Consumed: A MMA Sports Romance (44 page)

But it was too soon to be worrying about
what would happen years in the future. For the moment, I could let myself think
of Zack without too much danger. He was undoubtedly every bit as hot as he’d
been when we’d dated before, but he’d changed too. He was better in bed by far
than he had ever been when we were both in high school. The subject of Zack
apparently going to the library every day tugged at my mind; was he really
studying? If he was, then he had definitely changed. If he was goofing off,
then it was a little strange that he would pick that location. I felt a flush
of heat rush through my body as I remembered the time we had sex, on the couch
of his frat house; I thought about how he had seduced me so easily, kissing me
until I was so turned on I couldn’t have formed the word no if I had wanted
to—and I certainly didn’t want to. I shivered as I remembered how eagerly he
had buried his face against my pussy, sucking and licking until he brought me
to an intense orgasm.

I went from one class to another and still
couldn’t shake the thought of Zack; I relived the acute embarrassment of his
impulsive decision to apparently announce his love of me to as much of the campus
at one time as he could. I saw him in my mind’s eye climbing up onto the table
and getting every last person’s attention, looking at the girls and the guys at
his table before telling everyone,
“I
want everyone to know that I am stupidly, head-over-heels, hung up on Evelyn
Jackson. She’s the only girl for me. No one else could ever compare with her.”
I couldn’t quite make myself believe that he was actually in love with me, per
se; but when I thought about the way he’d done something so rash and stupid to
shut up the girls making fun of me, I had to admit that my reaction had been a
bit much.

I was struggling to pay attention during
the last class of the day but failing miserably as my mind kept drifting back
to the incredibly hot sex that Zack and I had in the aftermath of our fight. I
smiled to myself as I remembered telling him that I could get him off just as
thoroughly as he’d brought me to orgasm, and the silly wager we had made—and of
course how I’d won it. Zack’s words, in his low, pleased voice, filled my mind.
“God, you’re going to ruin me. Good at
oral, full of great ideas for how to make sex better—I’m going to fail out.”
I made myself pay at least enough attention to get the notes off of the board;
it was lucky for me that my last class of the day was English Literature,
something that I could do well in even if I occasionally lost myself in
thought. In spite of the bone-deep satisfaction I felt after my afternoon
tryst, my mind kept coming back to the question of whether it was all going to
end this time the way it had before; was Zack just going to move on once he
graduated? Or would he wait for me? I shook off the thought as best as I could.
We’d had sex twice, and Zack had publicly declared his love for me—but that
wasn’t exactly an indication that there was anything serious between us, no
matter how tempting that possibility might be.

****

After class ended, I walked back towards
the dorms, still distracted by thoughts of Zack. He wanted to see me again;
well, I thought, of course he did. Even if he wasn’t serious about me, I knew
good and damned well that I was an excellent lay. I didn’t need his
confirmation of it, but his words had expressed how much he’d enjoyed
himself—just as much as I had. So of course Zack would want more of that. I
grinned to myself as I swiped my card to get into the building, barely noticing
the world around me, my thoughts alternating between the homework I had to do
and the thought of when I might see Zack again. Would he ask me on another
date? And if he did, where would he take me?

I took the stairs once more, climbing them
slowly and dreamily, able to feel the aching tenderness between my legs. I
would text Zack once I got back to my room, I thought; he should be out of
practice and maybe we could make plans. I had to get my homework done, but
maybe Zack would be willing to come up to my room and we could study together
and then have sex again. That was a good date, no matter who you were. Or maybe
Zack would be up for going to the movies in a few days, and coming back to my
room afterward; in spite of the fact that our first sexual encounter at the
college had taken place on the couch at his frat house, I didn’t like the idea
of going to the frat house to be with Zack. I could still remember his
brother’s comment about me being Zack’s piece of ass. I didn’t think that Zack
took the same view—I hoped he didn’t—but I didn’t want to hear it from anyone
else, either.

My mind kept going back to the way Zack
had improved in the time we had been apart. The thought of him—of what it was
like to have sex with him—was so intense that I felt myself getting turned on
in spite of the fact that I was walking around campus, into the dorms, up to my
room. I thought about calling Zack, inviting him over to have one more little quickie
in my room before dinner. I could still feel the ache between my hips when I
moved, the sweet feeling of tenderness between my thighs that was so
satisfying. I wanted more of it—I couldn’t help but want more. I smiled to
myself. I could easily just offer Zack a massage; after practice he’d
definitely want one, and he’d know right away that it was the perfect opening
for sex.

I was so lost in thought that I didn’t
spot the guy in front of my dorm room until I was nearly at the door. I looked
up and saw one of the guys who had been sitting with Zack in the dining hall at
lunch standing right there, looking up and down the hallway. The sight of him
confused me; since he was on the team, I had to suppose that I’d been
right—practice was over for the day. But what was he doing hanging around in
front of my dorm room? The guy was bigger than Zack—bulky and hefty where Zack
was lean and muscled, with dark hair already starting to thin at the top in the
crew cut he wore. He shifted uncomfortably and watched me as I approached, his
pale gray eyes firm and his lips pressed together.

“Uh, hi? Who are you and what do you
want?” I shifted my backpack, feeling an instinctive fear creeping up from my
stomach.

“Hey,” he said, trying to give me a
friendly smile, but I could tell he was tense about something. “I’m Robbie—I’m
on the team with Zack. How’s it going?”

I shrugged, feeling impatient. “I’m doing
pretty well—or I was until I found some strange guy standing outside of my door
looking like a creeper.” I raised an eyebrow and Robbie shrugged uncomfortably.
I set my jaw. “Maybe you’d rather just get the point of why you’re here.”

