Rough Around the Edges

by Ranae Rose

  Ally was out of her seat, already making her way toward him. The crowd was loud and Cameron had rushed to his side, but her gaze held him spellbound.

  “You did great,” she said as he descended from the cage to meet her. “How does your face feel?”

  Up close, it was obvious that her face wasn’t flushed just with the thrill of seeing him win, but with relief.

  “Wet. I’m going to shower. Then we can get out of here.” His lips felt thicker than usual as he spoke.

  “Okay. I’ll be waiting.”

  The sound of the crowd was dulled as soon as he stepped into the locker room, where fluorescent lighting and looming lockers cast stripes of light and shadow. Inside, he removed his gloves and stripped out of what little clothing he was wearing. The bloodstains on his shorts would be a bitch to get out, but it didn’t matter – he’d won.

  He took a lukewarm shower, scrubbing the filth of the fight from his skin. The steady flow of water helped to regulate his body temperature and slow his flying thoughts. As the liquid rushed around his feet, sweeping red-tinted soap bubbles down the drain, he became aware of things the high of victory had kept him from noticing, like the dull pressure inside his skull. It was no surprise, given the lights that were plaguing him.

  But things weren’t bad. Not yet. If he headed the situation off with medication, it might not even turn into a full-blown migraine. At least, hopefully it wouldn’t, because he had plans for his night with Ally and he’d be damned if anything was going to stop them. He’d been thinking about what he’d do with and to her after his victory for too long – he’d fight to carry out his plans as hard as he’d fought in the ring.

  After his monumental fuck-up that had led to his and Ally’s first night together, he’d had the foresight to put a bottle of migraine pills in his gym bag. Dripping wet and naked except for a towel slung half-heartedly around his hips, he dug the container out of the duffel bag he’d left on the bench and took two, swallowing them dry.

  Once dressed, he slung the bag full of blood-stained clothing and equipment over his shoulder and exited the locker room, his hair still damp.

  “Here you go.” Cameron stood at the entrance like some sort of bouncer, with Ally by his side. He pressed a check into Ryan’s hand. “Made it out to you before the match – knew you’d kick Ivanov’s ass. You in for next week?”

  Ryan accepted the slip of paper and tucked it deep into a pocket, simultaneously slipping an arm around Ally’s shoulders. “Yeah.”

  Cameron beamed his approval. “See you at the gym.”

  Ryan nodded, already tuning out, his mind blocking out the noise of the post-fight crowd. Training for his next fight would start soon enough. Tonight, he wasn’t going to do anything but enjoy Ally. “You ready to get out of here, baby?”

  “Definitely.”

  Outside, the parking lot was less crowded than the building had been. Still, he’d traded a sea of people for a sea of vehicles. His Mustang was there somewhere, but as he and Ally approached the nearest line of cars, it hit him that he didn’t know where.

  He searched his mind, thinking back to when he’d parked it earlier that night. It was no use – his mind presented him with nothing. It was like there was a gap in his memory between when he’d left his apartment and when he’d entered the building. “Where’d I park the Mustang again?” Ally had ridden with him.

  “Right over there.” She pointed toward the lot’s left corner. “Hey, are you all right?”

  “Seeing silver lights.”

  “I’ll drive,” she said as they moved forward, toward the space where the Mustang waited.

  “You don’t have to do that. I’m not in pain, and you don’t have a license.” It wasn’t a lie – the sensation mounting behind his skull was still more pressure than pain, though the lights warned him that wouldn’t be the case for long.

  “Not a license. A permit.”

  “Like a learner’s permit?”

  She nodded. “I went to the MVA this week and got one. Now I can drive legally with you in the car with me.”

  Surprise gave him pause, leaving him frozen by the driver’s side door for a few seconds.

  She took full advantage of it. “So what do you say?” She held out a hand, like she already knew what his answer would be. “Now you’re helping me too. Maybe you can sign the driving log they gave me and I can get an actual license sometime.”

  His resolve to drive wavered. If she really wanted to learn to drive, denying her the chance to practice when he was fortunate enough to own a car would be a dick move. There was also the fact that he’d damaged his car by hitting another vehicle because his vision had been so compromised by non-existent silver lights that he’d mistaken them for an oncoming vehicle and turned when he shouldn’t have.

  The collision had occurred at a low speed and no one had been hurt. Still, thinking about it sent a wave of bitter anger and shame through him. A pang of something like defeat hit him as he handed over his keys to Ally. He might be kidding her, but he wasn’t kidding himself – her desire to get a driver’s license wasn’t the only reason he was turning his keys over.

  “Thanks.” She was totally, mercifully oblivious.

  “Have you been wanting to get a license?” he asked as he settled into the passenger seat.

  “Until recently, I hadn’t thought about it in a while. I wanted one when I was a teenager, but my father was the only one of my parents who drove, so when he…”

  She turned the key in the ignition, bringing the car to life with a familiar mechanical hum that promised power. “My father is in prison. When he was sent there I was a teenager and my mother had to sell his car not long afterward. That was the end of me pursuing a driver’s license.”

