The Ballerina & The Fighter (Book 1) (5 page)

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.

“Wait. What about Shel?” she
asked.

“Text her, let her know you left
with me and I’ll take you home…later.”

“I don’t know.”

“No. Don’t think. You have
nothing to be afraid of. I need to be with you. Someplace where we won’t be
interrupted, someplace where we can have all night. Please, baby.” Jeez I must
be nuts, twice in ten minutes I’m begging and apologizing to this girl, but I’d
get down on my knees for her if I had to.

She stared at me for a moment
more and I kissed her taking her phone out of her pocket. I pulled back and
placed it in her hand. She closed her palm around it, then raised it and texted
her friend. I don’t know what she told her, but she placed the phone back into
her pocket and I pulled out of the parking spot.

Only the lights on the deck
were on when I pulled into my driveway. My step-father, Joe, had saved me in so
many ways. I don’t remember my real father, I was too young when he died and my
mom never talked about him and Joe didn’t know much. There’d always been just
Joe, he was the reason I’d learned to fight. There wasn’t much I wouldn’t do for
him. I don’t think he’d have been cool about me sneaking a girl into my room
though. Still it didn’t stop me from climbing those stairs with Ivy to the deck
where my room was and quietly sliding the glass doors back. I pushed the
curtain aside for her to enter first. The room was dark except for the light on
the deck by the door. I closed the door behind me but left the curtain
partially open to illuminate the room a little. Not much to see, a queen size
bed took up most of the room, a long dresser with six drawers and a TV on a
stand against the wall from the bed. Everything was done in those pastel colors
with beach themes of starfish and sea shells. Real original. Not. I placed the
two beers I still carried in my side pockets on the nightstand.

Ivy sat on the bed and I
joined her. We both took off our sandals. I took her hand and slid higher onto
the bed, she followed me as I leaned back onto the mattress. She lay beside me
and smoothed the side of my face with her hand. I raised my hand and held onto
her, turning my head I kissed her palm, then still holding onto her hand I
kissed her cheek, then her nose before moving on to her mouth. God, I loved her
mouth. She had the most perfect lips; I could feast on them all night long. I
released her hand and moved it to the side of her waist, her shirt had ridden
up and my palm touched warm silky flesh. I felt her muscles contract as I moved
my hand to spread across her stomach. When I felt her hand on my skin,
caressing my dragon tattoo I wanted to roar in pleasure. Sitting up, I quickly
took off my shirt and helped her pull hers off too when she sat up and reached
for the edge. I’d been taking it slow with her because I knew I had to.

“You’re so beautiful,” I
said, when her caramel skin was reveled to me. She had on a sexy bra, it was
light purple and had a tiny black bow at the front. In truth, it could have
been plain white and I would still think it looked as sexy because they cupped
a perfect set of breasts. I shifted us until we lay lengthwise on the bed this
time, and reconnected our lips placing my hand on her breast and moving my body
closer to hers.

I rolled until I lay on top
of her, our lips still locked but we were completely connected now. Every part
of her body was pressed to mine. I flexed my hips in to her and she separated
her legs even more so I could fit. But these clothes had to go. The thought
flashed across my mind just as I felt a vibration coming from my hip. Or her
hip. I stopped kissing her and moved slightly so she could grab her phone. “Sorry,”
she said. She raised it to look at the text she’d gotten. I could read it too.
It was from Shelly. She was heading back to the house and would wait for her
outside. Tony was with her so no rush.

“Now where were we?” I said,
leaning toward her. But her hands pressed against my chest stopping me. “What’s
wrong?”

“I’m sorry…”

I sighed, I’d been expecting
her to stop us all evening; I was just surprised to have gotten this far with
her. It didn’t matter to me though. I was willing to wait for however long it
took. I’d decided from the first she was worth waiting for.