8
KAGE’S apartment was similar to mine in style, but about five times bigger. I had no idea how many bedrooms it had, but the center was an enormous great room with a living area, a dining area, and a stainless kitchen. The view from the wall-sized window was astonishing.
Vanessa danced into the apartment and fell onto the pale blue sectional, clearly comfortable in Kage’s apartment. She’s definitely been here before. I sat awkwardly on the sectional as far from her as I could get, because the last thing I needed was to get an MMA fighter jealous by sitting next to his girl. Apparently Vanessa didn’t understand that concept, because she scooted right over next to me, kicked off her strappy sandals, and pulled her legs into the seat Indian style. She sat sideways facing me, but I faced straight forward, looking about as geeky and nervous as a guy possibly could.
A supermodel, I thought. Sitting right next to me. And then on the heels of that thought… Kage’s girlfriend.
That really put things into perspective. I glanced around for Kage, who had disappeared as soon as we’d entered the apartment. I wondered what he was doing, and when he was going to come back.
“Mikey and I are just friends,” Vanessa said, as if reading my mind.
I whipped around to face her, wishing it wasn’t so obvious that her comment had affected me. “Doesn’t matter to me one way or the other,” I said. “That’s your business.”
She smiled, revealing teeth that had a slight gap between them. Rather than being unattractive, the imperfection had the opposite effect, amping her sex appeal tenfold.
Like Kage, she had the kind of face you couldn’t get enough of looking at, each glance revealing a new facet of attractiveness. Her kohl-rimmed eyes were unnaturally large, her nose slim, lips full and slicked with a clear balm. My eyes kept wanting to drop to the swell of her breasts and the trim waist beneath, just to see what society’s ideal looked like in person.
Her dress was shoved up around the tops of her thighs, barely covering the important stuff. In her little sun dress and loose curls, I thought she would look right at home in a sunny meadow on a spring day. A light sprinkle of freckles across her nose added to the illusion.
A melodic rap song suddenly started playing over a central sound system, and Vanessa started bobbing her head to the music.
“So Mikey tells me you’re a Journalism major. What made you choose that?” Her tone was light and friendly like her expression.
“Yeah, I guess I just like writing, and I like sports. That led me to the communications field, and eventually to where I am now. Interning for Kage. Uh… Mikey.”
She laughed at my obvious confusion over what to call him when I was talking to her. “Mikey and I go way back,” she said. “We went to high school together.”
“Really?” That got my attention. Talking with his childhood friends was a great way to get to know my client. “Has he always been… the way he is?”
Okay, I’m not going to win any Pulitzer prizes in journalism with that vague question.
“He’s always been unique, if that’s what you mean. But don’t let the hard edges fool you. He’s a big, soft Teddy bear inside. I’m telling you right now, if anyone ever hurt him, you’d have to pull me off the sonofabitch. I’d go to jail for Michael Kage in a heartbeat, no questions asked. I would do anything for him. Kill, maim…” She narrowed her eyes menacingly at me. “In other words, watch your step.”
She was so earnest. I laughed when I tried to picture her being Kage’s body guard. “That’s so sweet. The big bad MMA fighter needs the protection of a size-three lingerie model.”
“Size zero,” she corrected, raising a delicate brow. “And I see my reputation precedes me. Or have you seen my pics?”
Why did that sound like an accusation?
I blushed, imagining looking at images of a scantily-clad Vanessa in a lingerie catalog. I’m sure Mark Gladstone would not agree, but it seemed like it would have been an invasion of privacy to know what this girl looked like almost naked before I’d even met her.
“No,” I practically whispered. “I’ve never seen your pictures.” I rubbed my sweaty palms nervously against my knees and looked around for Kage. “I need to go to the restroom. Can you point me in the right direction?”
I had gone when Mark and I had arrived at the last bar, but now I just needed to get away for a moment.
Maybe see where Kage was.
Vanessa inclined her head toward a door at the back of the living area. “Right over there. Just go on in and the bathroom will be on your right. I’ll grab a beer while you’re gone.”
The room on the other side of the door was not a restroom. It was a bedroom with a huge king size bed in the center. It had the same style picture window as the one in the living area, the urban glow of Vegas providing subtle illumination in the darkened room.
Kage sat on the unmade bed, leaning up against the headboard, dressed in nothing but a pair of boxers. A halo of smoke billowed up around his head. I froze in my tracks when I saw him, and that’s when the smell hit me.
