Consumed Read online

  “You lied!” she shouted as she sprinted ahead and disappeared into the water.

  She treaded water with the lake up to her neck.

  “It was an accident,” I lied again. “I had something in my eye.”

  She splashed water in my face and it was on. I splashed back and then started to chase her. She swam away. It was obvious she had swum a lot in her life- she was extremely fast.

  “Keep that thing away from me!” she screamed.

  “What “thing” are you referring to?” I laughed.

  She was funny although I knew she wasn’t trying to be. She couldn’t even say the actual name of the “thing”.

  “You know what thing I’m talking about. That thing you can’t seem to keep in your pants.”

  The moon was shining on her pretty face, and I think she actually blushed. I stopped for a minute to admire her and then the little vixen splashed me again. She swam further away, giggling. This time I sneakily caught up with her and got ahold of her foot. She was squealing and kicking at me.

  “Stop. I’m ticklish.”

  She shouldn’t have admitted that, it just spurred me on. Using the leverage I had holding onto her foot, I was able to work my way up to tickle her flat little belly. She squirmed around like a fish, inadvertently brushing against parts of my body that were thrilled by her touch.

  “Oh my god! That thing!” she shrieked.

  She finally wriggled away and took off again. She found a little log that was hanging low over the lake and grabbed hold of it. I was really hoping she would pull herself up and sit on it- there’s nothing hotter than a cute girl in wet underwear. She didn’t give me that thrill though. Instead, she used the leverage to kick out at me with her feet.

  Since I was sure that nothing more serious than the play we were engaged in was going to happen, I decided I should change the subject.

  “I have a fight coming up in two weeks. It’s a big one, you should come.”

  “Fight? Uh, I don’t know… A couple of guys punching each other in the face just doesn’t really do it for me.”

  “I know it would be hard to watch someone pounding on my pretty face, but it doesn’t happen much. I’m fast and I’m tough. One or two punches and a few swift kicks and they’re usually on their ass underneath me.”

  She laughed.

  “Yeah, it was your pretty face I was worried about since I know how big of a wimp you are,” she joked. “So, you’re allowed to kick? That sounds a little harsh.”

  “Haven’t you ever seen a MMA or an Ultimate Fighting match?”

  “I’ve watched a bit here or there at bars or parties when they were showing. They just seem so violent. Why do you do that?”

  “I’m good at it, and I make a lot of money when I win. Did you see my truck? That was bought and paid for with all the money I won at our state tournament last year.”

  “Interesting, wouldn’t it be less painful to get a real job?”

  I laughed. Her humor was unbelievably cute. Damn I wanted to get her in my bed.

  “I suppose, but not as much fun. Besides, I wouldn’t have this incredibly hot body if I was working at a gas station or bussing tables.” Now she laughed at something that wasn’t meant to be funny. She didn’t explain herself either. I considered being insulted, briefly, but she had to be kidding.

  “So… if I decide to go, what should I expect?” she asked, still clinging to the log.

  “This is a big one. My trainer has sixty four guys signed up. We fight three five minute rounds just like they do in the real MMA matches. There are three judges, and they score each round with ten points to the winner and the other guy gets nine or less, depending on how good or bad he is. You can also get points deducted for penalties. A guy can win the match with ten points from the judges, but then actually end up losing when his penalties are deducted. Or you can win by knocking the other guy out.”

  She swam over closer to me. My charm was finally working. She stopped about three feet from me, just out of my reach.

  “So in a fight where kicking is legal what would you get a penalty for?”

  “Oh there are lots of things. You can’t hold onto the cage or their clothes. You can’t head butt. For that, my pretty face is grateful,” I told her with a grin. “You’re not allowed to bite or spit or eye gouge, and most importantly and notable of all, no groin attacks of any kind are allowed. The boys stay safe. I still wear a cup though, just to be sure.”

  “You really think about that thing a lot, don’t you?” she questioned me.

  I reached for her, and she wasn’t expecting it. I pulled her forward into my chest and my “thing” brushed against her thigh. She acted like she’d gotten bit by a snake. I was beginning to wonder if she was a lesbian. Her breathing picked up causing her breasts to rise and fall against me. She wiggled away, pushing me back before splashing at me again. I gave pursuit. I was raging of hormones. I was going to have to make some phone calls after I took Emmi home.

  “So what are you majoring in at school?” I asked, swimming close enough to shore where I could stand but not reveal my lower half.

  “I’m just majoring in business for now.”

  “Why?” I asked.

  “I’m just not sure what I want to be when I grow up,” she said with a smile. “What about you?”

  “Computer science.”

  Wow, that just slipped out. She was the first girl in three years that I told that to. I usually say business. I know it sounds weird, but I went all the way through high school with a dick, and the only one who ever touched it was me. I was super-smart, and I suppose, super-nerdy.

  I didn’t even realize it until I started reading up on what I could do to get girls to have sex with me. I spent the whole summer between my senior year in high school and my freshman year in college changing my image. It was more than just working on my body and the way I dressed. It was a whole new approach to girls, one of them being the theory that girls don’t really like smart guys. They like the jocks whose brains have been crushed by the helmets of other jocks. So, if a girl asked me what I was majoring in I would always say “business.” It made me sound average, and so far it was working like a charm. I was making my way through the junior class this year, already having had the freshman and sophomores that appealed to me. I have no idea why I just told this girl that I really wanted to screw that I was basically Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory. Nice.

