Ava

Jett lied. We didn't go to celebrate his win. We along with ten other people went to celebrate the win. And among those ten were four women whose bones I was just about to break if they didn't keep their hands to themselves.

"You were so good out there, Eli." One murmured in his ear, pushing herself closer to him.

I shut my eyes and downed my glass. Isabella and Jett had disappeared like they always did. I was sitting in a booth along with Elias and the girls. Their desperation was making me cringe. They were trying so fucking hard and he wasn't even paying attention. I didn't understand why they wanted to bend down for a man. Elias was sexy, stunning and a whole lot demanding, but a man nonetheless.

"Uh, yeah. Thanks." Elias replied, shifting away. He looked at me with wide eyes, and stared at my expression for a few seconds. I saw the wheels turning in his head and a small smirk appeared on his face. Leaning back to get more comfortable, he kept eye contact with me.

"You looked so hot." Another one said.

His smirk widened but his eye contact didn't budge. I didn't understand what games he was playing. When the same girl tried getting closer to him again, he didn't push her away. I felt my blood boil. He was deliberately making me jealous. And by the way my fists itched to knock these women out, it was working. And by the way his eyes darkened, he knew.

I got up before I could witness something more, pausing to glare down at him, then walking away. The music was loud and the club was crowded. People didn't bump into me like I'd expected them to, and I was walking across the dance floor when my waist was grabbed from the behind and I was turned around swiftly.

"Why did you walk away?" Elias asked me.

"I needed a drink."

His grip on my waist tightened. "Why did you walk away, Ava?"

"I said I needed-"

My sentence ended in a gasp when my hair was pulled down harshly, making me look up in his eyes. His face was confronted into an expression of anger, jaw clenched and tight. I held his biceps to keep my balance. "Do I need to teach you manners again, Ava? We don't lie to each other, or have you forgotten that as well?"

"I didn't like seeing you with other women." I muttered. "It made me jealous and I didn't like that."

He let go of my hair at my confession, his eyes loosing some of their anger when I said the truth. Elias and I had established the first rule of our relationship even before it started. We never lied, not to each other. However much the truth may hurt the other, there would never be any lies between us. That was supposed to make things easier and less complicated. It did the opposite.

His eyes burnt my skin as he traced my cheekbone. People danced around us but we paid no attention to them. His eyes were frozen on me and mine were frozen in his. He pulled my bottom lip with his thumb gently, making my mouth part. "You don't want me with other women, but you also don't want to be with me. How does that work?"

It wasn't that I didn't want to be with him. It was that we would never work. He was a ticking bomb and I was the timer. We only created chaos. There were so many differences between us that there were bound to be clashes which would end in someone hurting the other. We didn't mix, him and I. However much the undeniable chemistry and attraction between us, Elias and I were like day and night. Both bound to each other, yet cannot stay together.

"You want to be with other women?" I asked.

"No, fuck no." He let go of me and pulled his hair. "The thought of us being with other people makes me violent, Ava."

"And if I tell you I was with someone else these four months?"

"Then you will be punished for lying to me." He glowered at me, trailing his hand down my back and lightly grasping my ass. "You think I wouldn't know? I know you better than anyone else, amor."

He pulled me closer to him by my hips. Squeezing them with him palms, he tilted my chin up and made me look at him. Brushing my lower lip, he stared at them for a few seconds, then looked in my eyes. "Your eyes are darker."

"Huh?"

"When I mentioned punishment, your eyes turned darker."

I wanted to reach up and bite down on his neck until I left enough marks to let everyone know who had done it. I felt overly possessive at the moment, and desperately turned on. And that was not a very good combination in front of Elias, who read me like an open book.

"Still turned on by the thought of being punished, hm?" He squeezed my ass and I was already on the verge of arching my back. "You're a bad, bad girl, Ava."

"Elias," My thoughts were turning into mush and I felt weightless. There was a hell lot of sexual tension between us from the moment our eyes had met in the boxing ring. And he was a pro at using that to his advantage.

He turned me around until I felt my back press against the hard muscles of his chest. He swept my hair to the other side, bending down and resting his head in my neck. His arm was around my waist and the other one clasped my jaw and lifted my head up. When he pushed his front into my ass, I couldn't help but close my eyes and rest my head on his chest. I was helpless. And I was soaking wet. There wasn't a single part of my body which protested against what was happening. My vagina was the queen and my entire body bowed down to her. And she wanted Elias.

I took a deep breath, blinked my eyes. Shut up, Ava. Get it together. He was affected by me just as much as I was affected by him. If he used my body against my mind, I would do the same. I grabbed the back of his head, running my fingers into his hair and moved my hips. He groaned as if he'd not expected me to do it. Keeping a firm hold around my waist, he dipped down and took my earlobe in his mouth, grazing his teeth against the shell. I felt his pants tighten when I rubbed my ass against his clothed front.

"You're doing very good, amor." He murmured. "Keep that up and you'll find yourself pinned to the backseat of my car with my fingers inside you."

I stopped in my tracks. I stopped because that was exactly what I wanted, and if I gave in, there would be more complications. He let me go when I turned around. "I admire your resolve, Ava. Did I ever tell you that?"

I narrowed my eyes.

"I admire how you're trying so hard to not give in but your body betrays you every time. I admire how you're always trying to run away but your feet bring you back to me. The opposite poles of a magnet attract for a reason, Ava. You and I, we're the opposite ends."

"We're too opposite."

