“I love you, Zac.”
Then suddenly, I’m wide awake, wondering if that is really what this is. Because I haven’t got a clue. No one’s ever loved me before.
Twenty-Eight
Evie
Zac’s alarm goes off at six the next morning, and I wake, cocooned in his limbs, my body aching and buzzing at the same time. In our sleep we’ve moved so he isn’t inside me anymore, but I have this delicious ache from where I accepted his length into my body.
“Good morning,” he murmurs, pressing light kisses against my forehead as he pulls me even tighter against him. I feel his thick erection pressing against my stomach and I want him all over again.
“Good morning,” I whisper, moving in his arms and reaching for his face. He tilts his head and kisses me. My lips are sore and I should probably brush my teeth, but even in the morning, this man is delicious. I move my fingers languidly, letting my nails brush against his stubble as our mouths work in unison, increasing the intensity of our already aroused bodies.
I feel him twitch against me and my insides clench, wanting him to fill me.
Honestly, I had worried that he wouldn’t fit. But being his first time, I didn’t want to make him worry about more than enjoying the moment. But whoa, a man that large presses in all the right places and I struggled not to come before he did.
I’ve never had this much emotion attached to any of this before. I’ve never been so filled with such want and desire and need that I’ve felt like I’m on fire beneath his touch.
I shouldn’t be calling what we’re doing sex. What we did was make love, so it was my first time too.
“You know, for a first timer, you’re pretty bloody magnificent,” I whisper, pressing on his shoulder so he’s lying on his back and I can climb on top of him.
“Well, I’m experienced now, you know. This isn’t my first time anymore.”
“Is that so?” I smile, moving my hips so my core rests on his shaft and I glide my way up to his tip, grinning when I see the muscles in his neck strain.
“Although I think it has more to do with the teacher. She’s gorgeous and sexy and turns me on so much that I think just looking at her will make me burst.”
“Is that so?” I repeat, reaching between us to guide his tip to my entrance. He groans.
“Yes,” he strangles out as I slowly glide down his shaft, taking him deeply, feeling myself shuddering around him. “But I want to see her come more, so I hold off and…” I push through my thighs, sliding up his length slowly, moving a little faster on the way back down, grinding my hips at his base. “Holy crap,” he groans, his hands moving to my hips, his fingers pressing into my flesh.
“And?” I urge, wanting him to continue.
“And I wait. Because watching you come is the most beautiful thing in this fucking world.”
He reaches up and pulls me toward him, his mouth meeting mine as our hips move together, our rhythm increasing as our kisses grow deeper, more hungry. Until everything inside me curls into a tight knot of energy and I can’t kiss anymore. Instead, I’m pressing my lips against his as I whimper and shake in his arms.
Then his hands move from my hips to face, and he holds me back so he can see my face. His eyes stare up at me, his face mirroring my own, ready for release. I slide down to his base and rock my hips, my insides uncoiling, allowing my orgasm to explode through me.
I stare into his eyes, gasping as I shudder around him, feeling his cock pulse inside me as he lets out a long and low groan, spilling himself inside me as he presses his mouth against mine, his tongue sliding against mine before he rolls us to the side, wraps his arms around me and pulls me against his chest.
“Don’t ever leave me, Evie,” he whispers, so quietly I barely hear it. “Please. No matter what happens. Don’t leave me.” His arms tighten around me, and I can hear the beat of his heart quicken. Such simple words but they hold such weight. Such need.
“I won’t leave. I promise. I’m not going anywhere.”
***
“Zac! Why is your door locked?” a small voice calls from the other side of the door. The door handle turns back and forth, squeaking through the morning air.
I glance at the clock, seeing that it’s almost seven-thirty. We must have gone back to sleep.
“Shit,” Zac whispers, his arms loosening around me as he carefully moves to sit up. “Hang on. I’ll be out in a minute,” he calls out, his face twisting in pain as he flinches slightly, cradling his right side.
“Are you alright?” I ask, sitting up beside him and looking at his torso.
