The Bad Boys of Eden (142 page)

I kiss Ryder. If he did something so intimate to me, I can do it to him. He starts to carry me away.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going?” Xavier demands.

“Somewhere to make Tessa comfortable for our threesome.”

* * *

Ryder carries me all the way to the private room in Eden’s dungeon. People stare of course—they recognize Ryder and they must wonder why he’s carrying a woman away. I know I’m blushing. At least my skirt is covering me, but I wonder if everyone can tell I’ve just had amazing orgasms.

As we enter the room, Ryder gazes in my eyes. “This is what I want to do,” he says. “For the rest of our lives.”

“Carry me? Or take me to a dungeon?”

“Be there for you. Take care of you.”

I shake my head. “I don’t want to be ‘taken care of.’ I don’t need to be carried.”

“You don’t need it, but admit there are times you like it.”

There is such hoarse need in his voice I give him the truth. “Yes, I like it.”

Ryder sets me down on the threshold of the room. He opens a bottle of wine and gives me a glass. He pours a small glass of whiskey himself, then hands the bottle to Xavier, who drinks slightly more.

“You shouldn’t be drinking. You never drink before a fight.”

“Things have changed,” Ryder says, draining the glass. He looks around the room. “I reserved it for the two of us,” Ryder says. “I wasn’t expecting three.”

I sip my wine—white, crisp, amazing. “Your fight is tomorrow night—Saturday night.”

“Yeah.” Ryder comes to me, brushes my hair aside and cups my neck to draw me against his body. Against his large, obvious erection. Both men have erections bulging in their trousers. I’ve come twice and they must be in pain.

“I know Ryder never stopped having sex before a fight, but aren’t you guys supposed to be sex-starved so you’re more aggressive?”

“That’s an unproven myth,” Xavier says. “It’s been shown that sex increases testosterone. It’s good to have sex before competition.” He grins cockily at Ryder. “Tonight we’re having both sex and competition.”

That must make it a double-dose of testosterone. The fight tomorrow night should be stunning.

Ryder walks to the middle of the room. “Come here,” he says, his voice low but commanding. His eyes glow with desire for me.

“Take off your dress,” he says.

Both men have seen me naked, but at first I hesitate.

“Nothing to worry about,” Ryder says gently. “We both know how beautiful you are.”

“If you aren’t comfortable, you don’t have to,” Xavier breaks in. He’s fighting with Ryder by defending me.

I can do this—I can make love to them together. Maybe this will help me see the light and make a decision—

Who am I kidding? This is the hottest, most erotic thing ever. But I’m nervous as I slowly draw up my dress. Not to build anticipation, but because it’s got a tight bodice and it takes a while to wriggle it upward. I lift it off over my head.

I let my dress fall. Then my panties.

“If this is too intense, Tessa,” Xavier says, “Just say the word—”

“You don’t know her, Malone.” Ryder leads me to the center of the room. He reaches up—and I realize there are cuffs hanging from the ceiling. I lift my arms obediently. I can only reach the cuffs because I am perched on heels. My legs look shapely and sexy this way, my ass looks round and curvaceous. I’m completely naked except for my pale pink shoes.

“I know what she likes because she and I were so intimate,” Ryder says, watching Xavier. “Beyond what most couples do. We bared our sexual souls to each other.”

“Did you?” Xavier asks

“I introduced her to everything I like—and I did it slowly, respectfully. Together we had good, kinky fun and we discovered what Tessa likes.”

“Yeah, but you didn’t tell her everything about you.”

“Shut the fuck up, Malone.”

Ryder comes up to me. I know he’s going to do nipple clamps, and I’m wriggling with anticipation. Even after coming with both of them, I want more.

Ryder’s gorgeous pouty mouth captures mine. My hands dangle overhead and he makes my legs go weak with his kiss. I slump but he catches me. My nipples go hard at just the touch of the lined metal clamps. Ryder does both at once with an expert’s touch.

Xavier crosses his arms over his bare chest. Xavier wears one tattoo on his right bicep. I always thought it was just a design, but strangely now I realize it is stylized letters, just like Ryder used in his dragon. I study them intently. “Fight” is the lower word. I squint to make out another word. It reads, “Endless Fight.”

Is that how he sees his life? As an endless fight?

Ryder’s message to himself was: survival.

These are two powerful men. Ryder has made a lot of money off the fighting circuit, Xavier is a billionaire. They could both have anything they want. Any woman they want.

