Free Me (Caged Hearts Book 1)

by West, Heather

  His opponent came at him and landed a punch squarely on Jasper’s jaw. His head snapped back, and Kait’s hand flew to her mouth. It was torture to watch him being beaten up like this. She couldn’t take much more. When Jasper straightened, a dark look glinted in his eyes. He pushed back his shoulders and then launched himself at the man in blue. He punched in quick succession, each one landing on its target. Then he stepped back and kicked with the precision of a ballerina, and his heel connected with his opponent’s chest. The man wearing blue staggered back, winded. He fell against the mat. The punches to his head had dazed him, and he seemed unable to get up. The referee dropped to his side and began to count as Jasper impatiently waited, bouncing on the spot as though he was now full of energy rather than verging on the point of exhausted.

  The man in blue didn’t get up. The final bell rang, and Jasper’s arm was raised as the champion. The crowd went nuts. People were on their feet, fists pumping the air. They screamed Jasper’s name and clapped their hands until they were sore. Kait felt herself swept up in the euphoria. She too got to her feet and clapped madly for the victory. The sound was deafening, drumming in her ears. But as she clapped, she thought of Jasper’s invitation to come back stage. She hurried off towards the toilets, wanting to give herself a brief once over before coming face to face with him.

  Chapter 11

  Kait pushed against the crowd as people eagerly left the venue. She headed back in to the arena where a burly security guard swiftly ceased her progress.

  “Where do you think you’re going?” He asked sternly as he folded his bulging arms across his ample chest.

  “I…um…” Kait could feel her cheeks starting to burn. “I’m a friend of Jasper’s; he invited me backstage.”

  “Name?”

  “Oh…Kaitlyn Stewart.”

  To her surprise, the guard gave a curt nod and then gestured for her to continue on her way towards the back of the venue which led to the changing rooms and the backstage area.

  Away from the crowds, the backstage area was still a hive of activity. Agents and trainers darted about with their phones glued to their ears. No one paid Kait any attention. They must assume that the fact that she was there was enough to warrant that she belonged. Nervously, she wandered down a stark corridor, glancing at the doors as she moved. Finally she found the one with Jasper’s name stuck on it. Inhaling nervously, she knocked on the door.

  “Come in.” She recognised the voice speaking through the door instantly. It was him. What was he going to say to her? Would he be mad that she was there? Lifting her chin and throwing back her shoulders, Kait opened the door and walked in.

  Jasper’s dressing room was small and dimly lit. He sat on a grey sofa with an ice pack held to his left knee. The room smelt of sweat and coffee. He was alone.

  “Jasper, hey,” Kait nervously walked in, feeling more like a girlish fan than a previous conquest. “Congratulations on your win!”

  Jasper rolled his eyes and then winced. “I nearly knocked my knee out doing it,” he admitted with a grumble.

  Kait wanted to be polite; she wanted to tell him she hoped his knee was okay, but she could feel her rage bubbling within her.

  “How can you be so reckless?” She blurted angrily. Jasper’s eyes widened, and he blinked at her, startled. “You…you save me from those…those thugs! You get stabbed! And then you fight two nights in a row! And it’s not just your standard throw a few punches fighting, your sport is brutal, Jasper! You looked exhausted out there! What are you playing at?”

  Her words landed heavily in the space between them. Kait blushed, realising that she had of course over stepped the mark. She clamped a hand over her mouth to prevent herself from saying anything more. She’d already done enough damage.

  “I don’t remember consulting you on how I should live my life,” Jasper told her coldly.

  “Well you need to consult someone!” Kait told him defiantly, her hand unable to hold back her vitriol.“I get that you’re a great fighter, but you’re going to kill yourself if you carry on like this! Why did you even help me out the other night when you knew you had all these fights coming up?”

  “Would you rather I’d let those men rape you?” Jasper asked quietly, his eyes bright with anger.

  “No.” Kait shook her head. “But…but you should have gone to hospital! You needed medical attention!”

  “And risk that kind of publicity before a fight?” Jasper asked incredulously. “My opponents would have had a field day with that sort of information.”

  Kait lowered her shoulders. So that was why he wouldn’t go to the hospital; he was worried about his reputation.

  “Look, I appreciate you coming here to check in on me,” Jasper told her, glancing at the door through which she had entered. He was sending her away. He was already done with her. Kait could feel despair clamouring up her throat, but she swallowed it away.

  “It’s because I’m a nice person,” she told him curtly. “When I spend the night with someone, it means something. Maybe that’s not the way for you. But I don’t do one night stands. I’m not like that. I thought we had something…a connection.”

  Kait groaned at how needy she was sounding, but if this was the last time she got to see Jasper Duboix, she wanted him to know exactly how she was feeling.

  “I thought you were different,” she continued. “I thought you were decent.”

