Total pages in book: 69
Estimated words: 64366 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 64366 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 322(@200wpm)___ 257(@250wpm)___ 215(@300wpm)
The after-party was pure torture. Did they really expect me to play nice with these guys? All I wanted to do was bash their heads in and take their spots. When I looked at them, I didn’t see a colleague or teammate or peer. I saw an opportunity. There was one exception to that rule: Jason Kinney. It looked like he had a good shot at a UFC contract in the near future, especially since I had my foot in the door now, and he was the closest thing to a teammate I’d ever had. I didn’t relish the thought of having to face him in the octagon.
“Let’s get out of here,” I told Jamie. “I’m tired of thinking about fighting. All I want to do is get you home, lock the door, and stay in all weekend. No training, no homework, no business or school whatsoever.”
“Sounds good to me.” He stood up, and I followed. I called Aldo on the way out and told him to come get us.
When I got off the phone, Jamie had his cell out and was devouring tweets. “Since when are you one of those people who walks around with your nose buried in a phone?”
Without looking up, he answered, “Since people are talking about you and what’s going on at this press conference.”
“I can only imagine what they’re saying.”
“Some are praising you like you’re their new god, others are denouncing you as Satan. The usual social media crap. One person says something, and the next person has to say the opposite. Oh, and they want your girlfriend, of course. Well, the guys do. All the girls want to be your girlfriend, and have your babies. That was mentioned. #MachineBabies.”
“Jamie get off of that phone. You don’t need to obsess over that bullshit. Just like you said, it’s all the same. People enjoy arguing for the sake of arguing.”
“But you can find out what people think of you,” he said.
“I don’t care what people think of me. If I win a fight, that speaks for itself. It doesn’t matter if anyone thinks I’m going to win, or if they think I deserve to win. Action is all that matters, and the rest is just spinning wheels.”
He didn’t put his phone away, though. Not even when the limo pulled up to the curb and we climbed into the backseat. As usual, Aldo was driving, and Aaron was riding shotgun.
“Where’s Miss Hale?” Aldo craned his neck to get a clear view of the hotel entrance, presumably to see if Vanessa was schlepping along behind us. “We drove her over here tonight. Is she not ready to go?”
“It’s just us boys tonight, Aldo. Vanessa can take care of herself.”
Aldo scoffed. “I think maybe she needs me to take care of her. You tell her that. Tell her there’s a real man here who knows what to do with her.”
“Tell her yourself, Aldo. I’ve got enough of my own shit to deal with.”
“You’ve got that right,” Jamie groaned. “Kage, this is not good. You need to look at this tweet.”
“I told you I don’t care what they think of me.”
He shoved the phone in front of my face anyway, forcing me to look at a photo that had been uploaded of us sitting at the table with Vanessa. Someone had snapped the picture at the exact moment when I’d leaned over to whisper in Jamie’s ear, taking that naughty little detour to suck his earlobe into my mouth. Vanessa sat beside me rolling her eyes. It was so quick, barely a second in time, and yet some enterprising blogger had managed to capture my indiscretion for the whole world to see.
It got a little hard to breathe then. For all my big talk about coming out and not caring what people thought, seeing that photo posted up in public like that really spun me out. Because, dammit, this wasn’t the way it was supposed to happen. I wasn’t ready. Vanessa’s warning came back to me, and I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I wasn’t ready. I’m not ready.
“It’s not that obvious, Kage,” Jamie said. “Yeah, your face is all shoved up into the side of mine, but it’s not exactly obvious that my earlobe is actually inside your mouth. It could be a trick of the lighting. Or a joke. You know, like a prank.”
“Are you Braden now?” I grinned, because what else could I do? Hell, I’d been flirting with getting found out since the first day Jamie stood in front of me that first night in Atlanta. I’d known even then he’d be my undoing, and I’d been clamoring to get undone ever since. I’d pushed and taken chances even when everyone else, including Jamie, was trying to warn me. Now was the day of reckoning, and I was just going to have to man up and admit that it was all my fault.