Long Shot: An MMA Stepbrother Romance (20 page)

“Fuck,” he groans as I ride him through my orgasm. “You’re going to make me come, baby.” I cry out again, and it seems my orgasm only builds in intensity, never stopping, never slowing down as he comes inside of me, thrusting hard from beneath me and filling me up to completion. I realize I’ve been gripping his arms, that I might have hurt him. Releasing him, I fall down against him gently, putting my fingers against his left shoulder.
 

“I’m sorry,” I mumble. “Did I hurt you?” I know he’s been using the damn shoulder to fight—and to move my body around so he can fuck me how he wants to—but I still worry. And from the finger marks I see on his skin, I can tell I was gripping him hard. I blush, and I feel him flipping me onto my side. He’s grinning, and he pulls me to him again, throwing my leg over his. He laughs, his voice deep and melodic.
 

“God no, Nat,” he says, leaning in to kiss me again. “This is the kind of physical therapy I was hoping for anyway.” I roll my eyes, but he covers my mouth again and kisses me hard.
 

“I hope you’re okay for the fight. That’s all.”
 

“I’m better now that you’re here—that you showed up.”

“Josh,” I say. “This can’t be—”

“Don’t say what it can or can’t be, Nat. Not right now. I kept saying that to myself when I was staying at your place, but when I saw you last night, everything made sense. I won’t ask you to stay—”

“Well that’s fine and dandy,” I say, rolling out of bed. “Because you’re staying with me until the fight.” His words nag me, start that place in my brain again, the place with doubts and guilt and anxiety. I said it right before he did but I realize, frozen still in his bedroom, his eyes on my body, that I want to see what would happen if he did ask me to stay—for good, with him. “For right now, we can be friends,” I say, the words tumbling out.
 

“Friends don’t do this, Nat,” he says simply.
 

“You’ve had a lot of female ‘friends’ who do exactly this, Josh. Remember? I’ve seen them. You’ve ditched me for them.” I don’t mean for the words to tumble out, and I don’t want the thoughts that go along with them. My whole life, I’ve just wanted things to be
uncomplicated
. Josh watches me as I dress, his eyes roaming from my breasts and back down to my ass. My body tenses again, just like it did when he had me straddling his cock, when he got me to ride him, completely exposed—like I’d never done with any man. He’s silent for a while, until after I’ve put my shirt on and combed through my hair with my fingers.

“I have eggs and bacon I got yesterday,” he says, swinging his legs out of bed and pulling on his boxers like he’d never had a shoulder injury at all. He walks over to me and kisses me hard, adding warmth to the tension in my body. My nipples are raw from where he’s sucked them and pulled them, my pussy sore from taking his cock again and again. He’s written himself all over my body. It’s undeniable, and I kiss him back, my lips hungry for his. He pulls away as the heat begins to pool inside me again. “You know Nat, I didn’t think you’d come.”

It’s the last thing he says before he saunters off to the kitchen to make breakfast. I sit back on the bed and listen as the bacon starts to sizzle, the smell of it igniting insane hunger pangs in the pit of my stomach.
 

If I’d wished for uncomplicated, I never should have come back to this town. This is anything but.

I watch Natalie eat bacon and eggs between sips of coffee—I’m not sure I want her to
notice
that I’m watching her. She’s got her hair up in a messy bun, tendrils of hair framing her round, smooth face.
 

“Hungry?” I ask. A bit of egg yolk gets caught on her lip, and it’s all I can do not to leap across the table and lick it off. That would go over the edge from watching her eat and into certified creeper territory.
 

“Hell yeah, I’m hungry.” She blushes and takes a long swig of coffee. “I mean, there are
reasons
I’m hungry.” I contemplate those reasons, thinking of her slickness, the warmth and tightness wrapped around my cock. I’m growing hard again thinking about it, and it’s only been twenty minutes since I fucked her last. Since that first, perfect blow job, I’ve been thinking about those fuckable lips wrapping around my cock again and sucking me dry. She almost got me there last night, but now I think I want the full service again. Seeing how she’s acted in bed, I think I can arrange it too.
 

