He started to walk back slowly and she stumbled about, leaning back against him for balance. She felt him start to sink his knees and she knew he was sitting down on one of the benches. He stopped her from sitting in order to take off her shorts and thong.
She felt his lips kiss along the top of one of her ass cheeks before he guided her down onto his lap. She opened her legs so she was straddling him backward and he took charge from there. Grabbing hold of her waist, he moved her down slowly until she felt the tip of his hard cock rub against her soaking wet slit. Emma reached down on instinct and wrapped her hand around his shaft, giving it a quick little rub before lowering herself down. He eased inside her at once, forcing a breathy moan to escape her lips.
Immediately, he placed one of his hands over her mouth to stifle the sound. She started moving her body, easing herself up and down his long shaft. Although the first few thrusts were slow and built up the sexual excitement they both felt, it wasn’t long before she started bouncing away faster. She was hungry for his cock and she wanted the intense feeling of orgasm to run through her entire body as soon as possible.
Nathan moved his other hand from the curve of her small waist up to play with her breasts, which were bouncing about with the rocking of her body. She moaned more into his hand and started riding his cock even faster. It only took a couple minutes for her to feel the orgasm hit. Her muscles squeezed around his cock, contracting like crazy, as her whole body shook and trembled. Tiny tingles fluttered up the back of her neck as she drew a sharp breath in.
When she finished and her body went slightly limp for a few moments, Nathan took advantage to guide her into a new position. He helped her stand up and get off his lap, turning her around so she bent over and rested her hands on the wooden bench. The spot he had just been sitting on was warm, but she had no time to think about it. She curled her fingers around the edge of the bench and held on tight just in time for him to ram his cock into her from behind.
He let out a loud grunt that echoed off the cement walls as he grabbed onto her hips and started fucking her, alternating between fast and slow. She felt his body against her back as he leaned over to play with her breasts. She clawed at the wooden bench as he gave one of her breasts a playful slap. The cool air of the locker room kissed her naked back as he stood back up and started pounding into her, his groans coming faster and faster.
“Fuck,” he grunted just before smacking her ass. Emma moaned out, but was careful not to be too loud. She didn’t want lurkers to overhear the two of them, much less come in to have a quick peek at the action.
Nathan slowed down his thrusts for a bit and she could feel his body shifting positions before he entered her again, this time at the perfect angle to hit her sweet spot. She shut her eyes and pressed her lips tightly together because, soon enough, her moans would be uncontrollable. He thrust against her with long, slow strokes to space out when he hit that sweet spot.
Once he picked up the pace, Emma felt once of his hands move from her waist, down her stomach, until his thumb pressed against her swollen clit. She could have screamed right there from the intense pleasure that was coursing through her body. It was almost too much to handle, but he started pounding into her again and her body tensed up with her second orgasm, which was more intense than the first.
Nathan had to hold up her trembling body so she didn’t collapse and he managed to do so while still pounding into her until he finally let out a shaky grunt. His thrusting stilled as he pushed deep inside her. She could feel his manhood pump and twitch inside her, sending more tremors down her legs. He turned her around and gave her a quick peck on the lips before lying her down on the bench. He took the towel that had been around his waist and wiped her clean as she tried to catch her breath.
Emma was just about to zip up and button her denim shorts when the locker room door swung open. Her heart sank in near panic.
It was Nick and a few of his men.
Chapter Three
She quickly did up her shorts and shot a glance over at Nathan, who still had his button-down shirt completely open. It was obvious what the two of them had just done. Nick glared at her, then Nathan, then back to her. Although it had been a long time since her relationship with Nick had ended, he still didn’t like to see her with other men.
She suspected it had something to do with pride and disgusting, male chauvinistic reasons rather than him still being hung up on her. She hoped Nathan wouldn’t catch on to the way Nick was looking at them or the fact most of his anger was focused on her.
Nick cleared his throat and announced, “Well, we came in here to congratulate the winner.” He talked as if he were declaring some sort of major honor being bestowed on Nathan. “You’ve had a lot of great wins, but this one was spectacular.”
He looked at Nathan with a smirk. Emma could tell he was purposely ignoring her. She stood in the same spot with her arms crossed and she tried her best to look as disinterested as possible. The last thing she wanted was for Nick to think he actually got to her in any way.
Nathan nodded, but then his grin broke out. Something about Nick walking in personally and using the word “spectacular” to describe his victory held a lot of weight. It either meant that he now really had his eye on Nathan or there was someone in the crowd that night of importance that had noticed him. Nick snapped his fingers and pointed at the exit for his men to walk out before him.
“Have a good night,” he said as he turned on his heel. Emma felt relief wash over her now that he was finally leaving but then he stopped and looked over his shoulder, directly at her.