  She didn’t meet his eyes as she spoke, which made it seem as if she wanted to elaborate about as much as he wanted to tell her about how he’d wrecked his car. There was no way he was going to push her – not while shame was still clinging to him like sweat-drenched sheets. “So what you’re saying is that I should be afraid for my car right now. The other night – that was the first time you’d driven in how long?”

  It was just a joke. It wasn’t like he had any right to fear her lack of experience when he himself had plowed right into another car.

  She met his eyes again. “Almost six years.”

  “You know, I just got this out of the shop.” He smiled so she would see he was teasing and because if he didn’t, shame would be sure to creep to the surface of his mind and show on his face.

  There was a light in her eyes that seemed to acknowledge his joke, but her tone was serious. “I know this is an expensive car and that it means a lot to you. If you really don’t feel comfortable with me driving your car, let me call a cab. I just don’t want you to have to drive with a migraine coming on.”

  “It’s fine. If you want to practice driving so you can get your license, you can use my car. How else are you going to do it?”

  A look of relief softened her features. “Thanks. I’ll be careful. Help me with directions just to be safe – I’m not sure I know exactly how to get to your place from here.”

  “Take a left out of the parking lot.” He knew the way to his apartment. They’d be fine as long as he didn’t fuck up and tell her to do something asinine like turn into oncoming traffic. Luckily, she probably wouldn’t be stupid enough to listen if he did.

  She wore a look of determined concentration as she navigated the nighttime streets. Her driving was a little smoother than it had been the first time.

  “I’m not going to have a clue how to drive a normal car after this,” she said after a while. “This thing is so much more powerful than anything else I’ve ever driven – you touch the pedal and it leaps forward.”

  Though the pressure in his head was building rapidly, edging toward pain, he couldn’t help but smile. “Yeah, it’s nice, huh? I’ve hardly driven anything else in ages, either.”

  “How long have you had this car?�
��

  “Over four years now.”

  “It looks like new.”

  “Yeah, well, I sure as hell won’t be able to afford a new one if anything happens to this, so I try to take good care of it.” He loved the car – so much that he hadn’t just kept the flamboyant souvenir of his old life, but treasured it. It didn’t really remind him of his time back in New York anymore. It was simply something he enjoyed – one of very few things he’d cherished as his old self and still found appealing.

  A few quiet moments crept by. “Are you in pain?” Apparently, enough time had passed to warrant a change of subject.

  “I took some pills as soon as I finished the fight. I started seeing silver lights during the third round, so I knew this was coming.”

  “Does that usually work?”

  “Not really.”

  For the rest of the ride, he only spoke to give directions. The noise of the engine – somewhere between a purr and a roar – was the loudest sound as the pressure inside his head turned to true pain.

  It wasn’t as bad as it had been during their first night together. When they reached the apartment, he took his keys from Ally without his hands shaking and climbed the stairs, not worrying that he’d slip and make an ass out of himself in front of her.

  “Why don’t you lie down?” she suggested as soon as they entered the unit. “Maybe we can head the worst of this thing off. And I could get some ice out of the freezer for your lips.”

  “Forget about the ice.” He took one of her hands, gripped it tightly and deliberately shifted his gaze toward the bedroom door. If he was going to lie down, it would be with her and they wouldn’t be going to sleep anytime soon.

  Surprisingly, she followed him without arguing, depositing the large shoulder bag she’d brought on the couch along the way.

  Once inside the bedroom, he sank onto the bed and pulled her with him, leaning in close for a kiss. He craved her like a drowning person craved air – winning the night’s fight had been intensely satisfying in ways, but it couldn’t fill the void that gaped inside him during every moment that he spent outside of her body.

  He stopped a fraction of an inch from her mouth. He hadn’t bothered to look in a mirror since the fight, but knew his lips had been split and could feel that they were swollen. It seemed safe to assume that she wouldn’t appreciate it if he broke the damaged skin again while kissing her and released a deluge of blood.

  Before he could choose an alternative course of action, she pressed a kiss against the side of his neck.

  His pulse jumped beneath her lips as the contact struck a chord deep inside him, increasing his already inflamed desire.

  He pulled her against his chest as his cock hardened.

  She stopped kissing him, and the lapse in contact was like feeling something precious slip right through his fingers. “Don’t stop.” His dick was aching too badly to try to play it cool. He wanted – needed – to feel her lips against his skin.

  Chapter 11

  “I don’t want to be a tease. Not when you—”

  He resisted a groan as realization struck him. “If you think I intend to lie in bed just waiting for the pain to go away, you’re wrong.”

  “It’s not that I want to stop. I just don’t want to prolong your pain.”

  “The pain fades when you touch me, when you kiss me.” In the moments when she’d had her lips pressed against his neck, he’d forgotten about it entirely. The bruises the night had left on his body and even his headache couldn’t stand up to the all-consuming pleasure of her touch.

  As she sat still and quiet in his arms, her breath streamed over the place where she’d kissed him, teasing.

  “I’m serious. Those pills I took aren’t going to make this all go away. But you might. Or at least, you’ll make it a hell of a lot more bearable.” He couldn’t guarantee that the headache wouldn’t be a bad one, but he could lose himself right now in her touch – that he was sure of.