"That's good sometimes."

"But it's bad the most." I replied, turning around and walking towards the bar. He slid down on the stool beside me as I ordered myself a shot, pushing it away when I made a move to dunk it down. I sighed in exasperation.

"Talk to me."

I faced him. "What do you want me to talk to you about, Elias?"

"I-I don't know. Anything. I just want to talk." He shifted his stool closer to mine. My knees touched his, and when he grew uncomfortable with that position, he slid one of my leg away and moved his between them. Our legs were alternate after that. It felt too much of an intimate position and I felt my cheeks burn.

"Did you box? In these four months? Your punch looked like you did." He said.

"I practised, yeah. Three days a week. Someone once told me the more you practice, the more powerful the punches become." I shrugged, smiling.

He smiled, but it went away just as soon as it had appeared. "And you had a trainer?"

"No. I didn't need one."

That made the smile on his face appear again. I ordered two shots for the both of us. "What about you? What have you been up to?"

He gulped down the shot, closing his eyes. "Nothing. Practice kept me busy. I went over to Spain to visit my parents. Life's been pretty much boring since you left."

I didn't say anything after that. Neither did he. He had thrown over a leather jacket over his sleeveless tee and I became eerily aware of the fact that it made him look much, much hotter. Elias knew he was sexy. He naturally got the attention everywhere he went. And he used that to the fullest. I was thankful no one approached us at the bar. Even though there was noise around us, the silence between us was peaceful.

Isabella and Jett emerged from somewhere. If knowing them for ten years wasn't enough, Jett's messy hair and the various bruises on Isa's neck was enough to understand what they'd been doing. Elias frowned, eyeing his sister's neck. She noticed and slapped his face away, grinning at me. "What'd you two doing?"

"Discussing how you both can't control yourself for a minute."

She chuckled, sitting down beside me. "I can't help it when he looks so delicious. I don't have a strong resolve as you do, bonita. Wanna dance?"

"No-"

"Jesus Christ. Don't you ever get tired of saying no?" She muttered under her breath, getting up and grabbing my hand. "Come on. Eli, haul yours and your best friend's ass over there as well."

We danced for an hour straight. I had momentarily forgotten about work and it was a refreshing change. I had downed more than five shots of alcohol and I was losing my senses. Everything felt too bright and blurry. My mood had lifted up a bit too much and apparently it was hilarious to watch. Isabella was more sober than me, but drunk nonetheless.

"Come on, didn't you have work tomorrow?" Elias murmured to me, holding my waist. When I stumbled down and giggled, he cupped my jaw and tilted my face up. "Joder, Ava. How much did you drink?"

I pinched my thumb and forefinger, and grinned. "A lot."

"I can see that. You can't even walk properly." He tightened his hold around my waist and pressed me closer to him so that I could use his body to keep my balance. "Come on, I'll drop you home."

"J-Jett?" I mumbled.

"He'll drop off Isa. I have to sleep at the ring tonight so I told him I'll drop you on the way."

"Why?"

"Early practice."

We walked to his car as he shifted all of my weight to his arm. He slid me into the passenger seat of his car, keeping an eye on me as we drove past the streets. I felt him look at me once in a while, but I stared out of the window the whole ride. When we reached my house, I proceeded to open the door to my side when it was shut close, making me flinch and move back. Elias opened it again, narrowing his eyes at me and giving me a hand to get down. I looked at him in caution as I stepped down. When we were inside the four walls of my house, I was ready to pass out.

Elias swept me off my feet, picking me up bridal style and walking inside. He'd been over enough times to know which room was mine. Dropping me on the bed, when the sheets came in contact with my skin, my eyes closed on their own. I felt my shoes being taken off. I opened an eye to find Elias looking through my closet. The alcohol was starting to fade away, and I could understand my surroundings a little better.

"What are you doing?" I asked him when he didn't move for a minute.

He turned around slowly, holding in his hand what appeared to be a black coloured oversized button down shirt. My favourite shirt. His shirt. "You kept it?" His voice faltered.

"I-I-yeah."

"And the others?"

"Yeah."

He shut his eyes, gulping harshly. His face was confronted into an expression of longing. I wanted to hug him and tell him everything would be alright. I stared at him trying to compose himself and I hated myself for putting him in a situation like that. I'd been hurting him the whole night. He'd been trying so hard to make things okay but I was fucking up everything.

"Elias?" I called out, looking down. "I'm sorry."

"Why?"

"I don't know. I just feel like a bitch right now."

"Because you kept my shirt?"

"Because I'm hurting you and I can see it on your face. Because I'm giving you mixed signals and fucking up with your head and-"

"The fact that you're giving me mixed signals means you're fighting with yourself." He looked up the same time I did. Our eyes met and everything froze. "You're fighting with yourself because you're too afraid to admit something was going on between us, Ava. Something's still going on."

I shut my eyes. I couldn't bear to look in his when they were burning with so many questions, with such an intensity that made me want to look down. I heard his footsteps when he walked to my bed, and kept the shirt by my feet. Then he proceeded to leave.

"Elias?" I called out again, my eyes still shut. "Stay."

I heard him take a deep breath. "I can't. You don't want to accept us yet and I'm not sure I would be able to leave you in the morning."

I clutched the sheets tightly to prevent myself from running to him.

"Have a good night, Ava."

-⍣-

I wrote this while treating myself to a dark chocolate brownie, so I think it came out pretty well. What do you think?