Pulse

by Amity Cross

  Ash went straight for my breasts, palming each in his hands. ”Fuck, I love your tits,” he moaned as I pushed my jeans off.

  Grabbing his hands in my own, I guided them down across my stomach and he hooked his thumbs through the sides of my knickers and shoved them down roughly.

  Leaning over, he hooked his hand around my knee and tugged. I crumpled to the mat, laughter on my lips and Ash covered me with his body, spreading my legs apart with his other hand. He pressed his weight against my clit, his cock rubbing against my skin. He felt like he was burning up, the heat radiating from his body sparking mine into life.

  “How do you want it Spitfire?” he murmured, his eyes sparkling in the half-light of the studio.

  “Wild and hard with you deep inside me, Maverick.”

  He grasped my wrists with his big paw of a hand and wrenched my arms over my head. Crying out, I jutted my breasts against his chest, my nipples aching just as much as my pussy. I couldn’t touch him, but he didn’t leave me wanting.

  He began sucking at my neck, teasing with his tongue as his cock rubbed against my clit. Fuck, it was so powerful, raw...demanding… How could something so unbearable feel so fucking good?

  “Ash,” I gasped, writhing underneath him.

  He pushed inside me, easing into me slowly, his body trembling against mine. It was an effort to go slow when you wanted someone so much it burned you from the inside out. I wanted him to devour me, I wanted it all.

  I circled my hips against his, driving him deeper and he moaned loudly into the crook of my neck, his muscles tensing.

  “Spitfire,” he gasped, the stubble on his jaw rasping against my shoulder.

  I remembered the moment he first entered me, in this exact spot, and how overwhelming it had been then. This time, it was exactly the same. This thing that entwined us together was raw and the realest thing I’d ever felt. I never thought I’d have this life, the one where I loved and was loved just as much in return. I knew how easily all that could be taken away and I was determined not to have it happen again.

  “Fuck, so tight…so warm…” Ash pulled back and thrust, slapping hard against my clit.

  It wasn’t the rough animal sex we’d had our first time together, it was missionary on the same mat, but it was just as explosive. It was like we were claiming this place back for ourselves after it had been brutally torn away. We were sharing something much more meaningful and deeper in our souls…something that no one could touch but ourselves.

  Ash stroked into me again and again, pushing my orgasm to the surface. It swelled and dipped with each thrust, the pressure against my clit keeping me right on the edge. We were together, a team, we came together or not at all.

  Heat prickled my skin as I clawed his back and his mouth came over mine, devouring my moans. Our tongues entwined as he thrust, his cock pulsing inside me.

  “Fuck,” he hissed, pulling his mouth from mine. “Give it to me Spitfire. Let it go.”

  His thrusts became relentless as he pounded into me, the roughness of his movements igniting my orgasm. My body tipped over the edge and the world seemed to explode.

  “Ash,” I gasped, and I was gone, lost to him and everything else. All that mattered was the release, the pleasure and the pain.

  I felt his orgasm as it erupted hot inside me, his teeth grazing against my shoulder, hands clutching me to his sweaty body. I answered by wrapping my legs tightly around his waist, locking him to me.

  “Fuck,” he moaned, his grip starting to relax.

  I closed my eyes for a moment, letting the last of the sensation ebb through my nerve endings, breathing his scent deep. We smelt like sex and sweat, musky… He was mine.

  “You’re…” he muttered as he flexed his cock inside me.

  “Incredible?” I asked, shivering as the movement stirred my overloaded senses.

  “If there’s a better word, I don’t know it.”

  His lips grazed against my forehead as our bodies began to cool in the afterglow.

  “I’ll be there to help you with your anger,” I murmured. “Whatever you need.”

  “I’ll be there to protect you. My life is yours.”

  Shivering as Ash pulled out, he scooped me up into his arms and carried me across the studio and into the showers. A lazy grin pulled at my lips as I remembered what had happened that first night after the rabid animal fucking.

  Shower sex.

  Yeah, shower sex.

  Chapter 23

  Ren

  Standing in the darkness outside The Underground, I clutched Ash’s hand.

