The Ballerina & The Fighter (Book 1)

by Ursula Sinclair

  I leaned down and whispered in Ivy’s ear, “Wanna get some air?”

  She glanced at me and took back her beer, taking a swig first before replying. “Yeah,” she said, turning to lead us out onto the deck. The deck wrapped around the house and we discovered another set of stairs around the back that led up. She climbed the stairs to see where they’d take us. I was right behind her, my eyes glued to her behind. I guess it was too soon to palm that delicious ass of hers.

  The stairs led to a crows nest and if it weren’t so dark I was sure we’d be able to see for miles. But it was a little overcast making it hard to see anything, no stars were visible and only lights from the nearby homes.

  Ivy walked around the small area. “It’s beautiful up here.” She took a seat on one of the two benches built into the nest.

  I sat down beside her and rested my beer near my feet before I took hers from her and placed it near mine. Then I looked at her. “Yeah, beautiful.” I made sure she knew I wasn’t talking about the place. I raised my hand and placed it around the back of her neck drawing her to me, at the same time I leaned in to her she shifted toward me until our lips met.

  I tasted the beer we’d been drinking and underneath that something sweet, something that was Ivy. I ran my tongue over the edge of her lips and when she opened them I slipped right in and introduced myself to her tongue. I heard a low moan, but damned if I knew if it came from her throat or mine. Maybe both. Who gave a fuck?

  Her hands moved to my shoulders and she squeezed them. I let my right hand stay at the nape of her neck and used my left hand to move her t-shirt aside until my fingers could lay on bare skin. The feel of her flesh had me groaning into her mouth and shifting my head to kiss her from a different angle. Taking the kiss deeper, I pulled her over to me until she sat across my lap. Her ass pressed in to me and I knew she could feel my boner rooting against her hip. She moved one hand around my neck the other she pushed under my shirt to lay flat against my chest, scorching my flesh, placing her brand on me. I groaned into her mouth. My hand moved around to her shorts and snaked past the band until I could grab her tight ass. Damn she felt good. Strong, like the athlete she was, yet soft as only a woman can feel. She twisted pushing her breast flat up against my chest, like she wanted to crawl inside me or maybe that was me. If we were anywhere else we’d both lose our shirts, and a helluva lot more.

  When she pulled away from me, I followed, not willing to let go of her mouth yet. She raised both hands and placed them on my cheeks. We were both breathing hard; my gaze couldn’t seem to leave her lips. They were moist and slightly swollen and parted, like she waited for more of my kisses. And oh yeah, I wanted to give her more, much more. I leaned forward again but this time she pulled back farther and smiled.

  “I think we better go find Shel, it’s getting late,” she said.

  I sighed. She was right to put the breaks on. This was no place to try to get into her panties. That’s not what I wanted to do. Well I did, but not like this. I already sensed she wasn’t like other girls, I was surprised she let me get as far as I did. Not that I was going to complain at all.

  She lowered her head until it rested against my forehead. “I had a wonderful time.”

  “I’m glad. Me too. Thank you for coming with me.”

  I raised my head, kissed her on her hairline and relaxed my grip on her. She got off my lap, and suddenly I felt the coolness in the air from the ocean breeze. Funny, I didn’t feel cool a second ago. I was burning up. I stood up next to her and reached down my pants to straighten myself. Her gaze followed the motion of my hand before shooting up to my face. “Sorry,” I shrugged. “A little uncomfortable there.” Something told me as long as I was around this girl, my balls might hurt for quite some time, but it was going to be worth it.

  She laughed and I grinned at her. “Come on.” I moved over to the stairs. “I’ll go down first so if anything happens you can fall on me.”

  “I have excellent balance,” she said, grinning at me.

  I winked at her and returned her cheeky grin. “So do I.”

