“So you are going to stay in and watch trashy TV shows?” I asked.
I wasn’t ready to say goodnight yet, but I couldn’t ask her out on a date. The training sessions weren’t uncomfortable anymore, but they damn sure would be if I asked her out and she said no.
Asking women out on dates was not really part of my repertoire. I never asked them out, we just sort of ended up having sex and that was it. Like the first time with Nora. My only relationship of note had even started out that way. Simple and uncomplicated. Nothing would be simple with Nora. Even teaching her to fight had ended up getting complicated.
“I’m not sure what I’m going to watch,” Nora replied. “Think I’ll just load up Netflix and stick something mindless on that I’ve seen a hundred times before. Then I’ll sit there all night shoving chips into my mouth.”
“Chips? So after a good workout, you go home and eat chips?”
“Yeah,” Nora said, shrugging casually. “Best time to do it; I don’t feel guilty when I’ve worked up a sweat.”
“You need good food,” I insisted. “Vegetables, protein, that kind of thing.”
Nora considered it for a few seconds. “I’ll have a salsa dip as well. That has tomatoes in it.”
I sighed, thinking about all the hard work she was about to undo with a diet of potato chips and processed dips. I had plenty of food at my place, but I didn’t want to bring her back there. My apartment was not for the faint-hearted, and besides, dinner at mine would look a lot like a date.
“Why don’t we go eat out?” I asked. “I know a small place that does a great salad. If you load it up with chicken it’s filling enough.”
“Salad?” Nora asked, cringing as if I’d suggested we eat dinner off a toilet seat. “That won’t fill me up. I’m starving.”
“It’s next to a frozen yogurt place. If you’re still hungry we can grab dessert.”
Thank God I hadn’t asked her out on a date, because Nora didn’t look like she even wanted to grab a casual bite to eat. A full on date would have been met with an abrupt decline.
“Let’s go check it out,” Nora said uncertainly. “But this had better be some damn good salad. None of that rabbit food crap.”
“Let’s go get showered and head out. It’s the most popular place in town, so it’s bound to be busy.”
“No one should have to get in line for salad,” Nora quipped, but she smiled and headed over the locker room.
It’s not a date, I told myself. Even if I wanted it to be, Nora clearly didn’t have a date in mind. She’d been reluctant to sacrifice a meal of chips and salsa to spend another hour with me. Nora had put me in my place.
Still, I got to drag the evening on a little longer, and that was definitely better than spending an evening alone. That’s all this was. A bit of company for the evening.
Nothing more.
“It can’t possibly be worth the wait,” Nora moaned, after we’d been standing in line for ten minutes.
The salad bar had damn good food, but the owner was a pretentious ass. He saw a long line as the best recommendation a business could get, so he deliberately kept the place understaffed and worked as slowly as he could get away with.
“I am getting quite hungry,” I admitted. “Even your ‘meal’ of chips and salsa is sounding tempting right now.”
“Look,” Nora said, pointing to a restaurant across the street. “There’s a Chinese place which has tables free. Let’s go eat there.”
“Do you have any idea how bad that food is for you?”
“We both burned off hundreds of calories during that workout. One bad meal isn’t going to do you any harm. You sound like a woman sometimes.”
“Do I look like a woman?” I asked, tensing my muscles slightly for added effect. “I’m not worried about the calories. It’s all the MSG in there. Besides, it’s not full. That probably means it’s no good.”
“No, it just means everyone in this city is a snob and would rather nibble on plant leaves.” Nora bit her lip and suppressed a smile, as the people in front of us in the line turned back to glare at us. “Come on,” she said taking hold of my hand and trying to drag me out of the line. “Let’s live a little.”
We’d had plenty of body contact during training, but I still hadn’t gotten used to the warm sensation I felt when her skin touched mine. I touched her legs, arms, back, and belly during training, but holding her hand felt more intimate, even if she was only doing it to avoid eating a salad. My resistance instantly disappeared, and she was able to pull me from the line with little effort.
Chinese food did sound tempting right about now, and the restaurant was a sit-down place, which meant we’d get to spend more time together.
Like a date.
Just to make matters even more uncomfortable, we ended up being sat at a quiet table in the corner with plenty of privacy, and even a cheap candle on the table.
But it wasn’t a date. I wasn’t the dating type. I was the type to fuck women against the counter in the staff room of a dingy bar.
Nora wouldn’t think of this as a date either. To her, she was just grabbing some food after a strenuous workout. We ordered some drinks like regular friends would do when they weren’t on a date.
“So,” Nora said, as she took a sip of her orange juice. “Are we on a date?”
Words got stuck in my throat, so I took a sip of drink and tried to look as casual about the whole thing as she did. I failed. “A date?”
“Yeah,” she said calmly. “You know, one of those things society tells us we have to do three times before having sex.”
“I’ve never been made to wait three dates before having sex,” I replied.
Nora laughed. It was genuine, and not just to lighten the mood or reduce the tension between us. How any man could resist that laugh, I had no idea. It managed to combine carefree joy with maturity, and the way her face lit up was electric.
I smiled as well. I don’t know why. It must be contagious, like yawning.
