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  I looked at Sam and he looked like a proud new father. I thought it might have been the happiest he had ever been with me. I was going to the round of four. I was almost there, almost in that number one spot with that money in my pocket. Enough money to make sure my sister had everything she needed and that I had the kind of start in life that I wanted. The one that I had worked for and that I had accomplished all on my own. My chest swelled with pride as the referee continued to hold my arm up and the crowd continued to scream. I finally let my eyes have what they wanted. It only took them seconds to find her. Gorgeous Emmi, camera in hand. She was snapping photos and she was smiling and I thought I had never seen such a beautiful sight.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  EMMI

  I didn’t realize it until the fight was over, but I may have been holding my breath the whole time. It was so surreal to watch Braxton inside that cage. He was so focused and so intense. This fighting stuff was all brand new to me. I had never watched a cage fight in my life before I met him. Had I not met him, I doubted that I ever would have.

  I watched him dodge the other guy’s punches for a long time and as the crowd was yelling for someone to hit somebody I wanted to cheer him on for not getting hit. When the guy started really connecting in the second round I felt like I was getting punched myself, only right in the gut. I winced each time, especially if it was close to one of the spots where he had been hurt before recently. My stomach was aching and I had to force myself to stay focused on the fight and keep snapping pictures. I didn’t have to take the pictures but for some reason I didn’t want Braxton to know I had only come to see him. I audibly winced again when the other guy kicked Braxton in his sore knee. The guy next to me cheered. I thought about kicking him in the nuts. That had to hurt like hell, and kudos to Braxton for staying on his feet.

  After he won, I saw him look at me. It was the first time he had all night. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t know that I was there or if he was just too focused to care. Our eyes met just for a second and I knew that it was probably wishful thinking on my part but I believed that I could see real emotion in his, directed at me. I smiled at him and gave him a quick thumbs up sign. I saw his gorgeous smile for a brief minute before the referee dragged him away. As the referee held his arm up to the crowd I moved in close and snapped photo after photo of him going from slightly dazed to realizing that once again he was a champion. It was kind of a beautiful thing to watch. His whole face was lit up and I could tell that he was visualizing his future. I hoped that he won the next one too and the one after that. He really had worked hard for it and I believed he deserved the best out of life.

  I took some pictures of the crowd as Braxton made his way to the locker room with his big coach, or whatever he was, in tow. They were high-fiving him and reaching out, trying to touch his arms or shoulders. As usual, the girls were swooning. He gave a few of them his palm to slap, but he seemed like he really just wanted to get out of there. I was glad to see that he completely ignored the girl who wanted him to take a pair of her panties out of her hand and another who was flashing him her skimpy bra which was filled with a pair of humongous boobs.

  I had this overwhelming desire to follow him…so I did. It was like I was on auto-pilot. I didn’t even try to stop myself. I didn’t know what I would say when I got there, all I knew was that I wanted to see him and I didn’t want to wait.

  When I reached the locker room door I realized what I was doing and what I hoped to happen. I didn’t just want to see him. Those realizations made me almost chicken out and turn around and leave. I didn’t know what I was going to say to him. I still knew that I wasn’t ready for any of that love stuff, but I was tired of dancing around the fact that I still really wanted to be with him. I felt like I was constantly fighting urges lately. I was aching to be with him and tired of denying myself when he was right there, ready, willing, and more than able. I wanted to talk to him like we used to talk, like friends. I wanted to touch him like we had started to touch for a while, like lovers. I wanted him back the way we were before Trent had come back into my life for about ten seconds and screwed it all up. Leave it to Trent, he was an expert at wreaking havoc in my life. Taking a deep breath I shoved open the door quickly before I lost my nerve and went inside.

  He was standing there with his trainer still in his fight shorts and no shirt.

  Braxton caught my eye and when the big guy turned around and saw me he said, “Well, it looks like you have company so I’m gonna step out for a bit. I meant what I said, kid, I couldn’t have been prouder if it were me out there. That was the way to do it. You can barely even tell you were in a fight.”

