by Lane Hart
"But—" she starts.
"I'll stop you and pull out before," I assure her, but oh hell, then she starts moving and I lose the ability to think clearly. Ah, it's fucking amazing. Damn I hate condoms. And seeing her on top of me...I'm a goner. "You are so goddamn beautiful it hurts, baby."
Sadie smiles down at me, planting both palms on my chest while her hips keep her pussy moving gloriously up and down my length. "So are you."
My hips roll with hers until I can't take anymore. I barely flip our positions in time, putting her on her back so I can pull out. My fist tightens around my cock, pumping it while making a mess all over Sadie's flat stomach.
"Fuck!" I groan as the last pleasurable shiver rocks through me. Worried about Sadie's reaction to my stupidity, I crack my eyes open to peer down at her face, expecting her to be pissed. Instead she's smiling in amusement before she gives me a sexy pout. "Sorry," I tell her before climbing off the bed and grabbing her a wet cloth to clean up. She squirms when I wipe her stomach and down between her thighs.
"I can't believe you did that." She laughs. "Don’t you have like a roll of condoms?"
"Um, yeah, but I would've had to remake the entire bed before I'd be able to find them."
"And?" she teases, reaching for me, so she can loop her arms around my neck and pull me down on her body.
"And I couldn't wait a second longer to have you," I reply unable to help my grin. "I'm not used to waking up beside gorgeous naked women. It's too much to handle."
"But I didn't want you to stop," she whines sweetly.
"Hell, I didn't either. And in a few weeks we won't have to worry about it, will we?" I ask.
"Nope. We're probably covered now with the birth control pills, but the doctor said to use a backup the first month just in case."
"And you're sure you'll remember to take them every day?"
"Yeah, I've got an alarm on my phone to remind me and everything. It goes off at ten a.m. every morning, and I keep the pack in my purse so I can take them wherever I am."
"Okay good," I say with an exhale.
"I swear I'm not usually as careless as that first night. I just...I thought it might be the only chance I'd ever get to be with you," she says softly, lowering her eyes.
"I knew before the first time that I wouldn't be able to get enough of you. Now you're all that I think about," I tell her honestly. "I went out and bought an apartment just to spend more time with you."
She giggles and shakes her head. "Well, after your fight, win or lose, you definitely won't have to worry about making rent. What is the purse if you don't mind me asking?"
I cringe at the mention of the fight. The one I got in exchange for dating her. I'm such a fucking idiot.
"It's okay, you don't have to tell me. You know I don't care about that sort of thing," Sadie says, wrongly interpreting my hesitation.
"No, I don't mind telling you. It'll be all over the internet anyways. It's eight hundred thousand if I win and five hundred thousand if I lose after the second round. Four hundred thousand if I get knocked out in the first round."
"Wow." Her jaw drops. "That's a lot of money!"
"I don’t deserve it," I mutter, swiping my hand over my face.
"Yes, you do. You're going to kick his ass, and you know it. Everyone else is just too stupid to see it coming."
"I'm gonna grab a shower, then maybe we can head out for breakfast and furniture?" I ask, not wanting to talk about the damn fight anymore.
"Ah, sure," she says, climbing out of the bed after me. "I'll just repair the damage I caused to the bed while you're gone."
"Thanks," I tell her, pulling her to me for a quick kiss. "Thanks for staying with me all night, too. You think you can pull off a repeat tonight?"
"Yeah of course. I'm eighteen, not twelve, and my dad really has been easing up since I'm getting ready to graduate," she says. "Actually he's lightened up ever since Ryder dumped me. He really didn't like him."
"Because he's a smart man," I tell her. "Everyone can see that he's an asshole, especially dads." Even a dad that trusted me to keep my hands off his daughter.
…
"Hey Coach, you got a minute?" I ask, sticking my head in his messy office late Saturday afternoon.
"Jude! Where the hell have you been? Now of all times you suddenly decide to start slacking off right before the fight of your life?" he asks, making me wince. I have been slack because I've had better things to do.
