by Claire Adams
“Oh Natalie that was incredible.”
“You bet your ass it was,” she said, and giggled underneath me. I rolled off of her, and lay down on the bed. She lay beside me, and we were silent thinking about what had just happened between us. She rolled into my chest and nuzzled into it. I wrapped my hands around her and kissed her on the top of the head.
“Yes, that was definitely amazing.” We fell asleep tangled up in each other’s arms.
Epilogue: Eight Years Later
Natalie
I'm dressing my children as I get them ready to head off to daycare. I always feel sad sending them away, because they bring such joy to my life. However, the days that I do bring them into my studio, I realize quickly enough why daycare was invented. It's just too impossible to try to create any of my art pieces with little ones in the room. I've learned through trial and error that I cannot work at home and also have my children at home too. You would think it would be an ideal situation, but I assure you, it is not. There is no peace and quiet; no stillness in which one can drink a cup of coffee in solitude. There is only chaos and mayhem as the children run around the room, seemingly looking for things to destroy.
But my heart does sadden anytime I have to part with them. They are my joy.
I have a museum exhibit of my work coming up, and it's going to be a big one. It's one of those moments in life when you know you have truly made it. I ended up choosing photography as my speciality, and even went to Paris to study for a while after I graduated from the university. I didn't stay long, however, before my handsome boyfriend came to find me. When he found me, he came bearing an engagement ring that looked like it would be too heavy to fit on my delicate fingers. I still accepted him, however, and ended up marrying the love of my life.
My husband finally made it to the UFC though it wasn't any real surprise to anyone, except maybe his father. But good old daddy eventually came around and accepted his son’s choice of career, and the rest, as they say, is history. It wasn't long after we were married before me started having babies. The idea of having mini Jets running around thrilled me to no end. Jet was a marvellous father through those years, which brings us to today, the moment where I wait for my husband to return from the gym and take his offspring to daycare so that I can work.
The children bound away from me joyfully. They are happy kids, and I often wonder how they will turn out. They have two very different parents―one who is immersed in the arts, and the other who likes to beat people up. We are on separate ends of the spectrum and yet we complement each other beautifully.
Jet
My body is sore as I leave the gym. These days I have an entire training team that follows me to the gym every day. They tell me what to eat, and how to train. It makes my life so much easier. I have been fighting for the UFC now for over five years, and I have never loved something so much in my life. Well, except Natalie and the kids; they certainly take the cake. I have a son who was our firstborn, and then a little girl, who stole my heart, and is holding it ransom until she gets everything she wants out of life.
I finally got the career I always wanted, and the respect I earned from my dad. He never truly believed I would make it, but to his credit, once I did, he did everything in his power to right those wrongs. I forgave him instantly, of course, because there was no point in holding anger toward a guy who really never understood your dreams in the first place. Besides, my brother, Craig, happily took over the company in my absence, and has done wonders for it. He built it up far higher than my father did, and it my opinion, things worked out exactly as they should have.
I was on my way home to tell my beautiful wife that today I decided today to retire, to hang up my gloves professionally and permanently. There were aches in my body that were never there before, and I knew that my many years of fighting had finally taken their toll on my body. I wanted out before there were any permanent injuries that would affect my life forever. I had made a fortune during my fighting career, so my family never wanted for anything. Natalie was now a famous photographer, so there was no reason I needed to continue working; we had more than enough money to keep us very comfortable for the rest of our lives. It was now time for me to stay home, take care of my kids, and watch them grow up. I hadn't always been able to be there due to the travelling involved in training and fighting for the UFC.
I wasn't concerned about what Natalie would say. She had been supportive in every decision I made with my career, and she would accept this one in the same manner. Whatever made me happy was her motto, and I knew that hanging up my gloves would make me happy at that point. I wanted us all to travel more, and I wanted to take Natalie back to Paris, where I proposed to her. I had big plans for the family, and getting out of fighting was exactly what I needed right now. I was a top title fighter with the UFC, and I would have to give up my belt to someone else once I retired. It would be bittersweet, but it was an inevitable part of the game.
I pulled into my driveway and got out of the car. I walked up to our home and slipped through the front door. I wasn't stealthy enough, however, because the children bounded down the hallway and launched themselves into my arms. I kissed their heads, and once again wondered how I had been so lucky to get everything I had ever wanted in life. I loved my family deeply, and I had everything right there at my fingertips.
Natalie came down the hallway then, and I was still in awe every time I saw her, because I couldn't believe how she managed to be more beautiful eight years later than the day I met her. Her long red hair still flowed wavy down her back, and despite having two children, she had one of the hottest bodies I had ever touched.
She came to me then, and kissed me hard on the mouth. Her kisses never stopped being passionate, and she still kissed me as if she would die if she didn't.
“Hi, sweetheart, welcome home.”
I kissed her again, not quite ready to let her lips go. “I'm good, beautiful. How was your day?”
“Well, your children have missed you, and have tried to drive me half-mad today, but I wouldn't expect anything less from your children.”