“Yeah, you look pretty much like you’ve been fucking all night.” She nearly spits out her coffee, her face showing that she doesn’t know whether to laugh or to slap me from across the table.
 

“Is that supposed to be a compliment?”

“Yes. A big one. And I’ve got something else big hiding out down here—” She rolls her eyes, but I see a faint flush creeping over her neck, rising into her cheeks. I bet if I reached between her legs right now, I’d find a pair of very wet panties, and a sweet throbbing pussy, ripe and ready for me.
 

“Let me eat, for Pete’s sake. And dammit. We can’t continue in this vein.”

“In this vein of what?” I widen my eyes and look at her like I don’t know what she’s talking about.
 

“In this vein of sex. You shouldn’t be doing it anyway, with your arm and all.”
 

“Arm’s healing fine, Natty.” I finish off my coffee. “I’ve got plenty of energy to keep helping you relax. And you seemed to be pretty pleased with my cock this morning.” There’s a small voice in my brain shouting,
Retreat! Stop talking!
But I’ve already dug myself in too deep, and it shows on Natalie’s face. She’s not a woman who thinks she’s beautiful, even though she sure as fuck is. And she doesn’t understand that I’ve changed—or that I think I have anyway. She’s seen the evidence lying around, but the disappearance and the bravado ain’t helping a damn thing. Still, the part of my mind that defaults to cocky asshole in times of stress keeps talking. “And if you’re stressed out, baby, you can always take down those skinny jeans and I’ll see what I can do for you.”

“Oh goddammit. Can we even have a serious conversation for five minutes?” She groans and clutches her head with her hands. It reads as pure exasperation, but something about it is glorious—especially since I’ve sampled the goods.

“Yes. We can. I
was
being serious. I
will
help you relieve your stress. I volunteer as tribute.”
 

“Oh my God,” she says, burying her face in her hands. “I slept with a teenager.”
 

“Naughty cougar that you are.” Natalie gives me a withering look. “I mean you sure could shape up to be a naughty cougar, some day. In like twenty, thirty years. But I’ll always be a year older.” The word vomit keeps falling out of my mouth, and I have the thought that I should keep complimenting her body. But fortunately, my eyes are drawn down to her ample tits, which are rising and falling in time with her growing anger.
 

“I knew this was a bad idea. One night stand with my asshole stepbrother.” She moves the chair out like she’s getting ready to go, but I put my hand out and grasp her wrist. She watches me like I’m a caged lion and she’s not exactly sure what I’m going to do.
 

“Who said it was a one night stand?”
This is a better direction
, I think.
Tell her she’s pretty, that she smells nice. Anything not idiotic.

“I guess I thought—fuck, Josh, it doesn’t matter. You got me into this whole complicated thing, and it feels a little like I’m dealing with someone I don’t know.”

I purse my lips and think for a moment. “I guess you’re right.” Natalie’s gaze meets mine, and I think about how I used to try to pinpoint the color of her eyes.
Burnt sienna, more gold than brown.
“But you came back here and found me.” She bites her lip for a moment before releasing it, and I think about taking it in my mouth, tasting the coppery sweetness of her inner lip.
 

“I did. I was worried. And when you left me—I was in a state.” Despite the frustration I see in her eyes, there is a spark when she looks at me. Sometimes, anyway. I’ve done so much planning, and it ain’t something I’m used to, but I threw a wrench in my own works when I came back to her. I open my mouth for a moment—I want to explain that she’s the
reason
for this. She makes me
better
, even when she’s far away. It occurs to me that I should have figured out just what I wanted from her.
 

