Cut

by Bry Ann

  She bites her lower lip in a way that sends lust inappropriately shooting through my system.

  “Damn. You have integrity, too.”

  She climbs over and straddles my leg.

  “How has no one scooped you up yet?”

  “Oh yes, I’m sure women are just chomping at the bit to get a scarred monster in their bed.”

  She frowns slightly, but swallows it down.

  “I’m looking for a scarred monster in my bed, baby.”

  She winks at me, letting me know she’s playing. I won’t let her push me away with that bullshit. But for fun, well…

  “Didn’t go so well last time. I think it’s best you leave the monsters to the professionals, Maria.”

  I can’t hide the sadness from my voice. Maria ignores it and scowls at me.

  “I’m perfectly capable of handling my big sexy man all by myself, thank you very much.”

  She has a fire about her right now that not even I can fight. And I’m a damn good fighter. She just may be better.

  “Your man?” I raise my eyebrows. She gives me dead on eye contact.

  “Yes, mine. You got a problem with that?”

  I shake my head with a hidden smile.

  “I think it’s out of my hands.”

  “No,” she wiggles her hips a bit, letting me feel the warmth of her against the fabric of my jeans. “I think it’s right here, totally in your hands. Don’t you?”

  “Maria, now’s not really the best time. Frances, your dad...”

  “My dad wanted me to find a connection with someone, and Frances can go fuck himself. I don’t need you, Brantley.” Her eyes drill into me. “Understand that now. I’ll never need you, but…”

  She bites that lower lip of hers again.

  “I sure as hell want you. I really want you.”

  Tears leak out of her beautiful brown eyes.

  “I’m free with you. I’m just a woman, feeling things for a man who keeps her safe inside.”

  She grabs my face.

  “Keep me. Give me a chance to show you that I can be girlfriend material. Well, I can try to be. I’m kind of naughty.”

  She winks and I kiss her. I kiss the ever-loving shit out of her. She whimpers as my lips crash into hers.

  “Is that a yes?” She mumbles against my lips.

  “Shut up.”

  I dig my hands into her ass, and yank her tighter against me. I massage her breasts on the outside of her dress. With that one action, Maria loses her mind.

  “Please,” she begs, pushing her breasts into my hand. “Brantley, please.”

  Her skin is heated under my fingers.

  “Maria, I have to ask you something serious.”

  “Mmmm,” she mumbles as she kisses down my neck.

  “Other than our one ruined night together, have you slept with anyone since Frances?”

  She freezes. Goes completely ramrod straight.

  “What?”

  “You heard me.”

  “I…” Her eyebrows crease. “No, I guess I haven’t. Hmm, weird. Maybe that’s why I feel like I’ve been injected with horny drugs.”

  I try not to smirk at that. “Are you up for this? For real, Maria. None of your bullshit.”

  “I swear to you. That scared me, even scarred me a little maybe, but more than anything, it made sex real for me. It just stopped being a fun hobby, if you know what I mean. The women who…”

  Maria chokes on her words. I squeeze her hip to keep her going.

  “The women who have felt that powerless, I just can’t imagine. When I fuck random dudes, my brain goes straight there, and… it’s just not fun.”

  I nod solemnly. I’m pretty sure both of our minds go to the same place.

  Lacey.

  My strong, beautiful client. Hell, friend at this point. Who am I kidding? I’d take a bullet for her. And if you’d take a bullet for someone, you’re friends. Bottom line.

  “I get that,” I finally manage to say.

  She nods. “But I’m still me. And I do like sex, Brantley. That may be slutty,” she shrugs, “but I refuse to be ashamed of it. Especially with you.”

  “Why me?” The words are out before I can take them back.

  “Well, you idiot, I have feelings for you, if that hasn’t already been established. I’ve never had sex with someone I cared deeply about.”

  She mumbles the last part, almost like she doesn’t want me to hear it.

  I trace my finger along her neck. “Nor have I.”

  “You and Mandi have never…?”

  “Oh, gross!” I throw my hands over my ears. “Don’t ever say that again. That’s basically my sister. Ew, just ew.”

