“No, that’s ok, babe… I wanted to make you come… I love the noises you make.” He pulled me into his side so that my head was resting on his chest.
“Goodnight.” I said to him as I began falling asleep.
“Night, babe.” He kissed the top of my head and I kissed his bare chest before falling into a slumber.
Chapter 15
“Mmm. Morning, babe.” Jacob said as I rolled over to face him.
“Morning.” I said sleepily, curling into his side. “What are you doing today?”
“I thought that maybe we could spend the day at the beach? I could rub some sun cream on your sexy body.” He said rubbing his hand over my back. I arched my back and moaned; it felt good when he rubbed my back.
“I’ll send Bonnie a text and see if she wants to meet us.”
“Can we not have a day just the two of us?” Jacob complained.
“Oh, yeah, sure… Sorry… I just don’t wanna be one of those girls who drop their best friends when they get a boyfriend.” I climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom to turn the shower on. “Can you make me some coffee please?” I called out as I climbed into the shower.
“Sure.” I heard him call out as I immersed myself under the water.
***
We had been at the beach all morning; it was really nice spending time alone with Jacob. He did as he’d promised and rubbed sun cream into every inch of my body that was visible. Having his hands running up and over my skin made me hot and bothered, he knew how to light my body on fire and get my pulse racing.
“Look, there’s Bonnie.” Jacob said pointing behind me. I turned around to look, just as she spotted us and I waved.
“I didn’t invite her, I promise.”
“It’s ok; I know how close you two are… I just don’t like sharing you.” He told me, pulling my face up so he could kiss me.
“Hey you two.” Bonnie said as she approached us.
“Hey, you ok?” I asked.
“Yeah, just thought I would have a stroll on the beach, I didn’t know you would be here.” She sat down next to me in the sand and Jacob pulled me up against him so my back was pressed against his naked chest.
“It was a last minute thing.” Jacob answered for me.
“No Matt?” Bonnie asked, looking around for him. She always told me how much she didn’t like him and yet she was always asking after him. She’d shown some of her true feelings when we found out that he had slept with Amelia too.
“No, he wasn’t in the flat this morning…” Jacob started saying when I interrupted him.
“Speaking of the devil.” I said, as I saw him running towards us. “He looks like a man on a mission.”
“Shit.” Jacob growled as he stood up from behind me and met Matt before he got to us. They were talking quietly and nodding to each other. Jacob ran his hands through his hair and looked back at me. Was something wrong? Was someone hurt? Was there a family emergency? I started to worry so I got up and walked towards them with Bonnie hot on my heels.
“What’s going on?” I asked, placing my hand on Jacob’s back.
“We gotta go.” Matt said before Jacob could speak.
“We?” I asked him, my eyebrows raised.
“Me and him.” Matt said pointing to Jacob.
“Where are you going?” Bonnie asked.
“Sorry, babe, top secret.” Matt answered with an edge of cockiness to his voice.
“Don’t call me that.” Bonnie snapped.
“Jacob?” I said his name quietly as he hadn’t said a word to me yet. He reached for my hand and pulled me away from Bonnie and Matt who were bickering with each other; to people passing by they probably looked like a couple that had been together for years.
“Matt and I gotta go… But I will see you later, yeah?” He asked. He looked worried that I would say no.
“Is it the same thing as last time?” I asked, looking into his eyes.
“Yeah.” He sighed, looking at the ground. “I don’t wanna lie to you… I can tell you everything, soon. I promise.”
“Ok.” I said.
“Ok?” He asked, surprised. He was probably surprised that I wasn’t putting up a fight.
“Yeah… I’m gonna go home for a bit, let me know when I can meet you. I will get Bonnie to give me a lift.” I walked over to our bags and gathered up my stuff as he was throwing his into his bag. Once we had packed up, I asked Bonnie if she could drop me home and she said that was fine. We all walked to the cars together and I gave Jacob a kiss before he left. Bonnie started her car and we all drove out of the car park at the same time.
“Is he going to the same place as before?” Bonnie asked. I nodded, I felt stupid not knowing where my boyfriend was going and what he was doing. I must have seemed like such a pushover to her. “He didn’t tell you where?”
“No.” I whispered. Was I being a pushover? Should I have demanded to know where he was going? Should I have threatened to leave if he didn’t tell me? Did I not mean as much to him as he does to me? I haven’t kept anything from him. “Hey, you missed the turning.” I looked at Bonnie and she didn’t say anything. “Bonnie? Where are we going?”
“We’re going to see where they keep disappearing to.” I looked ahead and saw Matt’s car a few cars in front of us.
“No, Bonnie we can’t.”
“Why can’t we? Aren’t you fed up of not knowing where he goes when he does his vanishing act?”
“Yeah, but…”
“No buts. Just keep an eye on the car, I don’t want to lose them and I don’t want them to see us.”
We stayed a few cars behind them, we must have been driving for at least twenty minutes when we finally turned off of the main road and were travelling down a smaller road, one that didn’t look like it was used that often. It had grass growing up the middle of the road and was only wide enough to fit one car, I didn’t know what Bonnie would do if she met an oncoming car, there was nowhere to pull in.
