THREE MONTHS into our separation, Kage came to Georgia for a visit. As soon as I’d gotten back to school, he and I had talked for hours on the phone, trying to decide how often we should see each other during my final six months of school.

At first, we had planned for every weekend. Then it was every other weekend. But Kage had his business and fighting career to focus on, and I had a degree to earn, so seeing each other too often would have been a distraction.

On the other hand, six months was far too long to go without seeing each other. So we had responsibly and reluctantly agreed that a perfectly-timed visit halfway between our goodbye and our reunion would be the way to go. Every week or two, one or the other of us would suggest going back on that decision, but somehow we managed to stick to the plan. Our hearts and our right arms suffered for it, and by the time the three-month mark rolled around, we were both losing our minds.

I had just picked Kage up from the airport in the sweet black Range Rover he had bought me, and we were headed to my parents’ house for a visit. After dinner, we would head out to a hotel, since my parents wouldn’t allow us to sleep in the same room.

The next day, we would drive back to Georgia State, to the condo I shared with my best friends, Braden and Trey. The guys were throwing a party for Kage, who was apparently their hero now.

I had heard Braden talking on the phone to God knows how many people, promising them autographs and a chance to see Kage demonstrate some MMA moves. I warned him that Kage might not be game for all of that, but Braden still kept making promises. He just went about it in a quieter fashion, like I didn’t know what he was up to when he dropped his voice and stepped out of the room.

When I met Kage at the airport, he was looking good enough to eat in a sleek green button-up shirt that matched his eyes, and pale jeans with rips in places that bordered on obscene. Even his camel-colored wingtips were sexy, in a soft suede that made me want to touch them.

His dark hair was freshly shaved underneath, but the top was even longer than it had been the last time I saw him. It hung loose, but I was sure he had the ever-present hair band around his wrist just in case he wanted to tie it back. I reached up with trembling fingers and pushed an errant lock out of his eyes.

“Good God,” I breathed, taking him in. “You’re even hotter than I remember.”

He grinned. “Yeah?”

“Oh, yeah.”

“Well, come here and show me.” He didn’t wait for me to make a move. Instead, he dropped his bag and snatched me up flush against his body.

I glanced around nervously. “What if somebody recognizes you?”

“I don’t give a fuck,” he said. “I’ve missed you too much to care.”

He wrapped a hand around the back of my head and brought my lips to his, mauling me with a kiss that was so hot I half expected airport security to come and arrest us. He nipped playfully at my lips before licking into my mouth over and over, stealing my sanity.

By the time he released me, I believe I had forgotten my own name. I also had an unmistakable boner. Kage glanced down at my fly and back up with a satisfied grin.

“Stop looking at me like that,” I said, feeling what little blood wasn’t in my dick rush to my cheeks. “I don’t want to have sex in an airport bathroom.”

“Then let’s get out of here,” he said.

Our reunion was a passionate one—everything I could have hoped for and more—but by the time we got on the road, Kage seemed distant.

“What’s got you so distracted?” I asked.

He waved me off. “Nothing, baby. I’m just tired. I’ll perk up by the time we reach your parents’ house. Can’t promise I’ll be in such a good mood come tomorrow, though.”

“Tomorrow?” I asked, confused. Then it dawned on me what he must have been talking about. Braden’s party.

“Kage, it’s a kegger party, not a one-way trip to the gallows. If you don’t quit worrying, I’m gonna have to use Chase’s 4x4 pickup truck to drag that sour look off your face.”

“Oh, God. Don’t go all redneck on me. You’re a Vegas boy now, and Vegas boys do not drag anything with pickup trucks.”

“Want me to take you to a trailer park? Give you a taste of the real redneck experience? If you don’t cheer up, I’ll do it.”

“I have a better idea. Why don’t we take Cameron and the Mexi-bitch to a trailer park and dump their asses out? Then we can party.”

I didn’t want to laugh, but I did. “Is that what’s got you all gloomy? The thought of seeing Layla and Cameron again?”

“Yeah, Jamie. It is. You don’t know what it’s like for me having to hang out with those two. They can take a perfectly good time and turn it bad. Layla has a boyfriend, but she still feels the need to compete with me. It’s all jealousy, you know. She acts like she has to protect you from the big bad wolf or something, but that’s all bullshit. She’s just mad because you want me instead of her.”