His daughter.
"Yeah well, I beat Jax three times this week so I think whatever I'm doing is working," I counter.
"Three times?" he asks, his jaw hitting the desk.
"Uh-huh, a leg submit and two choke holds."
"Holy shit! I told you, get Linc down on the canvas and he's done."
"That's what I want to talk to you about," I say before closing the door. "Can I get a copy of the fight contract?"
"Why?" he asks, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.
"Um, well, I want Page to look over it to see what options I have for withdrawing."
"What the fuck are you talking about!?!" he exclaims, his face turning red like he's on the verge of exploding. "I'm banking on you winning to pay for two years of Sadie's tuition at a top tier university."
Fuck! Like I need that guilt trip.
"I'm sorry but I don't want this fight."
"Why the fuck not? You said you're beating Jax. You know you can win it!"
"My shoulder's been giving me hell," I lie, rubbing it to look more authentic. Shit, was it my left or right one I dislocated three years ago? Pretty sure it had been the right one.
"Bullshit!" he yells, getting to his feet.
"Look, let me just see the damn thing."
"Fine, but I can tell you without looking at it, they'll definitely let you out," he says, digging into a file cabinet.
"They will?" I ask in disbelief.
"Sure," he replies, slamming the drawer shut and throwing the papers to me across the desk. "And then you'll never fight in the IFC again."
Fuck.
"It may not be in black and white in there, but that's the price you pay for canceling an event this huge. Then you'll be lucky to get one or two fights a year with one of the shit leagues that offer less than ten thousand for a winner's purse."
Damn it! I don't want to give up fighting, and hell I can't afford to. This is all I know. Even my recent losses earned me fifty thousand each.
"So what's going on, Jude?" he asks, sitting back down at his desk.
"I just...I don't know if I can do this..."
"Hey, Dad," Sadie says when she bursts through the office door, then her expression turns to one of surprise when she notices me standing there. "Oh, sorry. I, uh, didn't mean to interrupt."
Out of guilt, I glance quickly away from her. If Coach sees me ogling her in that sexy ass, red dress, well, it won't be good.
"No, you're fine, sweetie. Nothing important. Jude's just trying to back out of his title fight," Coach says sarcastically, and I cringe when he comes right out and tells her.
"What? Why?" she asks, and I still can't bear to look at her.
"I'm just...not ready and having issues with my old shoulder injury."
"You are?" she asks.
I let out a sigh and look up to the ceiling, praying for a way to escape this damn room. Sadie sounds too interested in me, and her dad will probably pick up on it real quick.
"Can he even do that?" she asks her dad.
"Sure, if he never wants to fight an IFC match again," her dad responds. "Think it over and we'll talk about it Monday."
"Okay," I agree, grabbing up the contract.
Damn thankful, I take the offered exit. I breeze past Sadie and out the door without another word. Maybe Coach will just go ahead and tell Sadie about our deal. A part of me wants him to so that my conscience will be cleared, but the other part...not seeing her anymore... it hurts to think about.
A few minutes later, I'm knocking rapidly on Jax
and Page's door.
"Hey, Jude," Page says when she opens up. "Come on in. Jax took Xavier to the park but they should be back in a few minutes for dinner."
"Oh, okay, thanks. I was actually here to see you. Do you have time to read through my fight contract?" I ask, holding up the stack of papers.
"Well, sure," she says, taking them from me and closing the door.
Over the last year while Page has sort of been on maternity leave she's been advising fighters and a few other athletes on their contracts. "What am I looking for?" she asks.
"A way out," I tell her when we sit down at their kitchen table across from each other.
"Out? You mean...you're backing out of the title fight? Why?"
"Sadie."
"Oh." She nods in understanding. "You'd rather give up a shot at the world championship belt than just tell her the truth?"
"Yes," I exhale. "I don't give a shit about the fight, but if she finds out...I don't know if she'll forgive me."