“You were in a state, weren’t you? Came back for… all that I could give you.” She whacks me on the arm, but this time she smiles too. I know it’s not subtle, the way I’m treating her right now. But my inner teenage boy is rejoicing that he got the girl. And the inner teenage boy, well, he’s kind of an asshole.
 

“Sure, Josh. It’s all good fun. Best fun I’ve had in a long time.”
 

“Just fun?”
 

“Just fun for now.” She sighs. “Like I said, I don’t know you no more. You didn’t tell me you got a GED. You didn’t tell me you
bought
a gym. And you didn’t tell me you were getting kids away from Frank. If I didn’t know better, I’d say you became some kind of vigilante superhero in the past three years.”
 

“Just trying to set things right. And hey, why wouldn’t you want a relationship with a vigilante superhero fighting for justice?” I grin at her, but she rolls her eyes.
 

“A relationship? Who said anything about a relationship?” I clear my throat. I want to say something suave and convincing. But all I can think of is,
Of course I want a relationship. You’re mine.
I somehow don’t think that’ll fly, so I stick with changing the subject.
 

“You got a shift today, Nat?”
 

“No. I was planning on getting you back to the house—”

“The house might not be such a good idea today,” I say. I clear my throat and pause for a moment. “Frank’s silent right now, but if he finds out where you’re staying, he might show up to harass you, or to find me there. He’s done that to me when I was staying at Ash’s.” I expect her to flip out, but she just pauses for a second, thinking.
 

“I have a favor to call in. You know the Island Guest House?” I nod. “Okay, well, Summer’s mom Linda works there, and I temped for her last summer—”

“We can stay there?”
 

“Well, you can—I think that’d be best. You, by yourself.”

“Nat, no. I need to be able to protect you if I can, if Frank is anywhere around.”
 

“Is it really that serious?” She thinks for a moment. “And if it is, why the fuck did you bring me into this, Josh?”

“I think—” I’m about to explain to her what Frank is capable of, that the Frank she met five or six years ago is different from the man he is now, that he’s a capable criminal with ties to the Russian mafia in Richmond. He’s grown harder, colder, far worse than he was. But before I can get the words out, there’s a knock at the door. I jump up and curl my hands into fists like I did when Ash came here. I watch as fear flickers over Natalie’s face, and she nearly falls out of her chair trying to stand up.
 

“Natalie, it ain’t Frank. It’s not his style to come around like this.” Even though I’m hiding it, there’s worry in my blood too.
 

“But doesn’t he have a gang backing him?”

“Hush, Natalie. He has people, not a gang.” I step over to the door, trying to wave Natalie back to the other side of the room.
 

“Do
not
tell me to hush or wave your hand at me like I’m a dog,” she whispers. I know it’s not loud enough for anyone on the other side of the door to hear, but still, my body fills with adrenaline, like I’m prepping for a damn fight. I step closer and curse the damn apartment complex for not having peep holes—seems like it should be a necessary thing for such shitty apartments in a run-down area, but I guess that’s the point. Shitty apartments ain’t got shit. There’s another knock, and I curl my fists up like I’m going to bash in whoever is on the other side of the door. The knob jiggles back and forth, and there’s another, more insistent knock. I slide the lock open and ready myself, lifting my hands up to block my face.
 

“Open up asshole.” It takes my brain a moment to process what I’m hearing: an exasperated female voice on the other side. “I said, open up. I know you’ve got your lady in there, so get decent if you need to and—” I swing the door open and see Katy, red hair hanging over her face, her lip cut and swollen.
 

“Katy? What the hell are you doing here?” I grab her arm and pull her in, and she looks at me with those huge puppy-dog eyes that she uses on the new guys at the club when she’s helping Frank “break them in.” Her gaze moves to Nat, sizing her up in an instant.
 

“So that’s your
stepsister
, huh? Makes sense. You always did bang anything with a pulse.” She smirks and crosses her arms, but it’s hard for a tiny woman with a split lip to look smug or intimidating.