  Chapter Four

  Ivy

  For a week we were inseparable, sometimes Shel was with Maze and me, and sometimes not. She spent a lot of time with some of the guys she’d met at that first party we’d been to. But Maze and I were joined at the hip. That is when he wasn’t off training, but usually we ran together in the mornings and the evenings belonged to us. We’d done a lot of heavy petting but no intercourse. It didn’t take him long to figure out I was a virgin and only let him go but so far. Although some days and nights it was hard to resist. He’d gotten me to do things, feel things that no one else ever had. Half of the time I didn’t know what I was doing, only that I needed him to touch me and I needed to touch him. It got to the point, I had no idea why, I would only let him go but so far. But deep down I knew and I think so did he.

  Our worlds were in two different stratospheres, and yet somehow we had come together at the right time. We got lucky, but it just wasn’t going to be forever. Oh we’d keep in touch after he left, I was sure about that. Technology made the world we lived in very small, but it wouldn’t be the same, and we both knew it.

  A few days before the end of both of our vacations we made plans to go to a party at one of the guys’ house Shel had been hanging with. His parents were visiting a friend and would be gone for the night. It was in the same area just down the street from the first house party we’d been to. Shel and I drove taking the path we’d taken that first time, Maze would meet us there.

  We parked on the street a house down from where all the carts were pulled in the four car driveway. Shel hadn’t been kidding when she’d described the house to me earlier. This house was twice the size of ours, which was pretty big. At first I didn’t know how I’d find Maze in the crush I knew the place would be. But the phone in my pocket buzzed. I pulled it out and sure enough the text was from Maze.

  Maze: ‘Standing here at the edge of the driveway watching you.’

  I got out of the cart and looked toward the driveway. Sure ‘nuff, Maze stood against one of the carts at the edge of the drive. Damn, I’d never get over how incredibly beautiful he was, nor that he’d chosen me to hang out with for the summer. I knew any of the many girls that trolled the beaches during the day and parties during the night would spread their legs for him and do it quick fast and in a hurry. But anytime we were together he never looked at or paid them any attention. And he seemed to be okay with the road blocks I put in place for him.

  I walked toward him but he moved and met me halfway, nodding to Shel and grabbing me around the waist. “Tony’s waiting for you, Shel. He’s inside.”

  “Cool, have fun kiddies.”

  Shel moved off and walked in the direction of the stairs leading to the second level of the house, which we could see crowded with youth. I moved to follow her, but Maze pulled me back against him and grabbed my hand raising it to his lips. “I don’t want to go back in there just yet. Take a walk with me.”

  I glanced up at him and grinned. Like I was going to say no to spending alone time with him. I knew Shel would be fine at the party for awhile, we’d made a few friends and at least three of them were at the party tonight including Tony. “Okay.”

  Maze led me over to the cart he’d been leaning against and reached around the back. He pulled out a large beach towel and a couple of beers. He had long side pockets on his cargo shorts and stuck the beers into them then grabbed my hand again. The boy had been thinking. I was impressed. We walked down to the path that led to the beach. A full moon reflected off the water’s surface and looked like the moon had come down to earth. Maze found us a spot near the dunes, which cut out some of the wind. He released my hand to spread out the blanket. I stood and watched the muscles on him ripple like the tide. As a dancer I’d danced with a lot of guys who had toned hard bodies, but Maze was truly a thing to behold. His muscles were tight and cut enough to rival any dancer’s. I shook my head and smiled,
he glanced up at me then, having plopped down on the blanket.

  “What’s the smile for?” he asked.

  “Nothing.” I sat beside him.

  “I think I know.” He placed his hand behind the nape of my neck and pulled me toward him until our lips fused. I opened my mouth slightly to let him in and inhaled his breath and gave him mine in return. I’m not sure how it happened but I went from sitting beside him to lying on my side and his leg rested over mine, trapping me there. Not that I was moving away from him. I moved closer to him so there would be no gap between our bodies. I felt the hardness of him pressing against my thigh. It’s not the first time I’d felt him. But I ground myself to him even more, needing him closer, wanting him. Wanting so much more. He tempted me like no other.

