Unlikely Match, page 6
He read what I had and hadn’t said and sobered in response. “Is…that an order?”
Flames of desire fanned into an inferno. “Yes. It is.”
The briefest hint of a smile played about his lips and he nodded before slipping between the ropes and making a purposeful line straight to his office. A nearly audible snick sounded in the recesses of my mind and I hoped I wouldn’t fuck the entire thing up, because this was the closest to perfection that I’d ever experienced.
I focused on breathing in and out and desperately trying to prepare myself for the sight of Clayton completely naked. It wouldn’t be the first time, but I couldn’t imagine it would ever be anything short of an exquisite masterpiece—not only because his body was chiseled to perfection, but also because he was offering himself to me.
One, two, three… I counted each step I took that led to his office door and sucked in a lungful of air before twisting the knob. It could have been my inexperience or possibly just that he was that much of a magnificent creature, but Clayton James, once again on his knees for me, was an indescribably stunning image.
His head was bent and his hands rested on his thighs, palms up. “You didn’t say where and how you wanted me, so I went with my default.”
My heart stuttered, skipped about three beats, then raced to catch up. The man was speaking to too many parts of me at once and the tidal wave overwhelmed me. “On your feet, face the desk and hold on.”
With a grace that belied his size, Clayton rose and went into the exact position I’d described. He was beautifully obedient.
Unable to resist the creamy skin of his back, still glistening from our sparring, I ran my fingertips down his spine. “Where do you keep it?” We both knew what I meant and where it was going, but when he pointed to the left desk drawer without further explanation, my heart swelled.
There was a less than zero chance that this was going to be a lengthy session. Days without him combined with the surge in power I found in his presence and were sprinkled with a heavy dose of constantly mounting emotions to almost completely deplete my willpower.
I grabbed the supplies and positioned myself behind him again. I slid the condom onto my aching dick with one hand and flicked open the lube bottle with the other. Clayton shivered when I smeared the cold liquid on his ass.
One coated finger made him suck in a deep breath. I kissed between his shoulder blades and added a second digit. By the time I had three moving slowly inside him, he was whimpering. It was the sexiest fucking sound I’d ever heard.
“Please.”
His plaintive whisper would surely be my undoing. I made a mental note to figure out the secrets Dominants held, because I’d gladly give him everything in this moment. “You sure you’re ready, big boy?”
Something between a chuckle and a frustrated huff escaped his lips. “I’ve been waiting for this since you first walked in. I’m more than ready.”
We’d definitely discuss that statement further, but right now I was on nearly as desperate a plane as he was and needed the full Clayton James experience. I replaced my fingers with my dick, my deep, visceral groan twining with his to echo off the walls.
I reached around him and firmly gripped his hardened length. I slid my still-lubricated hand up and down the shaft easily. “Prove it.” I sank my teeth into the flesh between his shoulder and neck as I thrust hard and fast into his delicious ass. “Prove that you wanted this, that you want me.”
He arched his neck and damn near growled. “You…have…no idea.” He panted out the words and pushed back, meeting my every move. “From the second you walked in, I wanted you and your smartass mouth.”
My muscles tensed, already drawing so close to the release I needed. “Show me it’s true. I wanna see you come, big boy.”
Clayton’s knuckles whitened on the desk and a loud, guttural roar accompanied the twitching of his dick in my hand. He flopped against the smooth wooden surface just as I allowed myself to tumble over the edge of pleasure behind him. Stars swirled in my vision and I barely managed to keep my legs beneath me.
As I rested my forehead on his back, words like ‘love’ and ‘commitment’ danced through my mind and taunted my rapidly firing heart. We weren’t there yet, but I was certain I wanted to work toward that with him. Fuck the age difference, the physical disparity and every other roadblock. I wanted to explore a life with him.
A quickie with Clayton James had managed to change my life.
Chapter Thirteen
Clayton
“I need an answer.”
The blackness that enveloped me as I closed my eyes didn’t offer the magical solution I was looking for. Every part of me wanted to just give Neil the ‘yes’ he was looking for. Hell, I’d already adjusted my diet and upped my daily workouts to be at the level they had been when I was training for a match. My soul begged me to agree.
Before I could utter a word, my door creaked open and my heart immediately picked up its pace as Tyler poked his head inside. He stood in the large opening and gestured between him and the chair, with eyebrows raised.
I nodded and managed to completely forget Neil on the other end of the call until he cleared his throat. “Sorry, Neil.”
His frustration rolled across the line. “Clayton, they want this match scheduled in six weeks and plan to promote the hell out of it. I need to know… Are you in or out?” A half beat of silence passed. “If you come out of retirement for this, we will be rich from a single event—far beyond anything you’ve done in the past.”
My gaze fell from greedily devouring Tyler’s perfect posture, across the desk from me, to the drawer on my left housing the bank statements that turned my stomach. When I’d started fighting, I’d been broke, but I had also been used to it. Sleeping with three other guys in a dingy hotel room as we traveled around to local fights hadn’t been a hardship.
But as my fame grew, so had my bank account. High profile pay-per-views had meant nice paydays for me, which made being in a position where I had to decide between the gym that I’d spent so many years planning and dreaming of or having a future somewhere above the poverty line that much harder.
