Alice

Jack

  I stare at the glass she left on the table as I process what just happened. I moved without thinking. My arms were around her before I knew it. It was strange...I don't know what she's so upset about but I'm sure it has something to do with her boyfriend. I saw how they were earlier, something was off. I feel strange when I see them together but I don't know what it is that evokes these feelings.
  
  Today was eventful and a lot to process. One thing is for sure though, what I feel for this girl, is different from anything I've experienced before but I keep feeling like its wrong...I love Karen, how can I be having feelings for her daughter like this. We've only known each other for two days and already...That's not possible. I dismiss the thoughts from my head. I'm a thirty seven year old man, I don't have time to be acting and thinking like a teenage boy.

I pour myself a glass of wine and head to my study to complete a few business transactions. My focus shifts from Alice to the phone call I'd received before she came in. It was my fight manager. I sit at my laptop and type in 'James 'the bulldog' Fraser,' an array of video thumbnails pop up. I click on one that starts out with a huge, heavily tattoo'd white man pounding on the face of a smaller less tattoo'd man. The smaller one manages to bring his hands up to stop the flurry of fists coming at him but it's not enough, the bigger man, Bulldog Fraser, smashes his face with a powerful downward right hook splattering blood across the cage matt and causing the smaller man's mouth guard to pitch out. The referee pulls at Bulldog to make him stop but Bulldog fires another hook at the motionless man's face snapping his head to the other side. Two more referees run in to pull bulldog off, while medics race toward the severely battered man on the ground. I stop the video, my jaw clenched. Bulldog is my opponent in the cage on Wednesday night, that's what the call was about.

Big Jimmy's words about me losing everything come to mind...I know I can get hurt or even worse... I can die..  I know I can lose everything i've worked for, but I don't care, if I don't get in that cage, if I don't fight...how else will I deal with these feelings inside, how will I get these images of what I went through out of my head. I slam my fist against the table and let out a sigh. "Pull yourself together jack," I whisper. Just then,I hear feet on the ground and I look to the door to be met by the silhouette of a woman. "Alice?" I whisper. The soft orange light of my lamp bathes her face. It's Karen, her nightgown clinging to her figure and her hair draped over to one side.

  Her leg slips out from the split in her gown revealing her thigh to her toe. I know she isn't wearing anything underneath the gown. "Come to bed don't make me sleep alone..." she says in a voice that tugs on my heart as well as my pangs. I can no longer focus on what I'm doing.

I stand up and head toward Karen; pausing right before reaching her, just inches from her face. I know she feels me; the air grows ripe with our heat. I stare down into her deep green eyes and I see yearning in them, yearning for me. She becomes overwhelmed and bends her head down; I raise my hand up and place it under her chin, raising her head up so I can see in her eyes again. The idea of this strong woman standing as submissive as a child to me thrills my soul to the core. She stands as a mountain that I've climbed, a nation I've conquered. Few things in this world excite me as much as this feeling. Complete dominance over a goddess in her right.

I lean down and part her lips with mine, feeling her go weak in the knees. She wraps her arms around me and her legs follow. I draw her close as she runs her hand up the back of my neck, in to my hair and she grabs. Thoughts of the fight are pulled away as she tugs at my shirt. I am hers again.

***

My eyes fly open as I dart up from my pillow. I'm covered in sweat and my heart is pounding. I can hardly catch my breath. The bedside lamp suddenly switches on, "Baby, are you okay?" I feel a warm hand against the side of my face but I'm still caught in the remnants of sleep, rendering me incapable of turning toward the person beside me. I know the person's voice but I can't hold a thought long enough to figure it out. "Jack, jack look at me."

The woman turns my face toward her, my eyes still like huge saucers, agape. The haze starts to clear, "K-karen...I..." "

"Shh, shh, quiet baby," She pulls me close and I feel a rush of emotions. "Which dream was it this time?" She asks in a low tone that helps soothe my flustered mind and pounding heart. The dream was like fountain ink washed; all it left was a faint black residue that was unrecognizable, but there. The faint black residue was fear. "I...don't know which one."

"It's okay baby, it's okay."