Promptly at eight, a knock came at the door. Kait giggled to herself. He was on time; that was a good sign, right? She hurried over to her front door and let Jasper in. He kissed her lips as he walked in, cupping her cheek with one hand and pulling her close. The kiss was intense, and Kait had to fight her way out of it else she knew she’d lose her head. With her lips still tingling, she gestured towards the kitchenette in her apartment.
“I’ve cooked dinner,” she smiled shyly. She watched Jasper sniff the air and register what she was saying. But when his gaze settled upon her, she sensed that he was hungry for something other than food.
He was still wearing his clothes from the gym – baggy blue shorts and a tight white vest top. His muscles bulged sexily beneath it. Beside him Kait felt ridiculously overdressed. She knew they were only in her apartment, but she had hoped that Jasper would make a bit of effort for their evening together.
“You look amazing,” he told her as his eyes eagerly drank her in.
“Thanks,” Kait smoothed a hand nervously down the front of her dress. “Dinner is pretty much ready. Want me to pour you a glass of wine?”
“I’m not hungry,” Jasper growled the words as he reached for her, pulling her close to him. The cologne he’d hastily sprayed in the changing room struggled to cover the musky odor of sweat which clung to his toned physique.
Kait wanted to insist that they eat dinner first. She’d spent ages preparing the meal, but as his lips began to caress her neck she could only groan in pleasure. With one hand, Jasper began to feel his way up her leg, brushing against the tops of her thighs. Kait trembled against him. He found the edge of her lace panties and expertly moved them aside so that he could touch her directly. Kait gasped and melted as his fingers began to pleasure her. She was no longer thinking about the dinner or the dress she was wearing. Jasper kept kissing her neck, and soon she was at the point of climax.
“Come for me,” Jasper breathed the command directly into her ear. Kait willingly obliged. Fireworks erupted throughout her body. She was overwhelmed with desire. She was hungrily kissing Jasper as his hands became tangled in her hair. At some point, they both fell to the floor when she straddled him as he had his back against the floor. She hoisted up her dress and cast aside her panties so that his hands could cup her bare buttocks.
Throwing back her head, Kait came once more as Jasper grunted and thrusted beneath her.
“Oh, Jasper,” she breathlessly panted his name as she climbed off him. He was wearing a satisfied smile and watching her intently. Kait loved how it felt to be the center of his attention, but she was suddenly distracted. She could smell burning. With lightning quick movements she sprinted over to the kitchenette and threw open the oven door. Instead, her potatoes and chicken were black and charred. Dark smoke billowed out and was promptly followed by the shrill beeping of the fire alarm.
“Damn it!” Kait shouted over the din. Jasper appeared behind her and threw open the windows, allowing most of the smoke to disperse into the cool evening air. After several minutes, the alarm stopped. Kait looked down in dismay at her ruined dinner.
“I’m sorry,” she said forlornly, her shoulders slumped, “dinner is ruined.”
“It’s okay,” Jasper looped an arm around her waist and gave her a squeeze. “I wasn’t hungry anyway, and I need to be getting back.” He leaned close to kiss her on the forehead.
“You’re not staying?” Kait spun around to face him, her eyes wide with surprise.
“No,” Jasper shook his head and released her from his grip. “I’m training first thing tomorrow. I need a good night’s sleep.”
Kait’s gaze darted between him and the ruined dinner.
“I thought…I thought you’d be staying.”
“Next time,” Jasper promised with a smile as he kissed her lips.
Chapter 51
Only he didn’t stay next time. Or the time after that. It was always the same excuse – he had to get up early for training, he had a really important fight coming up. Each night, Kait lay awake in bed feeling the emptiness beside her creep into her bones. This wasn’t what she had wanted. Yes, she wanted Jasper, but she wanted all of him not just the part time version she was getting. It almost felt like he was using her.
“You’re a booty call,” Anna said simply over lunch the next day as she shoved a fork into her chicken salad.
“I’m not,” Kait protested with a shake of her head.
“Please,” Anna rolled her eyes and put down her fork so that she could start listing things off on her fingers which boasted pristinely manicured nails.
“He doesn’t stay over, you guys don’t go out anywhere, you don’t schedule any dates, and when you’re together you just have sex. Booty call.”
“No,” Kait could feel her face starting to burn. She was more than a booty call to Jasper. They were an actual couple, weren’t they?
“We’re seeing each other,” Kait said defensively, cringing with how lame she sounded. “We are an actual couple.”
“Please,” Anna rolled her eyes again. “Robert and I are an actual couple. Last weekend, I met his parents. Tomorrow night, he’s taking me to the cinema. When did your fighter last take you on a date?”
Kait already knew the answer. It was when they went for a meal together. Somehow that night felt like a million years ago.
“See,” Anna angled her fork towards her friend as she picked it back up. “Booty call, and you know it.”
