to Ellery’s connections with programs that helped ex-cons get back on their feet after release. Understandably, he wanted to live on his own for a little. Tori was staying with me for at least a few days to let him get used to having privacy again.
I pushed aside her toothbrush and face products in my bathroom as we got ready for bed. She kept a lot of stuff over here anyway, but there was even more than usual with Aaron taking over her apartment.
“How can someone as stiff as you be so messy?” I asked as I knocked over her toothpaste. She refused to use mine, saying it tasted strange.
“It all has to come out somehow,” she said as she scrubbed her hands in the sink. “You’ll get used to it.”
“I’ve been thinking about that,” I said. I walked over and fell on the bed, beckoning her toward me with one finger.
“Oh?” She leaped for me and landed on the bed next to me.
All or nothing. “I want you to move in here.”
She opened her mouth, then closed it.
“I know it’s only been a few months, but you’re here all the time anyway, and I miss not seeing you here. You can keep paying your rent on your apartment until Aaron gets a job, and then he can have his own place while he gets on his feet. And since we’re at the same place most of the time anyway, it’ll help cut down on our gas and travel time.”
She took my fingers in hers and stared at the comforter. “I…was kind of already planning on that.”
“What?”
“That’s why I brought so much stuff over. I was just going to…not leave.”
I stared at her for a second before wrapping her up and kissing her neck. She laughed and pushed me away.
“And when were you going to tell me this? Were you just going to let me figure it out on my own?”
She smiled and snuggled closer. “Yes, actually.”
I shook my head. “One day, I’ll get you to voice your thoughts to me without twisting your arm.”
“Hey, I cried in front of other people today. Isn’t that enough emotional vulnerability for the next month?”
I kissed her even as she squirmed in my arms. “You come in here, I’m never letting you go.”
She melted into me, giving up all but the last of her control for a few moments while we were here and alone. Her fingers danced along my stomach, trailing farther south as the sun set outside our window. “I’m counting on it.”
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About the Author
Riley Ashby lives in the American Midwest. She eats entirely too much tofu and owns just the right number of cats. She enjoys reading and writing anything romantic, be it dark and suspenseful or light and fluffy - always with a Happily Ever After.
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Also by Riley Ashby
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Rook
Bishop
Happened So Fast
At First Sight
Through the Dark
Fighting Chances