But her eyes were on mine. Distracted, she lifted her arms out of the way...just as my fist swung into her side. I felt the hardness of ribs against my glove...and she went down.
24
SYLVIE
Pain exploded in my side,red-hot fire that turned to numbing cold. My whole left side seemed to go weak. Just being upright was too painful, so my legs crumpled under me and dumped me to the mat. The shock of hitting it started the pain all over again.
My head bounced off the mat, that sudden, shocking slam, like being a kid again and slipping on the bouncy castle. If it had been the concrete floor of The Pit, my skull would have cracked open.
The bright lights above me were blocked out by Aedan. He came down on one knee beside me, his face contorted with horror.
He’s down on one knee,thrilled some far-off part of my brain.
“Are you okay?”he yelled.
I frowned. What did those words mean? I wondered if maybe I’d hit my head. I thought I remembered something like that happening.
Buttercups.
“Are you okay?”he yelled again. And then his voice seemed to become clearer and the lights didn’t seem quite so bright and I stopped thinking about buttercups and—
I blinked at him and nodded.Christ,my side hurt.
He ripped off his gloves. Then his hand was sliding up under my t-shirt, feeling my ribs. There was the pounding ache of a bruise, but Ididn’t feel the sharp pain that would mean broken bones. His hand moved higher, probing gently.
I locked eyes with him. I was lying very still, getting used to the feeling of the rubbery mat under my back. I knew moving would hurt.
His hand reached the top of my ribcage and he stopped there. He let out a sort of pant of exasperation. “You were meant to block that, you feckin’ idiot!” But his eyes didn’t sayangry.His eyes were terrified...and relieved.
“Sorry,” I whispered.
We stared at one another. He was looking at me the way a mother looks at the child she’s just dragged out of the path of a truck. Then, as the seconds passed, the fear and relief died away. And....
Both of us seemed to become aware of where his hand was at the same time. His palm was under my t-shirt, right at the top of my ribcage. The edge of his hand was pushed up against the underside of my breast, lifting it a little. The heat of him throbbed into me.
And then suddenly his other hand was cupping my cheek, the tips of his fingers in my hair, and his mouth was coming down on mine.
25
SYLVIE
It happened so fastthat I only just had time to close my eyes. A firework went off in my brain, its explosions spelling outYES!
His lips were hard and hot, capturing mine and pushing them wide, demanding I open. I’ve never experienced such a moment of going weak as when those lips hit mine. It was as if two week’s worth of pent-up male frustration poured into me. All those times he’d looked at me. All those times one of us had pushed the other away.
I opened, feeling weirdly perfumed and soft under his aggression. Yet when his tongue touched me, it didn’t plunge in. His lips held mine braced open, my mouth vulnerable, while the tip of his tongue just licked around the very inside of my lips, every hot contact sending a scorching shudder through my body. I writhed under him, the throbbing in my side melting into insignificance as the pleasure soaked down through me. His knee was between my legs and—God, I could feel the hot, hard tip of him pressing against my thigh through our clothes. Throbbing. Ready.
His tongue finally met mine, dancing with it, both of us panting together as things slid inexorably in one direction. His hand brushed down my ribs, going lightly over the place it hurt, barely brushing myskin. Then it returned, this time pushing harder when it reached my breast. My whole body went tense. Would he—
His hand slid smoothly up over the soft flesh with no hesitation. His hand captured my breast and gently squeezed and, even through the thickness of the sports bra, it felt amazing. Where his thumb rubbed across the naked skin, it felt as if it left a burning trail. I immediately wanted his hands all over me, both of us naked, our bodies rubbing together until every damn inch of me had felt him.
I moaned up into his mouth, my tongue fighting with his, desperate to sample him. He was hardness and brute strength and salty, raw power.
He reluctantly broke the kiss, leaving two last panting kisses on my lower lip, and said. “Let’s go somewhere else.” And then he was lifting me up to my feet and then, almost immediately, heaving me up over the ropes and down to the floor, swinging me through the air like a doll. He jumped down beside me and pulled off our helmets, then stripped off our gloves. He grabbed my hand and towed me towards the locker room.
Themen’slocker room.
Just as we got to the door, he pushed me up against the wall and said, “Wait.” He kissed me again and it pinned me there as securely as a butterfly speared with a pin.