“It’s not like that,” Kait insisted, but her voice lacked the conviction she’d hoped it would have. Was she just a booty call to Jasper? He seemed to only come around when he wanted sex, and he never stayed over. Kait had to admit that what they had certainly didn’t feel like a relationship.
“Maybe this is a relationship for him,” Anna offered with a light shrug. “Maybe this is as serious as he gets. But if that is the case, will it be enough for you?”
Kait said nothing, but she knew that of course it wouldn’t. She wanted what Anna had with Robert. She wanted to go out on dates and feel like she was a legitimate part of Jasper’s life, not just a place for him to find physical comfort.
“I can still set up that double date you know,” Anna suggested brightly. “But you’d need to be quick. Robert’s friend is a handsome guy, and he’ll get snapped up soon if you don’t move on him.”
Kait dropped her gaze to her own salad and pushed the plastic container away. She had suddenly lost her appetite. Her blonde hair fell around her shoulders as she chewed her lip and tried to ignore her friend’s concerned look.
“I don’t like seeing you like this,” Anna said softly. “You don’t seem happy.”
“When I’m with him, I’m so happy,” Kait recalled Jasper’s last visit with a bittersweet smile. “In his arms, he has the power to make the whole world melt away. And I…I get lost in him. But then when we’re apart, it kills me.”
“Sounds intense.”
“It is!” Kait insisted fervently. “It’s almost…too intense. It’s either all or nothing, and I kind of want the in between stuff. The cinema trips. The meals out.”
“Have you told him how you feel?”
“What do you think?” Kait grumbled. Jasper was hardly easy to approach on matters of the heart. A part of her remained wounded from their encounter at his gym when he’d told her she would always come second to his training.
“Well, maybe you should,” Anna coaxed gently. “If you guys are like together for real, he’ll hear you out. He’ll want you to be happy.”
“You think so?”
“Sure.”
Kait’s phone buzzed noisily on the table between them. Reaching for it, Kait was unable to suppress the smile which pulled at her lips when she saw that the message was from Jasper.
Hey beautiful, can I see you tonight? Xxxx
“Ooh, from lover boy?” Anna asked teasingly.
“Uh huh,” Kait bit her lip and looked down at the message. She knew that what Jasper was r
eally asking was if he could come round and ravage her. That was all they ever did. They had intense, passionate sex, and then they returned to their respective lives.
“So?” Anna prompted her friend.
“He’s going to come around later,” Kait was suddenly blushing like an embarrassed school girl.
“Ooh,” Anna mocked with a raise of her pruned eyebrows. “Will he be staying over?”
“No,” Kait sighed, already knowing the answer to that question. “He’s got a huge fight tomorrow.”
“That sounds like an excuse.”
“No, it really is a huge fight for him. One that will make or break his career.”
“You sound convinced.”
“I am,” Kait nodded furiously.
“Then why are you so upset about being a booty call if you’ve already made peace with it?”
“I’m not a booty call,” Kait ground her teeth and put the phone back down. “I’m his girlfriend.”
“So are you going to watch this big fight?”
Kait fumbled for a response. Jasper had yet to invite her to come and watch his latest big match, but surely that’s what a girlfriend would do? Go along to support her man?
“My advice for what it’s worth is surprise him at the fight. Turn up to support him. If he’s pleased you’re there, you’re his girlfriend. If he’s angry you turned up, you’re his booty call.”
Kait absorbed her friend’s suggestion, knowing that deep down Anna was right. She was just terrified that if she turned up at the fight Jasper would only be mad at her which would confirm all her fears about them as a couple.
Chapter 52
“So, are you feeling ready?” Carl asked, his voice fringed with concern. Jasper leaned forward, resting his elbows upon his knees. They were in the changing room at the venue for his next fight, and he could already hear the distant chanting of the eager crowd.
Jasper tensed the muscles in his arms. He certainly hoped he was ready. But despite all the hours he’d put in at the gym, each time he walked, he felt sharp stabbing pains in his one knee. Back at his apartment he’d topped himself up with pain medication, but he doubted it would be enough to numb himself for the duration of the fight.
“You have to win this,” Carl warned, growing pale when Jasper failed to respond to him. “I made it very clear how important this fight is.”
“Yes,” Jasper looked up at his agent, annoyed. “You’ve made it clear, Carl. I get it. Trust me.”
“Let’s just hope all these extra hours you’ve put in at the gym have been worth it.”
“Tell me about it,” Jasper agreed. He felt like he was constantly on the verge of exhaustion. He didn’t spring out of bed after a day of excessive training the way he used to when he was younger. What if he was just too old to fight? He couldn’t think like that. With a brisk shake of his head, he banished the negative thought to the back of his mind.
“Just go out there and give this guy hell,” Carl offered encouragingly.
“I intend to.”