I drew my gaze up and locked it with Tyler’s startling emerald one. The desire to make him proud of me churned my gut in a way that should have concerned me, given the fact that we’d only known each other a few weeks. But…it didn’t. Just like everything else with Tyler, it just seemed right. “I’m in.”
Neil gave a loud whoop and launched into a long diatribe about promotions and press tours that I completely tuned out. Tyler propped his ankle on the opposite knee and tilted his head to one side and I was helpless to focus on anything that wasn’t him.
How the hell does this kid manage to occupy so much of my brain by simply existing?
“Neil, I need to go. Email me whatever info I need.” I dropped the receiver into the cradle before he could give me shit for bailing.
Tyler motioned toward the phone. “Everything okay there?”
I leaned back in my office chair and scratched my close-cropped head. “Yeah, just my former manager—or current manager. Hell, I don’t know what he is other than a pain in my ass.”
He narrowed his gaze in the same damned way he always did when he saw to impossible depths inside me. “Do you have a few minutes?”
My dick immediately twitched at the fairly innocuous question, hopeful for the reason behind it. “Yeah, of course. What’s up?”
Tyler lowered his foot to the ground, rested his elbows on his knees, linked his hands together and leaned forward. “I’m gonna be that guy.”
His face was impassive, which annoyed me. I’d have loved a hint as to what was going on in that brilliant mind of his.
“I told you before that I don’t do casual. I can’t—not with Lolli and definitely not now that she has met you.” He pressed his lips together and rolled his eyes. “And she’s apparently in love with you. So I am going to be the guy that needs definition to the relationship. What are we to you?”
I held my breath for a moment and mentally weighed what I wanted to say versus what I thought he’d want to hear.
“Let me tell you what I’m in this for.” He straightened his back and held his palms facing me. “You have no obligation to agree to this, but I’m going to be honest. I get that I’m a decade younger than you and I’m sure as hell am not suggesting we elope to Vegas tonight, but I want you to be my boyfriend. I want to see where this goes.” The green orbs behind his thick frames glowed up at me. “And the more I’ve read and talked to experienced people, the more I want you as my submissive.”
Every nerve ending tingled as he spoke. A cacophony of butterflies knocked out an erratic calypso beat against my stomach. The buzzing in my ears was so loud that I nearly missed his next words.
“But that is a choice only you can make.” His voice was even, measured and spoke directly to my soul. “You’d have to choose to allow me the privilege of being your Dominant and have patience as I learn.” He leaned across the desk and grabbed my slightly trembling hand. “No matter your choice, I need to thank you for planting a seed, because a very large piece of my puzzle snapped into place when I began learning. Every bit of it feels so right to me.”
My voice was silenced by a swell of emotion. When I’d first dipped my toes into the D/s waters, I had immediately gravitated toward submission and found my peace, my center and my purpose there. I’d had the same revelation Tyler was having before me and it was stunning to see it unfold.
“You’re okay with the age difference?” I still wasn’t convinced a twenty-five-year-old college student would be into a middle-aged former athlete with gray forming around his temples. Maybe my semi-celebrity status held some appeal, but a decade was a large gap that might not be able to be bridged.
He settled back in his seat. “My mom bailed when I was a kid and I was basically raised around adults from the time I was three. Add in the whole being responsible for another human being when you’re only twenty-one thing and you mature pretty damn fast.” Tyler’s mouth twitched with a repressed grin. “And as long as I have free rein to give you shit about your age.”
I closed my eyes and groaned as I dropped my head back. “I can’t believe I’m someone’s boyfriend at thirty-fucking-five years old.”
Tyler stood, rounded the desk and dropped his chuckling self square onto my lap. “Problem with the title there, big boy?”
The thin barrier of my athletic shorts did nothing to disguise the immediate effect of his body on mine. “Not in the slightest.”
Chapter Fourteen
Tyler
I propped my shoulder against the doorframe that led to Clayton’s office and took a minute to just drink him in. The man was gorgeous. He knew it—not in an obnoxiously arrogant sort of way, but more a quiet confidence, which was basically the sexiest thing in the world.
“You’re kind of hot when you’re all serious.”
He popped his head up from the papers he’d been staring at and grinned at me. “I guess I need to be super serious more often.”
I pushed off the wooden frame and walked over to his desk. A precise typed contract lay on the flat calendar in front of him. “What’s that?”
A dark crimson stained his cheeks and he averted his gaze. “It’s why I’ve been training so hard and sparring with you. My manager—well…former manager, I guess, and temporarily my current manager—booked me another match.” He shrugged casually, but his features were strained. “It’s supposed to be a one-time-only retirement comeback. It will mean lots of hype, lots of publicity and lots of money.”
Without pressing further, I made a mental note to come back to this at another time. I didn’t have a clue why he’d retired in the first place. It was definitely something I should know about someone I was committed to. “You’ve got a deadline with that thing or can I kidnap you?”
Clayton stood and wrapped an arm around my waist, pulling me firmly against him. “It isn’t really kidnapping if the kidnappee is willing.” He dropped his lips onto mine in a gentle massage that was sweet and tender.
