Mace (Cocky Cage Fighter #4)

by Lane Hart

  “Hot damn, Hales,” Senn exclaims, his amber eyes widenin’ before he lifts his hand to grab my waist. I take a step back out of his reach before I even realize I’ve done it. His arm falls back to his side and he gives me a raised eyebrow, questionin’ look. It even takes me a minute to understand why I avoided his physical contact. There’s just somethin’ about lettin’ him touch me where my skin is still warm from Mason’s hands that feels…wrong. My inner caveslut disapproves, wantin’ anyone’s hands on me to give me some relief, but she can kiss my ass.

  Senn clears his throat after we stand facin’ each other in awkward silence for too long, and then he asks, “So, are you ready to head to the beach?”

  “Ah, sure.”

  “Good. Let’s see if Mace’s slack ass is ready before we head up,” he says, and I have no choice but to follow him through the small livin’ room and kitchen to get to Mason’s bedroom door. Senn knocks and Mason quickly opens up, dressed in nothin’ but white boardshorts and black flip-flops. Wow. Not only did he change quickly, but he is so freakin’ hot that I want to climb him like a tree.

  “Yo, man, ‘bout time,” Senn says before the two exchange a fist bump. “You never get in a fucking hurry, do ya? And you owe me for not telling Linc why you got to the airport late yesterday. Josh said he saw you go home from the Sky Bar with Monica and Erica Friday night.”

  What the freaky fuck?

  Mason was two hours late to pick me up because he was with not one but two sluts? Ew. And I had been so damn close to screwin’ him if Senn hadn’t thankfully interrupted. What the hell was I thinkin’?

  Mason glances at me and then quickly back to Senn with a clenched jaw before confirmin’ everything he just said. There’s no shame in his admission that I barely hear because I’m still in shock. Mason is just blatantly honest with some sort of mention of “oversleeping” thrown in. If looks could kill, he would so be a dead man right now. He told me he wasn’t a player, which was obviously a lie if he was with two girls before tryin’ to get into my panties right off the bat. Well, he did get his hand into my panties, but that will be all he’s gonna get down there.

  “I’ll be right back,” I tell the two men, turnin’ to go back to my room. “I’d feel more comfortable wearin’ somethin’ less revealin’.”

  “No!” both of them exclaim, makin’ me glance back over my shoulder. Senn looks at Mason in confusion after his sudden outburst, but Mason simply plays it off by sayin’, “That’s not very revealing. I mean, I’ve seen a lot worse.”

  “I’m sure you have,” I mutter.

  “Yeah, Hales,” Senn agrees. “Claire, Kylie, and Sadie have all been wearing suits just like that this week. Hell, your mom even wears a smokin’ bikini.”

  “My tankini is more comfortable,” I tell them before quickly slippin’ back into my room. I barely shut the door before the first tear falls down my cheek.

  Chapter Eight

  Mace

  Fucking hell.

  I want to pound my clenched fist into Senn’s face so badly I can hardly stand it. The messed up part is he has no idea that he just cock blocked the fuck out of me, probably permanently, with Hailey. Not only do I look like a player, but now she knows why I was late getting to the airport. She knows what or, more specifically, who I was doing while she was left alone and waiting.

  “Well, that’s a damn shame,” Senn says after she’s shut up in her bedroom.

  I feel like screaming at the top of my lungs in frustration since there’s no way I’ll be spending the night with my face between Hailey’s thighs like we’d planned. God that blows. I’d been so close to the Promised Land, getting ready to throw my own self-imposed rules out the window and fuck her in the bathroom before giving her a tongue fucking tonight.

  “So have you seen the workout room?” Senn asks randomly, not having any idea how close he is to getting sucker punched or why. I’m the one who deserves a punch since I’m clearly the asshole here, pursuing something with a woman not only off limits because of the bro code and threat from her brother, but so out of my league I’m not sure why I ever thought I could touch her.