“Hmmm… you’ve obviously given it more thought than I have, but I can see your point. I’ll talk to her and see if I can get her to chill out.”

Kage gave me a nasty side glance. “No, hell, you won’t. If anybody is going to talk to her, it will be me.”

I leaned over and wrapped my arms around his shoulders, feeling a tension there that had very little to do with navigating Atlanta traffic.

“Awww, baby,” I said, dropping a kiss onto his shoulder. “Are you gonna protect me from that scary little cheerleader?”

He shrugged me off. “Fuck you, Jamie. That’s not funny. I’m just sick of her shit. She digs and digs until I just want to choke her. Come to think of it, maybe that would shut her up.”

I leaned back and regarded him thoughtfully, remembering something my mom said once. That Kage wouldn’t hit a lady. At the time, I hadn’t been too sure about it. Still wasn’t. “Can I ask you a weird question?”

“You can ask. Doesn’t mean I’ll answer.” His lips tightened as he seemed to study the traffic a little too intently, and I could tell he was a little nervous about what I might ask.

“Would you ever hit a female?”

His eyebrows flew up in surprise, and he laughed. “Is this something that’s been keeping you up at night?”

“No, just curious. Would you?”

He thought for a moment. “Well, I never have before, but I guess it depends on the circumstances. I don’t necessarily think that women are exempt from getting hit. I heard about this case once where a woman was basically beating the shit out of her husband and being verbally abusive. She cornered him in the bedroom and started wailing on him with his own baseball bat, and when he’d finally had enough, he rang her bell. Knocked her out cold. Of course everyone said he was wrong for hitting a woman, but that kind of black-and-white thinking never sat right with me. Because why did she get to hit him as much as she wanted, but he wasn’t allowed to defend himself?”

“That makes sense,” I said. “But he was going to be blamed. Men just know they can’t hit a woman, even in self-defense. Maybe he should have just walked away.”

“Maybe she should have walked away,” he pointed out. “I think the problem is that they both knew he couldn’t hit her. I mean, I’m not for men going around beating on women, but I don’t think it’s right for women to be able to beat on men, either. Why does gender have to be part of the equation at all? Maybe a better way to look at it would be that it’s wrong to pick on people who are smaller or weaker than you, but that anyone should be expected to reasonably defend themselves from an attack.” He went somber for a moment, and I could see that he was retreating into his memories. “Kids are the ones who get a raw deal. How many times do they get hit or mistreated that no one even knows about? They’re smaller and weaker, but they have to be emotionally stronger than the adults who abuse them. It’s sickening.”

I felt bad. With my question, I had poured salt on a wound that would never fully close. Kage and his brother may not have been beaten, but they had been horribly abused, and Evan had lost his life. In a way, Kage had also lost his life that night. He never got the chance to be a happy-go-lucky child, and that tore at my heart.

I felt almost guilty for the happy childhood I had enjoyed, and even more for not letting my parents know how much I appreciated it. Suddenly I couldn’t wait to see them and throw my arms around them.

“So does that mean you would hit Layla?” I asked, trying to steer the conversation back to the original question before Kage got too maudlin.

He smiled and cut his eyes over at me. “No, baby. I would not hit your ex-girlfriend. I would walk away.”

“Would you fight a girl in the UFC?”

He chuckled. “Not unless she was bigger than me and posed a challenge. There is some serious talent in the women’s division, and it’s getting better every day, so who knows? One of these days, some woman might beat my ass.”

“Would you hit me?” It was a stupid question, but it had just popped out.

“Jamie, I think you already know the answer to that question. Remember that night in your backyard when you punched me in the face? I was fucking pissed already, and then when you hit me… Well, let’s just say if I was ever going to hit you, it would have been then.”

“But you didn’t.”

“No, I didn’t. I would rather lose than lay a hand on you in a fight, which means that at this point in time, you are the only person I know who could best me in a fight. I think you could probably beat me to death and come out completely unscathed.” He grinned. “But that doesn’t mean I won’t take my anger out on you in other ways. Ways that you seem to like a lot.”

“And what ways would those be?” I teased.

He shrugged. “Piss me off and you’ll find out.”