Inner Beast: An Enemies to Lovers Romance Read online

  Ali: “No. I’m not ready.”

  Me: “Come on, your parents are going to kill me if I don't get you home before curfew.”

  Ali: “Ugh, don't mention my parents while I'm naked.”

  I chuckle at her, she is always so cranky when she is woken. I feel her hand reaching towards me, touching my bare abs, her fingers gently inching lower and lower. I can see the smile erupt on her face.

  Ali: “Ohh.. It seems I’m not the only one naked.”

  Her eyes open and she looks at me mischievously. I know instantly her intent.

  Me: “If you keep looking at me like that then I’m most definitely not getting you home in time.”

  Ali: “I can live with that.” She says as she inches closer to me. Her delicate fingers wrapping around my aching member. Her warm breath touches the nape of my neck, as she gets closer and closer. Her teeth nipple my ear causing shivers to run down my spine. My dick twitches in the firm grip of her hand. She whispers into my ear and says “I could be late.” Thats all it takes, all my resolve fly's out of the bedroom.

  I lean in and devour her. My breathing ceases as she is all the air that I need. I roll her onto her back and lean over her. Kissing her and rocking my cock into her still firm grip. I take my hands and feel her, a body that is engraved into my mind. A body that is mine, all mine. I grab her and pull her into me, needing her more than I’ve ever needed anything else. A love that is as dangerous as they come. I can feel myself getting close just off her touch. Her hands reach up and grab my hair, she starts tugging which makes me groan, I can feel her passion, feel how she’s just as drunk off of me as I am off of her. I groan into her mouth, needing to feel her, needing to be inside of her. I pull away and look into her eyes.

  Me: “I love you.” I say, looking into her blown pupils. I resume kissing her, making her feel my love in every way imaginable. Feeling like I'm in a dream, a dream where I actually got my girl. A dream that I continue to wake up years later and still feel shocked and relieved. “I can’t believe how beautiful you are.” I say to her.

  She pulls away and looks into my eyes again. “I love you too.” She says. I look into her eyes and pull make just enough to line myself up with her wet, warm opening. Pushing myself into her, pushing myself home.

  Chapter 13

  Alexis 26 years old.

  I pace around my apartment building waiting for my parents to show up. Their call was from yesterday and they said they wanted to go for lunch. When I got home I messaged them asking what time they were going to be coming. Then I showered, put on some comfortable yet sophisticated looking clothing to convey my accomplishments in life and to show them that I achieved my dreams despite their lack of support. I’ve probably worn off most of the tread off of my heels when the door bell goes off. I walk over to the door and see my parents in all their glory. My mother looks happy, and dressed to impress. She is wearing a tight fitted grey pencil skirt with a white blouse. My dad is wearing a suit non the less, charcoal grey as well, no doubt my mother picked it out so that they were coordinated.

  “Dear.” My mother says opening up her arms. She reaches out for me, grabbing on to both of my arms pulling me in to kiss me on either cheek. Not to hug me though, that would show too much emotion and could possibly wrinkle her top.

  My dad who doesn’t move an inch looks me over with a soft smile on his face and says, “How's my Ally Cat?”

  I’ve always been more of a daddies little girl that a mothers best friend. So when he looks at me with that kind look I can feel my posture relaxing. My mother lets go and backs away from me.

  “I’m good dad. Come in, I just need to grab my purse and then we can go to lunch.” I say backing away from the door.

  My mom pushes herself in rather quickly surveying my place. No doubt assessing it against her high standards. My dad walks in behind her, softly closing the door. I walk over to the kitchen counter grabbing my purse and looking back over to them.

  “Anywhere in particular you guys want to go?” I ask.

  My mom looks back over to me. The looks of distaste apparent on her face.

  “Somewhere four or five star dear. After the food on the airplane I could use something that’s edible and won’t leave me feeling like I have food poisoning.”

  I roll my eyes, already regretting opening the door and letting them in.

  “Theres a great place a few blocks from here.” I say walking back towards the door. “But we should get going, it's early enough that we should be able to get a table but if we wait any longer we will most likely miss out.”

  I can hear my mother audibly scoff in dislike. Probably pissed that I didn’t think ahead and make a reservation for their last minute trip of which I only found out about this morning. I open the front door taking a deep breath and trying to not let her get to me. My dad walks past be patting me on the back, supporting me in the way he does, because of all people he would understand how I feel. My mother storms past and starts walking towards the elevator without another word. Her head held high. What I would give to accidentally trip her, but that would be highly ranked on a list of bad ideas. I’ll get through this lunch, figure out why they are here then try to get some actual work done, its been days since I have contributed to the business and I feel guilty. I’m sure my employees have it all covered though, their messages would indicate so.

  I lock up the door and follow behind reaching the elevator as the doors open. I follow my mom and dad inside, leaning forward and hitting the lobby button.

  “Did you guys have any difficulty finding the place?” I ask, trying to be civil and also secretly fishing for a compliment about where I live.

  “The only difficult things about this place was trying to find a place to park.” My mother says reaching into her handbag for her compact.

