I DIDN’T JUST BEAT LARRY Lacy. I knocked him out in the fifth round.
Slate had been right. There wasn’t a person who left that arena who didn’t know my name. I was featured on damn near every major sports network, newspaper, and magazine the next day. I might have been a relatively unknown fighter walking into that ring, but I’d walked out as the man of the hour.
I hated that Eliza hadn’t been there to see it, but the boys couldn’t miss any more school, so she’d stayed at home with them. Before I had even made it out of the ring, I’d been handed a phone with her screaming on the other end. The crowd was going nuts, but she was all I heard. We did a huge press conference the following day before heading home, and for the first time, even as celebrity Slate Andrews sat at my side, the attention was all mine. The fifty-thousand dollar paycheck was nice, although Lacy’s was a hell of a lot bigger, but the excitement of that day was intoxicating.
All I could think about, though, was getting home and really celebrating.
“Stop!” Eliza batted my hands away.
“No, you stop. I missed you.” I teased my way under her shirt and sealed my mouth over hers.
“The boys are still awake.” She raked her nails over my back.
“Oh hell no. I’m not waiting for them to fall asleep! Quarry had enough Mountain Dew tonight that he may never sleep again. They know we have sex. They’ll get over it.” I pressed my hardening cock against her core, causing her to throw her head back with a gasp.
“That doesn’t mean I want them to be able to tally how many times I come.”
“Tally them? How the hell many times are you planning to get off, woman?”
She laughed, and with just the sound, my cock became impossibly harder. I bit her nipple to silence her, but it didn’t work, because it turned into a moan that I swear I felt in my balls.
I needed to have her . . . and soon.
“We’ll be quiet.” I pushed into her panties, finding her clit before she could even object.
“I can’t be quiet,” she panted, sliding down the bed and out of my reach.
I dropped my head against the pillow. I was debating if it would be wrong for me to give Flint twenty bucks to take Quarry and go sit in my truck for a half hour when her tongue swirled around the head of my dick.
“Fuck,” I hissed.
“You be quiet. I’ll wake you up in a few hours and take mine. Consider it congratulatory head!”
Her lips formed the most perfect crescent shape as she smiled up at me. It was only outdone by the “O” they made as she sucked my cock to the back of her throat.
I awoke to Eliza’s naked ass rubbing against me. After I’d come in her mouth, I’d begged her to let me return the favor, but she’d been hell-bent on waiting until the boys fell asleep. I had no idea how long it had been since we’d fallen asleep, but Flint and Quarry must have passed out, because the house was silent. I couldn’t see her face, but she was quiet, the motion of her hips the only proof she wasn’t still asleep. Or maybe she was and, even in sleep, her body was craving mine.
I grazed my teeth over her earlobe. “Mmm. Wake up, baby.” I felt the vibration in my chest, but nothing came out.
What the fuck?
“Eliza,” I called, hoping the outcome would be different, but once again, the silence was piercing.
She immediately rolled over to face me with wide eyes, but I couldn’t focus on anything except my inability to speak.
“Eliza!” I shouted as if she could somehow make my voice work again.
I watched her tongue touch her teeth at what I knew to be the “11” at the end of my name, but she couldn’t talk either.
It’s a nightmare. It has to be.
“Doodle, are you okay?” I shouted as loud as I could, hoping to break through whatever unknown force was compressing the sound.
With a painful flinch, she covered my mouth with the palm of her hand. Her lips moved with powerful words, none of which made it to my ears.
I shook her hand off my mouth. “I can’t talk!” I yelled, scrambling off the bed. I knocked over damn near everything in my frantic escape, but I didn’t still until my ass was against the wall.
Fisting a hand into my hair, I watched the tears fall from her eyes as she mouthed what I decided was the word “stop” over and over again.
She climbed over the bed and snatched a sketchpad off the nightstand, quickly scrawling a message that would effectively end my life as I knew it.
I can hear you. Calm down.
The weight of such simple words was indescribable.
His eyes were feral. Every single muscle on his body was taut, and the confusion was only slightly less painful than the utter destruction that crumbled his otherwise strong body the second he read my words.
“It’s okay.” My voice cracked as I slowly approached the skittish man I recognized as my rock. I wiped my tears away because I knew they would do no good. He didn’t need those. He needed me.