I laughed. “You want me to take them so that you can get some work done?”
“That would be marvelous. Shelley is expecting you to drop them off, and then you are free to take your nap.”
“Good, when I get back and you finish work, maybe we can have a chat my love, as I have something important that I want to tell you.”
She smiled. “Absolutely. I'll be in my studio if you need me; otherwise we will chat over dinner.”
I kissed her again, and watched as she turned and walked away from me toward her studio. She always looked fantastic from the backside as well. I smiled as I thought about how I was going to ravish her that evening. I had a lot of testosterone I needed to work off, and I knew just how to do that.
“Okay, kids, pile into the car, and let’s go!”
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HOOPED BOX SET
By Claire Adams
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2016 Claire Adams
HOOPED #1
Chapter One
“Oh come on, Jenn,” one of my friends said with a nagging tone to her voice. “You know it’s going to be a good time. Besides, it’s not like you can study all the time.” I laughed a little bit, brushing off Alicia’s rolling eyes.
“I also sleep and eat,” I pointed out.
“But you need to have some fun in your life! When was the last time you went to a party?” I shrugged; I didn’t think that it particularly mattered how often I partied it up. I wasn’t in college
to go to parties—I was there to get a degree, to learn. I wasn’t against going out every once in a while, but I was by far not the kind of person to go to parties constantly.
On top of the fact that I had classes to study for, I was already tired; it had been a long week and a long day, and all I really wanted to do was veg out in front of the TV, eat some popcorn, and get ahead in my harder courses. The mandatory freshman classes weren’t that hard, but I was trying to get as many credits done as possible for the general education credits so I could get into my major more quickly. I hadn’t exactly decided where I wanted to go; my parents had read chapter and verse to me about how useless an English degree would be, even though I’d always done well in those classes. I was also thinking about going into anthropology—but that, I knew, would be just as useless unless I went to graduate school.
“It’s the weekend, Jenn!” Alicia threw herself down onto the couch next to me. “Come on. You need to get out and have some fun. There will be plenty of time for you to study, I swear. You can come with us, have a good time, and get over your hangover by tomorrow. You’ll be able to get lots and lots of studying done, and I swear, I won’t even bother you to go out tomorrow night.” I thought about it; I had to admit that Alicia had a point. I couldn’t let myself get burned out by studying.
It wasn’t so much that I was against going to parties as a rule; I’d been to a few already. I just knew that I wasn’t going to be that person at the end of the semester worrying about failing out because I had spent all my weekends partying, and some of the weekdays along with it. I had seen more than one of my classmates come in hung over and thought to myself that it was stupid to go to class at all if you couldn’t even pay attention because your head was pounding, and you felt like you were going to throw up.
It had only taken me one night of drinking too much, my second week into the semester, for me to know when I needed to stop. I didn’t normally go out during the week, and I didn’t go out on the weekends if I was too tired already; I hadn’t committed to going with Alicia and our other friends, but I’d said that if I felt up to it I would.
“Besides,” Alicia said, looking up at me with her bright eyes glinting as she continued her argument. “It’s at the Phi Kappa house. You know it’s going to be a legit party.” I laughed. The Phi Kappa house had always had a reputation on the campus as the rowdiest group of bad boys in any frat. They’d had Johnny Steele there—they’d had so many legendary guys: partiers with the worst reputations for flirting with girls and the best reputations for dominating in sports. I’d mostly stayed away from them when I could, but I couldn’t actually deny that a night of hanging out at one of the legendary parties was appealing.
The Phi Kappa boys were the kind of guys that my parents had always warned me about when talking about college; I had always blown off their warnings—after all, guys were guys at the end of the day. If they partied hard, they partied hard. I wasn’t about to let myself go falling for one of them, but it could be a lot of fun to see them in their natural element. And as long as the girls and I were together, it wasn’t like any of us would be in any danger.
“Okay,” I said, rolling my eyes and sighing, even though I grinned at Alicia. “Fine, I’ll go.” I was still tired, but it wasn’t worth arguing with Alicia the rest of the night; I’d end up not studying either way. “But promise me that we’ll go home before it gets super late. I don’t want to drag my ass back into the dorms at dawn and lose all of tomorrow.”
“I swear, as soon as you’re tired of it, we’ll come back. Kelly is coming too, and so is Giselle. It’ll be so great.” Alicia gathered herself up off of the couch and beamed at me, almost dancing around in her excitement. “Get a shower, slam a Red Bull, and you’ll be totally ready.” I rolled my eyes again, grinning.
“Shouldn’t I also get dressed?” I asked. Alicia shrugged.
“I doubt you’d be the only naked woman there if you didn’t,” she pointed out.
“Real promising,” I told her. “Come and get me when you guys head out.”
“We’ll come over and get you and Kelly both,” Alicia said. “And if you try and weasel out of this, Jenn…” I gave her a shove.
“I already told you I’d go! I’m not going to back out of it now. Let me get ready in peace, woman!” Alicia bounded out of my room, calling another warning over her shoulder.