  “Nope, haven’t seen it,” I reply, swiping a hand over my face and letting out a huff of annoyance.

  “It’s down here, make a left from the stairs,” he says nodding to the other side of the basement. “There’s a few treadmills, weight benches and a big mat so we’ve all been hitting it a few hours a day.”

  Great, so Hailey and I won’t be all alone down here in our basement since the guys will be constantly coming and going, including the man who wants her and her brother who’s warned me to stay the fuck away from her. Not that she’ll let me touch her again after what she just heard.

  Senn and I stand in the living room and continue to talk shop until the bedroom door creaks opens again. Hailey steps out in the baggy, brown and pink swimsuit made for mothers, not hot, single women. Her breasts are covered without any hint of cleavage showing, and the bottoms are boy shorts that are longer than the dresses she wears.

  Avoiding my eyes and giving Senn a smile I know is fucking fake since it doesn’t light up her face like when she smiles my smile, Hailey asks, “Ready?”

  When his hand reaches out to press against her lower back, I nearly growl a warning for him not to lay a fucking finger on her. He suddenly pulls back and scrubs his fingers through his dark, chin-length hair instead of making contact with her skin. Maybe I actually did release the disapproving sound. Either way, at least I don’t have to endure the sight of his hand possessively on her body as the three of us walk outside into the hot, blinding sun.

  “Wow, the pool looks really good,” Hailey says when we walk past the sparkling in-ground oasis on the way to the gate that leads to the sand dunes.

  “There’s also a hot tub,” Senn says to Hailey as they walk side by side in front of me down the path to the ocean. I can already hear the waves crashing and smell the salt in the air. “You know I’m gonna try and get you in there with me tonight, right?” Senn asks Hailey, causing my blood pressure to rise.

  “It won’t take much convincin’,” she replies, and when she reaches over and yanks on the front of his elastic waistband, popping it suggestively, I become near murderous. This was not how the afternoon and night was supposed to go down, dammit! I was supposed to be going down on her, not standing here listening to her talk about being with him later on.

  When we breach the dunes and find the shore, there are several rows of beach chairs lined up, our family and friends camped out, some of them playing in the water, some sunbathing, a couple throwing a Frisbee. I slip my sunglasses on to block out the glare but am still unable to recognize everyone who’s running around. The sight of red hair is like a lightning bolt hitting me. If Senn can cock block me, then by God I can return the favor.

  “Hey, Kylie’s here,” I say loud enough for Senn and Hailey to hear. Senn glances over his shoulder at me with narrowed eyes, silently warning me not to say anything about him hooking up with my sister’s best friend. I know I’m gonna pay for it when his fists hit me the next time we train together, but I do it anyway. “So, Senn, is she still as, what was it you said about her? Oh, that’s right, flexible as she was a few weeks ago?”

  Hailey’s steps falter in the ankle deep sand with that piece of new gossip I’m certain she wasn’t aware of. She stares at Senn, waiting for his response.

  “I wouldn’t know,” he answers, shooting a glare in my direction before turning back to her. “You would have to ask her boyfriend, Jason, who is coming down later this week.”

  Well, fuck. He answered too quickly to have made that shit up, which is a damn shame.

  Not having any more ammo, other than the fact that he goes home with a different girl every weekend, I keep my mouth shut and watch as Senn and Hailey walk down practically hand in hand to the surf. Tired of being the third wheel, I stay behind at the row of chairs and sit my ass down in the gritty, sun-soaked sand. The heat burns through m
y shorts and feels like it’s scalding the parts of my body that are exposed. The searing is convenient since this place may as well be hell because I can’t have the woman I want and, if that wasn’t bad enough, I have to watch her with my friend who doesn’t deserve her or know a damn thing about her. He’ll only end up hurting her, causing even more self-esteem issues that she sure as fuck doesn’t need.