But not nearly enough. I cupped the back of his head and firmed my mouth on his. Clayton pressed his fingers into my spine and the proof of my effect on him pushed against my thigh.
“Geez, can’t you guys get a room?”
Joey’s deep bass voice broke us apart. Clayton snatched the papers from the desk with his free hand and shoved them into the top center drawer. I ground my molars together and added a large gold star beside the mental note to discuss the upcoming match. Joey is his best friend. What the hell is the big secret?
“Technically this is a room, bro. It’s my office. Ya know, that thing called ‘personal space’?” The laugh Clayton offered was strained and inauthentic. “What do ya need, J?”
Joey’s brown eyes twinkled mischievously. “Mind if I head out? My last appointment canceled and…well…”
A genuine smile tugged at the corners of Clayton’s mouth. “And Larissa wants you to come over. Or Chantel. Or Angela.”
“Ashley, man… Ashley.” Joey winked and threw up a hand. “I’ll lock up on my way out. See you boys on the flip side.”
Once Joey had exited the front door and securely locked it, Clayton wrapped both arms around me and pulled me firmly to him. “Wanna tell me more about this kidnapping plan of yours?”
I shook my head and disentangled myself from his embrace. “Nope. I have no intentions of divulging my criminal plans.” I scanned his body, pretending to analyze his attire when I was actually devouring the man visually the way I wanted to physically. “Got anything a little more ‘dress casual’ than athletic shorts and a sleeveless tee?” I walked my fingers up the valley on his chest between the solid pectoral muscles, once more questioning how I’d gotten so damned lucky. “Not that I mind my current view.”
Clayton dipped his chin and drew his brows together. “I have a polo shirt and khaki shorts in the closet.” He gestured to the door at the back of his office. “But why?”
His questioning expression was entirely too adorable to resist and I caved, pressing my lips on his slightly pouting ones. “It’s called a date, big boy. We’ve had fun”—I closed my eyes as the memory of the escapades we’d indulged in in this very room played out in my mind’s eye—“a lot of it. But that doesn’t mean we don’t need to date.”
All the confusion melted from his face and was replaced with a glow that was mirrored in my heart. “We’ve had dates. Game nights with Lolli, homework cram sessions—”
I shook my head. “Those don’t count. I’m talking a real date, just you and me—no flash cards, no little sister, no board games.”
He pulled his lower lip between his teeth and hesitated for half the beat of my rapidly firing heart before erupting into a bright grin. “Give me five minutes.”
Four minutes and thirty seconds later, he raced back into the room as I was scrolling through emails on my phone. His heavy breathing brought my gaze up from the device, but the electric blue of his polo shirt brought the vivid color of his eyes out even more prominently and left me speechless.
“Ready?” He gasped out the single word between gulps of air. “I took a super-fast shower so I won’t stink up the joint.”
Did he really expect me to sit across from him at dinner and through the entire comedy show I’d booked for us while he looked like a fucking model? Hell no. I was definitely not ready. I shook my head slowly and backed him against the wall. “Ya know, I was ready until you showed up looking hotter than hell.” I snapped open the button fly on his shorts and slid the zipper down, the hiss of the metal echoing the sound that escaped between Clayton’s lips. “But if I have to spend the night being tortured by you, I think it’s only fair you suffer too.”
I pulled him free and stroked his thick shaft up and down as my lips found the sensitive spot on his neck that I’d practically memorized. I rotated my hand as I moved it along his length.
“Damn, Clayton, you taste almost as good as you smell.” I licked up the column from his shoulder to his ear and sucked on the lobe. “Do you trust me?”
“Completely.” The gravelly tone of his voice was enough to make me grin.
I dropped to my knees in front of him, pausing when his dick was centimeters from my mouth. “Good answer.”
A thud reverberated through the room as I wrapped my lips around his cock and his head hit the wall behind him. His low groan vibrated through his whole body including where we were joined. I twisted my hand around the base as I moved up and down, caressing him with my tongue as I went. I flexed my throat around the tip every time it reached the back. When his thighs shook, I pulled him free, licked across the slit and stood.
“What the hell—?”
I pressed a finger to his lips to silence him. “Trust me, Clayton. I promise I will make you feel so good…but later.” I patted his cheek and gave him a chaste kiss. “I’ll be waiting in my car for you to…collect yourself.”
Chapter Fifteen
Clayton
I will not beg. I will not beg. I will not beg.
The mantra I repeated infinitely in my brain did absolutely nothing to strengthen my resolve and, even though I wanted to kick my own ass, I still snagged Tyler’s hand and squeezed while the opening act was on stage. “The bathroom here is a single. We could…finish what we started.”
He kicked up the corner of his mouth in a half grin and untangled his fingers from mine to drop down and grip my inner thigh. “Patience, big boy.”
Frowning at him and snarling slightly did not have the intended effect when he laughed and leaned over to drop a kiss on my decidedly unsmiling lips. It was a move that surprised me. Even though the lighting in the comedy club was low, there wouldn’t have been any doubt from any other patron that this was a romantic outing.