  “Hmm,” she said. “And then what do you do, once you get a computer science degree?”

  “I’ll tell you. But remember the “no cock-blocking” rule? You can’t repeat anything that’s said here to anyone I may want to sleep with.”

  She grinned and said, “So no one with a vagina and boobs then?”

  I laughed and said, “Basically, but within a certain demographic, of course.”

  “Okay,” she said, laughing as well. “I’m sworn to secrecy.”

  “I want to be a computer systems analyst. They work with companies making software that is designed to increase their profits. They make good money.”

  “Amazing. So you do use more than one of your heads to think.”

  I splashed her now and said, “Rarely though. The southern head is in charge most of the time. You should meet him.”

  She squealed and swam off towards the other side of the shore.

  “Close your eyes, and keep them closed until I get behind the pickup. I’m going to get dressed,” she informed.

  “Really? I’ve already seen it all.”

  “You wish! Close your eyes.”

  I did, but not tight. I saw her cute little ass sway back and forth, climbing out of the water and heading for the truck.

  “There are two towels in the back,” I hollered after her.

  She reached in and pulled out the towels and wrapped one around herself. By the time she turned back around, I was already out.

  “Jeez,” she said as I saw her eyes dart downward and then close. “Have you no shame?
”

  I grinned at her, held my arms out to the sides and said, “What’s there to be ashamed of?”

  She rolled her eyes and went around behind the truck to get dressed.

  “You really don’t know what you’re missing!” I told her.

  I heard her say, “Oh, I think I do.”

  Really that’s all she said, “Oh, I think I do.” What the heck did that mean?

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  EMMI

  About a week after Braxton and I went to the lake my biology class had a field trip to the zoo. I know, it sounds like something you would do in elementary school but it wasn’t your normal ‘walk in a line holding hands and looking at the animals’ kind of trip. We would actually get to go behind the scenes and talk to the trainers. We would watch them feed the animals, bathe them, and hear about their habitats. I was actually excited about it. When I was a kid my parents had taken me one summer to do the “zookeeper” for a day program at our local zoo. Ours was just a tiny little zoo but I had a blast anyway.

  We were meeting at the front entrance of the zoo at six a.m. which meant I had to be up by four in order to get dressed, ready, and catch the bus that would get me there on time. I had told Braxton this the night before. Only problem was when I had come home from the library Braxton was watching a movie in the living room.

  Talk about a distraction.

  “Hey,” I said softly.

  He smiled, doing that thing to my stomach that his smile always did even when I tried to fight it.

  “Hey, I just started this. Do you want to watch it with me?”

  He was lying on the couch, so I sat down in the chair across from him and asked, “What is it?”

  “Grudge Match.”

  I wrinkled my nose. I hadn’t meant to, but I saw Fight Club a long time ago and I just absolutely hated it. Fighter movies weren’t my thing.

  “I’ll probably just take a shower and get some homework done. No offense, but I don’t really care for fighter movies.”

  “I’m not starring in it,” he said with another grin, “So no offense taken. It’s not really a fighter movie though. It’s a comedy.”

  “Who’s in it?” I asked him.

  “Robert DeNiro and Sylvester Stallone.”

  “They’re kind of old for fighting.”

  They both had to be older than my grand pop.

  He chuckled.

  “Yeah, sometimes old guys don’t know that though. The movie is about them coming out of retirement to finish an old match they never got to have. It’s supposed to be funny. Watch it with me.”

  He patted the couch next to him. I raised an eyebrow. What happened to the cocky Braxton that only wanted to get in my pants?

  “Okay. I’m going to change and I’ll be back.”

  As I was leaving the room he yelled after me, “Change into something red and skimpy.”

  And he was back.

  I didn’t even acknowledge him. I’m sure that was a reference to my red underwear the night we had gone swimming. I went to my room and searched through my drawer, at last finding what I was looking for. It was a red velour jogging suit that fit me loose. I put that on and ran a brush through my hair and went back out to the living room. He had sat up on the couch and when he saw me he laughed.

  “What?” I asked, narrowing my eyes. “It’s red. You want some popcorn?”

  “Yes,” he answered. “I was hoping you’d offer.”

  I went to the kitchen and put a bag in the microwave.

  When it dinged he yelled out, “Not too much salt.”

  I rolled my eyes again. In spite of him continually hitting on me, it was fun hanging out with him. I poured it into two bowls and salted mine and carried his to the living room with the salt shaker.

  “Here, I didn’t want to overdo it,” I told him, handing him his bowl.

  He grinned again and snatched the bowl away. I think he just did that because he knew what it did to me sometimes. I sat back down in the chair.

  “I sat up so you can sit by me you know. I promise to keep my hands to myself.”

  I gave him a look that I thought said, “You better,” and I moved over. It was just because the angle of the television was a lot better from there.