Yet both of them look at life as a battle. Why?

I’m about to ask, when Ryder kisses me. He wraps his arms around me. He’s rolled on a condom, and his erection presses against my tummy. I lift my leg and wriggle against his cock. My juices wet the head. His turquoise eyes glow like they’re on fire.

“I need you, Tessa. I need to be inside you. I can’t live without you, babe.”

With one thrust, he’s inside me. But only halfway. Slowly, he drives into me. Filling me.

From behind, Xavier puts his hands on my hips. His fingers massage lubricant into my ass. Wow. I love having his fingers stroking me while Ryder is in my pussy.

I let my head drop back, dizzy from sensation.

There’s intense pressure against my anus. Then Xavier’s cock eases in my ass, while Ryder completely fills me from the front.

Deeper and deeper they both go. My hands are coiled into fists in the cuffs. I’m biting my lips, driving my nails into my palms.

Oh. My. God.

I can’t believe I’m doing this. Having Ryder buried in my pussy and Xavier’s cock deep in my ass is amazing. Incredible. Sex of miraculous proportions.

With my hands suspended, I’m a prisoner, trapped for their pleasure. Both of them hold my hips and brace me so they can drive deep.

“I can feel his cock in your pussy,” Xavier groans against my ear. “I can feel how full you are—”

I squeal, interrupting him. Then Ryder’s fingers graze my clit and I explode.

I’m thrashing between them, thrashing against the cuffs that hold me.

They both withdraw and I feel their two cocks jump up as they come out. They’re still hard. They didn’t come yet.

With his cock jutting out, glistening from being inside me, Ryder stretches up and releases my hands. I lean forward and kiss his chest, tasting the saltiness of his sweat.

He nuzzles my neck from the front, kissing me just by my earlobe. I’m so sexually heightened, I whimper and grab him.

Xavier licks my neck from behind.

They both tug on the clamps on my nipples—

Lord, I’m coming again. I almost fall, but they hold me up. Fireworks explode. I’m crying out, moaning, shouting both their names…

God, shouting the names of two men is so erotic.

I’m so wet that when Ryder leads me to a leather bench that is large enough to support us all, and Xavier says that they both want to be in my pussy at once, I groan yes. A simple yes.

Xavier removes his condom and quickly washes at the sink, before rolling on a new rubber. He gets on the bottom and I lie on top of him. I close my eyes, suddenly shy. I want this, but I’m kind of overwhelmed. I mean, I was a single mom, working as a waitress, taking part time classes. I never dreamed I’d be sandwiched between the two hottest MMA fighters ever.

Xavier’s cock fills me and Ryder, from on top of me, strokes my clit. His fingers touch me and it’s so good I slump on top of Xavier. Then I realize his fingers must also graze the shaft of Xavier’s cock, embedded deep inside me.

That is way too sexy a thought.

I’m so wet.

Ryder slides in two fingers. My moan fills the private dungeon room. I’ve never felt so full. Ryder is opening me, and I feel the push of his cock. It’s sliding against Xavier’s thick prick, trying to nose in.

Xavier kisses my neck, plays with my nipples. All the stimulation, the pleasure makes it easier.

I have to dig my fingers into Xavier’s shoulders as Ryder’s cock goes in deeper. I imagine the head of Ryder’s cock pressing against Xavier’s shaft. Both men are breathing hard, groaning. My breasts are squished against Xavier’s chest as Ryder moves over me.

Their hips pump, moving their cocks together in me. Having them both in my pussy—

It’s so intense.

It’s an incredible edge of eroticism.

I can’t help being tense. It feels good, but they are both huge, thick, and rock hard. I have two cocks I can barely wrap my fingers around in my pussy. I’m a bit scared this is going to hurt.

From behind, Ryder reaches around and he fingers my clit. He knows, from when we’d have anal sex, that I like to play with my clit—the pleasure there, the intense feelings make me come, but also make it easier to take intense sexual sensation.

As soon as he does that, I start thrusting slowly, gently, on both big cocks, trying to work with both their rhythms—

Each movement makes me scream in pleasure.

It’s so much. Too much.

“I’m dying,” I shout. “I love you! I love both of you!” I come so hard I collapse on Xavier. I sob in delirious joy against his chest.

Ryder strokes me, kissing my neck from behind. They both caress me lovingly.

Ryder withdraws, then Xavier. Xavier cradles me against his hot, hard body. Ryder brings me wine, sits beside me, then draws me away from Xavier to embrace me.