  Sam clapped him gently on the side of the head. It was heartening to watch, knowing that Braxton was lacking that kind of support from his own father. I could tell that Sam’s approval meant a lot to him. Sam smiled at me on his way out and I smiled back. When he was gone I looked back over at Braxton. Sam had already covered the two little spots on his face that were bleeding.

  “Hey,” I told him. “Nice fight, as far as fights go.”

  He grinned and my stomach did that thing again where it felt like pterodactyls had taken up residence in there.

  “Thanks,” he said. “So did you get some good shots for the paper?”

  “No,” I admitted. “I wasn’t here for the paper. Sarah covered this one herself.”

  He looked surprised and said, “Well, then why were you here? I saw you taking a lot of pictures.”

  “Yes, I did. I got some really great shots,” I told him. “But I wanted pictures for me. I might see if Sarah wants to look at them since I was actually closer than she was. I don’t know if she got any really good shots. If not, we’ll put them in the albums at your grandma’s house.”

  He laughed. “I don’t really take bad pictures,” he said in that cocky way of his that made you both want to strangle him and jump his bones at the same time. Then he must have remembered the ones that I had seen at his grandma’s house and he said, “Anymore, anyways.”

  I just shook my head and smiled at that.

  “I was honestly here because I wanted to be here for you. I miss you, Braxton. I miss us.” It took me a lot of courage to say that, it made me afraid to tell him how I really felt. If I said it out loud that made it more real and then when he walked away, I’d look like a bigger fool. I was finished talking now though, I wanted more than that tonight and somehow I had convinced myself that the rest of it could wait. My urges had taken over.

  Before he had a chance to say anything, I moved in closer to him and did what I had wanted to do for weeks now. I pressed my lips to his and tasted him. For just a fraction of a second he was startled, but then he got right into it. He put his hands on my hips and I could feel them shaking. I found myself hoping that was because of me and not the fight. He kissed me back and hard, letting his tongue slip in between my lips. I melted into him as we explored each other’s hot, wet mouths. It felt good to be kissing him again. His body, covered with a fine sheen of sweat felt so good against mine. My heart was pounding and I had to remind myself to breathe. We were both into it that it took several seconds for us to process the noise.

  It was the snap of a camera. I turned toward it and that’s when I saw Sarah standing there with her camera, grinning at me, or was she looking at Braxton? My head was still in the kiss. I wasn’t sure. She turned around as quickly as she had snuck in and she left. I looked at Braxton who looked like he was waiting to see what I was going to do. I followed her, but only as far as the door. I stopped there and twisted the lock until it clicked into place and then I went back over to him. He was grinning as I leaned back into him and resumed our kiss.

  Braxton used his hips to push me up against the massage table behind us. He had me pinned between him and the table and as we kissed he wrapped his hands up in my hair. He tugged on it gently as he sucked my bottom lip into his mouth. I could feel tingling and wetness beginning to spread between my legs. I wanted him so badly
I felt like I would die right there if I couldn’t have him. He broke our kiss and pulled back and looked at my face. He had fire in his eyes, the same hot flame that I could feel spreading through my belly.

  He started to kiss me again when we heard Sam yell, “Braxton! What the hell is going on in there? This school reporter’s asking questions about you. Come on out and talk to her.”

  Funny that Sarah didn’t ask questions while she was in there. I would have to talk to her about that later though. Right now, I had one thing on my mind, and I was deliriously happy to see that Braxton did too.

  Braxton ignored Sam’s yelling and kissed me again. This time he kissed down across my jawline, and his lips landed on my neck. His hot breath and his tongue and his lips began making love to my neck and the goose bumps were racing down my back and both of my arms.

  “Braxton!” Sam wasn’t going away. Braxton sighed in frustration and put his forehead to mine. He looked into my eyes again, this time for a really long time.

  Seeing what he wanted to see there he grinned again and said, “Hey, Sam, give me a minute, will you?”