Jasper remained sat rigidly on the sofa of his changing room. This was the time when he needed to focus, to descend down a black hole of thought focusing only on the pin prick of light at the end. He had to visualize winning, convince himself that he’d already won. He took a deep breath and exhaled slowly, expecting to hear the thunder of applause in his ears, but instead he heard Kait gasp in pleasure. He was thinking about her again. He clenched his hands tightly together as they had started to shake. Why was he thinking about her now? His mind needed to be clear. He needed to be focused.
Carl had already left, aware of Jasper’s pre-fight ritual and needed for solitude before he entered the ring. Only Jasper wasn’t currently alone; Kait was in his mind polluting his every thought. When he tried to imagine throwing a crucial punch, he thought of the way she smelt, of how soft her hair was when he ran it through his fingertips like spun gold.
“Focus,” he snarled angrily at himself. But it did no good. Kait was all he could think about. Getting to his feet, he started to anxiously pace about, thinking that some movement might help banish Kait from his mind, but it didn’t. With each tense step he took, fresh images of her popped up in his mind’s eye.
“No, no, no,” Jasper was shaking his head as he walked back and forth. “Focus.”
A brisk knock on the door caused him to cease pacing. The door opened, and Carl was standing there, his expression unreadable.
“It’s time,” he told Jasper.
“Right, yes, let’s go,” Jasper clapped his hands together and bounced up and down on the spot, trying to fire himself up.
“You’ve got this,” Carl told him as he patted him on the shoulder as the pair of them walked down a corridor towards the arena. The chanting of the crowd made the walls around them eerily tremble. They sounded louder than usual, more riled up. The noise made Jasper even more apprehensive about the fight. Usually he played off the energy of the crowd, but now it was subduing him. He wasn’t ready for this.
Already, his knee was causing him to grind his teeth together, and he was merely walking. What would happen when he was maneuvering around the ring or trying to execute a round kick?
“Come on, it’s go time!” Carl had to shout to be heard over the roar of the crowd. Jasper could just make out the distant boom of the announcer calling his name. The crowd grew even louder.
Bunching his hands into fists by his side, Jasper took a deep, steading breath, pushed open the double doors before him, and entered the arena.
Chapter 53
The crowd was on their feet when Jasper entered the arena. People were eagerly waving homemade banners at him and screaming his name. Kait also stood up and felt her heart quicken when she saw him striding confidently towards the ring. His head was held high, and his shoulders were pushed back. He looked so handsome yet fierce. She pitied whoever was coming up against him as his opponent. At least she did until they came out.
For a few seconds, the crowd died down so that the announcer could welcome to the ring “Timmy the Terror from Tamworth.”
With a name like Timmy, Kait wasn’t expecting much, but she was wrong. His name didn’t do him justice. He was equal to Jasper in both height and build with a shock of fire red hair atop his head and pale skin adorned with numerous dark tattoos sleeved up both arms.
Timmy baited the crowd, revealing his bright red gum shield which already made it look like he was bleeding profusely at his teeth. Perhaps he soon would be. Kait felt a knot form in her stomach. Timmy darted around the ring like a ping pong ball, raising his hands to the crowd encouraging them to scream even louder, whilst Jasper remained in his corner, stoic and ominous.
The crowd reached fever pitch as Timmy was told to go to his respective corner. And bell rung, and the fight commenced.
Chapter 54
Jasper had heard of Timmy. He was a hard and fast fighter. He was more accustomed to bare knuckle fighting than gloved. He was a fierce opponent and not someone to underestimate.
After the bell had rung, both men approached the center of the ring, bouncing on their feet, ready to dart out of the way of a punch. Jasper swiped first and missed, his hand connecting with empty air. He silently cursed himself as he drew his fist back in. Timmy narrowed his eyes menacingly at him. Jasper threw another punch, and Timmy expertly leaned away from it. Before Jasper had drawn his arm back in, Timmy came at him throwing quick, powerful punches. His fists connected with Jasper’s chest first, knocking the air out of him and then travelled up to his jaw and his nose. With a sickening crack, Jasper heard it break before he felt the rush of warm blood which followed.
Chapter 55
Kait clamped a hand to her mouth and tried not to cry. Despite her seat being some way from ringside, she could clearly make out the torrent of blood now gushing from Jasper’s nose. But all he did was wipe at it with his wrapped knuckles and advance back towards the center of the ring. He was taking a brutal beating, and Kait wasn’t sure that she co
uld watch.
“Duboix’s going down!” Some of the crowd fearfully prophesied. Kait willed them not to be true. Jasper could come back from this. But his shirt was now soaked with his old blood. Surely it was over for him.
Chapter 56
Timmy threw several more punches. They connected with Jasper’s chest, and he could barely breathe. But somehow he remained standing; he had to. If he went down now, it would be all over. The shouts of the crowd became a distant droning, and he forced himself to focus only on Timmy. The red head was gearing up for another punch. Jasper wasn’t about to go down like this. He could feel his knee aching, burning in protest as he forced his entire weight upon it. It was now or never. He needed to floor Timmy and quickly as his body couldn’t last for any more rounds.
Mason: Inked Reapers MC Page 37