Weed.
Kage tilted his head back and blew a thick stream of smoke up into the air. His expression was a mystery in the low light, but the way the interplay of light and shadow accentuated every curve and dip of his muscled body made me feel uncomfortable in a way I didn’t want to examine.
Without a word, he held out a blunt toward me in offering. I approached the bed on nervous legs. It wasn’t that I’d never smoked weed. I’d done that plenty, especially when Braden was going through his dealer phase. My nerves tonight had more to do with the person who was doing the offering rather than what he was offering. Kage jangled my nerves, made me feel like a stupid kid. I thought it would get better as we got to know each other, but if anything I was becoming more awkward around him with every day that passed.
I hesitated. “What if I have a piss test or something?” I was genuinely concerned, having recently entered the workforce.
“Who’s your boss?” he asked simply, an amused expression on his face.
“Oh, yeah.” I felt my cheeks color slightly, but I wasn’t about to let him get away with that comment. “Actually, I think you’re more like a client than a boss.”
He didn’t say anything. Just kept looking at me like I amused him somehow.
I took the blunt from him and sucked in a hit. The smoke tickled going down, expanding too much in my chest, forcing me to turn away and cough into my hand.
Kage chuckled quietly and took the blunt from me, sucked in another hit, and gave it back. It was the familiar back-and-forth of getting high— an intimate exchange like fighting, or dancing, or fucking. It felt nice. I took a deeper hit this time, filling my lungs to capacity and holding it as long as I could.
I tried unsuccessfully to ignore Kage’s state of undress. He’d worked out in front of me in nothing but a pair of shorts, but this was different. This was underwear, and it was really freaking me out.
He pulled one knee up and draped his arm over it, and I caught a glimpse of something I shouldn’t have seen as his boxer fly gaped and settled back closed. Against my will, desire sparked down low in my gut.
Don’t think about it, Jamie.
I tore my eyes away, already feeling lightheaded, and crashed down onto my back on the bed near Kage’s bare feet. The ceiling was very far away, at least ten feet above me, the dark wood rafters beginning to shift when they should have been still.
“You boys starting the party without me?” Vanessa entered the room with a beer in her hand.
“Never,” Kage said, his deep voice vibrating through me. “Come here, Nessy.”
Kage got up onto his knees on the bed, and Vanessa walked over to stand right in front of him. He slipped the lit end of the blunt expertly between his lips, the fire disappearing within his mouth. Vanessa leaned in, and Kage put his hands on her shoulders, held her as she closed her eyes and parted her lips. Then he positioned the end of the blunt right at the edge of her waiting lips and shotgunned the smoke straight into her mouth.
It was a shockingly sensual act, and I licked my lips as I watched, unable to look away as Kage shared his high with Vanessa in the most intimate way possible. Then he crawled across the bed and leaned down over me, the blunt still wedged between his lips. I could tell by the urgent look on his face that the fire was getting hot inside his mouth, but he wanted to give me a shotgun before he removed it.
I parted my lips like I’d seen Vanessa do, my heart fluttering as Kage’s face came close to mine and he blew smoke down into my lungs. I couldn’t help thinking how intimate the act was, him blowing into my mouth, our lips nearly close enough to touch.
Then he was gone, sitting up and pulling the blunt gingerly from his mouth, being careful not to burn his lips. He took a deep breath and handed it to Vanessa, who hit it a couple of times before dousing the fiery tip and setting it in a hotel ashtray on the bedside table.
By this time, I was flying, no doubt about it. The rafters were really starting to move, seeming to breathe with a life of their own, casting blurry trails against the white expanse of ceiling. I shook my head, realizing with alarm that I was hallucinating.
“I haven’t felt like this in a long time,” I mumbled. “This is some good shit.”
“Mmm hmm,” Kage agreed, dropping down onto his back right beside me, his hip nearly touching mine. “Very nice.”
Vanessa climbed onto the bed with us, lying down beside Kage, sandwiching him between us. “What do you think?” she asked him. “About what I suggested earlier?”
“No,” he replied flatly.
“Hey, it’s not like it would be the first time, you know?”
Kage grunted and spoke slowly, sounding very stoned. “That doesn’t count. We were in high school. We were stupid.”