  “Seems like all I do is disappoint you.” Jasper looked down at his knee and readjusted the ice pack.

  “If I walk through that door, I promise you won’t see me ever again,” Kait told him defiantly. “I’m not the girl who pines over a guy. I came here to tell you to stop pushing yourself so hard, not to plead with you to bed me one more time. The guy I met in the parking lot, the guy who saved me, he was a good guy, no, a great guy! I’m not sure why you insist on hiding him away like you do, but if want my advice, you should embrace him.”

  Kait knew she was close to crying. She turned and stormed back towards the door.

  “Wait.”

  Jasper’s strong voice pulled her back as though it were magnetised. She turned on her heel and gazed in to those deep, alluring eyes which had softened.

  “Don’t go.”

  Kait tentatively approached the sofa where he was sitting.

  “I’m glad you came tonight,” Jasper smiled at her, and Kait thought she might melt there and then on the spot. She remembered how amazing it felt to have his naked body pressed up against hers. All the anger drained out of her, replaced by pure, carnal desire. Glancing at Jasper she saw that same, desperate need reflected in his eyes.

  “Lock the door,” he instructed her. Without hesitation, Kait fulfilled the order.

  Chapter 12

  Sunlight burned against Kait’s face. Swiping a hand across her eyes, she sat up and yawned. The light that crept in beneath the curtains swept across the bed and showed her that she wasn’t alone. A contented smile pulled on her lips as she looked at the sleeping figure beside her.

  Jasper was lying on his side, his bare back exposed to her. In the early morning light, she could clearly see the patchwork of scars engraved into his skin. With the tip of her finger, she traced the line of a particularly big scar. She wondered if it was a battle wound for a particularly brutal fight or if Jasper had got it some other way. As she stroked his back, Jasper stirred and rolled over. He blinked away the fog of sleep and then smiled at Kait.

  “Morning,” his voice was so irresistibly deep. Kait shuddered just hearing it.

  “Good morning,” she managed to reply sweetly.

  “What time is it?” Jasper asked as he rubbed a hand across his eyes.

  “Half past eight,” Kait noted after stealing a quick glance at her bedside clock.

  “I slept late,” Jasper sat up and rested back against the headboard. “Then again, I had a particularly busy night.”

  He looked up and gazed at Kait, his eyes sparkling with mischief. She blushed as she knew he
wasn’t referring to the match he had barely won. He was talking about what had happened between them.

  Kait had told him how angry she was at him and how he needed to take better care of himself before they gave in to the sexual tension brewing between them. Jasper made love to her on the sofa in his dressing room. Then, still hungry for more, he went home with her. They could have gone back to his place, but now that Kait was aware of his celebrity status, she doubted that was a good idea. She wasn’t sure what was going on between her and Jasper, but she certainly didn’t need the media stepping in and speculating on what was happening.

  “I had fun last night,” Kait declared coyly.

  “I’m glad,” Jasper leaned towards her and purred the words into her ear. Kait melted against him. Whenever she was around him, she became dizzy and struggled to focus. Soon his lips were pressed against hers, and they were kissing with heated intensity as though they hadn’t had one another just hours earlier.

  Jasper moved away just before the kiss could deepen any further. He pressed his lips to her neck and began to caress her body with his strong hands. Kait trembled in delight beneath him. With his lips, he began to carefully kiss a path down towards her breasts and then towards her navel, Kait as still completely naked from their earlier escapades.

  She gasped as Jasper moved below her navel. He was taking his time, making her grow in expectation.

  By the time he gently suckled her clitoris, Kait thought she might explode. She cried out in ecstasy as her toes curled. The world exploded in fireworks before her eyes, and her heart hammered excitedly in her chest.

  Chapter 13

  They spent the entire day in bed. It was something Kait had never done before. Sure she’d been in relationships, but she never liked to linger with someone the way she did with Jasper. Her mind was always racing about the hundred and one things she needed to do. Sundays were laundry days, and she would also go for a long jog weather permitting. But all those tasks were instantly forgotten when she was intertwined with Jasper’s powerful body.

  They enjoyed one another again and again. Kait reached new levels of pleasure she’d never previously believed were possible. Jasper was a caring, attentive lover with impressive stamina.

  “I really need to shower,” Jasper told her as outside the day had begun to darken.

  “Me too,” Kait agreed from where she was resting her head on his chest, enjoying listening to the steady beat of his heart.

  “Do you want to shower together?”

  Kait snapped her head up and looked down at him. Her whole body once again tingling with desire. Just as she was about to eagerly accept his offer, she saw the fresh wound on his chest, the one he’d endured whilst protecting her. As her face dipped in sadness, she softly ran her finger beneath it.

  “You’ve got so many scars.”

  His chest was equally as adorned as his back. So many old wounds. Surely they hadn’t all happened in the ring.

  “True.” Jasper replied stoically.