“I’d say go celebrate but it seems you already have.” He sneered. “You had a good time celebrating that victory with what used to be mine,” he muttered. “Now she’s just whoring around. Seems she’s ready to fuck pretty much anywhere now,” he said with venom on his tongue before finally striding out.
Emma turned to see Nathan staring at the door in a mixture of anger and shock. “Nathan,” she said weakly.
He spun around on her immediately. “What the fuck was he talking about?” His voice was demanding and sharp.
Emma shrunk down, taking a step back away from him. It was a sort of involuntary reaction even though she knew deep down that Nathan would never do anything to hurt her. He would never lay a hand on her. He pointed at the door and demanded, “The fuck is he doing calling you a whore?”
She felt her face grow hot and her heart beat faster.
“He’s bitter,” she admitted.
He glared at her and then raised an eyebrow. She knew it was his way of wordlessly demanding some sort of explanation. She could tell he was livid. Nick had just spoken about her that way, but it wasn’t prudent to seek out a fight with him. He wasn’t only the person responsible for Nathan’s career and livelihood; he was a dangerous man whose bad side should definitely be avoided. Being on Nick’s shit list could be, quite literally, fatal. Emma knew Nathan was angry about being so confused. He was completely in the dark about her past with Nick, at least he had been up until that point.
“Nathan,” she started with a shaky voice. She cleared her throat and continued, “I used to be with Nick.”
“What?” His face was scrunched with shock and anger. She wasn’t entirely sure of everything he was feeling. She didn’t even want to think about whatever was passing through his mind.
“It wasn’t anything serious,” she explained. She felt like she was desperately reaching for explanations and trying to hold onto anything to stop the situation from escalating. But it was already too late; Nathan’s face told her everything she needed to know. He was angry and he was hurt. And everything he had held back from telling Nick when he called Emma a whore would, no doubt, feed into this discussion as well. It was going to be rough, but there was nothing she could do to brace herself for it.
“I was just his arm candy! It really didn’t mean anything and it was–”
Nathan held up his hand and shook his head. “You think that
fucking matters? Come on, Emma! Wake up! Get it together! That fucker owns this place and you know what that means? He practically owns me. How the fuck could you not tell me something like this?”
“What difference would it have made?” she cried out. The hot tears were already threating to spill out from the corners of her eyes, but she wanted to hold them back as long as possible and stay strong.
“Shit!” he slammed his open hand against one of the locker doors and it sprung open. Emma took another step back away from him.
“I can’t fucking believe this. here I am wanting to be the best fighter down here and little do I know,” he motioned toward her dismissively with his hand, “that you used to date the big boss. There goes everything I’ve fucking worked for.”
“What? What?” she cried out, this time the tears sliding down her cheeks. His words hurt. All she had ever done was be supportive of his dreams even if she hated watching him in action. “I just want to get out of here and I want you by my side but, look, here I am every time you step into the ring. Why? Because I love you.”
“You think he fucking cares if you love me? You don’t think that’ll only boil the fucker’s blood even more?” His words were scathing.
She knew he was seeing red, but she felt it was all so unfair. It wasn’t as if she could hop in a time machine to go back and never date Nick. None of her past could be erased and she didn’t want her future with Nathan to be in even more jeopardy than it already was.
“God, Nathan. Is that all you care about? What he’ll think and how he’ll react? What about me?” There was a brief moment of silence filled with tension before she cried out, “I’m reaching my fucking breaking point, but that’s not something you take into account!”
“What the hell, Emma? You know fighting is my life,” he shot back, but quickly clamped his mouth shut. In the heat of the argument it came off as if fighting came before his relationship with Emma.
“Right,” she spat back, turning her back on him and starting to pace in an effort to calm down even a tiny bit. She turned just in time to see him open his mouth to speak, but she beat him to it. “And my wanting to get the hell out of this shit lifestyle and go to California isn’t important at all to me.”
They stared at each other in silence for what felt like hours.
“That’s not it,” Nathan defended, finally breaking the silence. “You have to admit not telling me about you fucking Nick in the past was a shitty call on your behalf.”
“Is that what really bothers you, Nathan? The fact that I’ve fucked him?”
He slammed his closed fist on another locker door and it popped open with a dent. A few items from another fighter spilled out and clattered across the floor. “Don’t fucking play that card on me,” he warned. “He’s out here thinking he has the right to call you a whore and here I am, the fool who had no idea you two even knew each other.”
“And do you think he has the right to call me a whore?”
“Oh, come on, Emma! Don’t twist this into something else. You should’ve fucking told me he was your ex. You should be smart enough to figure out how this could affect me down here in The Ring, especially when you damn well know I want to be the best. You know this, fighting, it’s all I’ve got. It’s all I’ve known.”