“Where are we?” I whispered.
“Why are you whispering? No one can hear you.”
“Because I’m scared and don’t know if we should be doing this.” We finally stopped outside of a big warehouse. There were about ten cars parked out the front. I made Bonnie park around the back so that if Jacob or Matt came outside they wouldn’t recognise the car.
“Come on.” Bonnie said, opening her door and climbing out. I sat there just looking at the building, trying to rack my brain for a reason that he would be here. Bonnie opened my door and pulled me out.
“How are we going to get in? We can’t just walk through the front door.” I asked her.
“There has got to be a back door, let’s have a look around.” We spent a couple of minutes searching when Bonnie whistled and waved at me. She had found a way in. We walked through the door as quietly as we could. I could hear a load of noise; it sounded like loads of people talking and shouting all at the same time. We kept walking until we came across a large room; we almost accidently stepped right into the room as there was no door. We hid behind a large pillar.
“What is this place?” I whispered to Bonnie.
“It looks like some sort of boxing place? There is the ring over there.” She pointed, as I looked to where she pointed I saw Jacob. He was bouncing around on his feet talking to another guy. We just watched for a few minutes, there were two guys in the boxing ring, fighting.
“I don’t think this is boxing… I think it’s MMA.” Bonnie told me. “But it doesn’t look very official.”
I was watching Jacob, when all of a sudden his head whipped around and he was staring straight at me. I gasped and tried to hide back behind the pillar.
“Shit, he saw me.” I told Bonnie. She looked around the pillar.
“Yep, he is coming this way and he doesn’t look happy.”
“Shit, now he was going to think that I don’t trust him.”
“You have a right to know where he keeps disappearing off to, especially if he
wants a future with you.”
I looked around the pillar and saw Jacob was in fact storming towards us; he kept looking behind him. I guessed that was to make sure no one saw him coming our way. When he got close to us he leant on the wall by the pillar that we were hiding behind.
“What the hell are you doing here?” He whisper shouted at us. I didn’t really know what to say, my mouth kept opening and shutting like a fish and nothing was coming out. “You can’t be here…” He looked around, making sure no-one was watching him. “Women are not allowed down here.”
“What about them?” Bonnie asked, pointing to some scantily clad dressed women.
“Those are the club bunnies. Some of the men use them to let out extra pent up frustration.” Bonnie and I both looked towards the ring again and what I saw shocked me. A man had a woman bent over a bench and he was slamming into her from behind. She was screaming out, I wasn’t sure if it was pain or pleasure. Jacob must have noticed the look on my face.
“They choose to be here… I don’t touch them, never had, never will.” He was looking around again. I started to wonder what would happen if someone spotted us here. What would happen to us?
“What happens if we are spotted?” I asked him, afraid to hear the answer.
“They will think you chose to be here and…” He waved his hand back towards the bunnies.
“Oh God…” I sobbed.
“Babe.” Jacob said gently, he moved towards me slightly but pulled himself back, looking around again. If he pulled me into him there would be a chance we would be seen and he wouldn’t want that.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
“I’ve gotta be here.” He looked around again and I saw him stand up straighter and look at someone. “Shit, that’s Ethan. Stay in the dark, don’t move.”
“Yo, J, what are you doing back here? You’re next man… come earn me some money.” He slapped Jacob on the back and I gasped at what I’d heard. Jacob was to fight next. “What was that?” Ethan asked.
“Nothing man… be right there… Just warming up.” Jacob started bouncing on the balls of his feet and throwing punches into the air.
“You know what’s a great way to warm up man?” He gestured towards the bunnies.
“No, you know I don’t touch them.” Jacob told him. Ethan walked away laughing. Jacob faced us again.
“Get out of here… Go to my place, there is a key under the mat. Wait for me there… GO… NOW!” He said sternly. He stayed there while we made our way out, making sure that no-one saw us.
“Oh God.” I cried, once I was in the safety of Bonnie’s car. She drove back up the small road and once we were on a main road again she pulled over and pulled me into her arms and let me cry. “That place was horrible… I don’t like him being there.”
“Sshh, it’s ok. I’m sure he will be fine… Do you want me to come back to his with you?” I nodded and tried to compose myself. “Come on then, let’s get out of here.”
We rode in silence towards Jacob and Matt’s flat; my head was spinning with questions that I wanted to ask him. Why did he have to fight? What was Matt doing there? Did he fight too?
“Rose? We’re here.” Bonnie said and I snapped out of my daze. We got out of the car and made our way to his flat to sit and wait for them to come back.
Chapter 16
Bonnie and I had been waiting in Jacob’s flat for nearly two hours when they arrived home. I stood up as he walked into the front room, I looked over at him to see if he was hurt and he seemed to be ok.
“Are you hurt?” I asked quietly as I ran my hands over his body, checking for injuries.
“No, I was in and out of the ring in minutes… Ethan wasn’t too happy with that.” I sobbed with relief and threw my arms around him. “Sshh, babe. Its ok. I’m fine.” As I pulled back, not letting go of Jacob I saw him give Matt a look and I heard Matt say to Bonnie;
“Let’s give them some space.” Bonnie hesitated, she looked at me and I nodded my head, telling her I was ok and that she could leave.