I shut up to give Page time to go through the eight page, single-spaced document carefully. Picking up Boo after he paws on my leg, I stroke his fur to try and calm myself as I wait anxiously.
"Well," Page says a few minutes later. "There's not really anything in here about withdrawing."
"Shit."
The front door opens and quickly closes. "Mommy, we're back!" Jax yells.
"In the kitchen!" Page calls out. Jax appears in the doorway a minute later, holding Xavier on his hip. "Hey my little man, did you have fun?"
"Wanna pway at park," Xavier mutters with his bottom lip poking out, making him even more adorable than usual.
"Yeah, he had too much fun. He didn't want to leave, so I had to drag him back to the car kicking and screaming," Jax says before he sits the little guy down on his tiny Nike's. Xavier wobbles to get his balance but makes good progress over to my chair.
"Ju-ju!" He exclaims.
"Hey, come here X-man," I say, putting the puppy down and holding my arms out for him. He lunges for me the last teetering step and I snatch him up before he falls, sitting him sideways on my lap.
"What are you two doing?" Jax asks, trying to read the papers on the table over Page's shoulder.
Page looks up at me, letting me answer however I want.
"I'm trying to get out of the title fight." I tell him the truth.
"What the fuc-dge!" Jax yells, barely catching the profanity. "Why the hell would you do that? You've got this, Jude! I wouldn't agree to take you on for a title fight because I'd be afraid you'd embarrass me and take my belt weighing fifteen pounds less than me."
"I had to take Sadie to the prom in exchange for the fight," I admit to him.
"So? That's a pretty sweet deal, a girl you want to keep seeing and a title fight? What's the problem?" Jax asks.
"She doesn't know."
"Oh. Well then just tell her," he says with a shrug like it's that easy.
"Honey, I think you underestimate the American teenage girl. This will devastate Sadie," Page tells him, making me feel even worse.
"Then don't see her anymore. You need to spend your time training, not playing grab-ass with a high schooler," Jax says gruffly.
Covering Xavier's ears beforehand, I tell him quietly, "She's worth more than a fucking fight."
"Damn, Jude, you can't be serious! You finally decide to fuck a woman and after one week you're so pussy whipped that you're giving up seven years’ worth of hard work for that shit?"
My teeth grind painfully against each other when I try hard to hold back my anger. At least until Page takes Xavier from my arms and leaves the room with him.
"You wouldn't give up a fight for Page? What if she'd gone into labor with Xavier before that fight last year? Would you choose her over a title?" I stand up to go toe to toe with him.
"She wouldn't ask me to choose. She knows I need to fucking fight, and the difference is that we're married."
"Whatever."
"You need to man up and quit being a pussy," he says. When he jabs his index finger into the center of my chest, I want to make him bleed. "You're scared to fight Linc Abrams and you're trying to use a teenage girl as your excuse to get out of it."
"I'm not scared to fight him! I know I can beat him," I reply, knocking his hand away from me.
"Then what's the problem? Are you going to quit fighting to follow her off to college like a puppy dog? Because in three months’ time she's gone Jude, and you're an idiot if you think this shit is going to last longer than that. Then you'll realize too late that you gave it all up for nothing. A chance to prove you're the best in the world won't come around again if you back out this time. You probably won't ever get another IFC fight."
I hate hearing this shit from him, mostly because deep down I know he's right. Sadie's moving to North Carolina in August. Or at least she should since I can tell she wants to go to Duke. I don't want her to stay here just for me. So she'll leave. After she’s gone what will happen to us then? We’ll see each other at Thanksgiving and Christmas? By that time we'll have figured out the long distance shit doesn't work and end things for good.
Fighting is my life, and always has been. This title fight is a once in a lifetime opportunity. If I win then I can retire a rich man in a few years with all the sponsors and future purses. And Coach Briggs will make enough commission to pay Sadie's first few years of tuition.