  I rubbed my pelvis against his. I loved feeling his erection pulse against me through his shorts, knowing how good it was going to feel once I finally got it inside of me. I ran my hand down his slippery chest. It was still saturated with sweat and it was turning me on more than I thought it would. I stopped at the top of his shorts and dipped my fingers just under the elastic. I felt him shiver.

  “Braxton!”

  “Shit! Sam! I said to give me a minute!”

  I mouthed, “Only one?”

  He smiled broadly then and said, “No, strike that, Sam… give me thirty!”

  He brushed his lips softly against mine, causing me to moan into him. As he teased me, he was unbuttoning my blouse and when he’d finished with that, he pushed it off my shoulders and let it fall to the floor. He kissed my neck as he reached around behind me and unclasped my bra. He let that slide to the floor too and when my breasts spilled out he groaned and then lowered his mouth down and took my left nipple in between his lips. He began to twirl it around his hot tongue and then he nibbled on it softly with his teeth, sending me into another dimension. He worked on the left one for a while and then he moved on to the other. I was shaking, quivering all over sure that I was going to have an orgasm just from his expert manipulation of my nipples. While he sucked on one, he played with the other between his fingers. I was soaking wet now and pumping my hips against him.

  He unbuttoned my shorts while he made love to my breasts with his mouth.

  “Oh, Braxton, that feels so good,” I whispered. My breath was almost completely gone, but I didn’t care. If I died at that moment, it would have been worth it.

  Once he’d gotten my shorts unzipped I helped him push them down and stepped out of them. I wanted his off now, and as I began to push on them, he put his hands on top of mine and helped me. His boxers came off with his shorts and his gorgeous manhood fell forward. I wanted to taste him; I wanted to make him feel good. I tried to drop to my knees but he stopped me.

  “Take a shower with me, Emmi. I need one.”

  A shower sounded fun and sexy. I took a step back and peeled off my panties. I tossed them into the discarded pile of clothes and took the hand he was holding out to me. He led me to the shower and as I waited, impatiently, he turned on the hot water. I saw him add a little bit of cold as the steam started to rise from the tiled floor. He stepped under the spray and led me in after him. He poured a generous amount of body wash or shampoo or whatever on his hand and he lathered himself up. The whole time he was kissing me and I helped him work the lather over his hard body, paying particular attention to those places it was hard for him to bend and reach. He turned away from me and as he rinsed off under the powerful spray I ran my hands across the ripples of his back…just helping him rinse.

  He turned so that he was facing me and then spun me around so the spray was at my back. I tried to kiss him again and he said, “I want to make this last. I’ve been dying to touch you for two weeks now. Let me touch you, Emmi…all of you.”

  I stood still and gave him a little nod. He reached around me and brushed his arm against the side of my breast causing me to shiver again. He grabbed the body wash and poured some more into his hands. He worked it into a lather and then he began massaging it into the top of my wet hair and pulling it through his fingers as he worked it in. He held my head in his hands and massaged my temples with his thumbs. I closed my eyes and slipped into a temporary coma as I let the erotic moment take me away.

  When he finished, he reached overhead and came back with the shower head in his hand. He held it over my head and rinsed the shampoo from my hair, using his hand to work it to the ends as he did. He stared into my eyes the whole time. It was sexy and a little bit unnerving all at the same time.

  Once all the shampoo was rinsed out, he aimed the spray at the top of my chest and began to sweep it from left to right and then back again. He worked slowly out over each arm and then back up to my neck. He reached back and started spraying it down my back as he leaned in and kissed me.

  The hot water on my back and his hot lips on mine was equivalent to the shock you get when you touch a live wire. Every fiber of my being felt alive and tingling. When he reached the small of my back I felt him change the setting on the showerhead, turning it up a notch. He aimed it at my ass and the force of it was like a mini-massage. He ran it down the backs of my thighs, as far as he could reach. The whole time our bodies were getting closer and I could feel him hard and throbbing against my mid-section. I reached down for it, but he took a step back.

  “Not yet, if you touch me I’m gonna come…right away. I don’t want it to be over that fast.”