“Come and sit down.” Jacob said as he directed me towards the sofa. He sat down and I sat very close to him. “Did you wanna sit in my lap?” He joked.
“Sorry, I…”
“Don’t be, it’s ok. I want you close too… I wasn’t sure how you were going to be, once I got home… Mad or upset.” I was tucked under his arm, resting my head against his chest.
“Tell me why you do it.” I asked, running my hand up and down his chest.
“Ok, here goes… You know our Mum and Dad left?” I nodded my head; he had already told me that. “Well, we waited for them… We thought they would come back after several hours we were hungry and went in search of food. Luckily the cupboards and fridge was full of food… We managed about a month before we ran out… We still went to school; we acted like everything was ok.” He sighed and ran his hand through his hair.
“How old were you?”
“Fourteen… At first we would go through the bins for food, but then our electric and water got turned off as the bills weren’t paid… We needed money… So we broke into a shop, we did this a couple of times and never got caught and we only took what we needed… I know it’s no excuse. Anyway, this one time we got caught, we had only broken a window, so it only looked like vandalism. But because we were only minors we pretty much got a slap on the wrists and were told that if we did it again we would be thrown into a young offenders unit. We still needed someone to come and get us; we didn’t tell them that our Mum and Dad had left us as we didn’t want to go into care, we didn’t want to be split up… This bloke called Ethan showed up and told them he was our Uncle and that our Dad had sent him to collect us.”
“That scary looking man was your Uncle?”
“No… I don’t know how he heard about us, but he took us in. Looked after us, fed us and all we had to do in return was train and learn how to fight… To compete in underground MMA. It was too good of an opportunity to pass up. I mean, what fourteen year old boy doesn’t want to learn to fight?”
“That was four years ago?”
“Yeah…”
“Why do you still fight now?” I interrupted him.
“He pays for this.” He gestured at the flat. “All of it, bills, food, cars, my bike… Plus we also get a bit of money too.”
“What about Matt?”
“He was already living there, with Ethan… He’s not a fighter; he’s a trainer and collector.”
“Collector?” I didn’t know much about MMA fighting.
“Yeah, people come and watch and bet on who is going to win. Matt runs that.”
“Oh… Can you stop now?” I turned my body and looked at him with pleading eyes.
“Not yet, babe.” He said, shaking his head.
“Why not?”
“We owe him, until I can get a job I need to work off my debts… I like doing it though… It pays really well… It can set us up babe. You won’t want for anything.”
“Except not knowing if you are going to come home alive?” I snapped.
“Ethan doesn’t let it get that far… It may be underground fighting, not completely legal but no-one dies.”
“What if the police find this place?”
“They won’t… Now stop worrying and give me a kiss.” I jumped into his lap and he grunted. I pulled back.
“I thought you said you weren’t hurt?”
“I wasn’t, but you may just have slimed down our chances on having babies.”
“Oops, want me to kiss that better?” I wiggled my eyebrows at him.
“Hell yeah, but not now… I need to have a shower.”
“So are you going to tell me that’s where you are going in future?”
“Only, if you promise to never EVER go there again?”
“I promise… It was Bonnie’s idea.”
“I guessed as much.” He chuckled. “Shall we have an early night?”
Ring ring ring ring. My phone started to ring. I sto
od up and dug it out of my pocket.
“Hello… Oh, hi, Mum… I’m out with Bonnie… I was… Oh, yeah ok… See you soon.” I hung up and pouted.
“What’s up?” Jacob asked, placing his hands on my face.
“Mum and Dad want me home for a family dinner.” He dropped his hands from my face and walked away. “I’m sorry, baby, you know I would much rather stay here.”
“What are we going to do about them? We can’t keep hiding our relationship forever, just because you have a crazy sister.”
“I know. I will talk to them, soon. I promise.” I walked towards him and wrapped my arms around his waist. I was glad that he was ok and that he had told me everything about his secret life. I wanted to tell him that I loved him and supported him but I wasn’t in the right frame of mind to be rejected. Though he was the one that mentioned the fighting would set us up and that we wouldn’t want for anything. He was also the one who mentioned babies, again. “I’ll go and get Bonnie.” I walked towards Matt’s room and as I was about to knock I could hear grunting and panting. I backed away quietly and walked back to Jacob.
“Is she coming?” He asked.
“Oh, I think so.” I winked at him. He looked at me confused. “She is… Um… A bit busy, can you give me a lift?”
“Of course babe… Let’s go, don’t want you getting into trouble.”
Jacob dropped me off around the corner from my house and I walked the rest of the way.
Chapter 17
We had just sat down to eat when my phone vibrated in my pocket; I pulled it out and saw that I had a text from Jacob.
There is a party tonight at a friend of Matt’s, can you come? x
Don’t know, will see how family dinner goes. Miss you x
Miss you too. Let me know, we are going out about 9 x
“Rose, put that thing down.” Mum said to me.
“Sorry, it was just Bonnie, her Mum and Dad are going to the cinema and she wanted me to keep her company…”
Taking A Chance Page 10