I finished the show I was watching on TV before I got into the shower, thinking it was probably just going to be another lame party. But in the back of my mind, I thought that at least I’d be able to say that I’d actually been to a Phi Kappa party. And from what I’d heard around campus about the guys in the frat, that was really something. Maybe it won’t be as boring, I thought as I washed my hair and scrubbed my body.
I tried to decide just how I was going to dress for the party even as I was in the shower. It wasn’t an easy decision. While I wasn’t specifically looking to go after a guy, I didn’t really have a good idea of how I should look if I wanted to blend in. I had heard so many rumors about the kinds of parties that Phi Kappa threw, and Alicia’s joke about me not standing out if I was naked was only about halfway joking. I shook my head, deciding that whatever else, I was not going to show up to the party naked.
Alicia was right; after my shower and after downing a Red Bull, I started to feel a little less exhausted. The caffeine jittered through me while I changed into one of my skimpier outfits: a slightly flared skirt that came up above my knees a good three or four inches, a tight low-cut almost transparent white shirt underneath, and a pair of heeled boots. I put on a little makeup and sat around with the caffeine buzzing and crackling in my veins while I waited for the rest of my friends to arrive. I hoped that I wouldn’t regret taking a break for the night from studying.
I thought about the party and the fact that I, of all people, was going to it; Phi Kappa was absolutely notorious for how crazy its parties raged. They had been nearly disbanded a dozen times throughout the frat’s history for underage drinking and allegations of public sex and other, various crimes. Even though I really wanted to study, I had to admit to myself that I was more than a little curious about what might go down. Above and beyond the history of bad boys in the Phi Kappa frat, there was one living legend that would almost certainly be there: Devon Sealy.
The rumors on campus said that Devon put all the rest of the guys to shame. He was an upperclassman, a star on the school’s basketball team, and a first-class partier. I had seen him around campus; who hadn’t? And since I had gone to all of the basketball games so far in the season, I had seen him play. But I had never really met him. He was way outside of my reach—I was kind of a bookworm, and I doubted that Devon had studied a day in his life; he was an upperclassman and I was a freshman, and I didn’t go to parties that often. We didn’t have any classes together, so there was no real opportunity to meet him.
As the girls started to arrive from the different dorms, I learned that Alicia had talked a few more of our circle of friends into coming with us to the Phi Kappa bash. Kelly, my roommate, was a junior—and had smuggled a bottle of rum into the dorms, even though she had an underage roommate. We all took shots to “pre-game” and joked around, knowing that even though the flyer for the party said it started at eight, it probably wouldn’t be really going until nine. “Oh god, you guys, what if I meet Devon?” I said, laughing at the thought of it.
“Jenn’s brush with glory!” Giselle joked.
“It probably won’t happen,” Kelly pointed out. “I mean he’s surrounded by girls all the time, I doubt he can even see three feet in front of him.”
It was finally time to head over, and I had to stop myself from feeling nervous. It was just a party after all; it wasn’t like there was anyone there who’d even really know me other than my friends. The other girls had dressed even skimpier than I had, and I could tell Amanda wasn’t wearing a bra under her skin tight shirt. As we walked across campus, a few of the girls joked about how they were definitely
going to get laid or at least fool around with someone; all I wanted was to have maybe a drink or two, enjoy watching people act like idiots, and go home. Even if it was illegal for me to drink since I was under 21, it didn’t seem very much like a crime at a party like that.
Walking up to the frat house was like walking into a giant noise factory; even before we could see the house itself, I could feel the bass from the sound system inside pounding through me, making my stomach feel like jelly. I knew that I’d get used to it in a few minutes once we were inside, but I couldn’t help getting more and more excited the closer we got.
The door was open, and there was a member of the frat, someone in one of my survey classes, standing there in a bed sheet toga. I fought back a spasm of giggles at the sight of him; he was always so serious in class, it was hard to think of him as this half-drunk frat boy whose toga was already starting to fall apart on him. “Welcome, welcome!” he shouted, raising his hands up into the air. “Come on in, ladies—plenty of drinks to go around.”
I had been to a couple of parties on campus, even one that one of the sororities had hosted, even though I didn’t have any intentions of joining; but as we walked into the Phi Kappa frat house it was obvious that it was a whole new level of debauchery. My heart was pounding in my chest along to the bass of the music, and as I looked around I saw that most of the girls at the party were even more scantily clad than my friends and I—some of them were basically wearing little more than bikinis, even though it was already starting to get chilly.
One of my friends put a red Solo cup into my hands and I sipped from it—I wasn’t even sure what was in it, but it was some kind of punch, with the after burn of cheap, hard alcohol. Some of the girls wandered away, and I eventually started to get into the swing of the party, flirting with guys who came up to me, sipping my drink—I didn’t want to get absolutely plastered—and even dancing a little bit. It boggled my mind to see how all the girls around me were going on, throwing themselves at the guys; some of them were making out on the couches and I even saw some people on the stairs who looked like they were doing everything but having sex.