  “I know that look,” Jude Malone says when he wisely spreads out a towel on the sand before he flops down on it next to me. “You’ve got it bad.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about, Malone?” I snap without bothering to look at his face, knowing he’s probably wearing his usual smug expression.

  “You’re ready to throw away almost a year of hard work and the friendship of two people for a woman you just met.”

  “I’m not that stupid,” I reply.

  “I didn’t say it was stupid.” When I glance up at him in surprise, his dark eyes are on his girl Sadie, who looks sound asleep stretched out in a lounge chair several feet away. “You think I wouldn’t give it all up for her?”

  “Yeah, but the difference is you know it wouldn’t be for nothing, and I don’t.”

  “You won’t have to give up anything. Linc will get the fuck over it once he knows you’re not gonna screw her over, and Senn will have a bruised ego, inflict some pain on you, but then he’ll be fine after he fucks a few random girls.”

  “How did you know?” I ask him.

  “I heard Linc threaten you on the phone yesterday. When he hung up, he told me that Senn’s always had a thing for Hailey and he’s hoping they finally get together this week.”

  “What the fuck?!?” I exclaim, and then lower my voice when several heads turn our way. “Why him but not me?”

  “I dunno, but if I had to guess, I’d say it’s because you’re a lot younger than her, and Linc thinks Senn can give up other women more easily than you can.”

  I scoff at that assessment. “Of course he can give them up easily! He doesn’t talk to them after the condom comes off.”

  “And you can’t let any of them go,” Jude says, and my eyes widen hearing him make that unexpected statement. “What?” he laughs. “It’s true, right? Everyone thinks you’re a player, but Sadie pointed out that you’re actually the opposite of Senn. He can’t wait to get the hell out of dodge after he gets what he wants, but you can’t let any of them go. I would bet that you’re actually attached to all your little…fuck buddies. But that just means that you’re so lonely that it takes not one but like ten women to fill the emptiness.”

  “Four,” I correct. Listening to Jude talk, well, now I know how pissed Hailey was when I played Dr. Phil with her last night.

  “Goddamn,” Jude mutters. “I was being sarcastic. Four? Seriously? You fuck four different women on a regular basis?”

  “I know, right?” I laugh and shake my head at my own stupidity. I never meant to have ongoing relationships with multiple women. It all started when I met Lena at a bar after I’d been seeing Sabrina for a long damn time. I told Sabrina about Lena, and she surprised the shit out of me when she gave me permission to date her, fuck her, whatever, as long as I didn’t do it behind her back. So, I told Lena about Sabrina, the two met, and I ended up in a relationship with two women. After that, two became three and then four, with the guarantee from me to be honest with them and to always use condoms. I know it’s fucked up and atypical for women to share, but for some reason they make it work. Most of the time. But it keeps me busy, especially with training long hours and still having to earn a living. “Good thing some like to double up because you know I have a really busy schedule,” I tell Jude.

  “Ah fuck, man. Now I need details. Sadie is all the woman I’ll ever want or need, but that shit sounds hot. Come on, I just want to know the logistics.”

  Glad to take my mind off a certain tall blonde, I tell him the best story I can recall. The one from my birthday a few months ago. “I once got all four women off at the same time.”

  “You’re kidding,” he says, then lowers his voice when he adds, “Let’s hear it, Fantastic Four.”

  I chuckle at the nickname before I oblige. “Well, there was one riding my cock, one on my face, and one with each hand. The sounds they made…it was a wild night. Later, two took turns sucking my cock while I watched the other girls eat each other out at the same time. Crazy shit.”

  Jude makes a choking laugh sound before slapping me on the shoulder. “You…you are a lucky SOB,” he says. “But I wouldn’t trade being with the one woman I love even for all of that. I’m guessing you wouldn’t either if you knew what you’re obviously still missing.”