“That I could get used to.” I giggle shyly.

But I know what they both want. Like when they fight, they want to be judged and scored. “I can’t ask to share you for ever and ever, can I? It’s too greedy.”

They don’t say anything and I say, “I can’t score you guys. I just can’t!”

“It’s okay,” Xavier says.

I drink two glasses of wine. Then they walk me back to my room. My inner thighs are sore, just like they were when we were in college and I first started sleeping with Ryder and we had sex all the time. Five times a day or more.

Xavier kisses me goodnight at my door.

Ryder says, “Malone, I have to talk to her. In private. I have to explain something to you, Tessa.”

Xavier nods. “About time, King,” he says.

When we’re alone, Ryder strokes my cheek, runs his thumb over my lower lip. “Sharing you with Xavier—watching you come so much—was fun. I wanted to make you happy. But I want you for myself, Tessa. I can’t change that. I want you and Jakey to be my family again. I know what you need. Tonight made me realize that I have to risk everything if I want you. I have to risk losing you. Because once I tell you what happened to me, you might walk away from me forever.”

He gazes deeply into my eyes. He lifts my hand and kisses my fingers, like a duke from a historical romance novel. It leaves me breathless.

“After the fight, angel,” Ryder says, “I’ll tell you everything.”

Chapter Seven

The Fight

Eden has an outdoor stadium for special events—it looks like a small Grecian amphitheatre, except the seats are comfy. The fight is going to start at seven in the evening and the whole stadium glows with light. Guests are filling the seats. There are women in glittering evening dresses and men in suits, along with women in bikinis and dresses that look like they were spray-painted on. One woman holds a sign that begs, not so subtly, “Fuck Me, Ryder.” Another’s sign reads, “Ryder, I love you.” Other women scream for Xavier, offering him blowjobs and complete submission, or offering to bear his children.

It used to freak me out listening to what women shouted to Ryder. Gorgeous women with huge breasts. I always feared he would stray. I’m pretty ordinary—brown hair, green eyes, freckles. I’m slender and I’ve got boobs, but they aren’t scientific phenomena by any stretch. Some of those women had breasts that couldn’t be natural and should have been outlawed for health reasons.

And Ryder never strayed.

When I arrived, I got a glimpse of the crowd from the hallway that leads to the fighter’s prep area. In the center of the arena stands the octagon where the fight will take place. Now I’m in Ryder’s dressing room, watching him get ready for his fight.

It’s been a long time since I was part of a fight. A long time since I was behind the scenes, watching Ryder prepare. It’s an almost zen-like routine for Ryder. Despite all the people who surround him, he carefully tapes his own hands. He goes through the same motions each time. Right hand first. He flexes his fingers, testing the tightness of the tapes. Then he moves to his left hand.

He’s bare-chested. Black satin shorts ride low on his hips.

“A kiss for luck, babe?” he asks. “That’s what I’ve missed, Tessa. A kiss from you before I go into the octagon.”

“I couldn’t watch you fight. I worried too much about you.”

“Nothing was going to happen to me.”

“I couldn’t watch you get pounded. Even when you won, I couldn’t stand seeing the abuse you took. The blood. The cuts and the bruises.”

He puts on his gloves—they’re blue. He takes three deep breaths. Makes a few light moves on his feet. He closes his eyes. This calms him, I know.

Ryder throws a couple of punches at the air, then he runs his gloved hand over his hair. “Hell, Tessa, I can’t focus.” He looks at me. “After this, I’m gonna tell you everything. Everything you wanted to know. I feel—” His voice breaks. “I feel like this might be the last time I’ll see you.”

“It won’t be. I’ll always be there. No matter what happens.”

He looks at me like he wants to say something. I move to him, to touch him, to connect with him.

But he straightens, grabs a towel and throws it around his shoulders. “After,” he says. “I’m gonna do it.”

I think he’s trying to convince himself. I let him walk out the door. I wait, then I hear the crowd chant his name. Ryder, the “King of the Ring.” Well, it’s really an octagon, but that wouldn’t sound as catchy.

I’m scared now. Fear gnaws at the pit of my stomach. I’m going to learn the truth. I should be satisfied. But seeing how hard it is for him, now I’m scared of what I’m going to learn.

People are now shouting Xavier’s name. Xavier came out of his retirement for this, so it’s an exciting moment for fans.

Did he really get back into the octagon just to fight for me?

