Free Spent - Part 1 (Spent, a New Adult Romance, MMA Series) by Elise Holland

curve of my face, with his thumb resting on the dimple in my chin. Suddenly, I’m overwhelmed by everything. The tears I’ve been holding back suddenly surface and begin to fall.

    “What’s wrong?” Luke’s eyes widen with horror.  

    I can’t look at him. Closing my eyes, I just shake my head, trying to process all of the wonderful emotions and sensations he’s just given me. My body feels so loose suddenly, as if every muscle has been relaxed.  

    “Did I hurt you?” He whispers.  

    The tears come down even harder. He’s done the furthest thing from hurting me. In fact, I haven’t felt this good in years. How good I’m feeling is almost painful, because I’ve never felt like this before. I need to get away, to try to collect my thoughts. Opening my eyes, I look up into his.  

    “I need to go,” the words come out cracked.  

    Luke’s face turns downcast, “Okay,” he gently slides his shaft out of me, “Tasha, I’m so…”

    I put my hand up for him to stop. The alcohol has finally worn off and I’m quickly beginning to realize what I’ve just done. My senses suddenly balance back out as I notice the smell of sweat and blood inside of the arena. The smells, along with my racing heart, are enough fuel that I need to get out of here. Everything that Luke has given me tonight is causing my weaknesses to come out in a flood of memories and regrets. I need to get as far away from him as I can.  

    Quickly, I grab my clothes and slip them on. I pause occasionally to wipe the tears away with the back of my hand. Luke watches me with sad eyes as he slowly slips his shorts back on. Once I have everything of mine back together, I look for my backpack. My eyes lock onto Luke’s hands as I see him holding it. He stands up and hands it to me. I smile weakly and lace my fingers around the straps.  

    “Good night.”

    “Good night, Tasha,” the sadness of his tone makes more tears begin to well up.

Chapter 8

    “Wait just a minute,” Cameron stops dead in her tracks along the sidewalk, “You mean to tell me you had that sexy man in between your legs and you started crying!?!”  

    I look around to make sure nobody heard her, “Good gods, Cameron. Will you keep it down? The last thing I need is for everybody outside of the English department to hear all of this.”  

    Cameron rolls her eyes at me, “Fine,” she leans in closer, “But seriously, why did you do that? Did he hurt you? I swear,” her expression turns serious, “I’ll mess him up if he did anything to you.”  

    “God, no,” I wave her off, “He was a perfect gentleman about the whole thing. He’s something special, Cameron.”  
     
    My eyes grow misty as I think back to last night when I walked away from Luke in tears. He’s bombarded me with text messages and phone calls ever since, telling me how sorry he is and that he doesn’t know what happened. I’ve been too embarrassed to respond, because I really don’t know what happened, either.  

    “If he’s so damn special, why did you run away crying?” Cameron places her hand on her hip, refusing to move any further until I tell her what happened.  

    I sigh, “Because it felt so good. Honestly, Cameron. It was probably the best sex I’ve ever had. He was so perfect and wonderful and I just didn’t know how to handle it,” my eyes glaze over with tears.  

      “Oh sweety,” Cameron pulls me into an embrace, “It’s okay. You were just finally shown how a good man should treat you during sex. I bet it was a little scary.”

      “I know,” I mumble against her shoulder as tears begin to fall, “I just don’t know what to do or what to tell him.”  

    Cameron pulls me away enough to look into my eyes, “The truth. Any man would love to know that he made you feel that good.”

    I begin to shake, “I just don’t know what any of this is. I don’t know what he and I are or where we’re going. He felt too good to give up, but I just don’t