“The way those women throw themselves at you in class, I can’t say I’m surprised. Are you never tempted to hook up with them? They’re very attractive.”
I shook my head. “No, not really. Most of them are older than me for one thing.”
“You don’t have a cougar fetish then?”
“I’ve had fun with experienced women, but that’s not what I’m looking for right now. What about you? You must have men throwing themselves at you as well.”
“Yeah, but thanks to you, I now know how to fight them off.”
“In that case, I’m glad I taught you something.”
She smiled again, but this time I did catch a hint of trepidation, as if she might be nervous about where this was going. I couldn’t be the only one thinking this had the potential to get complicated.
“Gayle thinks we’re already screwing,” Nora said casually.
“She does?”
Gayle hadn’t said anything to me, and she was usually only too happy to get the latest details on my sex life.
“Yeah, she basically said as much the other day. I denied it, but I don’t know if she believed me. I think I was being honest. I mean, we’ve screwed, but we’re not screwing.”
“I don’t think Duke will take it too well,” I said. “You two are getting a bit like a real father and daughter. I imagine he’ll be an overprotective father.”
“You’re speaking as if we actually are sleeping together.”
“Well, hypothetically. If we were, Duke would be pissed.”
“Let me handle Duke,” Nora said. “If, hypothetically, we were to sleep together, I would be able to keep Duke calm.”
Our food arrived which gave us an excuse to talk about something other than sex for a few minutes, although I never stopped thinking about it.
Nora didn’t care about appearances. She made no effort to eat sensibly; the girl was hungry and didn’t seem to care if half of the food ended up on her lap or the floor.
“I can sh
ow you how to hold chopsticks if you like?” I offered.
“I can manage,” she replied. “It’s takes a while, but I get there in the end.”
“The manager’s nervous about the mess you’re making. I’ve heard him offering overtime to the staff so they can clean it up.”
Nora stopped with the chopsticks halfway to her mouth. She slowly looked down at the table, her lap, and then the floor.
“Maybe you should show me how to use chopsticks,” she said, holding her hand out to me.
I could use chopsticks myself, but showing someone else was surprisingly difficult. Like trying to tie a tie on someone else, or so I’d been told. I’d only ever worn a tie in court, and that hadn’t done me any good.
I gently moved her fingers into a position mirroring mine, and then watched as she slowly tried to grip the food without dropping it.
“You’ll get used to it,” I said.
“So, hypothetically,” Nora began, watching the end of her chopsticks as she tried to pick up some chicken, “if we were to sleep together again, what would happen to the combat lessons?”
“We’d keep doing them, I hope,” I replied. “But I’d feel less awkward about all the times I accidentally brush against your breasts during the maneuvers.”
Nora almost spit out the piece of chicken that had taken so much effort to get into her mouth. “I thought you were doing that on purpose at one point.”
“Maybe I was.”
“Not just the breasts either. Considering this is our first date—if that’s what it is—you’ve already spent a lot of time with your hand between my legs. And I don’t mean the time we… you know…”
“I’m just trying to teach you a throw technique,” I insisted. “It’s nothing sexual. Honest.”
“So you teach that to all your students?”
“Just the ones I go on dates with.”
We went back to eating in silence, but there was no awkwardness anymore. This was a date, and it seemed pointless to fight it now. When you end up on a date with someone without even trying, that’s perhaps a message that it’s meant to be.
I walked her home, but didn’t try to get invited up. She’d already mentioned the three date rule, and I wasn’t slow to pick up on hints. Nora wouldn’t be putting out on the first date.
“You want to come upstairs?” Nora asked.
“For chips and salsa?”
“No. For sex.”
When was the last time I’d invited a man up to my apartment for sex?
I’d usually start sleeping with boyfriends after a few dates, and even then the sex had just sort of happened. I’d never done the whole “do you want to come up for coffee” thing, “or Netflix and chill” as all my friends insisted on calling it.
None of those men had been anything like Riker.
Sure, we’d done it in the staff room at the bar, but that had been in the heat of the moment. This was a calculated, deliberate decision, and not one I usually made.
I slept with nice, polite gentleman, not people covered in muscle and tattoos. I didn’t feel intimidated by men like Riker—Mom had exposed me to many men with rough edges over the years—but I’d never been attracted to any of them.
I’d been expecting him to try and come up, but he never said anything. The disappointment crushed me, until I remembered that, fuck it, it’s the twenty-first century and I could ask him up if I want to.
Riker didn’t pounce on me as soon as we stepped inside my apartment. Instead, he stared at me for a few seconds, examining me from head to toe and back up again.
I’d been brave enough to invite him up here, but I wasn’t brave enough to take the next step. He’d have to take some of the initiative.
My heart fluttered as I waited for Riker to do something. Anything. I didn’t trust myself to speak. I’d managed to portray myself as a vaguely confident woman so far tonight. If I spoke now, the shakiness of my voice would make me sound like a timid virgin. That wasn’t me, and I had no intention of acting that way tonight.
Then he moved. Riker pushed me up against the wall, pressing his hands against it for support as he stared into my eyes with just an inch separating our faces. Our bodies touched, mine feeling petite and insignificant compared to his.