* * *

I reach my seat, reserved for me by Ryder so I am sitting with his entourage: his manager, his PR specialist, business people. His trainer is up at the ring. I guess he’s been training and dealing with his entourage in the time he wasn’t making love to me.

Since its Eden, we are treated like royalty and served champagne and endless hors d’oeuvres.

Both Ryder and Xavier are inside the octagon, waiting for the fight to begin. Both look incredibly lean—they probably cut out eating today and restricted their fluid intake to make their weights. Xavier wears white shorts, which show off his darker tan.

As both fighters are introduced, men shout and women squeal.

“The King of the Ring is the King of my heart!”

“I wanna have your baby, Ryder!”

“I wanna suck you all night long, Xavier!”

Shouts range from sweet and hopeful to crude and kinky. And they come from both men and women.

Then the bell rings and the fight starts. I bite my lip, holding my breath. The two men I care about most in the world circle each other, waiting for the moment to start pounding on each other. MMA fighting involves striking and grappling—

Ryder punches first, landing blows on Xavier’s jaw and solar plexus. As Xavier instinctively folds, Ryder tries to bring him down. But Xavier, even though he’s retired, is still fast enough to evade Ryder.

Soon I realize Ryder is fighting differently than he used to. He’s not using finesse; he’s trying to use brute force. He absorbs Xavier’s blows—punches that I am sure should knock him down. He keeps fighting. He brings Xavier down twice, three times. Then Xavier gets him down on the mat.

As Ryder gets up, he rubs the back of his arm across his forehead, leaving a red smear.

He’s bleeding.

I cringe. My champagne suddenly tastes like vinegar. I didn’t realize how much I’ve drunk—an Eden staff member kept refilling my glass.

Ryder rushes Xavier. I don’t know how he can see with the blood leaking into his eye. Ryder launches a kick into Xavier that makes him stumble, then throws his momentum into a grapple. But then Ryder hesitates, and I see him blink—he’s got one eye swelling from a punch—and Xavier throws him off and pins him.

Xavier is being more cautious, trying to avoid getting hit. Ryder is taking all the punishment he can get.

I realize neither of them will get knocked out. They’re too good, too strong, too evenly matched. But I’ve never seen Ryder let himself get hit like this. He’s cut and swollen and bruised. A blow slams into the side of his face and saliva and blood fly out. Thank god, he’s wearing a mouth guard.

The crowd goes crazy.

I want it to stop.

I start to get onto my feet. I can’t watch it. I can’t—

Then I sink back to my seat. If I can’t watch it, what does that mean? Fighting is a core part of Ryder’s life. When we were together, he told me he didn’t want to retire for years. He had to fight as long as he could.

Had
to do it. Not that he wanted to do it, but that he felt compelled to do it, like an addiction.

Xavier gave up fighting. Does that mean Xavier is at the place in his life where I need my guy to be? I don’t want to see my guy get beaten up anymore.

People are on their feet. Xavier and Ryder are wrestling, each trying to dominate the other, to score points. Ryder’s face is slick with blood. He barely looks human—

The fight’s over.

Three judges will decide the bout because there wasn’t a knockout. Over the hollering and chanting, I can barely hear the announcement. Then Ryder thrusts his arms up into the air.

He’s won. He fought like hell. Fought like that for me.

* * *

After the fight, I stand in the corridor outside the dressing rooms. Xavier comes out first. He comes over to me and kisses me. “Want to go for a drink, Tessa? Or are you waiting for Ryder?”

He doesn’t say anything about the fight. But I did tell them I had no intention of just “going with” the guy who won.

“Ryder promised to tell me what happened in his past after the fight,” I say.

“Do you really need to know that much?” he asks, his face grim.

“I do. I really do need to know.”

Ryder’s dressing room door opens then. Xavier embraces Ryder in one of those brief buddy embraces. “Good fight. Man, I’ve never seen anyone take punishment like you did.”

“I had something important to fight for.” Ryder looks to me.

I wince again. His left eye is almost completely swollen shut. Bruises blossom all over his face. He looks like hell, though someone has patched up his worst cuts and even stitched up one over his eye. Ryder wears Bermuda shorts and a loose, short-sleeve Hawaiian shirt.

“Where should we go?” I ask.

“Somewhere amazing,” he answers. “The waterfall.”

One of the all-terrain vehicles is waiting for us. We duck out through the back, avoiding the press who want photos and quotes from Ryder. “Xav promised to take care of that,” Ryder tells me.