  I look over to my dad who turns his head at the same time, that same kind small smile displayed on his face.

  “This is a nice apartment complex.” He says. I smile back, happy that one of my parents is kind enough to say something nice.

  “Yah.” I say. “I chose this place because of their security features, it's supposed to be one of the best in town for that.”

  My mother scoffs again. “What security would that be?” She says. “The old lady manning the desk doesn’t even look like she could stop a stay dog from running though the lobby, let alone someone who was an apparent threat.”

  I bite the inside of my cheek hard, I can feel the warmth and metallic taste of blood.

  “Marsha is not just an old lady mother, and she’s a lot more versatile that you would think. This place was featured in a local magazine for its security, I think you would be pleasantly surprised. They don’t flash the appeal in everyones face, but it's definitely running behind the scenes. It’s what I love about this place.” I say.

  My mother doesn’t speak another word, but I can tell she isn’t ecstatic with my reply. The elevators open and I can feel the cool breeze sweep around the room, making it feel like moments ago the air had been sucked out. I walk out of the elevator into the lobby, my parents close to my heels behind me. When we get out onto the street I hail a cab for us all to get in and give the directions to where we are going. The car ride is quiet and with every passing moment my stomach churns and I can’t help but wonder why they are here. My mother doesn’t feel any closer to accepting my career choice and my father continues to be silent and in the background. When the cab pulls over to the curb in front of the restaurant I feel like crying. This whole situation is not what I want to be caught in. Regardless I push into the restaurant and were shortly after directed to our table. Once seated with our menus and after giving out drink choices to the waiter we fall back into our routine. I spark up conversation and my mother throws in crude remarks, my father throws in a few words here and there mostly trying to keep the peace while not make a scene. It's like no time has passed at all. When the food finally comes I can’t take it any longer.<
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  “What brings you to Seattle?” I ask.

  My mother who was about to put her first bite of her low fat, no calorie all green salad into her mouth stops and rests her fork back on the table.

  “We came to see you. You never answer our calls and we were worried.” She says to me. I haven’t seen the look on her face she is directing at me since I was a kid.

  “I’ve been busy mom, I’m building a business.” I say.

  “Well we had the miles sitting around not being used so we figured why not come for a visit. It's been long enough and we wanted to see for ourselves how you are.” She says looking back down to her plate and resuming picking up her fork with her plain boring salad on top.

  I pick up one of my French fries and stuff it in my mouth.

  My dad clears his throat and picks up his water taking a large gulp. “Are you seeing anyone?” He asks.

  I immediately chewing and choke on my French fry. I reach out for my water glass and start taking a few drinks trying to clear the fry and the shock from my system.

  “Nope, not seeing anyone.” I lie. Kind of. I don’t really know what me and Marcus are doing, but I wouldn’t classify it as a relationship so, not really a lie when I think of it.

  “Have you spoken to Carter lately?” My mother asks.

  My jaw drops open and I know. I just knew it. I knew she must have given my numbers to him. It was the only thing that made sense. My parents are the only people who knew about where I had moved too. I don’t have social media, and I changed all my numbers when I left home. I lift my jaw up, dust it off and close my mouth, thinking of my reply.

  “Nope, haven’t spoken to him.” I say, grinding my teeth and trying to not reach across this take and choke her for bringing that asshole back into my life.

  “Thats a shame.” She says. “He seemed really eager to get ahold of you. It's unfortunate how you guys ended up, you guys were so good together.” She says, taking another bite of her disgusting green looking weeds. It’s rude but I kind of wish she would choke on them.

  “Mother, I’ve told you before. There is nothing between me and Carter anymore. Some people are just not meant to be together.” I wonder if I should point out that he’s a cheating douchebag who deserves to have his nuts chopped off, but I resist. I need to rein in my anger before I make a very public display of crazy.

  I take a deep breath and take another drink of my water.

  “I’m sorry hunny, it's just after what he told us. We feel for the boy, and we were just hoping you would talk to him.” She says.

  “Why are you talking to him anyway?” I ask. “Don't you think it's a little weird, we haven’t been talking for almost ten years. Why bring him up now.?”

  My mother looks over to me as if I’m being a rude brat and says in her “Matter of fact” voice. “Well if you would answer the phone, or better off call us sometime you would have found out that Carter words for the business now. He heads a division of sports lawyers.”

  I can feel my eyebrows draw in together, my forehead crinkling and by the continued look of dismay on my mothers face I can tell that me wrinkling up my face upsets her just as much now as it did when I was a child.

  “Alexis stop that, you’ll cause premature wrinkles.” She takes another bite of her salad, anorexic appeal like her. Chews, with her annoying chewing. Then speaks again without looking at me. “If you get wrinkles you’ll be alone forever, but that must be your plan since you won’t even speak to Carter. After everything he’s been though. Sometimes I wonder where we went wrong with you.”

  I look from my mother to my father. He says and does nothing. Worse than if he had agreed. Anything would have been better than nothing but he keeps eating his chicken sandwich as if nothing was said. No crude remarks, oblivious to his surroundings. I grab my napkin, wipe my face and throw it on my dish.