  The sound of a dog barking had us releasing our lip lock but neither of us pulled away from the embrace. Maze raised his head and glanced down the beach in the direction of the noise. I twisted a little to see what he was looking at. The beach wasn’t deserted, but there were only a few people out and most were a distance away, silhouetted against the night. However, there were three white guys and a small dog walking along the sand, not too far from us. I turned back to Maze and ran my hand through his hair. I loved the soft silkiness of it. I couldn’t believe we only had a few more days together before we would no longer see each other every day. My heart ached at the thought of not being able to see him at day’s end.

  His gaze returned to mine and he smiled, but it seemed a little sad. “I’m going to miss not seeing you every day,” he said.

  “Are you a mind reader, too?” I asked softly. “I was thinking the same thing.”

  He raised his hand and caressed my cheek with the back of his fingers. “We’re only an hour and a half, two with traffic away from each other by car. I swear I’ll come see you as often as I can get away and not a day will go by when you don’t hear from me.”

  I blinked and had to blink again to hold back the tears. This was hard. How could I feel so close, so connected to this young man I barely knew, yet I was all those things and more. And I thought he felt the same way about me. “That’s only for another couple of months then you leave for Japan.”

  He kissed me then. Seriously, what could he say? But soon he had my head spinning again and I forgot everything but the feel of his lips on mine and the press of his hard body against my own. That was until I heard the laughter and the insulting comments. Maze’s body froze. As hard as his body was I could feel him tensing up even more and not his dick. He pushed away from me and in one fluid movement that the dancer in me admired, stood up. Offering me his hand. “Come on, let’s get out of here.”

  “All right.” I got up and bent to pick up the blanket doing my best to ignore the three assholes who’d intruded on our time together with their crude remarks. Maze helped me fold the blanket and held on to it.

  “Oh ho, don’t stop on our account,” one of the men said. They seemed about Maze’s age maybe slightly older. And even though they stood a few feet away from us the wind blew the scent of the alcohol they’d been drinking toward us.

  “Yeah that’s right. What ya’ll was doing was getting my dick hard,” the shortest of the trio laughed.

  Maze tensed even more, I could see the vein in the side of his head pulse as he gripped the blanket he carried in his hand. I reached for his other hand and squeezed. I realized the assholes stood between us and the path back to the party. Still I think we both made an effort not to make eye contact with the asswipes, as we moved past them.

  “But if you ain’t up for it I can take over where you left off. I hear black chicks like big dicks.”

  I don’t know which one of them said it, but Maze stopped moving. Holy Shit! Bastard did not just go there. Before I could react, which would have still been to keep walking, Maze had released my hand and turned.

  He leaned forward and tilted his head a little. “What the fuck did you say?”

  “Please don’t…” I began but that’s as far as I got.

  “Yeah, listen to your bitch.” The same one who’d spoken took a step forward and raised his hands as though to wave us off, but waved it right under Maze’s nose. Maze grabbed one of his fingers and twisted. “Fuck you say!”

  The dude dropped to his knees.

  The little dog began barking and one of the guys picked it up. The third one stepped forward and took a swing at Maze. Maze reacted without releasing the first guy’s finger, Maze ducked the punch and as he straightened, raised one leg and kicked the guy who’d tried to punch him in the chest. Sending him airborne and ass planted him on the sand.

  All without taking his eyes off the dude who’d been mouthing off. “Let’s go,” I whispered behind him. My body began to tremble. I just wanted out of there, I’d never seen anything like what Maze had just done except in the movies. And that wasn’t real, but what he’d done was very real. I prayed that would be the end of it. We could just walk away.

  “I believe you owe my girl an apology,” Maze growled.

  I wrapped my arms around myself. Yeah, sure as shit he growled.

  “Fuck you!” The guy said.

  I don’t know what Maze did to the guy’s finger but dude screamed, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” a nanosecond later.”

  Maze released him and stepped back; he turned around and had only taken one step toward me. I’d remained frozen in place watching the macabre events unfold before my disbelieving eyes. When seemingly in slow motion the dude with the dog dropped the dog and raced toward Maze swinging a beer bottle at his head. I cried out just as Maze spun, the hand holding the blanket already raised to block the blow, he shouldn’t have known was coming. Maze lifted his other hand palm open and clipped the guy with the bottom of his hand under his chin. Bastard went down.

