Nalah was about to make an excuse to leave when one of the Tiffany clones bounced in, excitement in every overexaggerated feature. “Omigods, you’ll never believe it! Nalah, you missed your man!”
Nalah began to say “What did I miss?” but excitement girl began talking in rushed sentences before Nalah was even half-finished. “Esh’s turn, right? And he looks at the three other fighters in his block, and he goes and says, ‘I’ll fight them all at once. They aren’t worth any more of my time.’ Like, he really says that, he’s just going to fight them all! And everyone’s yelling, and those other fighters were so pissed, and they said sure.”
Tiffany put a hand on the woman. “Sweetie, sweetie, slow down. Esh fought three other fighters at the same time?”
“Gods yes! And they all ganged up on him, because of course they would, he so insulted them by doing that, and. Esh. Won! Can you believe that? Three fighters at once, and then he just left without saying anything.”
Nalah was out the door and down the stairs and across the uneven pavement and back in her apartment before thought caught up to her. Only when she saw Esh sitting in the chair, his head leaning back across the top and his eyes closed, did she remember last night and why he might not be happy to see her.
Esh’s eyes opened and he moved his head to the side to see her, though he didn’t lift it from where it rested. “News travels.”
“You’re the talk of the women.” She stepped in front of him, his gaze and head following her. “Everyone is very impressed. I’m sure you’re going to be stalked tonight.”
“You know me, I live for the limelight.”
Each of her twenty-two years mocked her for her inexperience right now. As she stood before him, Nalah catalogued the lines and scars and the bone-deep something each plane of his body displayed, all of which told how he lived on the front lines.
She didn’t know what she was doing, but it was time to take steps forward, make experiences, no matter if they were ultimately mistakes.
Her body trembling, Nalah moved forward, one step, then two, until she was before him, until she climbed onto the chair with her legs straddling his, until her face was close enough that mouths could meet and tongues could tangle together.
His skin bordered on fever-hot, kindling a matching fire in her, a desire to burrow into that warmth and let it engulf her. Strong, calloused fingers stroked over her jaw and throat, turning her head so he could deepen the kiss, meet her eager mouth in the longer strokes she craved.
Nalah may have been on top, but Esh controlled, only letting her move where he allowed, deepen the kisses and touches to where he desired them. She growled, and in defiance twisted her hips, the movement grinding her ass against his rock-hard cock.
“Fuck!” The exclamation was torn from him in a pained outburst and his hands shot out around her hips, halting the movement.
Not that it stopped her. She changed from twisting to a rolling motion, and his stuttered groan told he might even like that one more.
“Don’t do that. You are not making me a minute-man.”
A giggle burst from her, because right now his hair was in disarray and he looked both horny and pissed with a good bit of amused thrown in, and this man right here was the one she thought she’d spend all her life with, and it was so good to see him again.
He grumbled, but his own lips turned up in a smile before he leaned up and began attacking her neck, pressing against her those open-mouthed kisses that got her going but had everyone snickering around her the next day. She pulled his head back. “Nuh-uh, no marking.”
“But I like you marked.” As if to support his words, he made for her neck, only her hold keeping him back.
“Then mark me in other ways.” Nalah meant it to come out sexy, but her voice still had that breathless laughing quality, and Esh’s eyes lit up.
“That’s a challenge I’ll take any day,” he said, a wide grin, the first she had seen since they reunited, giving his face a near-boyish quality. Her heart stuttered to see that look on him again. “Let’s see, where to begin…”
He worked the buttons of her shirt, ignoring her slapping hand and her, “Hey! I didn’t say you could do that!” To distract her – the cheating bastard – he stretched up to capture her mouth in another kiss, and what a happy discovery to learn you could still kiss reasonably well through giggles.
In retaliation she went for his chest, which didn’t have a shirt covering it, but instead was left bare, and wasn’t it great that Esh had sensitive nipples? With a firm stroke she rubbed her thumbs over the hard brown points, eliciting another growl and the loss of a few buttons as her shirt was torn from her.