Free Consumed: A MMA Sports Romance by Claire Adams

you went
different directions, huh?” I ask. “Why do you think that is?”
    “I don’t know,” Mason
answers. “I guess we just have different ways of processing things. Sometimes I
wonder: if I didn’t take so much grief back in school, would I still be
fighting or would I have ended up like… You know,” he says, “like Chris.”
    “You don’t seem to like your
brother very much,” I observe.
    “I don’t,” Mason says.
“He’s my brother, so I’m forced to love him, but no. I wouldn’t say I like him
very much. Everything with him is about taking the easy way, but the easy way
always ends up more complicated and sooner or later, it always blows up in his
face. I just wish I knew how to get him to see what he’s doing to himself and
to the people around him.”
    “Yeah,” I say a third
time since I’ve been in the room.
    I just don’t know what to
think. The more time I spend with Mason, the more I find that Jana was right
about him; he is sweet, gentle.
    At the same time, this is
not an easy situation. Mason and I already had a bit of trouble getting off the
ground and since Chris arrived, things have only gotten more difficult.
    “Do you think we’re too—”
I start, but I’m interrupted as Mason leans in and kisses me on the lips. It
happens so fast, I’m not even sure that it really happened, except now Mason’s red in the face and turning away from
me. “What was that for?” I ask.
    “I’ve wanted to do that
for a while now,” he says. “I guess it just felt like the right moment.”
    My heart is pounding so
hard, I’m actually a little worried. That doesn’t stop me from kissing Mason
back, though.
    His lips are smooth,
welcoming. When I pull away, Mason’s smiling. “What was that for?” he asks.
    “The first one was so
quick I barely even processed it,” I tell him. “I figured if you’re going to
kiss me, we may as well let it last long enough to do something.”
    There’s still that
tension in my muscles, but the reasons it’s there have stopped coming to mind.
It’s been so long and I’ve been so closed off I’d forgotten that relationships
are about this kind of intimacy. The awkward first kiss, the eager follow-up,
that moment where the only real decision is whether to stop or keep going.
    I decide, at least for
now, to keep going.
    With the initial shock
and timidity now a footnote, Mason and I just sink into each other. His arms
around me, my arms around him—this isn’t what I was expecting, and I can hardly
say I’m prepared for it even now. More than anything, though, I’m taken away,
both in spirit and sensation, into a world I haven’t known for what feels like
so long.
    His hands come together
at the small of my back and a couple of his fingers curl under the bottom of my
shirt.
    “Tell me if I’m moving
too fast,” he whispers, his lips to my ear for a brief, goose-bump-inspiring
moment and now he’s kissing my cheek, my mouth.
    “Okay,” I answer back,
too overcome with the rush of endorphins to remember why I was so nervous in
the first place.
    He starts lifting my
shirt, and even though I’m expecting it, I still gasp a little at the actual
feeling.
    “You okay?” he asks
calmly.
    “Yeah,” I tell him, and I
lift my arms, allowing him to pull my shirt the rest of the way off.
    We’ve spent time with
each other since I decided to give him a shot, but we’ve never been together
like this. It’s always been flirting and subtle glances.
    Now, as I pull Mason’s
shirt over his head and drop it to the floor, I think it’s safe to say we’ve
taken things to the next level.
    At first, I’m not sure
how far I’m willing to take this, but the more I feel his touch, the more I’m
pulled in by the sensuality of the moment, the more I’m ready to go as far as
he’ll take me.
    This isn’t an
intellectual process. Maybe I’m just seeing what I want to see because I’m
feeling what I’m feeling, but the longer we kiss and hold one