Torn - Part Two (The Torn Series) (5 page)

I grinned. Now there were some magic words. I withdrew and surged into her once, then again, making her gasp. Her fingers curled against my back. “You sure, babe?”

“I’m sure,” she breathed, rolling her hips against me. “Oh, God. Mallet-”

Fuck it.
Good sense be damned. I took her hard, my frenzied thrusts born from some deep, primal need to claim her, to own her body, to give her what she needed. Her nails scored my back and her voice filled my ears. Fuck the party downstairs. Fuck our stupid issues, our problems and our pasts. This was what was important. Or maybe it was just my dick taking over my brain. Either way, rational thought went out the window.

I peeled her hands from my back and pinned them over her head with one of mine. A surprised grin curved her lips before I leaned down and owned them, nipping and sucking until she whined.

“Look at me,” I demanded. Her eyes were glazed with lust and need, her hair splayed behind her like a dark, swirling frame. “Look at us,” I said, “Look at what I’m doing to you.” Her gaze traveled downward to where our bodies slid together, where they joined over and over. I was going to rock that damn futon to pieces if I didn’t slow down, but it was impossible.

The sight drove her over the edge. She threw her head back as she cried out. I released her hands and let her pull me close, burying my face against her neck as she pulsed and shuddered and pulled me over the edge with her. Grunting like an animal, I plunged deep and released inside her as she held me tight and kissed my temple.

It was several long moments before I could even relax my muscles enough to move off of her. She sighed at the loss when I finally rolled aside, then draped an arm across my chest and nuzzled against my shoulder. “You okay?” I asked. We could still hear the party downstairs, people having loud conversations over the music playing. No one had come knocking though. I heard no tittering at the door from any drunken eavesdroppers.
Thank God for small favors.

“Mmhmm,” she said. “That was something.”

I chuckled. “Something?”

“I came so hard I had vertigo for a minute.”

I laughed. She playfully pounded my chest with her fist as I jostled her, but I couldn’t help it. The shit that came out of her mouth was too much sometimes.

“Do you want to head back out to the party?” I asked after a particularly raucous round of laughter reached our ears from downstairs.

“Mmm, yes and no.” She squeezed me tight before sitting up. “We could mingle. Or we could steal another drink and meet back up here.”

“I like that plan.”

CHAPTER 5

I woke with Riley in my arms, and my first guilty thoughts were,
Flee, flee!
I was way too comfortable there; way too content to just hold her while the sun rose. We’d retreated to her room twice more before the party finally died. Surly had only shaken his head - I couldn’t tell if he disapproved or not. I saw Riley getting an earful from Jen and Robin, but the two were too drunk to do much more than giggle and hoot at her.

I carefully untangled myself, our skin peeling apart after having sweat and slept all over each other. Afraid of waking her, I gathered up my clothes and stepped out into the hall without even dressing.

I heard a voice behind me as soon as I gently shut the door. “Now there’s a sight.”

I sighed to myself. “Morning, Jen.”

“You sneaking out on our girl?” I grimaced as I looked over at her - her makeup smeared, hair a bushy mess, wearing only a long t-shirt.

“I didn’t know you stayed the night.”

“Didn’t answer my question, Mal.”

I pushed passed her and ducked into the bathroom. “Mind your business.”

What the hell was Jen so protective for, anyway? Just because of the band? I’d heard her making fun of Riley before, when she thought no one but her small audience was listening. “Naive little bumpkin” was amongst her nicer terms.
She’s a bitch. That’s all the explanation required.

I threw my clothes on and deliberately avoided meeting my eye in the mirror. Not that I thought I’d done anything wrong. I hadn’t. And I wasn’t a stranger to fucking and running. But I turned my back anyway and ducked out the door.

Jen was gone, thank God. I took the stairs two at a time on my way out the front door and practically jogged to the subway station.
Maybe I should have left a note.
I knew Riley would be upset that I’d gone with no goodbye, no message at all. I didn’t want to stick around and have breakfast and play nice but I didn’t want to hurt her feelings either, so I shot her a quick text - “had to run to practice” - before heading underground.

Practice wasn’t for another couple hours but I did want to get home to shower and grab my things. And maybe take a nap - we’d stayed up pretty damn late. And we sure as hell hadn’t gotten much sleep.

“The champion returns!” Lockett announced when I finally entered our apartment. I was way too tired for his antics.

“When did you head home?” I asked. I’d missed nearly half the party while I was closed away with Riley.

“’Round midnight,” he said. He was actually wearing a shirt - it meant he must have been leaving. “Coming to Lee’s?” he asked.

“Yeah, in a bit,” I said, waving him on towards the door. “Where’d Surly end up?”

Lockett grinned. “Already at the gym, cursing your name.”

Damn, what time was it? I checked my phone - after ten. No wonder he was pissed. “Fuck.”

“I’ll tell him you’re on your way,” he said on his way out the door.

I didn’t want to be “on my way,” I wanted to go back to sleep, but Surly was counting on me.

I had a new text, too, and didn’t have to guess who it was from. “Playing another show on Thursday - be there?” Well, at least she wasn’t begging to talk or to hang out immediately, or berating me for taking off. She didn’t have to say it - I still felt guilty. Sleeping with her hadn’t cleared her from my head at all. Not that I’d honestly believed it would, I’d just sort of hoped, but still.
This is such bullshit.
Just bullshit guilt and stupid feelings all tangled up in that little punk package - was there any cure at all?