I resisted the urge to reach out and touch him as my heart now danced wildly inside my chest. Each breath sent my breasts up and out, enlarging the appearance of my modest assets, pushed up by a supportive bra.
Okay, it was a push up bra. ‘Supportive’ sounded less needy.
I admired the power in his two strong arms. He always held back during training, but now I could see just how strong he was. His muscles strained to break through the tight t-shirt, and veins pulsed down each arm as blood rushed around his body. Hopefully it was all heading to one place.
Riker’s lips slammed against mine. All his patience disappeared in an instant, as he let the frustration that had built up over the last few weeks come out in a flurry of passion. I collapsed back against the wall, unable to support myself with my weak knees as his tongue moved between my lips and gently caressed mine.
Riker’s hands moved down and grabbed hold of my ass cheeks, as he lifted me into the air and shoved me against the wall. I wrapped my legs around his waist as he pressed his hardness between my legs.
My sex ached for him. Just the sensation of his cock against me was enough to have me clawing at him in desperation and ecstasy. I couldn’t decide whether to pull his shirt over his head, or just rip it into pieces.
Riker used his legs to support my weight as he yanked my top off. My bra quickly followed although I barely noticed him remove it. Suddenly my firm breasts were exposed; the hard nipples pointing directly at him as if they knew the cause of their excitement.
I tried to pull Riker’s top off, but I couldn’t manage it in my position still wrapped around his waist.
“Bedroom,” Riker grunted.
I pointed towards the door on the right and Riker carried me over. I turned on the light as we walked through before Riker threw me down on the bed. He leaned forward ready to crawl on top of me, but I placed a hand against his firm chest and pushed him back. Or at least I tried to. I couldn’t have done much against his strength, but he stopped voluntarily.
“Get rid of that,” I said, pointing at his t-shirt.
I didn’t see why I should be the only one to go shirtless.
Riker peeled off his shirt to reveal the full glory of his upper body to me for the first time. It wasn’t as heavily tattooed as his arms. A dragon stretched across his chest, with the tail going down one side of his abs, and flames from the dragon going down the other side.
The middle of his torso was plain, and it was all the more glorious for that. From what I’d seen at the gym, Riker didn’t put a lot of effort into working out his abs, but he didn’t need to. He had so little body fat on him, that a six pack was clearly visible as he stood by the side of my bed.
He stripped off his pants while I admired his physique, and then climbed onto the bed, going straight between my legs.
Riker got right to the point in training, and he did the same in bed. His fingers immediately went under the waistband of my thin yoga pants and panties, as he pulled them quickly down my legs and exposed my complete nakedness to him for the first time.
A small part of me wanted to fight this. It didn’t look right. My tiny, frail frame, under the hulking mass of a tattooed street fighter, covered in muscle, with arms thicker than my thighs. It was like being a virgin again. Excited, but scared, and uncertain about how everything would play out.
My legs tried to shut, but he put his frame between them as he stared down at my exposed pale skin before him. I did the same to him. He still had his boxers on, but his hard cock was impossible to miss as it strained at the cotton, eager to be set free.
My mind flashed back to the last time he’d been inside me. I’d not been able to recreate that feeling alone. I needed this. I needed him. I needed it.
<
br /> We made eye contact one more time before Riker’s head darted down between my legs. His hands took a firm hold of my thighs, fingers digging into my flesh, as his tongue penetrated my slick folds.
I might have been nervous and anxious, but that hadn’t stopped me form getting shockingly wet just from looking at him. Now his tongue was inside me, exploring my tunnel, before coming out and sliding up my lips to the pulsating bud at the top.
“I’ve wanted to do this since the minute I first saw you,” Riker said, as his lips broke away from my dripping wet pussy. “I knew you’d taste sweet and delicious.”
I opened my mouth to reply, but his lips went back to my entrance, and the only sound that escaped my mouth was a gasp. We’d been playing around for the last few weeks, but it had all been leading up to this. It was worth the wait.
Riker held my legs down hard as they tried to thrash wildly under the expert touch of his tongue on my pussy.
When he started sucking gently on my clit, I gave up even attempting to control any part of my body. He had me at his complete mercy.
And then he stopped.
I looked up at him incredulously. I’d been so close. So, so close.
“I like it when you come on my cock,” he explained.
I nodded. I could cope with that. “Bottom drawer,” I said, motioning to a chest of drawers by the bed where I kept the condoms. I’d learned long ago never to rely on a man for… well, anything really.
I watched Riker grab a condom and quickly cover his cock in the thin, lubricated silicone that just about stretched over his length. I wasn’t just wet between my legs anymore; I practically drooled in anticipation.
He lowered himself between my legs as I wrapped my arms around him. His skin was surprisingly smooth. I don’t know what I’d expected, but there was something about all the tattoos and muscle that made me think he’d be rough all over.
The tip of his shaft slipped up and down my slit, opening my lips so that I was ready to take him. Or, as ready as I’d ever be to take something of that size. The bottom drawer didn’t just contain condoms, but the toys in there wouldn’t be able to intimidate Riker.
Bad Boy's Honor: An MMA Bad Boy Romance Page 9