Top Dog

Sam wipes a tear from her eye. “So that’s why you quit?”

“Not entirely. First of all I wanted revenge. Of course. But that kind of thinking isn’t sustainable. The guy who killed Andrew was plugged into a couple of gangs. That was a fight I eventually would have got the worst of. I wasn’t going to start carrying a gun and getting in shootouts every day. But the other part of that was that cops raided the warehouse right then. They rounded us all up. Medics saw what happened to Andrew. One of them, a fan, recognized me and took me over to talk to a couple of detectives.”

“Did they help you get the guy?”

“No, that guy was done either way. He wound up going to prison. The whole thing was illegal. None of us were clean, guilty by association just by being there, including me. My agent would have gone berserk if he’d known I was there. Sponsors would have dropped me in a flash unless they put some gross ‘bad boy in underground pit fighting scandal’ spin on it, but that’s not what I wanted my championship reign to be about. Not that that’s what mattered. Andrew was what mattered and he was gone.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” she says.

“I should have stopped him.” There’s nothing she can say to change what I know, but it’s nice to hear. I want to believe her, but she’s wrong. “And I could have.”

“We make our own choices. It’s not our friend’s job to drag us away from things. He would have resented you.”

“But he would have lived.”

Sam turns off the recorder. “Look at me.”

I look at her. She’s staring back with all the conviction a person can have. “I want you to say “It’s not my fault,” she says.

“I can’t, Sam. And even if I could, I let those detectives let me off. I should have taken my lumps for being there in the first place. Everyone else had to. I had always sworn that I would never play the ‘I’m an important guy’ card to get out of trouble. But I did and I’m fucking ashamed of it.”

“Does being out here help?” She gestures at the basement walls. “Do you feel like you actually escaped?”

“Of course not. But I don’t have to deal with the memory of him everywhere I go.”

“It doesn’t sound like that’s true. You’ve got a picture of him on the wall. You can’t atone forever, Hugh. What do you want from your life now? There’s got to be more than this. You’re more than a beard and an ax and a cabin. That sounded dumb, I know, but you’ve reduced yourself to less than you should be. You’re a special person and I don’t need to know you any better than I do to know that. So I’m going to ask you again, what do you want from your life?” Her fiery speech has lit up her cheeks with a sexy flush. Her rapid movements make her body sway and bounce in all the right ways.

“You really want to know what I want?” I say. Because I can suddenly think of something.

“Tell me.”

I stand up. “Come here.”

She stands up and walks over to me. “Now what?”

“I believe in fair play and I think you got some of my best earlier. Now I want you to get on your knees. And you’re going to take more than a minute.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN: SAM WASHINGTON

I can’t argue with his logic. Fair is fair.

I drop to my knees. He’s already hard and bulging against his jeans. I unzip him, and slowly take his hard cock out of his pants. That’s when I realize that maybe this isn’t as fair as I thought. He’s working with a lot more than I am.

But I can do it. After hearing him bare his soul, knowing how vulnerable he has made himself to me—and only to me—I would do anything to make him feel better. I lightly trace my nails on the underside of the shaft, enjoying his low groan. It feels like power, a revving motor, and I’m causing it. He looks down at me and we hold one another’s gaze as I stroke his massive cock.

After I work him with my nails for a while I can tell he’s needing more. I take my time running my tongue along it. He moans. I run my tongue up and down it a few more times. He puts one hand in my hair. Then the other. His hips rock gently and I take more of him in.

Feeling him get harder in my mouth makes every nerve in my body catch on fire. There is a release and a liberation in being so uninhibited that I have never known. I go a little faster and he pushes me back. He wants it slow. And I give it to him. Again, he moans and rocks, his hands in my hair as he shows me what he wants.

I reach under the stroke the rest of him. He quivers. This is everything I’ve ever wanted. He guides me with his hands in my hair.

Soon I sit up taller on my knees, stroking him with both hands, and sucking him aggressively. I suck him like I’m the one who needs it. And maybe I am.

He sounds like he can’t take it anymore. He lets out a cry and pushes me back again.

Hugh stands over me staring, his chest heaving, his eyes wild. I can’t wait to see what he’ll do to me next.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN: HUGH MADDOX