The waterfall is a stunning sight. White, foamy water spills over shelves of rock. The water bubbles and splashes. Ryder says we can actually sit in the waterfall in the lowest section and safely enjoy the rush of the water. But what makes me giggle is that the portable bar is set up.

Ryder brings me a new drink, an “Eden Fantasy.” He has a beer with a slice of lime floating in it.

Ryder leads me to one of the flat rocks that surround the pool of the waterfall, out of earshot of the bartender. He sits and I join him.

I don’t know what to say.

He downs half his beer and looks at me with anguished eyes. He looks so tormented, especially with so much damage done to his face. I reach out and tenderly touch his jaw. He flinches. “Ow.” Then he says, hoarsely, “Do you really need this, Tessa? I fought for you. Doesn’t that prove I love you? Look at the punishment I took for you. Isn’t that enough?”

“I don’t want you to punish yourself to prove something to me,” I say desperately. But— “I can’t live with seeing what your secrets are doing to you.”

“If you think Malone has no secrets,” he says sharply, “you’re wrong.”

“Then I’m going to ask him what they are. His tattoo reads ‘endless fight.’ I want to know why. The two of you have such similar tattoos. It’s like you encoded a clue to your pasts, to your secrets, on your bodies. For you guys, it’s a reminder. For me, it’s a puzzle I have to solve. You won’t tell me the real meaning of your word, survival. I have to know if Xavier will tell me the meaning of his message.”

I set down my drink. I intend to go now and ask him. But as I get to my feet, Ryder jumps up. He grasps my wrist.

“Fuck it. I know Xav will. Then I’ll lose you forever, and I can’t face that. Not again, Tessa. I’m not strong enough to survive that. You want the truth, babe? I’ll give it to you.” He lets go of my wrist. His beer vanishes in one long swallow.

Watching him with the waterfall as a back drop, I have that sense of sparkling things in the air. The faint, dancing lights glow around Ryder. It must be the moonlight and the other outdoor lights glinting on moisture droplets from the waterfall.

I start to move toward him, but he lifts his head. His eyes are dark with pain, and he says, with brutal harshness, “I was abducted by some guy when I was a kid. I was held prisoner and I was fucking raped. Over and over. By some fucking guy, and I was too fucking scared to fight for my life. I wasn’t strong enough to get away…not at first, fuck it. That’s what happened to me. It was back when I was twelve, but I can’t forget it. The memory of it is with me every minute. It makes me sick. It makes me want to rip things apart. Fuck—because I can’t forget it, I can’t be happy and love you and Jakey the way I should.”

His words stun me. I feel like I’ve taken a blow square in my chest.” “Ryder. Oh God, I had no idea. What happened? Were you found? Did you escape?” Of course he escaped—he’s here with me now. I’m so shocked I’m babbling nonsense at him.

I’m shaking. I never knew. No one said anything about it.

I think of Ryder’s family. How they seemed to reject him after he became a fighter. How could they do that to him after what he went through?

I pushed him to talk about this. Now I feel terrible.

“Yeah,” he says. “I got out.”

He stays quiet for several minutes. My stomach is twisting up inside me. He goes to drink from his empty bottle, then grimaces. That is something I can do for him. I run over to the bar and get him another beer.
Why did you
need
this?
I ask in my head.
What the hell was wrong with you? Couldn’t you have respected him when he told you he couldn’t do this?

I hand him the beer. “If you don’t want to talk about it, you can stop, Ryder. I’m sorry. I—”

“No, you were right. You need to know. I don’t want to keep secrets from you.” He takes a sip of his beer, paces in front of me. “The guy brought in this little kid. A little six year old. Cute little boy. The poor kid was terrified. I couldn’t believe it. The asshole had me chained up in his fucking basement and he went out and got this kid. He wanted me to help him abuse the kid. Threatened to kill me if I didn’t do it. I told him to go ahead and fucking shoot me.”

Oh God.

Ryder takes another slug from the bottle. “But he wanted to play this sick, perverted game. He kept the kid a prisoner, but not locked up like me. He gave the kid presents, I remember. He’d slap the boy—the boy’s name was Steven—to frighten the kid, then he’d act nice and kind, and would soothe Steven. It was some kind of sick mind game. I knew I had to get both of us out. I didn’t care if I died trying, but I wanted to get the kid out.”

“You saved Steven?” I want to touch Ryder. Stroke him. Hold him. But he keeps pacing and I know he doesn’t want to be touched.