  She resumed what she’d been doing, blazing a trail of shimmering heat up and down his neck, kissing every place between his jaw and collarbone. Battered body or not, those moments were pure fucking ecstasy. “That feels so good.”

  “Why don’t you lie down? I won’t stop.”

  Those three last words were magic. He would’ve done anything she’d suggested as long as she’d included them.

  He reclined on his back, his head on the pillows at the top of the bed.

  She was true to her word – the heat of her recent kisses had yet to fade when she pressed her mouth to his neck again, retracing the same path she’d just followed. The way she lay beside him put her breast on his shoulder, and even through their clothing he could feel the heat and weight of it. As she warmed his skin with her lips and the tip of her tongue, he remembered the feel of her breast pressed against his face, her stiff nipple inside his mouth.

  When she slipped a hand beneath the hem of his shirt and ran it over his stomach and chest, her heat permeated his skin and began to warm him from the inside.

  He moaned when she gripped his dick through his jeans.

  A few seconds later she’d unbuttoned and unzipped his fly. She stopped kissing him, but he felt no sense of loss as she ran her hand up and down his erection, massaging it through his boxer briefs. She kissed his neck one last time before she pulled his underwear down.

  Something deep inside him trembled as he anticipated the feel of her palm against his bare shaft. When she lowered her head instead of gripping him, realization dawned on him like an atomic sun, blowing his expectations away.

  Her lips were like sun-warmed silk against the tip of his dick. She gave him half a second to savor the light contact before she opened her mouth and took in the head, her lips creating gentle suction as her tongue caressed it from below.

  He was maybe two seconds into it and two inches inside her mouth, and he already felt ready to explode.

  Somehow, he held out as she lowered her head further, sliding down his shaft, her mouth a sleeve of heat and wetness that was reminiscent of her pussy, but different at the same time. He focused all his willpower on resisting the urge to come inside her mouth, intent on enjoying simply being there.

  He could only do that for so long, and when she cupped his balls in one hand, it made it even harder. “Ahh, damn.”

  “Stop,” he breathed when he couldn’t take it anymore. “Ally, stop.”

  She rose, delightfully, agonizingly slowly, and his cock slipped from her mouth with a tiny pop. When she met his gaze, her lips were swollen and there was a questioning look in her eyes.

  “I don’t want to come yet,” he explained. “And I will if you don’t stop.”

  “Then what do you want me to do?”

  “I want to see you.” He gripped the hem of her sweater, letting his knuckles brush the skin beneath. Suddenly, the desire to see her naked, to feel her bare skin lying along every inch of his, was overwhelming. “I want to be inside you. Take off your clothes.”

  She rose and stood beside the bed. Layer by layer, she removed her clothing, revealing more and more perfect skin, until she was finally naked.

  He kept his gaze on her the entire time, drinking in every cock-hardening detail of her body, from the perfect curves of her hips and the bare pussy between them to the breasts he knew from experience wouldn’t quite fit in his hands. Her erect nipples were a soft shade of brown that made his mouth water.

  He swung his legs over the side of the bed and began to undress, eager to be rid of his clothes. When he was finally naked she stepped forward and wrapped her arms around his neck in a loose embrace.

  She seemed to be taking care not to touch his face, but when he looked up to meet her eyes, his lips brushed the lower curve of one breast. The contact set what was left of his restraint up in flames as her already stiff nipple shrank to a tiny bud.

  “You’re beautiful, Ally.” So beautiful that suddenly, the weight of her perfection was nearly crushing him with gratification. “The mom
ent I first laid eyes on you, I wanted to see you like this.” He’d thought about it often and in detail since their first meeting at the gym, but when seeing her naked had become a reality, it hadn’t compared to his fantasies.

  He laid a hand on her thigh, sliding it up the length of her leg until he was cupping the curve of her ass. “I wanted to touch you like this.” He laid his other hand on one of her breasts, cradling it from below and letting the nipple grow harder between his spread fingers. “But I didn’t know how good it would feel. I couldn’t have imagined it, just like I couldn’t have imagined the silver lights and god-awful pain before I saw and felt them for the first time.”

  Some things were either too good or too bad to imagine accurately until you’d experienced them.

  He purposely brushed his lips over her breast again, lightly enough that he wouldn’t re-open his wounds. His mouth ached, producing extra moisture as he resisted the urge to take her nipple between his lips and suck until she arched into him and moaned, asking for more. Instead, he simply breathed against her skin.

  “Being with you feels better for me than I knew it would, too. Better than I realized it could, to be honest,” she said.

  He cupped her breast in one hand and squeezed. “Does it?”

  “Yeah.”

  For a few moments he was still and quiet. Her breast trembled faintly with her heartbeat, making him extra-aware of her nipple against his palm, still hard. The other one was stiff too, standing erect as he breathed over it, remembering the taste of her pebbled skin. “Ally?”

  “Yeah?”

  “Come here.” He tightened the hand he had on her ass cheek, drawing her close.

  She climbed onto the bed. “What was it you said about wanting to be inside me?”