“God, Kage, why won’t you let me do something for you? How long has it been?” Then Vanessa started crying. Not like an authentic cry, but the whiny kind you do when you’re fucked up and everything strikes you as emotional. The kind of cry you’re ashamed of when you think back on it from a sober vantage point. “You can’t go through life with nothing but fighting, Michael. I can tell it’s wearing on you. Please let me help you. Let somebody help you.”
Kage lay there in silence for a moment, and my mind began to float up into the rafters. I have no idea how long it was before he spoke again.
“He’s not down for it,” he said quietly, calling me back to Earth.
Whoa… I am truly fucked up. Where was my mind just then?
I kept expecting the two of them to start making out, but they just lay there staring at the ceiling. Talking with each other like I wasn’t even there. I kept trying to make sense of what they were saying. It seemed like they were talking about me, but in my blitzed state I couldn’t quite grasp the meaning of their words.
“How do you know he’s not down for it? Did you ask him?”
“Don’t have to.” Kage swallowed. “He’s got a girlfriend.”
“Ex-girlfriend,” I corrected, my voice shocking even to myself. I hadn’t known I was going to speak. Was I actually taking part in the conversation? Hell, I didn’t even know what they were talking about, did I?
“See?” Vanessa said, swiping at her tears. “Ex-girlfriend. I know a single guy when I see one.”
Kage didn’t respond.
“Tell you what,” she slurred. “I’m gonna get up and party by myself. You boys just stay here and sulk, or whatever. Could you give me some better music, Mikey? How am I supposed to dance to this crap?”
Kage sat up and grabbed a remote off his bedside table. He pressed some buttons, and then a pop song I’d never heard started playing through the central stereo system.
Why is it that everything sounds good when you’re high?
“Here we go,” Kage groaned. “Nessy dances when she’s drunk. Just ignore her and she’ll pass out soon.”
I sat up and watched in undisguised fascination as she danced by herself in the middle of Kage’s bedroom, twisting and smiling and occasionally shaking her trim hips. After a moment, she beckoned me with the crook of a finger. “Don’t worry, I won’t bite,” she said when I hesitated. “I just don’t wanna dance by myself.”
It had been a while since I’d danced, but the kind of moves she was doing didn’t require much technical know-how. She wrapped her arms around my neck and spun me with her. I looked back at Kage, rolling my eyes in an attempt to seem innocent of all blame in the situation. It was a little embarrassing dancing with him in the room.
Watching us. Why does that turn me on so much?
The fact that he was watching made my already-burgeoning erection stiffen up even more. I could feel the blood rushing to my dick as his eyes tracked our movements across the floor. I kept stealing glances at him, making sure he was still watching.
After a moment, Kage spoke up. “Don’t think you’re gonna seduce my intern, Vanessa.”
She laughed. “If you won’t, I will. Somebody’s got to do it. Can’t have the poor boy going around Vegas with this neon Virgin sign on his forehead.”
“I am not a virgin,” I grated, so appalled by the idea that they would think I was a virgin that I glossed right over the part where she said if you won’t.
“Relax.” She placed one of her small hands on my chest. “I’m just fucking with Kage. I don’t really think you’re a virgin, and I’m not seducing you, either. Contrary to popular belief, I’m not easy. Mikey, on the other hand, is very easy tonight. Isn’t that right, Mikey?”
“Vanessa…” Kage growled menacingly. I turned to look at him and nearly choked at the sight of the monster erection tenting his boxers. My eyes locked in on it. It was the first time I’d purposely looked at another guy’s hard dick like that, and the imposing outline of flesh behind the thin veil of diamond-patterned fabric made the bottom drop out of my stomach.
Was he turned on by watching us together?
I felt my eyes widen, and I looked back up at Kage’s face, searching for the answer.
He rolled over on the bed and climbed under the covers. A not-so-subtle move to hide his arousal. “Vanessa is sleeping over tonight, Jamie. You’re welcome to stay, too. If you want.”
“Um, yeah, sure,” I said, trying not to sound too excited at being invited to the slumber party. “Where should I sleep?”
Instead of pointing me toward a guest room or the couch, he lifted his own covers, opening up a cozy-looking spot right next to him. All I could think of was being that close to Kage’s enormous erection. Would it accidentally touch me? Had it abated by now?
As if sensing my hesitation, Vanessa climbed in behind Kage on the other side of the bed, setting the example. It worked to make me feel more comfortable about accepting Kage’s offer, and I quickly stripped down to my boxer briefs and climbed into the bed. He settled the covers in over me, tucking me in.
