Maybe after last night he did, she thought dazed. His hot hand sneaked under the thin gown and he groaned, closing it over her naked buttock.
“You are killing me.” He slid his arm around her waist and nuzzled a kiss to the creamy slope of her neck.
His cock translated her closeness as an unverbalised invitation to some action.
If he thought Cat was out of his system after he finally took her last night, he was in for a surprise. If anything, his desire for her only escalated, because now he knew exactly how it felt to be wrapped tightly by her hot little body.
He woke up before the dawn and the realization he didn’t feel in hurry to leave her spurred him to jump out of the bed and do exactly that.
But then when he was taking a shower at his own place, the sudden thought slammed into him that Catalina deserved better than that after her first time. So he drove all the way back, stopping only to buy coffee and pastries.
Next thing he would be buying her fucking flowers, he thought, and everything in him bucked at the mere idea. But it wasn’t enough to make him step away from the tempting heat of her body.
“You feel very… alive to me,” she said, gazing down at his unruly erection and he chuckled.
“The question is: how do you feel, Cat?” He leaned back to look at her and couldn’t believe the flush that covered her cheeks. “Is this my answer?” He wanted to know, raising his fingers to her burning face.
“I’m good, thank you.”
So polite, he thought, wondering if she realized she became more prim and proper while being flustered. He shouldn’t have found it so damn charming and attractive, Xan decided and could only sigh.
He would love nothing more than to strip her right where they stood and take her just because he could, but he didn’t think she was ready for it quite yet. Besides, he had exactly twenty minutes before he had to meet up with Kelton for a sparring session.
“Are you good enough to make an appearance at my training?”
She had work to do, Catalina thought. She hadn’t checked her email since the day before and had yet to respond to one job offer, but she wanted to spend the day with him. Wanted to see him in what she considered his natural environment.
One day, she told herself. All her duties could wait one day while she enjoyed herself for a change.
“Give me ten minutes.” She smiled and went up on her toes to kiss him on the lips.
“We don’t have ten minutes unless you can drink your coffee on the way,” he called out after her.
A day, she repeated inwardly once again. It didn’t seem nearly enough to try and understand if she was falling in love with Xan… or if she was already more than halfway there.
***
Kelton wasn’t sure what he expected when he had asked Xan to bring his girl to one of their meets. He only knew that Catalina Bennett wasn’t it and he didn’t think he had ever been so glad for being as wrong as he was now.
Fighters were usually attracting beautiful but empty dolls who liked to be paraded around like some kind of a prize their men won in the ring.
Catalina was surely very attractive, he admitted, but not in the obvious, clamorous way. No, she had class, and intelligence was shining brightly in the blue of her eyes.
He walked to sit on one of the benches next to her, where she was observing Xan going through the stretching routine that was meant to prepare him for sparring.
“So the boy tells me you are a photographer?” He asked.
The boy, she thought and nearly laughed, imagining how much Xan must hate the nickname.
“I am.” Her stomach clenched painfully at the reminder she decided to play hooky today.
“So where is your camera?” He wanted to know and she glanced at him from the corner of her eye.
Kelton Donovan was an older version of Xan and she assumed the man was somewhere in his late thirties or early forties. He seemed rough and ragged in the same way Xan did, which spoke volumes about the kind of life he led.
Her chest tightened painfully when she remembered the bleak reality of her lover’s past.
Kelton’s hair was dark with a few strands of silver shining in it and his very dark eyes were regarding her with an equal curiosity she was measuring him up. He was as tall as Xan and his chest was covered with ropes of muscles as well, but without all those mouthwatering tattoos Xan had, she thought and blushed slightly.
Catalina had always enjoyed meeting new people, loved conversations of every kind, even though she had learned everything had its price and strings attached, whether it was just small talk or an in-depth discussion.
But with Xan she was discovering there was so much more to life and people than she was used to. His friends were interesting, to say the least. They didn’t know her well enough to have any kind of expectations from her and all they’d heard about her came from Xan. With them, she could be her own person… whatever that meant, she thought.
Camera, Cat repeated inwardly, he was asking her about her camera.
She patted her bag, wondering how Xan was expecting she would stop herself from using her Canon on him while he was being so… manly.
“Within reaching distance of course.” She smiled at him while her idle fingers drummed over her thigh.
“Well?” The arrogant way in which he raised an eyebrow reminded her of Xan as well and she sighed.
It seemed like she was seeing similarities between the two men literally everywhere.
“Well… I am waiting until both of you will be engaged out there. Why would I satisfy myself with one since I can depict two exceptionally handsome men?” She blinked innocently at him and Kel threw his head back and laughed.
“Maybe because your eyes can see only him?” He teased and saw her straightening her spine.
Interesting, he thought, he found a sensitive spot without even searching for it.
“I came here for Alex after all,” she reminded him, and it cost him some effort to keep his amusement to himself.