“I’m fine. It’s just a rib thing. No big deal.”
“If you’re wincing like that, of course it’s a big deal. Have you gotten it checked out?”
“It’s fine,” he argues. “It’s just sore when I first get up. I’ll be fine once I’m moving.”
I run my hands over the skin on his chest, the light coming in from the window illuminating his skin and showing an unusual amount of scars.
“Who did this to you? They’re not from fighting, are they? Was this what he did? He…he cut you?”
Swinging his legs off the bed, Zac turns around, and I see that his back is even worse than his front. I stifle a gasp as I wonder how I missed this, before realising that I’ve only ever seen him shirtless in dim light. He reaches down and picks up his shorts and shirt and begins to get dressed.
“Cut me, beat me, burned me. Take your pick. He didn’t have a favourite.”
His voice is emotionless as he speaks and I reach for him, wanting to somehow make the things that have happened to him better. But my hands only grab air when he stands and pulls his shorts up to his waist.
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have said anything,” I say quickly, dropping my eyes to look at my empty hands.
He leans down and places his hands either side of me on the bed and I look up to meet his eyes. So close. So filled with more emotions than I think I understand.
“Hey, don’t take this on board. He was a bastard of a man and he’s gone now. So I just don’t really like talking about it. Not when I have a gorgeous naked woman in my bed.”
“Zac! Uncle Jason is here!” one of the kids yells out from the living area.
“Why don’t you take the first shower while I go and sort this lot out. I was planning on going to the gym this morning. I wanted to talk to your dad. See if I could get him to change his mind.”
“Oh, that’s what I was supposed to tell you, he said that if you want, you can train with the group classes. He just won’t do one on one with you.”
“Does he teach them?”
“He just teaches the advanced aikido classes a couple of times a week. But he’ll be at the gym until about ten when he heads over to his tattoo studio.”
“Do you think he’ll reconsider training me in the mornings?”
I shrug. “I don’t know. He’s pretty intent on not getting involved in the whole illegal fight circuit thing.”
He places his hands on his hips and bites his lip contemplatively. “Fair enough.” He turns his head when Jason calls his name. “He’s here to watch the kids while I go to the gym. Come with me?”
“I can go home if I’ll be in the way,” I state, testing the waters now that he’s reacted a little funny to me questioning his scars.
“No. Come to the gym, then we can spend the day together until the kids come home. Does that work for you?”
A smile spreads across my lips. “Yeah. It works fine.”
Grinning back, he leans down and kisses the top of my head. “Good. Grab a shower. I’ll get the kids sorted with Jason then I’ll grab a quick one so we can go.”
***
“So um, what’s Jason’s deal. Why was he looking at me so funny?” I ask as we head towards my car to go to the gym. I’m blocking Zac’s van in the driveway, so it makes sense to take my little hatchback.
“Nothing. He’s just been looking out for me for a while. He doesn’t think it
was a good idea that I told you about my living situation.”
“Why? It’s not like I’m going to dob you in.”
He shrugs. “He just worries. He’s a good guy. Here,” he says, holding his hand out when I pull my keys from my pocket to open the car.
“What? You want to drive my car?”
Grinning, he continues to hold out his hand. “Yeah, I wanna drive your car. Hand over the keys.”
He reaches for them and I move my hand out of the way, placing my other hand on his chest and he leans against me, pinning me against the side of the car with his body against mine.
Leaning down, he brushes his lips against my ear as his hand slides down my arm, toward the hand that holds the keys.
“Now, I have you trapped,” he whispers, his tongue snaking out and teasing the lobe of my ear as he distracts me with a primal hunger and makes a grab for the keys.
I don’t let go. Instead, I smile. “I think you’re forgetting who you’re dealing with. The man you’re asking to train you is my father and he’s taught me everything he knows.”
“You can get out of this?” he grins, pressing firmly against me, keeping me pinned.
“I can. But I’d have to hurt you.”
“I don’t hurt too easily,” he counters, his eyes twinkling with amusement as he looks down at me.