  He pushed play and started the movie. He was right, it was really funny. Robert DeNiro and Sylvester Stallone both did a great job of poking fun at themselves about being old. He kept his promise and kept his hands to himself and I was kind of proud of him for that too. I’m sure I’m an anomaly to him. I can’t imagine there are many women our age who wouldn’t be delighted for him to touch them. It’s not that I didn’t think him touching me would be great; it’s just all of the complications that it would lead to. I know myself, and I would get emotionally attached. I honestly didn’t want that again right now. I was still reeling from what had happened with Trent.

  I also had a good idea that roommate or not, Braxton was always only looking for a good time. I was sure that when he was finished having that with me, he would move on to the next girl and I’d be stuck living with a guy I was emotionally attached to and listening to him having sex down the hall every other night with a different girl. It just all seemed way too complicated and unnecessary to me.

  When the movie was over I started to get up.

  “Where are you going? It’s still early. I have another movie.”

  I looked at the clock. It was almost ten, which meant I had to be up in six hours.

  “I have to be up at four,” I told him. “I’m not exactly a morning person and I don’t want to sleep through my alarm.”

  “What the hell are you getting up at four for? Are you going fishing?” he joked with a wide grin.

  “No way.”

  I told him about my biology class “field trip” and the fact that I’d have to get the bus all the way across town in order to get there on time.

  “I’ll take you,” he said, simply.

  “Oh no, I wouldn’t ask you to do that.”

  I hoped he didn’t think I was fishing for an offer.

  “You didn’t ask, I offered. Plus, I don’t mind. You can sleep an extra hour then, and stay up now and watch another movie with me. It’s a win/win,” he exclaimed, winking.

  “Well, if I’m only getting an hour, we can only watch half of a movie.”

  “Okay,” he agreed. “But if we’re only watching half it has to be one that I’ve already seen. How about The Wolf of Wall Street?” he said.

  I agreed, not knowing exactly what that one was. It was intense, sexually and I didn’t want to look like a prude and leave in the middle of it, so I endured with a red face and a body that would probably break a thermometer if you stuck it in my mouth. I never realized how hard it was to watch a sexually charged movie with a hot guy before and not want to touch him. He sat through it straight faced and unabashed. I’m assuming that’s because he had already seen it all firsthand at some point in his life. Needless to say, I was relieved when the hour was up.

  “Are you sure you don’t mind taking me in the morning? It’s not too late for me to set my alarm for four.”

  “I don’t mind. Thanks for watching the movies with me.”

  He sounded genuinely grateful, and that struck me as funny because I know that he could get practically any girl on campus to watch a movie with him any time.

  “Yeah, no problem. Good-night, Braxton.”

  “Night, Emmi.”

  I laid in my bed for another hour… or two thinking about him. I wish his eyes weren’t so green, his teeth so white, or his muscles so big. I wish I could think of one negative thing to say about him except that he’s a womanizer. The truth was all men his age were or would not mind it. I finally drifted off to sleep with a vision of him wet, with a towel wrapped around his waist, and the moonlight glowing on his head.

  I woke up when the alarm went off. It seemed like it was only minutes later instead of hours. I didn’t want to get up. I had to remind myself how much fun the trip
would be, and when that didn’t work, I reminded myself that Braxton was driving me. I hated to admit it, but that was what got me out of bed.

  As I showered and dressed I kept thinking I should see if he was up. If he slept through his alarm or didn’t set it, then I would never get the right bus and get there on time now. I wasn’t brave enough yet though to knock on his bedroom door, so after I was ready I went to the kitchen instead to make some coffee.

  At five thirty he emerged from his room, dressed and ready to go. Damn him if he didn’t even look good first thing in the morning. He poured himself a mug of coffee and gave me the once-over with his eyes like he normally did. Shamefully, I had begun to watch for the satisfied look he got when he finished.

  “Ready?”

  “Yeah,” I told him. “Just let me grab my bag.”

  CHAPTER NINE

  BRAXTON

  I think I was finally wearing her down. She did that thing with the sweat suit the night before, but I’d bet my next big underground fight purse that it wouldn’t be long before I had her walking around the house naked. It’d eventually lead her to being naked in my bed. I was just going to have to keep reminding myself that this one was different and my old tactics weren’t going to work.

  She went to get her bag and I watched that round little butt in her tight designer jeans leave the room. I used to think that all girls knew they were doing that, and it was like a game to them. I have to think now that I’ve gotten to know Emmi a little better though that she really has no clue how fucking good she looks.

  She doesn’t think about sex and I’ve started to think that getting dressed to her was just that… getting dressed. She wasn’t plotting out her outfits to turn me on; it was just like a side-effect.

  “Okay, I’m ready,” she said when she got back.

  She followed me out to my truck and I opened her door, tightly holding onto her hand as she climbed up. I wish I could say I did it because it was the gentlemanly thing to do, but the truth was I just really wanted another up close look at that sweet ass.

  I found out that she talks a lot in the morning. I don’t usually like conversation that early. Mornings were for sleep and sex as far as I was concerned, but it was kind of cute the way she was so excited about her little field trip. I just listened to her talk and I didn’t say much.