  People passed us on their way inside, casting glances our way, and I shifted nervously. It’d been well over six months since I’d set foot inside the run-down warehouse that had changed my life. I’d floated through the few months after Ash’d gone with blinkers on, hardly noticing the people around me, but now it felt different.

  Hammer was inside. Hammer was here. Hammer was fighting.

  I felt sick.

  “Okay?” Ash asked, pulling me against him.

  “Nervous,” I admitted.

  “You’ll be okay. I’m with you.” He stepped forward, practically dragging me with him. “Let’s just get this over with.”

  “Rip it off like a Band-Aid?”

  “Exactly.”

  Taking a deep breath, I tightened my grip on his hand and we walked into the warehouse. It was filling quickly for that night’s bouts, even though the new season hadn’t even started yet. Through the dull lighting, I could make out a banner hanging on the top of the cage that read ‘Exhibition Match’. Which was just code for ‘fighting for fun’ until the real game began.

  I couldn’t help but notice the stares as we weaved through the throng of people. The din seemed to mellow as we made a beeline to the referee’s office out back. It’d been much longer since Ash’d been here and that was the fight that he’d almost beat that guy to death. The one who’d tried to force himself on me out in the change rooms. I cast my gaze down, feeling more isolated than I had when I’d been here on my own.

  Ash squeezed my hand as the noise around us began to raise again.

  “Don’t let them see that you’re worried Spitfire,” he murmured into my ear. “They can smell it.”

  “How are you so calm?” I retorted.

  He grimaced. “I’m not.” He tugged on my hand. “I know what they’re thinking and I definitely know what they’re saying behind our backs, but they’ll see.”

  I hoped so because right now I was feeling overwhelmed.

  We walked through the crowd, trying our best to ignore the whispers and the gossip that was beginning to spread like wildfire, and disappeared into the fighter only area. Security eyed us with caution, but let us pass into the hall.

  Ash knocked sharply on the door that I knew was the referee’s office before opening it. I’d never been inside, and it was a stretch calling it an office, because it was just a room with a desk, a couch and a fridge. It looked more like a break room at some dirty construction site than anything else. A slap dash attempt at looking legit.

  The head referee was sitting behind the desk, a beer in front of him and a whiteboard covered in messy scrawl. It looked like the draw for the opening round of the new Championship.

  “Fucking hell,” the ref drawled when he laid eyes on Ash. “Look what the cat dragged in.”

  “Nice to see you too, Max.”

  I rose an eyebrow. The guy’s name was Max? Nobody gave their names out here, except for Ash, but he’d had a death wish. That could only mean that the two men had been on good terms once. Well, at least good enough for real names to be exchanged.

  I stepped back and closed the door, trying to get my head on straight.

  “We thought we lost you for good,” he went on, nodding at me. “Are you coming back?”

  “Yes,” I replied, glancing at Ash.

  The ref narrowed his eyes at me and turned back to Ash. “No fucking way Fuller. You know how much trouble you
caused us with that stunt you pulled in the cage? We had the cops breathing down our necks.” He snorted, shaking his head. Sometimes I really liked how men got straight to the point.

  “I want in,” Ash said through gritted teeth.

  “Reign, you’re in as far as I’m concerned. Sign your life away. Fuller is out.” He didn’t even glance at Ash.

  “We’re a package deal,” I retorted. “Both or none at all.”

  “This ain’t a negotiation Sweetness.”

  “We’ve been in here two seconds,” I exclaimed. “You don’t even want to hear what we’ve got to say?”

  “In lieu of a police raid?” Max asked. “That’s what we risk when we let loose cannons into the ring, Reign. Can’t afford it.”

  “Fuck, Max,” Ash said, pounding his fist on the table top. “I’m right fucking here.”

  “Case in point,” he said to me.

  “I made you hundreds of thousands of dollars right up until the moment I left,” Maverick went on. “You can’t tell me that any one of those fuckers out there has made half as much as I did for you through the season. Fuck the Championship. That’s motherfuckin’ peanuts.”