“Well, this is great,” he said. “In bed between the two hottest people in Vegas, and I’m not even getting laid.”
I blushed in the dark. Vanessa was clearly one of the hottest people in Vegas, but I was sure he was just including me so that I wouldn’t feel left out. It was a nice gesture just the same, and it made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside.
“So what do you have planned for us tomorrow?” I asked, trying to make small talk. I truly didn’t care about anything outside of that bed at the moment, much less anything to do with work.
“I figured we’d just do the afternoon training session tomorrow so that we can sleep in a little. I never like to train early after I smoke.”
“Do you smoke often?” I asked the question cautiously, nonchalantly, not wanting to seem judgmental.
“No. Just every now and then when I need to take the edge off, or if I have an injury it helps with the pain. But when I finally get a pro fight scheduled, I’ll have to make sure it won’t show up in a drug test just before or just after the fight. The Nevada Athletic Commission doesn’t outlaw pot exactly, but you just can’t have over a certain amount of THC in your system 12 hours before or after a fight.”
“I see you’ve done your homework,” I said with a laugh.
“Well, I needed to know if it’s something I had to cut out completely. I would, of course. It’s no big deal.”
Vanessa huffed in the dark. “Are you guys going to talk business all night? You’re harshing my mellow.”
We both ignored her comment and continued to talk business.
“You don’t do any kind of steroids or anything, do you?”
“Hell, no.” He sounded genuinely offended.
“Well, a lot of publicists are hired to clean up the mess after an athlete has tested positive for PED’s. I’m just doing my homework.”
“You must really be high if you think I’d do that shit.” He pushed the covers down to the tops of his thighs, exposing his upper body to me. “Feel this.” He flexed his arm, and I reached out and squeezed. “All natural, baby. And this…” He indicated his torso. Even in the dark, I could tell he had his muscles tensed for me. “You wanna see what a real man feels like? Feel that,” he coaxed. Vanessa giggled from the other side of him, and I think he elbowed her, which made her giggle even more.
I dropped a hand onto his chest, soft rasp of hair beneath my fingertips. His pecs were like the plates on a suit of armor, but warm and silky to the touch. The little hollow in the center of his chest beckoned to me. I dipped a finger into it then ran the backs of my knuckles down the bumpy terrain of his eight-pack, marveling at the perfection of them. Before I knew it, the pads of my fingers had begun to idly explore the crisp texture of his happy trail.
I could blame the weed or the alcohol, but the truth was I liked the feel of his body. It sent a lightning bolt of need all the way from my fingertips to my dick, and all I could do was turn my brain off and feel. God, did I ever want to feel… I was in the zone, where all was sensation, and there were no consequences— only actions. My fingertips just barely grazed the band of his boxers, running along the edge, slipping under the fabric just enough to separate it from his skin.
“Where you going with the hand there, chief?” Kage’s voice was low and breathy, with a seductive undertone that sent my need soaring right off the charts. But his words brought me to my senses. Reminded me of where I was and what I was doing, and to whom I was doing it.
“Sorry,” I muttered, snatching my hand back. “I’m really stoned. I don’t think I know what I’m doing.” I thought I ought to change the subject before he figured out I liked it. “Uh, back to the steroid question… I didn’t mean any offense, Kage. Professionally speaking, I just need to know what I’m dealing with at all times so I don’t get blindsided. I need to know you inside and out in order to do my job properly. I won’t judge you no matter what.”
“Professionally speaking?” He sighed, and I thought I detected a hint of disappointment. “Because that’s your job? To not judge me?”
“Exactly. It’s my job.”
“That’s what I thought.” Kage definitely sounded disappointed. Possibly even a little pissed off. “You know what they say about all work and no play?”
“It makes Jack a dull boy?”
“Who the hell is Jack?” he slurred. “I was talking about you. All work and no play makes Jamie boring as fuck.”
That smarted a little; I won’t lie. But Kage was high— we all were— and things were being said and done that might not seem the same once we sobered up.
“Well, work is all I have right now. I’m in a strange place with absolutely no one to talk to, no friends, no social life. What do you expect? I had hoped to get to spend a little more time with you. Maybe you could tell me a little bit about yourself. As it is, I have to pick up bits and pieces from the grapevine, and I don’t know what the hell to believe. And you’ve got me stuck down there in that cubicle half the time, or sitting on the sidelines watching you sweat. Then the other half I’m in my room working on your social media presence, or getting kidnapped and taken out to be someone’s jailbait… uh… bait.”
