|◁ II ▷|

enny — same old.

THE COLOUR IN HER hazel green eyes was a wildly brazen shade of passion-red as the two of them were bundled into the waiting Jeep, parked on the kerb of the hospital's walkway. Despite the outside clamouring — there was quiet, which allowed the both of them to hear the other's thudding heartbeat.

And the strong smell of mutual attraction.

"Sorry," Ebén first apologised, not because he had been guilty of any wrong-doing.

But, because, her association to him meant she now had a hit on her back, laid on her by the press — and would soon have to bid goodbye to total privacy, in the same way, Ebén had done.

"What for?" Maya's chest continued to rack hard at how fast her legs had followed the other and how she'd fallen into the car so uncoordinatedly.

As a natural consequence of his dreams coming true, the press enjoyed unfiltered access to the athlete, in his high peaks and his low valleys.

Today had been a low, a ground zero one, but that hadn't stopped the press from storming him.

The fisted bangs on the tinted window drowned out the volume of Ebén's dry voice, "For putting you through this. I don't blame if you end up leav — "

A wince flashed across his face, causing him to try and ride out the pain by clenching his teeth, hard.

"Leaving" Ebén drummed out the two-syllable word from his mouth with a long and strained huff.

Maya understood that this public intrusion came with the territory and was already resigned to the fact that her life would now change, "Ebén, it's fine."

"It isn't," Ebén wanted to be selfish and accept at her word that the press' impending encroachment of her personal life was a consequence of loving him, but he loved her too much to leave her in the cross fire.

"Ebén, I want this. I want you," Out from her mouth, she was direct, for the second time ever — about her feelings. And Ebén felt compelled to give the outspoken woman what she wanted. Him.

"It feels good to hear you finally say it," Ebén admitted, awash with relief that she finally confessed to wanting him, outside the realm of sexual intercourse as he knew — first hand, that the things he said during sex weren't always true.

"I'm glad, 'cus I mean it. Every single word," Ebén was watching her lips move, and felt his body cripple, in a good way, at the directness of her words.

"Come here," The man motioned her over with his deep-sounding growl that was reminiscent of that night spent on his kitchen floor. The husk in his tone had not been an invitation, but a demand, that needed her complete compliance, which he got.

"You like orderin' people around, don't ya?" Maya surmised, from her own experience of encountering Ebén who stuck his demands on those that would yield to them, even without him personally insisting.

She had initially been a personal project of his, seeing how long she could go in resisting his charms, but in the end — he couldn't resist hers.

"No?" Ebén's lips inched closer to grazing hers, but hadn't yet, made contact, "I ask. I don't demand."

"Pfft, like you did with me?"

Ebén was too frayed by his attraction to her to answer her question, but Maya knew that the unfolding of his lips into a semi-smirk was evidence that he knew the former wasn't true.

Without waiting for another second to pass, the two collided — plunging them back both into that pool of desire that had Maya needy for his physical reassurance. His tongue and hers were again introduced to each other in a slow and soft lick, the both of them grabbing clumps of each other's shirts in a manner that was almost frenzied.

The fervour from their snog blocked out the outside chattering but it was the pressing of the car horn that broke apart their lips, "Ebén! Ebén! Ebén!" Avid fans of his commence shouting from the top of their lungs in an attempt to get his attention.

Surprisingly, Ebén granted them a rare appearance, with stains of purple — that had been all Maya's doing, seared all over the skin of his neck.

He signed whatever fans of his passed to him, "Thanks for all your support. I appreciate it, forreal"

There was a pause, in both Ebén's lips and eyes, as he caught the attention of one woman whose ginger tendrils and wispy eyelashes had spotlighted her to the front. She blew, like the seductress she was.

"Hi, Ebén. Remember me?"

He didn't.

She chose not to keep her hands to herself and Ebén's lax body language seemed to suggest that he was not totally averse to it either. Maya watched the whole exchange... again, reeling with herself.

His body slouched against his leather car seat, clearly enjoying her boldness, "Nah. I don't think I do?"

Her words fell out of her lips, so slow, "Don't tell me I'm that forgettable, Ebén?"

"You might be. Where did we meet? What's ya name?" His back now turned away from her.

"Ariana, we met at Boudoir, where you ate ou — " Ariana started, but Maya knew already what the story was. Ebén was a whore, and this was another one of his willing victims that had tasted his sin.

Ebén's face grew red hot as Ariana successfully jogged his memory, "Oh yeah. I remember you now,"

Of course, he does, he only remembers the shapes of the pussies he's eaten out — not their names, their interests or even their faces.

"How's Yaya? Did she like th — "

Maya's thoughts pulled out of being a witness to Ebén and Ariana's flirting before the latter even finished her sentence, coming to the conclusion that it wasn't just her that knew of his dark past. And him being transparent about his personal life wasn't because he trusted her, but because it would soften her heart of stone heart, and open her floodgates.

And that it did.

Ariana's demand for Ebén's phone returned Maya back into the present moment.

"Gimme your phone" she commanded, his eyes completely capsized by hers.

He wouldn't.

Would he?

"What you 'gon do?" Ebén's eyebrows shot up, but he didn't hesitate in passing the flirt his phone.

She started tapping — the glare from the screen reflecting in her eyes, "I'm flying to LA on Tuesday but I fly back into London on Thursday morn,"

Maya clenched her jaw in disbelief, angry that he hadn't consoled her yet. Angry that she had been so gullible and fell right into this bed full of thorns.

All she wanted was for the burning to stop.

Ebén was too engrossed by the woman to even look back at Maya, "Ebén, you 'betta call me"

"You makin' threats?" Ebén taunted, their fingers overlapping as she handed back his phone.

"Maybe,"

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A/N: Lol, I'm kinda enjoying the re-emergence of like a bad Ebén hahaa.