  Max narrowed his eyes, but didn’t say anything. Ash was probably right, but I’d never focused on the money that had exchanged hands in this place. I fought, collected and went home. Rinse and repeat.

  “You want those people out there to spend their money? You want them to place their bets? They won’t for Ash Fuller, I totally agree with you on that one. That guy’s a loose cannon, but they will spend it on Maverick.”

  I rose my eyebrow at him.

  “You want a name now?” Max asked, looking as surprised as I felt. “How do I know I can trust you Fuller?”

  Ash stood back and raised his hands. “New Championship, new leaf.”

  Max’s lips curved into a grin. “You want to take on Hammer, eh? Get a rematch?”

  “I want to take him down in the Championship fight. No holding back.”

  “You know how much money that will bring in?” I asked. “Shitloads. It’s a no-brainer.”

  Max glanced at me, his eyes shining with dollar signs, then back at Ash. “What assurances do I have that you won’t fly off the handle again?”

  “I’ve been away for a year,” Ash said, his voice wavering a little. “I’ve been taking steps to get a handle on it.”

  “Like what?”

  Ash narrowed his eyes, clearly uncomfortable with telling the head referee his business.

  “Therapy, training, natural remedies…” I interrupted. “If I can see the change in him, then so should you if you give him the chance.”

  Max sat back in his chair and regarded us. “Fine. But you get a three month probation period Fuller, and we put you on the board as Maverick.”

  Ash grunted, which was his unspoken code for ‘I’m pissed’.

  “Get out and don’t make me regret this.” Max waved his hand at us as Ash grabbed my wrist and practically dragged me out into the hall. Seeing it was empty of witnesses, he grabbed me around the waist and leaned in close, his eyes flashing.

  “I don’t like you speaking for me,” he hissed.

  “I told him what he needed to hear,” I said, curling my hands into tight fists. “It just happened that it was the truth.”

  Ash bit his bottom lip and turned away.

  “Don’t,” I said, running my hands over his back.

  “I don’t want them knowing.”

  “Ash…”

  He shrugged my hands off his shoulders.

  “You guys were friends once, yes?”

  “How do you know?” he asked.

  “Because you knew his first name. Nobody gives out names here. Not unless they’re cocky assholes like you.”

  “We weren’t friends,” he said, the tone in his voice lightening slightly. “We had an understanding.”

  “Then consider that understanding reinstated.”

  Ash turned, his gaze meeting mine. “I still don’t want you speaking for me.”

  I narrowed my eyes at him. “That’s not fair.”

  Ash grunted, signaling that he was done discussing it.

  “And it’s okay for you to speak for me?”

  His gaze fixed on something over my shoulder and I was instantly dismissed. Typical.

  “Ren.” His arm shot out and yanked me against his chest with so much force I almost bounced off him.

  “What-” I began, but when I saw the look on his face, I clamped my mouth shut.

  There was pissed off, then there was Ash. That could only mean one thing and my heart started pounding in my chest.

  “So the rumors were true.”

  Spinning on my heel, I came face to face with Hammer. My heart jack-hammered in my chest and I instantly felt like puking. He was still ugly as fuck, nothing had changed there. Ugly and evil.

  I began to breathe hard, my skin crawling. Hammer fixed his beady eyes on me and smirked, holding up his finger and wiggling it at me with a lewd wink.

  “Back off Hammer,” Ash snarled, caging me against his chest with a thick arm.

  “Or what?” His retort was aimed at Ash, but he didn’t shift his gaze from mine. It was meant to get to me, worm into my subconscious and throw me off my game…and it was working.

  Anger blazed hot and hard through my body and I lunged forward with a snarl, breaking free of Ash’s hold. I wanted to rip Hammer’s dirty fucking cock off and ram it down his throat. I wanted to see him suffer for what he did to us and especially for what he did to Violet. He had to pay.

  I went to swing a fist, but strong arms circled around my waist, dragging me back.

  Hammer and his posse stared at us for a moment before bursting into laughter as I thrashed against Ash’s grip around me.