Robbie looked at his feet for a moment
before meeting my gaze. “Look,” he said, “You need to just cut Zack loose.”

I frowned. “What the hell are you talking
about?” My heart was beating fast, and I wondered if Zack had told all of his
teammates about me.

“I know you don’t know me and we’re not
friends, but consider it a personal favor. Don’t hang out with him, don’t go on
dates with him, leave him alone.”

I felt anger mixed with confusion rising
inside of me. “Excuse me, but I don’t have any reason to do you a favor. I
don’t know what’s going on in that big blockhead you’ve got going on, but this
was probably the dumbest way to ask me to stop seeing Zack.” I shook my head in
disbelief. “You don’t know me and you can’t do anything about what Zack wants
to do.”

“Listen—hey—I get it, but just hear me
out…” The guy started forward, giving me an opening. I darted around him and
got my key in the door quickly, unlocking it with a wrench and yanking the door
open.

“Get the hell out of here before I call
one of the RAs and tell them you’re harassing me,” I told the big, beefy guy,
scowling at him before I slammed the door in his face. I twisted the lock and
stormed away from the door, telling myself I’d give him two minutes before I
checked to make sure he was actually gone.

I went into my room and threw myself onto
the bed, shaking slightly. Who was that guy to tell me not to have anything to
do with Zack? I shook my head, feeling the anger boiling up inside of me,
twisting my stomach into knots. I couldn’t get comfortable. I sat up, threw
myself back down, got out of bed and sat down at my desk; I couldn’t even
manage to get into the reading assignment for one of my classes. Part of me
wanted to call Zack and tell him what his teammate had just done. I went
through my bag to find my phone and looked at it for a long time; but I
couldn’t quite make myself make the call.

I put my phone back down and considered
it. What reason would the guy have to ask me to stay away from Zack? The guy
would have had to have come directly from practice to be waiting at my dorm
when I got there; had something come up during practice—had Zack told his
teammates about ending up in bed with me? The thought of that brought the anger
boiling up even more; if he had told his friends he’d gone straight from the
dining hall to my dorm and convinced me to sleep with him, I would kill him.
But then, I remembered the spectacle he’d created. The guy who’d been at my
door had been sitting right next to him—he had probably taken the proclamation
of love at least a little seriously.

I chewed on my bottom lip, thinking about
it. Even if Zack hadn’t told his teammates about getting into my pants, I
doubted that Zack went around jumping onto tables and proclaiming that he was
hung up on girls on a regular basis. The team was reaching the end of its
season, and they were close to that elusive ideal—the perfect win-loss record.
I got up from my desk and left my room, going to the door to the common area
and opening it hesitantly. The guy who’d stood there waiting for me was gone. I
went back to my room and climbed into my bed, thinking about the situation from
the team’s perspective. I could see where they’d be worried that Zack would get
distracted by the prospect of dating me—or anyone. The team only had one more
game in the regular season to get through, and then they would be into the
national championships. With their record they would be playing against a
top-tier school for sure—but a perfect record would definitely bolster their
hopes.

I looked at my phone again and decided
that at least until the end of the season—only a couple of weeks or so away—I
could afford to put the possibility of a relationship with Zack on hold. It
wasn’t that I was doing what I was told; it was that I didn’t want to distract
Zack, and I didn’t like how fast things were going between us. I told myself
firmly that I would just put the brakes on things for a little while, let
things cool down. There would be time after the season ended to reconnect with
Zack if he was really, truly serious about being with me—if I wasn’t just some
kind of convenient fuck buddy for him.

I felt a wrench in my chest at the
possibility that if I did decide to slow things down—in reality, to stop them
until after the season had ended—I might lose Zack altogether. It was a risk I
had to take, I told myself firmly. If Zack moved on to another, easier girl
while I wasn’t around, that was on him, and I would just have to move on. It
wasn’t as though we’d been dating seriously anyway; or even, really, at all.
We’d gone on one date together, and at that it was because Zack made it a
condition of answering my interview questions. I thought about the fact that
about a week after we’d had sex for the first time since high school, he’d told
me flat out that it was just sex; if that had been his attitude, then I could
easily give him up. I put my phone down and turned my attention back onto my
homework as best as I could, even though I was still haunted with the
possibility that I would really, really regret my decision.

CHAPTER
TWO

For the next few days, I buried myself in
schoolwork. I barely left my room except to go to classes or the library, and I
always made sure to get in early enough to book a private study room. Midterms
had passed, but I knew that if I gave myself too much free time, I would come
to regret it. Jess rolled her eyes at my diligence, reminding me of her “
all work and no play makes Evie a dull girl
”
crack—but I couldn’t quite bring myself to tell her exactly what had happened,
only that I had decided to take a little break from Zack and even dating in
general.

It was harder than I had even imagined; I
knew that it was easy for me to become infatuated with him—but I hadn’t counted
on how quickly it could happen. I couldn’t exactly tell Zack what had happened
either; I didn’t want to start a fight amongst his teammates, and I honestly
didn’t know how to explain it to him. I felt guilty, but I couldn’t think of
any other way to deal with the situation. The first time Zack texted me—right
before dinner hours at the dining hall—I simply responded to his invitation to
sit with him that I planned on getting something to go and studying in my room.

After that I couldn’t bring myself to
answer any of his messages or calls. While I sat at my desk in my room going
over the class readings the day after my altercation with Zack’s teammate, my
phone buzzed.

Practice
was canceled today,
the message read, with a little smiley
face.
We could hang out…maybe you could
show me more of those skills you picked up.

I pressed my lips together and didn’t even
pick my phone up to contemplate replying. It buzzed again, breaking through my
focus.

Or
if you don’t want to get down we could just hang out and watch a movie.