  I shudder. It’s not ‘til I take my hands off my ears that I realize Maria is cracking up. I mean, dying of laughter.

  “Your reaction.”

  She laughs harder, until tears are leaking out of her eyes.

  “I’m so relieved, because I’d be obliged to encourage that, but your reaction… oh my god! You’re hysterical. Okay, no you and Mandi. Got it.”

  “Yeah, I hope you got it, because that shit doesn’t fly.”

  She winks, but there’s a guardedness to it.

  “I couldn’t pursue this if, you know…”

  “As much as this conversation makes me want to gag, I can only respect you for that.”

  “Good, now, feel free show me how much you respect me.”

  She winks, but I’m still not sure I feel right about this, with her dad and all. My dick straining against my jeans reminds me how badly I want this. Physically. How fucking good it feels to have her against me, but I don’t want her to feel taken advantage of in the morning. This is the first real sex that has mattered to me, and apparently to her as well. This is huge and I’m terrified to fuck it up by doing it at the wrong time, too soon, too fast.

  “Brantley.” Maria cups my face. “If you don’t want this with me, say so. Although it’ll hard to believe since I’m straddling you.”

  She gestures to my hard-on with mischievous eyes.

  “But you need to know, there are more than two types of sex. It doesn’t come down to fucking and making love. Sex can be about healing, connecting, grounding to something real. I understand why you don’t know that, and I’ve sure never experienced it, but…”

  I’m sold. Convinced. Weak, maybe. But I need her. The connection. Heat. Passion. Fuck, I’m strong, controlled, I know how to fucking fight, but not her. I don’t know how to fight her.

  I flip her over mid-sentence and run my finger down her spine. She shivers under my tight hold.

  “You want me?”

  “God yes,” she murmurs.

  “Well, woman, you got me. I’ll make you regret it,” I whisper harshly in her ear.

  “Oh, babe,” she laughs. “I can’t wait to see you try.”

  I continue tracing my finger down the curves of her spine, then down her ass. She wiggles, tempting me to take it further. I accept.

  Sliding my hand underneath her, I start to tease her clit until she’s writhing against the sheets.

  “You… I need you,” she pants.

  I plunge one finger inside her.

  “Oh yes! Fuck, Brantley.”

  “Like this?”

  She lets out a mewling sound as I finger fuck her mercilessly. Halfway through, she reluctantly pushes herself up. A momentary panic consumes me, but it doesn’t last long before she jumps into my lap and uses her strength to push me back.

  The abruptness of it is what has me lying back.

  “I want to see your eyes,” she whispers, holding my heart. “I have a sexy man in my bed that looks at me like I’m the most precious thing in the world. Why am I shoved face first into the mattress? Okay?”

  She sees right through all my bullshit effortlessly. With a light heart, I kiss her softly on the lips.

  “Yes, woman. I hear you.”

  “Good. I think I’m gonna take the lead on the rest of this.”

/>   “Oh, are you?”

  “Yes,” she grins.

  Before I can process anything, she’s sliding down my body, making sure to lightly run her fingers against every inch of my skin. I’m so fucking hard, it hurts. She’s used every last bit of my self-control.

  “Maria,” I growl.

  “I got you,” she whispers, making direct eye contact as she wraps her dainty fingers around my cock. With a smirk, she licks the tip of it, pressing her breasts into the bed seductively.

  “See? I told you.”

  I snatch her hair and pull her in toward me. Don’t tease me.

  “Okay, okay, message received,” she purrs, ignoring the tight hold I have on her scalp.

  She gives me one long lick from root to tip before taking me in her mouth.

  Holy fuck.

  “You like that, baby?”

  She takes me all the way in. My whole body tenses. Shit, I’m not gonna last. I grunt a response, but I can’t say anything logical with her lips wrapped around my dick like this.

  “Maria, fuck, shit! I’m gonna come. I… fuck!”

  She winks at me, keeping eye contact as she swallows my release. Every. Last. Drop. She doesn’t even give me time to get my head on straight before she’s crawling back on me. No one’s ever done what she just did. No one has ever wanted to.