“Well, in this respect, you would get hurt. And I kind of want the use of a certain…appendage, later on,” I murmur, lifting my leg where he’s given me a clear shot of his groin by pinning me with his legs apart.
A grin spreads across his face. “Well, we wouldn’t want that.” And he steps back, letting me loose. “Aikido is mean,” he comments as he walks around to the passenger side of the car where he folds his six foot three frame into the seat as I slide behind the wheel and start the car.
“That’s not necessarily Aikido, that’s just self defence 101. Aikido is all about maintaining control of a situation. It’s about managing momentum and gauging danger. It teaches you to fight multiple attackers who may or may not have weapons, and above all, it’s street savvy and it’s the perfect martial art for women,” I explain as I drive toward the gym.
“Why is that?”
“Because in Aikido, we’re using our attacker’s own momentum against them. You don’t necessarily need a lot of strength if you know how to tip a guy over or twist his arm so he can’t grab you or stab you.”
“Sounds very practical. You know, your dad put me on my arse in like, ten seconds, when I saw him last time.”
I glance over at him and my mouth curls in a half grin. “Hmm, ten seconds? He must have actually liked you.”
***
“Whoa. What the hell is Nelson’s car doing here?” Zac asks as we pull into the gym parking lot. I know he doesn’t expect me to have an answer but I reply anyway.
“I have no idea. Let’s go in and find out.”
We get out of the car quickly and grabbing a hold of my hand, Zac pulls me along with him inside the gym. It’s still early, so mum isn’t here yet. But my grandad is standing at the door to the dojo in his Aikido gi with his hands on his hips like he’s guarding the doorway.
My grandad is actually the highest ranked Aikido sensei out west. He was my father’s sensei, and was grooming dad to take over this place when my dad and mum met. For a while, when things got out of hand and dad went to prison, grandad had lost all hope of keeping this gym going. But mum and dad made it through and now, dad’s just as high a level as grandad is and they share the advanced Aikido classes between them as grandad is in his sixties now and thinks he’s getting old. Although to look at him, he’s still very fit and agile, he just has a bit of a paunch in the belly area.
“What’s going on?” I ask as we reach him, and I try to look around him to see if Dad’s inside with Nelson.
Grandad’s eyes slowly lower until they land on the spot where Zac’s and my hands are joined. I move to let go, but Zac holds fast, letting me know that we’re here together.
“Harry Nelson. A blast from the past. Used to follow your dad around and set fights up to hustle people. Haven’t seen him in years but he wants your dad to train some kid. You, I presume,” he states, his eyes shifting to Zac who releases my hand to extend his in greeting to my grandfather.
“Yes sir. The name’s Zac Rivers. Nice to meet you.”
Grandad glances at Zac’s hand and I think he won’t take it. But then he glances at me and I see his eyes soften a little. He shakes Zac’s hand.
“I feel like I’m reliving the past right now. If you had red hair like your mother, I’d swear this had all happened before.”
He lifts his hands as if to shoo away a memory then turns and walks away, muttering to himself as he does. Zac and I glance at each other and frown before moving to look inside the dojo and listen in to dad and Nelson’s conversation.
“This isn’t the old days, Damo. This is big money. I mean massive money. And the moment I saw that girl fight, I knew she had to be yours. Train the kid for me, Damo. I’ll make it worth your while.”
“Firstly, Harry, you’re not understanding me. I told you yesterday that I wouldn’t train him. I don’t need your fucking dirty money. I’ve got plenty of clean money of my own. And secondly, quit calling me Damo. We were barely friends back then and we sure as hell aren’t friends now. So how about you turn around and get the fuck out of here, or I’ll start making some threats of my own.”
“They know each other?” Zac whispers.
“Sounds like it,” I state, keeping quiet so I can still hear what’s going on.
