Racing Hearts

Chapter Six- Inhibitions Meet Tequila

Head pounding worse than the morning after celebrating a 21st birthday, Kayla attempted to pull herself upright from beneath the unfamiliar sheets of the bed as her eyes struggled to adjust to the space around her. For a single moment, she sat with her eyes closed softly before opening them to find an entire space left a mystery to her. With only a small line of sunlight peeking through charcoal drapes set over sheer curtains, she lifted her feet to the floor and stumbled to the hanging until thrusting it open and having a grunt fill the air. However, she knew with certainty that the guttural noise was not from her lips as the cadence was too low and she was silent, therefore, she knew she was not alone. Immediately, she closed her eyes and slowly turned to the direction behind her before finding a male figure set in the bed beside where she had just risen. At first, she questioned how she hadn’t noticed his presence within the shared sheets, but now only begged that it was not Jeff. 

It wasn’t. It was worse…

“Devon…” She spoke his name slowly from her lips as he had turned towards the window in an attempt to locate and eliminate the source of the abrupt sunlight before c*****g his jaw to the side in a sarcastic confidence that made her nauseated. Her eyes immediately attempted to take in the details of how she could have ended up here, before she noted the sporadic resting place of her last outfit entangled within the cotton fabric of his own. Her face darkened with regret as she then noticed the bottle of champagne in now melted ice, a set of chocolate covered strawberries half open on the table, and a sleeve of condoms loose upon the floor on Devon’s side of the bed. 

By the time she had viewed the entire scene of the hotel suite overlooking the AT&T stadium, Devon had now been on his feet, with only his boxers and a sarcastic grin spread across his face. He moved directly beside her, his eyes analyzing her for a short while as she was wearing nothing more than a NASCAR heather gray tee two sizes too big, that was not in her ownership.

“Um...Wha-What happened last night?” His lips widened even further to this question. 

“You don’t remember?” Her gaze fell away from him as she observed the evidence before her once again, but in this attempt to fight her amnesiac state, she had to rely on his account. 

“No…”

“That’s really too bad…”

“Can you at least tell me how I got here?”

“Before or after I made your panties wet?” Her mouth came open in horror as her eyes shared this emotion before she pulled away from him. 

“Can you not be an ass for like a second and just tell me? Please.”

He suddenly captured his bottom lip between his teeth as his eyes continued to descend her frame as he grunted to himself in pleasure. “I could certainly get used to hearing you beg…”

“Forget it!” She yelled at him before returning to her side of the bed, lifting the sheets and digging beneath the pillows before continuing this mysterious search as Devon folded his arms and remained in watch of her, pleased with each of her movements and the way her body folded and swayed with each motion. 

“What are you looking for?”

“My phone!” She yelled at him, not caring to shield his feelings for a second before she then escaped through a door allowed open on a series of wheels, before coming to an adequate sized living room followed by a dining room and a kitchenette appearing more like an apartment than a hotel room. But upon searching each of these sections that eventually led her to the bathroom, she found only a pair of her soaked panties still drying over the glass top of the shower. She became aggravated even further once learning this had been the reason for his comment of having made her panties wet. When she turned, she found Devon in the doorway, leaning against the frame, with a wide grin of pride set prominent over his lips. 

“Did you kidnap me?”

“Like I would have to...You came here all on your own, darlin’.” She sneered at him before now taking her finger against his chest. 

“Let me get one thing straight, I only slept with you out of being so horribly drunk that I hoped I wouldn’t remember, and thanks to what I am guessing to be Tequila-as that has his amnesiac properties on me...I am thankful for it.” She paused, taking in the fact she now wiped the smirk from his face that was replaced with a hard line of contemplation. “Now if you are even a fraction decent, can you please help me either find my phone or call Amanda for me?”

“I could just take you home…”

“No thanks. I’d rather walk...on glass...over hot coals...for eternity.”

“Wow...all that just to deny me a ride-but you were so willing last night-”

“Listen to me...the only thing I want out of you is to leave me alone. I don't know why I’m here or what we did, but just know that I regret it. Every depraved second before you or at your side-You are a player and I have no interest in being a pawn or a peg to whatever game you intend to win. I’m not playing. I just want to go home and get back to my life before you were in it!”

He slowly nodded before disappearing into the bedroom for a second and withdrawing her phone from a bag set in the far corner. “We didn’t do anything…” He confessed as he moved to a fresh t-shirt hung in a nearby closet before forcing her to follow him as he now moved into the kitchen and took a seat on one of the barstools. 

“What?”

“We happened to be at the same club last night...You danced...You wanted to go for a swim...I took you here...you threw yourself at me, and I put you to bed…”

“So we didn’t?”

“Believe me, you’d know if we had.” She scoffed to his words as she rolled her eyes and turned in relief before hearing the wood crack beneath his feet as he now moved towards her. “You would know if I f****d you because you wouldn’t be able to walk up any form of incline without feeling how deep I was inside of you…” He spoke standing over her, her eyes desperately searching in his own as his optimal orbs were piercing into hers. “You would have my fingerprints tattooed throughout your body and my lips imprinted on your skin...and lastly...you wouldn’t regret it. Even if you were so upset with me...you would forgive me because of how I would make you feel…” He now stepped back from her for a moment to analyze how he had affected her. 

“Completely and unmistakably satisfied...You would remember how I felt, how I kissed-I’m sure you still remember now…”

“Did we? I actually forgot...thankfully…” She attempted to remain dominant over her desire by speaking cruelly in reference to a rather kind moment, but her eyes continued to follow him as her breath hitched as he stood across from her. 

“Perhaps I should remind you then…” Slowly, he took a single step in her direction and managed to brush his nose to hers at the very second the sound of someone clearing their throat had interrupted them. She stood with the inability to move for a moment as he passed beyond her without much of a care of the trembling woman he left in his wake. 

“You are already late…” Dusty’s voice brought her from her daydream as she turned to view both men retiring to the bedroom. As she attempted to find anything she could use as pants, she overheard a conversation not meant for her ears…

“I hope you have her out of your system now so you can focus…” Dusty’s voice called across the room to Devon as he rose to view his friend for a moment before shaking his head. “She has your head fucked...You are making longer time in trials and making dumb mistakes in turns...You nearly wiped out yesterday-”

“And yet I won first last Thursday, right? I am making the lead where it counts...my personal life has nothing to do with it…”

“What about Blair?”

“That’s different…”

“Why? Because you got bored with her? Look...Girls like Kayla don’t deserve to be thrown away just because you want to get two decades of s****l frustration out on her…”

“You never seemed to care about any of the other girls…”

“None of the other girls have been through what she has...if that d**k was right with what he said about her...she is more...damaged than you are...and she doesn't deserve where you’ll end up putting her in about three months-if that.”

Her eyes fell to the floor for a moment in concern as she felt as though she was enlightened on his life in a way that should have been unsurprising, and yet, she stood beside the door in awe. 

“Anything I decide to do with Kayla is not of your concern...Just do your job, which doesn’t include f*****g up my relationships.”

“You can’t call what you have with her-”

“We’re done with this conversation.” Suddenly he emerged from the room to find the nosy Kayla at the side of the door, blushing once realizing she was busted. 

“Great…” He uttered before taking his own phone from the counter and marching out the door before Dusty followed. 

“Let’s go...we are taking you home…” But as Kayla slipped into the car driven by Dusty, her eyes fell to Devon in the passenger seat, staring out the window with his face leaning upon his knuckles as if he had been pouting. And just as the car set into motion, she began to remember in precise detail of the events leading her back to his presence.