  “How did you get them all?” Kait titled her head in interest as she addressed him.

  Jasper inhaled sharply.

  “You don’t think I got them all from fighting?”

  Kait shook her head as her eyes scanned across his exposed chest. Many of the scars were long and hinted at deep wounds, wounds that could only be inflicted by a sharp object rather than the dull blow of a fist or foot connecting with his chest.

  “Not all of them,” she admitted.

  “You’re right,” Jasper sat up and folded his thick arms across his chest, covering some of his scars from view.

  “Some of them I picked up on the streets when I was growing up.”

  Kait thought of what she’d read about Jasper, about how he’d grown up in the foster care system and lived a troubled life before he’d found professional fighting.

  “Were you stabbed?” In her mind she remembered the glint of the blade the gold toothed man had held and the sinister sparkle in his old eyes. He had meant to stab her, to gut her as though she were just a fish being prepared at market. It was the first time she’d had to face down such evil, and she had been terrified. She couldn’t imagine facing such an ordeal as a teenager or a child.

  “Yeah,” Jasper’s jaw tightened. “Many times.”

  The scars suddenly seemed more troubling. Each told of a violent attack, a heated altercation got out of hand.

  “Why…” Kait’s eyes misted as she let her gaze fall to the bed, unsure of what she was even meaning to ask.

  “My life was tough growing up,” Jasper’s tone was gentler than she’d expected. She thought he was going to be defensive about his scars and how he obtained them. Instead, he reached for her hand and pressed it against his chest.

  “Where I lived, people used violence to get what they wanted. It’s why I was originally interested in learning to fight.”

  Jasper had placed her hand over a particularly large scar which ran all the way from his shoulder blade to the center of his chest.

  “I got this one for refusing to run drugs. I spent two weeks in hospital and lost a lot of blood.”

  Kait felt the rise of the scar. Now it was just a deep ridge upon his skin, but it had once been a gaping wound so cruelly inflicted.

  “I was twelve,” he told her, and Kait thought her heart might break. She removed her hand and began kissing each and every one of Jasper’s scars. He’d endured so much, and yet he was still finding the courage to chase his dream, to get in the ring and fight every night. He could have run drugs; he could have stabbed people to bend them to his own will. But he rose above all that.

  As she kissed his scars, Jasper groaned. They remained there for a few more minutes before he scooped her up in his strong arms. She wrapped her legs around him as he carried her towards the bathroom. She could feel how excited he was. He lowered her gently in to the bathtub and stepped in after her, pulling back the shower curtain. Kait quickly turned on the water, and soon they were both being bathed in the hot stream.

  Jasper grabbed her wrists and held them above her head, pushing her back against the wall. It felt strange to have the cool tiles at her back as the warm water splashed over her front. As he held her wrists up he kissed her deeply, his tongue desperately pressing against hers. Kait eagerly kissed him back as she arched her back and ground her hips against him. Jasper groaned again as they kissed.

  Kait wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him close. When he entered her, they both gasped in delight.

  Chapter 14

  It was dark outside as Kait walked through the living room towel drying her hair and wrapped in a robe. Jasper was on the sofa wolfing down the pizza they’d previously ordered. A movie was playing on the television which he was half watching.

  Kait dropped down beside him and reached for a slice of the still warm pizza. Her stomach grumbled appreciatively at the sight of it. As Kait took a bite, she realized that she hadn’t eaten all day which was unlike her. She also never ate pizza, always opting for a sensible salad or pasta dish instead. But with Jasper, she felt like she didn’t need to care about all that stuff, that she could just be herself. Eating the pizza reminded her of movie nights with her mother when they’d curl up together on the couch and watch girly films. Kait struggled to remember the last time she’d done something like that. She was always either working or thinking about working. It was as if she’d forgotten how to switch off. Until Jasper came along.

  “What are you watching?” She nodded at the television.

  “This movie where Denzel Washington is a pilot.” Jasper quickly replied. Kait was impressed by his knowledge.

  “You seen it before?”

  “Twice.” Jasper replied in between bites of pizza.

  “Twice?” Kait asked with a smile on her lips, her tone slightly teasing.

  “What?” Jasper turned and looked bashful, his confident demeanour having briefly fallen away.

  “So I like movies? I’m not always training you
know.”

  “So when you’re not training you’re watching movies?”

  “Pretty much,” Jasper agreed proudly. “I’m something of a movie geek.”

  “Good to know,” Kait laughed.

  “What about you?”

  “What about me?”

  “What do you do when you’re not working?” Jasper eyed her expectantly. Kait paused as she fumbled for a response. She could feel her cheeks beginning to burn with shame. The truth was that somewhere along the way, work had stopped being something she did and had overtaken her life, bleeding out to all areas including her social life. She worked long hours, and when she made it back to her apartment, she’d just drag herself in to bed so that she could wake up bright and early for the next working day.