She was good, Kel admitted, and didn’t miss the fact Xan apparently didn’t bristle when she called him Alex. The boy was a goner and Kelton would give a lot to be a fly on the wall when he realized that himself.
“And it has nothing to do with the fact you are in love with him?” He probed deeper.
“No.” She looked at him with fear-stricken eyes and this time he only sighed.
Human beings were incessant source of puzzlement to him. They were capable of acts of great bravery and cruelty both, sometimes at the same time. They could conquer their biggest fears but not the one of loving or being loved in return.
The tender emotion made grown people flinch while they wouldn’t have batted an eye facing mortal danger. Love was one of a very few things that could turn people into fools. No matter how smart or how tough they were, most lost their marbles when love took them in its throes.
He didn’t think he would have been better himself, Kelton was the first one to admit to it, but so far he had successfully avoided testing the theory on his own skin.
He simply suspected love wasn’t in cards for him.
“My bad, then.” He winked at her, hoping the two wouldn’t hurt each other too bad. “How did you two meet?” Kel wanted to know.
“Umm… it was one of those… social gatherings,” Catalina said, and Kelton roared out with laughter.
“Meaning one of his fights.”
“More or less.” She sent him a sheepish look. “What about you?”
“Xan saved my life,” he stated simply.
“You are going to leave me hanging like that?” She looked incredulously at him.
“Stick around and I might tell you one day.” He winked at her. “Hope you won’t cry or faint when I kick his ass.” He rose to his full height.
“Hope you won’t either… when he kicks yours.” She smiled sweetly at him and he laughed again.
Oh, he liked her alright, Kelton decided.
“Are you going to fli
rt with my woman all day or are you going to drag your mangy hide here?” Xan called out.
“Well, she called me ‘exceptionally handsome’,” Kel smirked.
“Did she now?”
“I did call both of you that to be fair.” She shrugged when Xan sent her a look promising dire consequences for her lapse of loyalty, but the wicked gleam in his eye told her clearly his punishment would be of a very intimate nature and she blushed.
”She is too cute, even if delusional about your grandeur,” Kel said.
“She knows a champion when she sees one,” Xan smirked and Cat laughed, getting a hold of her camera.
They were quite a pair, she thought, watching Xan reaching for the hand wraps and methodically covering his wrists and knuckles in order to protect them.
She didn’t realize she got up from the bench and started to move around, snapping more and more pictures.
“Your girl looks very serious,” Kelton commented.
She was, Xan thought, for the first time really noticing how she changed when she let her camera speak for her. She was utterly focused on her task and he felt a pang of guilt because he hadn’t taken her photography seriously so far, which was ironic considering the fact they met because of that.
“Why don’t we give her something to work with, then?” Kel nudged him and Xan only sighed because it was obvious another one of his friends had fallen under Cat’s spell.
“Yeah, why don’t we?” He agreed. “What are you thinking?”
“How about rope sparring?” Kel offered with an unholy gleam in his eyes.
“That’s badass,” Xan grinned in response.
He didn’t know many fighters who liked to use the fighting technique, while it was one of his favorite drills to work on improving his boxing techniques.
This shit was no joke, Xan thought, and much harder than it seemed.
He was always ending up with his share of punches, but he knew it was worth it in the long run because it had already improved various aspects of his game and techniques from the moment Kelton implemented the skill into their Muay Thai trainings.
This one demanded to be paired up with someone around a similar skill level because it could only work as an improvement tool and a real challenge during a fight with someone who could push you.
They tied a short rope to each other making sure it was tight enough, because the last thing either one of them wanted was the shit to untie or break when they started to get out of range in order to avoid getting hit hard.
They started slow by circling each other and creating angles. The only weak point of the drill according to Xan was being limited to using hands alone, which narrowed down the options of attack.
Kelton’s head seemed like a perfect target, but the son of a bitch was sneaky and delivering a punch wasn’t as easy as it should be, Xan thought, throwing a left hook to his right kidney.
He groaned when Kel’s jab to his liver reached its goal. Defending himself wasn’t his favorite pastime; he much preferred to be the one doing attacking, but the drill required him to work on his long guard and other techniques of defense as well.
They kept going at it, throwing punches along with jeers and at some point Xan forgot about Catalina’s presence, stopped noticing flashes of her camera, utterly focused on not having his ass handed to him.
CHAPTER 33
Catalina decided that the time spent on observing Xan’s training was highly educational. At one point she forgot about her camera and just stood there watching both men struggling with each other and… themselves.
She couldn’t help but wonder what the nature of Kelton’s ghosts was, but she was not going to ask about it. Like he said, maybe one day he would tell her on his own.
Her conscience was lulled into a state of satisfaction after taking dozens of pictures but she was far from being satiated. She couldn’t wait to work on the photos even if most would go only to her private collection.
“I liked Kelton; I liked all your friends so far,” Cat said when they left the gym.
“They sure as hell liked you too and they don’t like many people in general. I think I should be worried about them offing me just to take my place.” He glanced at her when they took their seats in his car. “Should I worry?” His hand landed on her thigh in an intimate gesture she begun to recognize and she covered it with her own.