“And, to you, that’s a perfectly valid reason to just throw everything else out, right? That’s why you can’t quit or come with me to California. Because it’s all about the fight and it always will be. Never mind how much I love you and you love me. The love of that title you’re after, that’s stronger in the end.”
“Don’t be so fucking unfair. You know it’s not like that.”
“It doesn’t matter, Nathan.” Her voice had finally softened.
She was no longer shouting or crying out, but her tears were flowing even more freely now. The words she hadn’t wanted to think, let alone utter out loud, were about to fall from her lips. Now was the moment. Everything she feared had reared its ugly head and there was no more avoiding it. She just wished it hadn’t been because of a stupid, insulting comment coming from Nick.
“It doesn’t matter what the reasons if the end result is the same. I want out and you, well, you want to stay and make it to the top.” Nathan stared at her and she could see the realization enter his mind. His expression was still harsh, but there was something else there—a softer side. She could tell he had a nasty feeling what she was about to say and he didn’t want to hear it.
“At this rate,” she said in a hoarse voice. She swallowed hard and licked her lips, which now felt dry. The spit that traveled down her throat felt like sandpaper and her pulse was thundering in her ears. Her body started to shake.
“At this rate, Nathan, there is only one thing. There is only one way. We’re going to have to break up and go our separate ways.”
Dead silence.
The two of them stared at each other; each with their own thoughts. They looked into each other’s eyes and both of them knew what she had said was true. It didn’t matter how much either of them wanted it to be any different. After several minutes, Emma decided it was time to walk out. Nathan clearly had nothing left to say, at least not right at that moment and she had already said the only thing she wanted to hold inside and avoid for as long as possible. She turned on her heel and walked out of the locker room, feeling completely unsure about what was going to become of their relationship.
As she walked out the locker room door to the main area, she had no clue if her relationship with Nathan was even still on. She knew he was just as confused as her. He didn’t try to stop her from leaving and he didn’t go after her. He hadn’t even responded.
As she slowly made her way past the fighting ring and past the nice chairs and couches of the lounge area, which quite frankly seemed out of place in The Ring, she had no clue if she had actually just broken up with the man she loved or if they both needed some time to think.
Whatever it was, it didn’t feel good.
Chapter Four
By the following night, Emma had still not heard anything from Nathan and she certainly wasn’t ready to reach out to him first. She was laying back on her couch, one leg draped over the armrest, wondering how she even wound up as a bet taker in the underground fighting ring when her phone rang. She ignored it at first.
It had all started when she met Nick, but the way she wound up with him was still a fuzzy memory. For the first time ever she wished that had never happened because then she wouldn’t be sitting home alone wondering if she still had a boyfriend or not. She would have never met and fallen for Nathan and she certainly wouldn’t have been part of a lifestyle she now wanted to get out of more than anything else.
It was with that thought that it dawned on her how unfair she had been with Nathan the previous night. She had thrown in his face that fighting was more important to him than she was, all the while she had feared the break up between them because she wanted to get out. She was already choosing her exit to California over her relationship with Nathan. She sat there thinking of what a hypocrite she had been and lamenting how insensitive some of her accusations were during the fight when her phone rang again.
This time, something in her perked awake and she lurched forward in the hopes that it was Nathan calling her. When she saw Nick’s name flashing across her screen her heart sank. In an instant she had a deep feeling of disappointment mixed with anxiety all at once. She inhaled and felt light headed from the overwhelming feelings. Reaching out with a slightly trembling hand, she answered the call.
“Hello,” she murmured into the phone. Nick was the last person she wanted to speak to, but she knew it wasn’t a good idea to ignore his call, especially not now that he knew she was with Nathan. Or maybe he just assumed she was screwing Nathan for fun. Either way, he knew there was something between them and she didn’t want the man she loved to pay the consequences of her having been mixed up with Nick.
“Emma,” Nick’s voice came in, deep and sure as ever.
“I’d say it’s a pleasure but we’d both know that’s a lie.” Emma cringed.
He was even more of an asshole now than when she had dated him, something she had thought was quite impossible. “You need to come into the office,” he instructed.
Although she assumed he was talking about his office, the fancy office that kept up the image of his thriving business, she wasn’t entirely sure. Either way, the tone he took with her left a bad taste in her mouth. It was as if he thought he had some sort of ownership over her. He knew she wasn’t in a position to anger him, much less defy him, and she hated it.
“Now?”
“Now,” he emphasized before promptly hanging up.
Emma jerked her phone away from her face and looked at the screen with disgust. She couldn’t stand him, but she really thought she had no other choice but to go meet with him. She stood up and walked into her bedroom, opting for a lavender button down shirt and a pair of black jeans. Those were the first things her eyes fell on and she really had no interest in dressing to impress Nick.
SHOOT: A Novel Page 19