He gave me a puzzled look.
“I’m talking about Mark Gladstone. I think he wants me with him to attract younger girls.”
“Yeah, you keep thinking that and you’ll be in a world of shit before you can say no thank you, sir.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
Kage shrugged, and a muscle in his jaw twitched.
“Mr. Cryptic strikes again,” I mumbled. “Can you even say anything without talking in code?”
“Yeah. When you’re ready to pull your head out of your ass and stop acting like a little boy. You are so goddamn naive.”
“There you go again with the riddles and code. Why don’t you just say what you mean?”
He growled and ran a hand through his hair. “You don’t even know what you’re asking, Jamie. You say you want to get to know me? You’ll know everything soon enough, because you’ll do whatever it takes to get the job done. It’s your nature. You’ll know my deep, dark secrets. My fears. All of the ugly things that you will struggle to keep the public from catching wind of. Because I assure you— if you never listen to another word I say, listen to this— I am ugly. I am dark, and I’m bad, and I’m rotten to the core. And if you think being my publicist is going to be a walk in the park, you might want to go home to mama. Because it’s about to get rough.”
“Yeah, you keep threatening I’m going to get to know you, but I’m not seeing it.” I looked hard at him. Tried to see his eyes in the gloom. “It seems like you have this security system that I can’t breach, and every time I get close, a silent alarm goes off and you batten down the hatches.”
He dropped back down onto the bed and stared at the ceiling. “You’ve got some pretty serious hatches yourself.”
“That’s bullshit,” I said. “I’m an open book.”
“Yeah? Like you lied to me about having a girlfriend? Real open book, Jamie.”
I covered my face with my hands, wishing I could go back in time and take back the lie. “It wasn’t exactly a lie, okay? I just… I forgot.”
Kage barked out a laugh. “You’re fucking lying right now. I’m not stupid, Jamie. I can tell when I’m being lied to. I could tell it over lunch that day when you took the phone call, and I can tell it now. I don’t know if I can trust you. I need to be able to trust you.”
“Okay,” I sighed. “Jesus, you really know how to obliterate a guy’s ego. The truth is, I forgot for a second and called her my girlfriend out of habit. We’d only broken up a few days before I came here. Then when I realized my mistake, I didn’t want to admit it to you. Getting dumped is not something to brag about. It’s… humiliating. And there you were being all Mr. Perfect, and I didn’t want you to think I was lame or something.”
He didn’t respond, so I turned back over, putting my back to him. Then Kage turned over in bed and moved toward Vanessa, away from me. It was like we were a couple having an argument.
“Kage…” Vanessa said slowly. “Please tell me you brought your baseball bat to bed.”
“I don’t play baseball,” he said.
“Then could you scoot over a bit? We’re supposed to be going to sleep.”
“Dammit!” Kage laughed and moved toward the center of the bed. “Okay, if you want to be that way. But I didn’t figure Jamie would let me cuddle with him.”
I laughed and turned halfway over, meeting his gaze in the dark. “I don’t care. Vanessa did say you were a big teddy bear.”
“Yeah?” He laughed darkly. “Don’t believe anything she says about me. She has ulterior motives.”
She laughed, but she didn’t refute what he’d said.
Even though I’d basically invited him to cuddle with me, I never actually expected it to happen. I was just trying to act cool and to make up for the little quarrel we’d just had. So when he scooted up behind me and slipped an arm around my waist, I took a deep breath and held it. His warmth surrounded me, soothed me.
“You can breathe, Jamie,” Kage said near my ear. “I’m not going to eat you.”
“I know.” I let the breath out and felt instantly better. Then I shifted around a bit to get comfortable. Something firm brushed my ass, and I settled against it, feeling a sense of euphoria wash over me.
This was okay, right? If Kage and Vanessa thought it was okay, then it must be okay.
Okay to feel this way.
After a few minutes of silence, Kage said in a gravelly voice, “Don’t ever fucking lie to me again.”
“I won’t,” I whispered. At that moment, I thought I’d rather die than ever lie to Michael Kage again.
I lay there feeling him pressed against me in the dark, listening to the sound of his breathing. I didn’t dare move, because I was afraid he might let go of me.