“Oh, I think you are fine.” She smiled when he leaned in to kiss her lips.
“I feel tempted to leave… a mark on you to warn others off.” Cat laughed lightly but then Xan’s hot breath tickled her and he suckled a kiss to the base of her neck.
“What’s up with all this territorial behavior?” She pushed him away.
“Beats me.” He shrugged and she just shook her head, deciding to change the subject.
“What was it all about the breathing?” Cat wanted to know.
“Breathing is the most important part of fighting, the very first thing you need to learn and never forget.”
“Meaning?”
“Meaning… if you don’t breathe, you get winded. Breathing is the key, your punches and kicks have no power without it.”
“Seems so obvious.”
“Yet it is easily forgotten time and time again,” he muttered.
No matter how simple that sounded, the reality of learning it wasn’t as easy as one might expect.
“You make a great team–you don’t even need to talk in order to work together,” she noticed.
“That is why we are planning to continue doing it and eventually upsizing it.”
“What does that mean?” She looked at him curiously.
“We are in the process of opening something akin to a martial arts school.” He shrugged, wondering why he told her that when there was only a handful of people privy to it.
“I think that’s great!” She smiled at him. “Tell me more,” Cat demanded.
“There is not much to tell; it is a pricey project and there are many steps we need to do before we get a green light.”
“Can I help?”
“No!” He protested so violently she decided to let it go… for now.
“Okaaay… Where are we going?” She frowned when he passed the road leading to her home.
“My place.” His short reply made her roll her eyes.
“Really Xan, thank you so much for your invitation. I would love to see your apartment,” she offered in a sweet tone of voice and he laughed.
“I’m sorry, Kitten, my mind was elsewhere.” He took her hand in his and brought it to his lips in an apology.
“When will you say yes to a session with me? And no, not that kind,” Cat specified when Xan opened up his mouth to comment.
“Damn! And didn’t you just take hundreds of them today?”
“They were for fun and for me; I mean the real deal.”
“You know how I feel about that.”
“I bet Kelton would agree,” she said, oh-so-casually, but his head whipped to the side and his green eyes flashed at her.
“Be careful or this sassy mouth of yours is going to cause you a lot of trouble,” he warned.
“What kind?” Cat asked curiously, refusing to be intimidated by him.
“The kind that will leave you shaking and begging me to stop… but I won’t,” his voice dropped an octave, instantly setting her blood on fire.
“Alex…”
“Catalina…”
“I am not so sure agreeing to see your apartment was such a prime idea,” she muttered and he chuckled wickedly.
“Ah, but I didn’t ask you, same as I won’t ask you to take off your clothes when we get there. I will simply strip you myself…” He promised, and her stomach clenched.
Yet it wasn’t fear this time but arousal.
“Scared now?” He asked after a moment.
“No.” She swallowed nervously and he chuckled again.
“You are cute when you try to lie.”
“I thought you would be tired
after the training,” she said a bit desperately.
“On the contrary, they usually give me an adrenaline kick.” He grinned at her. “We are here,” he announced a moment later.
Cat saw they were on Wilshire Boulevard. No view of the ocean from here, she thought, immediately remembering his words from the previous night.
“Please come in,” he invited her when they exited elevator and stopped before one of two doors on the floor.
Catalina laughed when he unlocked it, shoved it open then took her hand and impatiently pulled her inside.
But the sound died down when his hot and demanding mouth closed over hers and he shut the door by bracing her against it. She gasped, surprised, and the heat he kindled between her thighs while they were driving turned into inferno.
Unwittingly she rubbed herself against the hard thrust of his jeans-covered erection and was rewarded by his body turning even more rigid.
“Xan!” She exclaimed when his hands cupped her jaw and his next kiss became wilder, deeper, an unvarnished promise of a sexual encounter with no holds barred.
“Did you think I was joking?” He rasped, and between one instant and another, his big hand was unsnapping her jeans and sliding into her panties to cup her intimately.
Catalina’s breath grew choppy when his strong fingers parted her flesh and slid home smoothly. He didn’t give her a moment to make sense of what was happening but assaulted her already-stunned senses further by setting a fast rhythm.
“Oh God!” She cried out, shocked both by the intensity of pleasure and the man himself who was delivering it to her.
He chuckled and spread those wicked fingers, twisting the hot coils of sensations until she was balancing between rapture and pain.
“Xan, please,” Cat moaned, unable to take the final leap because his masterful touch kept changing tempo, bringing her closer to the edge that beckoned, but refusing to let her go.
“I told you I won’t stop.” His voice was as sinful as his skilful touch was.
One more stroke and he withdrew his fingers as suddenly as he speared them through her softness before. She cried out in protest this time, on the verge of cursing him and telling him to go to hell, half-mad from unfulfilled desire.
CUL-DE-SAC (On The Edge Book 1) Page 25