  I nodded, reluctantly. My hands were aching to touch him. It had been far too long. He reached behind me once more and got out a washcloth and used the body wash to lather it up. Then he began bathing me. He soaped up my arm all the way up to my shoulder and then slid it down slowly and sensuously again to my hand. He repeated the process on the other arm and then moved his concentration to my neck and back. I moaned as I felt the cloth glide across my shoulders. His fingers were trailing closely behind leaving a trail of fire. He massaged and rubbed me causing energy that I didn’t even know I had to be released. I tilted my head back with my eyes closed and breathed in the clean, fresh smell of the soap and my mind followed the movement of the washcloth on my lower back.

  When he reached my ass he began to knead and massage, sliding it down over the tops of my thighs down the back of my knee and then over my calf and ankle. He did the other leg next in the same sexy manner. Then he started on my chest and as he washed my breasts his fingers erotically traced the outline of my nipples. I was moaning and squirming by then. I almost didn’t care that it would be quick; I wanted him so fucking bad.

  He stopped washing in the middle of my chest, just above the mounds of my breasts and held the cloth there. I wondered what he was doing and was surprised when he began squeezing it to release a rich stream of suds. I could feel them as they slid between my breasts and then slithered down my stomach just to the top of my belly button. He squeezed it again and this time gravity added speed and the suds reached the insides of my thighs. I had to lean back against the tile of the shower. My legs were shaking like noodles. I felt his hand on my breasts, spreading the suds out over each one and dancing around my erect nipples. He used the cloth on them as well. It was a gentle combination of firm cloth and soft flesh and it caused me to tingle all over once again.

  When he finished with that, he rinsed everything down around me so that I wouldn’t slip and then I felt him stand directly in front of me. I opened my eyes and his sexy eyes were looking into mine as he placed the cloth just above my pussy. He began washing me there with simple wrist movements, sliding the cloth deep between my legs and back up to my lower stomach. I started rocking the opposite motion of the cloth, rubbing back and forth against his hand, h
ard.

  “Oh, Braxton... Ahh,” I shrieked as an orgasm released from my body.

  My nipples were on fire and my clit and pussy throbbing after that. He suddenly stopped though and I wanted to scream. I needed more. My knees went weak when he removed his hand and I thought I might collapse right there. I stood there trying to be patient with my breaths coming in uneven gulps. I didn’t know if I could control myself much longer.

  “Braxton,” I said, pushing each word out on one of my ragged breaths. “I want to touch you, please.”

  As he reached behind me again for the spray nozzle he said, “Soon, Emmi.” The sound of my name on his lips when his voice was husky with sex never failed to cause me to shudder.

  He used the low vibrate setting and rinsed me off then, spraying my face and then he moved the spray back and forth across the tops of my breasts, and then rinsed each breast individually as his other hand began to caress and play. He leaned in and covered a nipple with his mouth, I shuddered and let out a moan as he licked and sucked one and then the other. Then he moved the spray to my stomach, pausing briefly over my pussy before he continued down to my thighs. He rinsed down each leg and to my feet, and then turned me to brace myself against the wall of the shower.

  My body was shaking now; I wasn’t cold, just incredibly turned on. I felt the cascade of the water as he rinsed my neck and shoulders, my back, and then down to the cheeks of my ass where he sprayed slowly back and forth and massaged each one with his free hand. Then he smacked one…I let out an erotic moan.

  He finished rinsing down my legs and then he let the showerhead dangle as he put his hands on my hips and pulled me back toward him. He put his hand on the small of my back, still not saying anything but letting me know to bend forward. I did so willingly, hoping that he was ready, God I wanted to feel him inside me.

  I had to reach out for the wall once more as I felt him spread my legs wide. I arched my back as I felt him pick up the shower head and direct the spray toward my pussy. I groaned and pushed my hips back into him and I felt his finger find my clit and begin to massage small circles on it. The hot water poured into my throbbing pussy as he manipulated my clit. It was an indescribable feeling, and one I knew I wouldn’t soon forget.