Go on a romantic adventure with MMA Fighter Mace Alois...
“Thank you, Mace,” She said it softly and then she did something she had not done since college. She channeled the bold girl she used to be and she made the first move. He had helped her and she decided a thank you kiss was in order.
Raleigh leaned up and placed her lips on Mace’s cheek. It tasted of blood, stubble, and salt. If she intended anything, she intended for this to be a quick peck, a throwback to the flirty college girl she used to be, who did not have to log every moment of the day.
She did not bargain on how powerfully her body would respond to his. Mace’s hand on her arm the other day set her body thrumming and that was nothing to the way her insides heated at the touch of her lips on his skin just now. He made her hungry. She could not find a better word. Hungry.
Instead of pulling away, she lingered. Their faces touched. She wanted more than the sweet little thank you kiss she blithely doled out. Then Mace turned his head just enough, slowly, toward her, and their lips met.
The sweet kiss was so much more, so quickly Raleigh did not think; her tongue darted out to taste his lip.
She worried for a second that she had been too forward, hitting on a guy who was just trying to be polite to the epileptic girl? Then it happened.
Mace’s tongue met hers and it was a catalyst to something she had never felt before. Mace took two powerful steps forward and she backward. The pressure of his lips and his body propelled her up against the brick wall of the alley. Mace’s hands were all over her. They were instantly wild together. Unbidden her leg twisted around his.
This had so quickly turned into the most intense encounter of her life.
Her skin reacted to his touch like a million fizzy Champagne bubbles. She found herself wrapping her hands around his neck, rubbing her body up against his.
It was as if the touch of his tongue on hers turned the spark of attraction into an inferno. She felt his hands on the sides of her hips up and up to the side of her breasts and down again. It was crazy, out of control, and she wanted more. She would have let him take her there. She wanted him to. More than anything else, she could think of.
But as quickly as it started Mace pulled back, an inch, two inches. He flattened his hands on the wall on either side of her head.
Their kiss stopped and the only sound in the alley was the sound of both of their breaths, heavy and fast. It was jarring, she felt like separating from him was more unsettling than coming together the way they just had.
“What?” She did not want this to stop.
“Je Suis désolé.”
“What? I..”
“I am sorry. I should not have done that.” Raleigh was feeling increasingly mortified as she realized her dress was hiked up and she was clearly being rejected. She had thrown herself at someone who responded and now thought better of it.
“I started it. Don’t sweat it, Jean Claude.” It was more biting than she meant to be. She wanted to ask what was wrong but decided the answer could make this moment even worse.
“I got carried away. Please let me escort you back to your friends.” Her rough and tough French neighbor had turned into an extremely proper total stranger.
“Forget it. I’m fine. That’s for your help getting me out here.” Raleigh could not find the door back to the bar fast enough.
She did not look back and left Mace standing in the alley. She did not want him to see the hurt or embarrassment on her face. She just wanted out of the situation. Fast. She could not remember a time when a man rejected her, especially in a moment like that. It was humiliating. She knew humiliation these days.
Raleigh’s friends were not ready to go home; both were still having a ton of fun. She all of a sudden was not. She did not have the heart to ask them to leave with her. She had done that too many times in the last year. Her problems should not hold them back she thought.
She texted Alysha and Courtney and then waved when they looked at her with concern. She told them a headache was coming on but nothing more serious.
She grabbed a cab and got out of there.
She thought the biggest risk of embarrassment tonight would have been having a seizure at a cool club with her girlfriends. She could almost see herself drooling on the dance floor or something. It was what kept her home on countless other Fridays.
Instead, she was embarrassed and surprised at her current predicament. Her face felt hot when she thought about the fact that her full on assault of Mace Alois was soundly rejected.
Mace
Merde! That was the hottest fucking kiss Mace had ever had. It was the hardest thing he had had to do in a long time stopping it in its tracks.
Raleigh’s lips, her legs, her body, everything about her had him in knots and wanting more. But he could not have more.
He watched her leave, to his dismay, without her friends, that was not safe he feared. He had hung back but kept her in his sights. She made her way to a cab and he felt better and worse at the same time.
When you starve yourself and then have a taste of something succulent, only a taste, it makes the hunger that much more. He had almost forgotten to want. But Raleigh changed that in an instant. He was hungry for her.
He knew she was coming in for a kiss. He had sensed it and he led her on. His stillness in the alley dared her to act. He had goaded her into it in his way and she took him up on it. It was selfish of him. He just lost his mind for a moment. But that moment was enough to cause the want. Wanting was the worst feeling in the world, next to losing.
Getting involved with a woman could get them both killed. He had to remember that. He had to remember the last time he felt so fucking turned on it - the last time ended in tragedy and with him on the run.
He was not going to go through that again. It was bad enough he was hiding. It was not fair to drag someone else into it. Even though all he could think of was Raleigh’s lips.
He spent a restless night replaying what he had almost done. What he should not have started.
Mace could not stop thinking about how Raleigh’s leg wrapped around his, how her breasts felt against his chest, how he pressed into her hot little center. He torturing himself for a full night as her image wouldn’t leave his mind.
The next morning a knock on the door beat his alarm clock. Well, screw it he hadn’t been sleeping anyway.
Mace looked in the peephole and there she was. Raleigh. As if she had stepped out of his fevered dreams and right to his door.
Her sexy dress from last night had been exchanged for cutoff shorts and a t-shirt with the letters GVSU on it. She looked sexy in everything he decided. Her blonde hair was gathered at the top of her head in a floppy ponytail.
What was she doing here? He opened the door without thinking about the fact he was shirtless and in underwear.
“Yes?”
“Nice outfit.” She looked him up and down.
“I wasn’t expecting visitors this early on a Saturday.”
“You may have forgotten our date but I haven’t.”
“Date?” Raleigh produced a paintbrush from her back pocket.
“Aha. Yes. Payment for services.”
“Yep, I don’t know how they do it in France, but we like to get cracking early here when we’ve got chores.”
“Let me shower.”
“No need, you’ll get dirty. I guarantee it.” She was still flirting with him. He had pushed her away, but she bounced right back. She was quite the little fighter. Her double entendre woke up him up in more than one way so he quickly turned his back to her.
Merde, she was going to test him, push him to the limit.
“Let me get some clothes at least.” He walked away shaking his head.
“I would hope so you brazen hussy. I have coffee going at my place. Hurry up Mace, or is it, Jean Claude!” She left him to find clothes and hide the evidence of his fierce attraction to her.
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