  “Get out of your head, babe. It’s no longer just you.”

  She kisses my cheek, then guides herself over my cock, after sliding a condom on me that she apparently had by her bedside. Before sliding in, she looks at me.

  “Are you with me, Brantley?” Damn, those eyes.

  Fuck. Yes.

  I take my hand to our joined bodies and slide inside her. The sound she makes nearly makes me come on the spot.

  “I need… Brantley, I need to move.”

  “Take control,” I grunt. “Own your pleasure, baby.”

  So many emotions run through her eyes. “Thank you,” she whispers.

  And there it is… the small scar Frances left on her soul.

  With that, she starts to grind against me, thrusting in and out, in and out, over and over, until both of us find our release.

  “Happy?” She murmurs as she nuzzles into my side after getting herself cleaned up.

  I can’t even control how tight a grip I have on her soft, naked form.

  “I don’t know the word for what I’m feeling right now,” I mutter under my breath. I feel her smile against my skin.

  “You can cry, you know? I was pretty good.”

  I snicker. “I’m not the sappy, emotional sort.”

  “You?” She gasps in fake horror. “No way! Here I thought I was bedding a heartfelt poet. I’m crushed.”

  “Sorry to disappoint, woman.”

  She lets out a fake sniffle. “I’m crushed, but this is what Daddy trained me for. I’ll be strong.”

  Fuck… she’s funny. I throw my head back and laugh. The sound that bursts out of me is one I haven’t heard since I was a pre-teen punk ass kid. It’s genuine. Maria looks at me with bright eyes and points at my nose.

  “You laughed. You laughed!”

  “I did.”

  She pulls me in tight and holds me like she’ll never let go.

  “I love that sound. I love it, I love it, I love it. I’ll do whatever it takes to hear it again, Brantley.”

  Easy, don’t let go. Just don’t let go of me. I’m tired of fighting.

  32

  “You’re together aren’t you?” Lacey asks as soon as I enter the gym the following day.

  “Lacey…” I’m not in the mood to put on the show of trainer today. I have too much on my mind.

  “I knew it! You are. Okay, good. It worked.”

  She bites her bottom lip hard to try and hide her excitement from me, knowing it would annoy me. Not to mention, Lacey’s never one to be forthright with her feelings, but the way her little body is trembling right now tells me there’s more excitement in her than she can contain. As confusing and embarrassing as this all is, it’s warming me in a way to know she cares that much. To know my happiness means this much to her.

  I give her a short grunt in response. She gives me a timid little smile, then nods. That’s all that’s said. That’s the only bit of my privacy that’s invaded. The rest is respected 100%. And this is what I love about Lacey. She’s not like other women, not that there’s an issue with that. I’m pretty sure I’m in love with one. But Lacey is a unique creature. She is more in tune with people than most, and doesn’t react so emotionally. Everything is thought out and respected.

  Like I said, I’d die for her.

  She’s in a caliber with my mom and Mandi, and now Maria. People I’d give anything to protect.

  “50 pushups, 100 jumping jacks, two rounds. Go!”

  The atmosphere transforms in a moment’s notice. Lacey goes from the timid, soft-spoken woman I know to a fucking beast. Boxing is her medicine, her sanity, and her therapy. She changes when she shuts those gym doors. It’s not just the layers of clothes I force her to shed. It’s the anger, passion and hurt she gets to release in here. I understand it all too well, because it’s the same for me. Training or coaching, it’s my place. Mine. No one can take it from me.

  It’s for this reason that I don’t know how to go easy on the people I train. I don’t know how not to push people ‘til they break. It’s why I don’t train women. Even in the criminal circuit. It’s why, despite the doe eyes I get from Sage, two sessions will be my max with her (hopefully). Lacey will always be my one exception. There’s something about her I can’t turn away, and I’d like to believe it’s more than her scars.

  The next two hours go by fast for me. Can’t say the same for Lacey. Two hours and fifteen minutes later, she’s shaking hard, sweating, and very clearly dizzy.