  “Would you look at that?” Hammer drawled, egging me on even more. “I like women with fight in them. Makes the game even more satisfying.” He fisted his filthy hand into his crotch and thrust in my direction.

  I got the suggestion completely and I wanted to vomit.

  “Fucking rapist,” I screeched at him.

  Ash hauled me down the corridor and into the change rooms as Hammer and his goons laughed after us. I struggled against his hold, but his arms were like steel. I was tough, but not that tough.

  “Calm down,” he murmured in my ear. “What do you think you’re going to do against him? Fight him on your own?”

  “I want to hack his cock off!” I yelled, thumping my fists, trying to connect with anything that would make him let me go.

  A few fighters who were lingering out back all looked up at the commotion, but all I saw was red.

  “Fuckin’ hell, Spitfire.”

  “Let me go!”

  “So you can go back out there and kick him in the nuts? I thought we were going to do this the right way.”

  I felt some of the anger start to dissipate at Ash’s words. He was right. Fuck. He must’ve felt the shift in my body because his grip slackened.

  “Let me go,” I said again, pushing the flats of my palms against his hips. “I won’t-”

  He set me free and I began pacing back and forth, trying to calm myself down but it only succeeded in keeping my rage at a slow simmer.

  “Ren, you need to calm down,” Ash pleaded with me.

  “I can’t fucking…I can’t.” I felt tears welling, signaling the final stage of my Hulk moment.

  As the first tears began to fall, he stepped forward and in one fluid motion, circled his arms around me and trapped me against his chest.

  “Don’t,” I said, swatting uselessly at him.

  “Shh,” he crooned and it was that one small moment of tenderness from the beast that made me break completely.

  A sob escaped my throat and he sprang into action, backing me into a shower stall, separating us from the few fighters that were beginning to notice the commotion in the corner.

  “Spitfire,” he soothed, holding me close as the door banged closed.
<
br />   “I didn’t-” I said breathlessly, burying my face against his chest. “I didn’t expect-”

  “To react that way?”

  “No.”

  “You have to be strong Ren.”

  “I’m so tired of being strong,” I wailed, knowing I was being totally unreasonable, but not being able to help it. “I was strong when I came to Beat. I was strong when you left. I was strong after-”

  Ash leaned down and pulled my chin up in his big hand, pressing his lips to mine and cutting off my tirade. I sank into him, letting him claim me with his tongue. He kissed me soft and slow, each caress deepening until the rage and despair inside me simmered, then cooled, and was replaced with another kind of heat.

  I clung to him with shaking hands and curled my fingers into his T-shirt, using him to keep me from slipping away.

  When he finally pulled back, his eyes were hooded with lust, his lips slightly swollen.

  “Remember when you calmed me down in here?” he asked, his voice husky. “Remember?”

  I nodded, my eyes fixing on his. Back then, the room had been cleared and it was just us. I’d brought us closer that night and the same thing was happening right now.

  “It’s my turn Spitfire. Let me take you home,” he rasped, voicing my thoughts.

  I sighed, letting out the last of the tension from my body. “And what are we going to do there?”

  A sly smile tugged at his lips. “My cock. Your pussy. Together at last.”

  Chapter 24

  Ash

  Training with Ren in the dead of night at Beat was fast becoming my favorite time of day.

  I mean, we trained during the day with the Twins as they went through their final prep for the AUFC season in Sydney, but when we came back from The Underground our training consisted of a few repetitions on the bags before hands wandered.

  I used to think sinking my fist into my opponent in the cage was the best feeling ever, but I’d found something much more satisfying. Sex with Ren Miller. Sinking my cock into her three, maybe four times a night. You’d think we’d be worn out by the time the day was done, but no fucking way.

  She’d awakened another kind of beast.

  I’d never been in a proper relationship before. Before everything that happened with Violet, I’d been the kinda guy who’d slept around because I could. Fuck, I was a kid with a raging libido and it didn’t hurt that I had the looks. I wanted to fuck around and women loved the muscles and tattoo. That was until the day I walked into Beat and saw Ren Miller brandishing a cricket bat in nothing but a tank top and knickers.