“Listen, I came here as an old friend who used to do an old friend a hell of a lot of favours. Let’s not forget that I used to set those fights up for you. And I made sure we had lookouts to keep us all out of prison. The only reason you have a record is because of your anger issues. I kept you out, more than once if I recall. So this is me, calling in just one of those favours. Train the kid, and I’ll let every other favour go. I’m not asking you to rock up to the Rumble. I’m just asking you to show him what you do. There’ll be no connection to me and I’ll pay you cash. Come on, Damo…I mean, Damien. You can at least do this.”
I hear dad let out a sigh. “Fine. I’ll train the fucking kid. But if I ever see your face in my gym again, I’m not going to be as good a listener as I was today.”
“Ok. Ok, I hear you.”
“And Harry, if you go near my daughter again, I’ll break your face. I don’t care if I go back to prison for that – you stay away from my family.”
“I hear you, loud and clear. So when do you start training the kid?”
“Tell him tomorrow, 8am. I’ll finish the season out with him and then his debt and his obligation to you is clear – right?”
“Absolutely. I’m a man of my word. Don’t worry your pretty face over it.”
“Fuck you, Harry. Just get out of my gym and let me get back to work.”
Harry Nelson agrees to leave and as we hear his footsteps approaching the door, I spin and push against Zac, leading him to the group session room next door. The class in here won’t start until nine, so it’s empty right now.
“Well, that was close,” I whisper, leaning against Zac’s chest as he wraps his arms around my waist.
“Why are we running?”
“So they don’t know we were eavesdropping.”
“Why can’t they know we were eavesdropping? Aren’t they just going to tell us what’s going on anyway? I mean, your dad just agreed to train me. I’m fucking ecstatic right now,” he beams.
“Things are looking up,” I whisper back, rising on my tiptoes and pressing my lips to his as I wrap my arms around his neck.
It’s at that time that my phone begins to go off, the ring almost piercing as it echoes in the large empty room.
Pulling back, I grab my phone from my pocket and look to see that it’s dad. Swiping to answer, I press it to my ear and say, “Hello.”
“What are you doing?” he
asks, and I hear his voice twice. Once in the doorway of the gym room, and again a moment later over the phone.
“I…we…ah…” I stutter.
“When we arrived, we overheard you talking with Harry Nelson. Evie, I mean, Yvonne, was concerned about seeing him when he left the dojo, so she brought me in here to get out of the way,” Zac states truthfully, looking my dad in the eye confidently. I love that even though he thinks my dad is ‘scary as fuck’ that he still stands proud and strong in front of him. “It’s nice to see you again, sir.” He steps forward and holds his hand out to my dad, who shakes it briefly then looks back at me.
“Well, I guess there’s no point in me making that phone call. Zac, meet me here for training at 8am tomorrow. Don’t be late. Harry says you have two weeks before your next fight, so we need to get started.”
“Yes, sir.”
“It’s Damien, or it’s Sensei. No sir.”
“Yes, sir…I mean, Sensei.”
“Ok,” he says as he begins to back out of the room before pausing again. “Actually, get out of this room. God only knows what you two will get up to if I leave you alone in here,” he commands, mumbling something about the past repeating itself and shaking his head as if some sort of imagery has assaulted him, much like grandad did before.
“Dad,” I laugh. “Why would we…”
“Just go. Come back tomorrow,” he says, shooing us out of the room before walking away and muttering again about kids our age and our lack of control.
We look at each other and stifle a laugh. “I think I have just enough control to make it back home. But then I’m making no promises,” Zac murmurs in my ear, sending a delighted chill down my spine before he takes my hand and drags me back to the car.
This time, I let him drive.
PART FOUR
‘Without obsession, life is nothing.’
John Waters
Twenty-Nine
Zac
All of a sudden, my life has begun to feel less overwhelming. And I have Evie to thank for that. From the moment I saw her again, something between us sparked that was so strong; like a metal cable that was cranking us toward each other. Neither of us could fight it; actually, I don’t think either of us wanted to, because each time we crossed paths, we crashed into each other, this powerful force driving our bodies to collide until finally our minds accepted it and we’ve been inseparable ever since.
Drawn to Fight: Zac & Evie Page 16