  “It was lovely to see you guys but unfortunately I have to get to the office. I just remembered we have an urgent client coming today at one. Sorry I couldn’t stay longer.”

  I push up from my chair, swallowing the lump in my throat. Willing myself not to break-down. Although I know how brutal my mother can be it still feels like a jagged knife if being pulled from my chest. Shredding everything, until I’m hollow.

  “Thats it.” She says snidely. “You hear one thing you don’t like and then you run off like a hurt child? You need to hear the truth child, no matter how brutal it is. You're an adult now. So start acting like one.”

  I lean down towards her, keeping it together. Being more adult than she realizes. I get close enough that I could spit in her face and then I whisper. “I’ve been called worse by better.”

  I straighten up without looking at her, keeping my head held high and I walk out. I was away from his toxicity an my fathers blatant disregard for my feelings. How he stays with that cynical woman I’ll never know.

  I walk onto the sidewalk and hail a cab. When I get into the car, I give them Marcus’s address without even thinking. I don’t want to go home because that will be the first place they will look and I don't want to be found right now. I want to drop off the face of the world and do something I enjoy. I call the guys at the shop and ask for everything that’s shown up for Marcus’s living room that I put on order the other day to be delivered. I’ll do that I love.

  Chapter 14

  Marcus.

  I haven’t heard from her in four days.

  Four longer than normal days, practically five, five days.

  Football camp has kicked my ass and there’s still forty four more days to go. I get a brief three day break after the first two weeks then we have to do two more weeks. So far we have been focusing on strength and conditioning. Push up drills, followed by several different agility drills like the shuttle run and the weave. Coach has been pushing us hard, grooming us for a win. Every morning I wake up sore and fatigued, when were done there is just enough energy to shower and eat before I hit that bed and wake again shortly later to my alarm. My body hates me, my mind kills me.

  All I can think about is Ali, our night together and the lack of communication afterwards. I check my phone in the morning and there is nothing. I check my phone when I go to bed and again nothing. I know she felt it, what happened between us was not just sex. I’m left feeling like there are sides to Ali that I will never know. A shell that incases her that I fear I will never break though. She didn’t give me a chance before, we hung out once in college. We were having a good time until she found out I had aspirations of going big time with the NFL, then she shut down. The laughter died like the rest of our night. She was always the one who got away, normally woman would throw themselves at me. Girls loved the fact that I wanted to go pro. Ali made it seem like it was a rotten disease I carried around that she wanted nothing to do with.

  I run, and I weave. We run through drill after drill. Tackle, run, tackle. I feel pain in new places, bruises come out of know where. Every guy on the team is pissed, they know that something other than football occupies my mind. They scowl at me on the field. They hit me harder as if they’re trying to knock sense into me.

  The ice baths are horrendous and yet relieving. They aid in the swelling and bruises, they decrease the likelihood of injury from the ass kicking I’ve been taking on the field.

  Day five, no communication.

  Day six, no communication.

  Day thirteen, no communication.

  Day twenty-five, no communication.

  When we took our break I stayed, I didn’t go home. I didn’t want to see Ali, didn’t want to hear her say we made a mistake. I don't understand what happened and I cannot wreck my entire career pining over a woman who doesn’t talk to me. By day twenty-six I have my head back in the game. I dodge the tackles, I throw harder and run faster.

  Alexis.

  When I arrive to the house and let myself in a breath a sigh of relief. This place is like a sanctuary from my life. I walk into the dining ro
om, examining the space then head to the living room. I’ve been at the house for an hour when the doorbell rings and I greet the movers at the front door. They bring in box after box and although this house is huge I think I may have over shopped. Unfortunately online shopping has the tendency to do that to me. I shake my head at myself. Then I kick off my heals and throw my blonde hair up in a pony tail.

  This is how I destress.

  After the movers leave I head back into the living room. I start by painting the walls, I had them deliver several different pails of greys, whites, blacks, navy blues to tie in the seating area to the open concept kitchen. I throw some emails off to my employees stating I’ll be off the grid and where I will be if they need anything then I powered off my phone after the movers left. Nothing will distract me, and my mission is to get this house done before Marcus gets back. He said he would be back in two weeks. So I have my work cut out for me.

  By day five all the walls are painted in the living room, I chose a medium toned grey with white accent pieces The walls play off nicely to the concert swirl floor. I then went with black couches, to play off his masculinity and because men are proven slobs. I throw pops of colour in with the wall art. Reds, blues and pops of yellow. The side tables are rustic pine wood. Similar to the dining room table.

  By day six, I have most of the furniture in the living room out of the boxes and placed around.

  By day thirteen the seating room is finished as well with several large seating chairs that face off towards the dining room and the kitchen. An area where a family could grow. I think that Marcus will love this space its perfect for entertaining small and large gatherings.

  I walk around the house, I’ve put side tables and art work on the walls in the hallways. The kitchen I have left as is. I’ve tied everything I’ve done off that navy blue kitchen island. In the seating room I accented the chairs with navy blue cushions. The dining room has navy blue artwork on the walls. Everything is settle but it helps with the subtle flow.