  “Take ten laps. Walking. Then you’re done for the day.”

  She gives me a swift nod and takes ten slow laps. The woman doesn’t ever quit. I never thought I’d see a client that I thought pushed too hard. Lacey would be the first. And I’m a psycho because I roll with it and let her. Part of me is curious to see how much she’s capable of. How far her body can be pushed. From a scientific, trainer perspective, it’s fascinating what she’s accomplished. What she continues to accomplish.

  Once she’s done, she looks to me to make sure we’re really done before collapsing on the mat. Her husband who, as I’ve mentioned, is a mafia boss, walked in at some point during her last few laps. He’s the only one with permission to enter without knocking.

  When his wife falls to the floor, he doesn’t come running over. He knows her. If he did, she’d most likely get pissed at him for coddling her. Their relationship is weird. I don’t get it, but I’m not here to judge Lacey. She found love, despite everything. Despite her and her husband’s history. Not many people find that. Good on her for keeping it no matter the cost.

  The boss looks at his wife with pride as she struggles to catch her breath on the floor. His eyes gleam for a moment before he gathers himself and turns to me. I know he’s giving her a moment to let her feelings subside. Lacey releases a lot during a boxing session, so it’s crucial for Lacey to have a few minutes post-session to come down.

  “So you and Maria, huh?”

  He cocks his head to the side with a smirk. I’m not taking ridicule from him over this. Frankly, I don’t have to. Our contract is a win-win scenario. He’s not my boss. I purposely set it up so I’d never have one, and this is why.

  “You want me to train you? I don’t need the cash.”

  “You wouldn’t say no to me,” he hisses.

  “I would. I wouldn’t say no to Lacey, but you, absolutely I would. My personal life is none of your business.”

  With a wry smile, he nods. “Fine. Noted. Just for the record though, I don’t know how you put up with that woman.”

  I glare at him. “Good thing you don’t have to, then. See you tomorrow, Lacey.”

  She gives me an extremely apolog
etic look. “Tomorrow.”

  I swing my bag over my shoulder and head out. As I do so, a wad of hair comes running past me.

  “Mommy! Mommy! Ew, gwoss…”

  Their daughter, Rose. She’s the most adorable little thing with a head full of hair and steely grey eyes like her mother. Lacey’s the best parent in the world. I have no doubt this little girl will grow to know exactly what love means.

  “Oh, Cut!” Lacey yells out.

  “Yup,” I grunt.

  “Um…” She runs over to stand in front of me. “Sunday, I’m having a dinner. Please come. Bring Maria. Tell her for me.”

  I know what she’s doing. I hope she doesn’t honestly think she’s being subtle.

  “We’ll see.”

  She smiles a little, knowing the chances are good that I’ll go. At least make an appearance for her. Like I said, she’s earned that from me.

  “Okay. Sounds good. Bye.”

  With a small wave, she walks over and scoops up her daughter in her arms, blowing little bursts of air in her face, followed by giggles from the both of them.

  That’s my cue to leave.

  “I can’t believe Lacey is really doing this again,” Maria calls from her bathroom. “I mean, it has to be a lot of work. Her crowd is… eclectic, to say the least.”

  “That it is.”

  “You sound miserable,” Maria laughs, walking out of the bathroom in nothing but a bra and low rise jeans with a wand of mascara in her hand.

  “I’m not miserable.”

  I turn away from her and throw my shirt over my head. If I keep having to look at her dressed like that, I will push her up against the wall and fuck her. I’ve accepted that the control I pride myself on is virtually non-existent around this woman. And if I manage to summon it, Maria just ups her game. Someone in total control of themselves around her, yeah right. Maria likes to have control of situations and people, and she’s damn good at getting it. I’m guessing part of this came from being raised around men. Men who most likely wrote her off strictly based on the fact that she’s a woman. A sexually forward woman at that. She’s had to master her ability to manipulate situations so she didn’t get taken advantage of or become submissive. I’m guessing the latter is her worst nightmare.