And Sadie...I've let my goddamn cock take control of me. Yeah the sex is great, spectacular even, but that's all this is and all it ever will be. We're both too young to want anything more. Jax is right, I'm acting like a pussy for getting all fucked up over the first girl I screwed. They'll be more, lots more women I can fuck while I keep right on fighting, and I'm sure it'll be just as good as it is with Sadie, maybe even better.
"Fine," I grumble, grabbing up the contract from the kitchen table and shouldering past him to go out the front door.
Yeah, it's going to hurt like a son of a bitch to have to end things with Sadie, but it's inevitable. The sooner it's done and over with, the better.
Chapter Twelve
Sadie
I'm surprised when Jude shows up at my house within minutes after he sent a text asking if he could come over. I’m also confused since it's six o'clock. I figured he'd just tell me to meet him back at his place since he asked me to stay with him again tonight.
"Hey," I say when I open the front door.
"Hey," he says, keeping his eyes on the ground. He sounds...off. I'm instantly uneasy because I know something's wrong.
"You want to head on back to my room?" I ask, closing the distance between us. Instead of reaching for me, he takes a step back.
"Can we talk for a minute?" he asks, looking past me into the house.
Oh shit. Nothing good ever follows those words.
"Um, yeah. What's up? Why were you trying to get out of the fight?" I ask in worry. Jude has been performing better than ever. He could take on Linc today if he needed to, so why was he trying to back out?
Jude steps around me with a wide berth likes he’s trying to avoid making any accidental physical contact, and walks into the living room. He sits down on the very edge of the sofa like he's not planning to be here long.
"I've been slacking off with my training and shit. If I'm going to be ready for this fight in seven weeks I need to spend every minute of every day giving it my all."
"Oh," I respond sitting down beside him. So he's saying it's my fault he's been slacking and he needs to spend more time in the gym. "Well, sure. I know this fight's important to you."
"I've been working my ass off for seven years to get a title fight and I can't go soft now. This may be the only chance I ever get."
"So you'll be busy for a few weeks. I know that, Jude. I’ve grown up around fighters. I don't mind waiting to see you until whenever you say you have the time."
"That's the thing. I don't have time for anything else. I can't do this with you anymore. I've been distracted and I can't aff
ord to be."
He can't do this anymore.
Us.
My breath catches in understanding. He doesn’t want to keep seeing me.
"So, you're breaking up with me?" I ask, proud that my eyes aren't even watering. Probably because I'm in shock. After last night and this morning when everything had seemed so...perfect, now, hours later, he's dumping me?
"It's not like we were really together," Jude says while looking down at the carpet, crushing me even more. "We just fucked a few times."
Just...fucked...a...few...times. Wow, that's really harsh, causing my lungs to seize up. But I'm not going to crumble in front of him. Damn it, I will make myself wait until he walks out the door.
"Yeah, it's fine. It's not like I thought it would last or anything. I mean, I'll be leaving for school in a few weeks anyway."
"Right," he says with a nod.
"And it'll be nice to finally be able to accept some of the dates from other guys too. Just to have a little fun this summer." The words burn my throat, but I refuse to let him see me upset or crying. He got so pissed about the other guys who showed an interest in me, here's a chance to see if he actually ever cared or not.
"You-you're gonna date those guys?" he asks, finally looking at me for the first time since he walked in. I can't decipher his expression. Maybe it's...shock? What did he expect for me to do after he breaks my heart? Stay home and pine away for him? Yes, that's exactly what I'm going to do, but in front of him and everyone else I'll hold my shit together and pretend to move on.
"Yeah," I say, pulling out my phone from my pocket with a shaky hand and scrolling through my text messages, scraping together all my strength. "This guy Chris in my Calculus class just sent me a text a few minutes ago asking what I was up to tonight, so now I can say nothing."
I'm not lying. I really did get a text from Chris Thompson, but he's a huge dork even by my dorky standards. I have zero interest in Chris or any other guy. I only want the man in front of me, the one who is breaking my heart.
"He did?" Jude asks. He's eyeing my phone, grinding his teeth together like he holds a personal grudge against the device and wants to break it. Or maybe he thinks I'm lying.