  The groans of the three men and the dog barking drowned out the noises of the surf and the night. Maze grabbed my hand and tugged me in the direction of the path. I’d been ready to leave a minute ago, now I seemed unable to move and had to keep looking back over my shoulder. I needed to know those men were all right. I saw all of them moving so he hadn’t killed any one or seriously harmed them, I hoped. Shit oh shit. He had a temper. Duh, he was a fighter.

  We walked back to the house were the party was, neither of us said a word. He stopped in front of his cart.

  He threw the blanket in the back. “This was not how I wanted this night to go.”

  “Well me either.”

  “I’m sorry. But I don’t like assholes.” He stuck his hands in his pockets staring at me waiting for me to say something. Like he really wanted me to understand but I couldn’t maintain his stare.

  I looked away. I abhorred senseless violence. My dad. The man who had adopted me was not my real dad. My mom had married him when I was a year old. My biological dad used to beat the shit out of her. He’d beaten her so badly when she’d been pregnant with me she’d almost miscarried. That’s how she’d met my dad. He’d been an EMT at the time who’d answered the call. He was a doctor now. They never told me what my real dad had done but years later he’d contacted them wanting to see me and I overheard them talking. I’ve never met my father nor do I have any interest in doing so. But I feared violence.

  Fighting in a ring was one thing. There were rules to the sport. But what I’d witnessed was primal, brutal. No rules were involved there. Was this who Maze really was? My body trembled. Yet under the fear, his savageness drew me to him even more.

  Chapter Five

  Maze

  Fuck!

  From the time I’d turned and grabbed the shit head’s finger I knew I was wrong. But something came over me. That rage that still ate at me over all the things, I had no control over. That rage that gave me an edge every time I stepped into the ring to fight. It rose up in me then. Those motherfuckers were not getting away with this shit.

  But if I’d lost Ivy because of my actions, shit, that would be fucked up. I cared about her so much, too much. That organ in my
chest hurt at the thought of losing her. I didn’t want to think about the next few months and the distance that would soon be between us. Distance I had no intention of coming between us. I’d been quiet while all these thoughts had driven, like they were racing or something, through my head. I couldn’t lose her. But she was too quiet; I pulled her against me and I felt her trembling in my arms and now I really did feel like shit.

  “I’m sorry, Ivy, babe.” I wrapped one arm around her waist to draw her closer to me, letting my body heat warm her then I raised my other hand and wove my fingers into her hair. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to upset you.”

  “We should…suppose they call the cops?”

  “Shhh. I doubt they’d do that. They’d been drinking, and they reeked like they’d bathe in the stuff. The cops aren’t going to overlook that little fact.”

  “What if they’re seriously hurt?”

  I didn’t know how to explain to her that as angry as I was, the one thing I knew how to do was hit. I hit them with enough behind the blows to hurt, bruise a little so they won’t forget. But not hard enough maim.

  “I didn’t hit them that hard.”

  She grabbed onto the front of my t-shirt with both hands and laid her head against my chest. Then she raised her head and looked into my eyes. The hurt I saw there almost dropped me to my knees, but the fear there undid me. “Oh God, babe. I’m sorry. I’m sorry. Please don’t look at me like that.” Then I did the only thing I could think to do, I kissed her. I poured myself into that kiss. I tried to let her know she had nothing to fear from me. I would never, ever turn that kind of anger on her. I did not hit women. Ever. That shit was fucked up.

  Soon she stopped trembling in my arms and returned my kisses, like she was just as desperate for me as I was for her. I helped her get into my cart. I wanted to make love to her. In a place where we wouldn’t be interrupted. I had no intentions of making her first time out on the beach; I’d only wanted to get closer to her. But I’d be lying to myself if I didn’t admit I wanted it all from her. I got in the driver’s seat and started to put the key in the cart. She placed her hand over mine and I glanced at her.