“I’ll be there,” my fingers typed back.

That was enough. I shook my head. Time to go punch things.

○●○●○●○●○

Luckily Surly himself was nearly as hungover as I was and wasn’t in a mood to berate me for it. We worked through our routines of drills - repeating different moves over and over to work on muscle memory, spending time on the bags - and didn’t actually spar in the ring for once.

“No more partying until after our matches,” he declared in the locker room afterward. He had dark circles under his eyes and was nearly soaked in his own sweat - and I was in the exact same state myself.

“Maybe we need a day off,” I grumbled.

My feet took me home but my mind was elsewhere. Where was Riley? Was she working, were they practicing, what were they doing? Was she only pretending to be okay with how I’d snuck on out of her room that morning? Or worse, was she totally okay with it? Did she
want
me to leave?

Fuck. I was overthinking everything. I was turning into
her.
I couldn’t have a moment of peace to myself anymore. She’d taken over my damn brain.

Cursing myself, I texted her.
Fuck it.
I wasn’t an overthinker, I was a doer, and this was better than doing nothing. I sent a quick, misspelled “watsup” and stuffed the phone back into my pocket with violent force.

I ripped it back out when it vibrated with her reply. “Working. Coconut Cup tonight. That’s near your place, right?” I smirked - she knew damn well it was near my place. I didn’t even bother replying, I simply turned heel and strode in its direction, gym bag and all. It was a twenty minute walk - I could have taken the train, exhausted as I was, but the weather was finally cooling down, making the outdoors more appealing than the stuffy subway platform for once.

My stupid heart was racing when I walked through Coconut Cup’s front door, and not only because I’d worn myself out. No, I wanted to see her - was
excited
to see her. It was unsettling.

“Hey!” Riley called, waving from behind the bar, my view of her face slightly obscured by the hanging palm leaves and a string of tiny lights. She looked as good as always, though distracted by her work as she stuffed fruits into a blender for some misguided customer. I’d tried one of the frozen concoctions before - they needed about a cup less sugar.

The entire bar smelled too sweet overall, and looked like a box of Hawaiian decorations vomited right in the middle of the narrow space. I don’t know how she stood it. I would have lost my mind and ended up wearing floral shirts and flip flops for the rest of my life.

“Hey,” I said, sliding onto a stool at the end where I could watch her. She poured me a beer from the tap without asking, just remembering which one I liked best and sliding it down towards me before finishing up with her other customers - a couple who looked like they’d just gotten out of work.

She finally came over to me after they’d paid. “You look tired,” she said with a shy smile.

“Hey now,” I said, “How would you feel if I said that to you?”

Her smile broadened. “Sorry. How was practice?”

“Long. Should have taken the day off.” I raised my glass to her. “You wore me out.” Her cheeks turned red and I couldn’t help laughing. “Still shy? Really?”

“Don’t make fun,” she said, drifting away but hiding a smile. I let her go - I didn’t want to interrupt her while she was working. But I felt more content sitting there than I had in a long while. Warning bells were going off in my head -
getting too attached again, go home, don’t do this to yourself
- but I ignored them. I wasn’t going home until I was sure she was coming with me. Self-preservation be damned.

When she returned, she asked, “So Thursday’s okay? We’re playing at Guitar Bar again.” She said it with a grimace - that was the bar where she’d been groped a couple months back.

I gripped my glass tight. I wanted to kiss that unhappy look off her face, until her lips turned back up into a smile. I wanted to beat that guy down in the street all over again. “I’ll be there. What time?”

“We’re on at quarter to nine but we’ll probably get there around eight.”

“Well then I’ll scope the place out even earlier,” I said with a wink. That earned her smile back. “How late are you working?”

“Midnight.”
Jesus, I’ll never make it.
It wasn’t even eight yet and I was ready to droop out of the stool and onto the floor. I had an idea, though. I pulled my keys from my pocket and slid them across the bar to her.

“I’ve got to pass out for a bit,” I said, “But why don’t you come wake me up when you’re through?”

She bit her lip. “Are you sure?”

“Of course I’m sure,” I said, brow furrowed.

“I just didn’t want to bother you,” she said in a rush, “I do want to come over but I want to give you space, too. I mean, I don’t want to be a pest, that’s all.”

That explained why she’d taken off at first at the party, why she was playing it cool. I shook my head. “Don’t worry about it. Just come over tonight. Take a cab, okay?”

“Okay.”

“And chill out.” I took her hand and kissed her knuckles. “I want you to come over.”

This time she laughed. “Okay. I’ll see you later.”

I grinned the whole damn way home.
Turn it down, dude,
the logical part of my brain warned, but that part of my brain wasn’t in charge anymore. The dick part was. And some other part - the part that liked her, the part that I wasn’t ready to acknowledge again just yet. My guts and my heart, idiots that they were. They were what had gotten me into trouble in the first place.
Stop it. Chill out.
I hated all the stupid conflict within myself, but I couldn’t seem to push her away.
Just tonight. Then I have to focus on the fight again. Quit all this messing around.

CHAPTER 6

I slept like a dead thing. Surly was home and let me into the apartment, and I warned him that Riley might be showing up before I woke. He said he didn’t think he’d be awake much longer either but that he’d warn Lockett as well if he saw him.

Then I passed out. It was dark and my room was warm and despite the anticipation churning in my gut, it was lights out as soon as my head hit the pillow.