  Of course, that foursome consisted of Monica and Erica, who were able to convince Sabrina and Lena to join them to celebrate my special occasion. After that night, Sabrina wouldn’t talk to me for a week because she thought I had ignored her. I finally showed up to her friend’s apartment where she was hiding out with a chick flick and Stromboli from her favorite local Italian take-out place in hand. I asked her straight up if we were done, if she was tired of sharing. She told me she didn’t want to stop seeing me, but couldn’t be a part of any threesomes, foursomes or fivesomes again. So after the movie, we had incredible make-up sex. I fucked her twice and spanked her in between for breaking one of my two rules, being jealous. The other rule makes me a hypocrite, but I won’t have any other dudes fucking my girls.

  Okay, so dating four women sometimes has a few drawbacks, but the benefits are worth the occasional headaches. There’s always at least one woman in my bed, usually several rounds of amazing sex a day, and all of them keep my pockets full of cash with their desperately needed referrals.

  I’ve got it made, or so I thought, before I met Hailey. She has me thinking about what it would be like to have…more. More than casually sharing myself with four women because I’m scared of giving one person the power to crush me.

  Chapter Nine

  Hailey

  Lookin’ out at the ocean from the second-story balcony as darkness falls, I’m a million miles away, still angry and hurt. Mason really fooled me. I thought he was so sweet and actually wanted me, but after findin’ out why he was late gettin’ to the airport, now I know he’s just a player. Linc warned me and I ignored him, thinkin’ he was wrong about Claire’s sweet, carin’ brother. Instead, he was dead on right. Mason flirted with me, I fell for it, stupidly gettin’ on my slutty knees for him, and then he was well on his way to manipulatin’ me into fuckin’ him before Senn interrupted. All his compliments were nothin’ but bullshit lines. And since I was a blind idiot, desperate for any little bit of male attention, they worked.

  So knowin’ all I do about him, why can’t I let it go? I’ve tried to stop thinkin’ about him. With Senn around, flirtin’ with me all day, big and sexy with his bulgin’ muscles constantly makin’ my mouth water, you would think forgettin’ Mason would be easy to do, but nope. Senn’s not distractin’ enough to keep me from seekin’ out a certain tattooed man while we were at the beach. Mason mostly stayed close to Claire and her best friend and maid of honor, Kylie, and Zelda the dog. We all played a few games of beach volleyball, and thankfully, Mason was not on my team. Unfortunately, that meant every time I looked straight ahead, he was fillin’ my line of sight. Since most of the guys are MMA fighters, there were plenty of big guns and six packs present, but for whatever reason I couldn’t look away from the way sweat rolled down Mason’s sexy washboard stomach and dripped into his low riding, white boardshorts. I’m not sure which was hotter, the ninety-five degree scorching sun or him.

  Right now, everyone’s coolin’ off inside, sittin’ at the huge dinin’ room table on the main floor, havin’ homemade pizza with all the fixings, and double chocolate chunk brownies for dessert. I slipped away, quietly sayin’ I needed some air. Only a pair of golden green eyes seemed to realize the real reason for my escape. I just hope he keeps his mouth shut.

  Masculine hands suddenly come down next to both s
ides of my hips on the wooden deck rail, cagin’ me in, but not touchin’ me. My pulse speeds up in anticipation, but quiets down when I notice the absence of the scent of leather and the lack of tattoos on the top of the right hand.

  “Hey,” Senn says softly from behind me.

  “Hey,” I reply on an exhale of either disappointment or relief, I’m not sure which.

  “Are you gonna let me touch you this week or do I just have to get by on the memories of how good you felt in my arms?” he asks, brushin’ his lips lightly over my ear.

  I inwardly cringe because honestly, he’s not my first choice, and I really fuckin’ hate admittin’ that, even to myself. Everything was fine with Senn and me before I met that asshole, Mason yesterday. Now just the thought of him is ruinin’ what could be a good thing between us. This is what I’ve been waitin’ weeks for, to see Senn, hopin’ he wouldn’t bring a date so we might pick back up from where we left off a year ago. Yes, it was a long time ago and he didn’t call me once, but doesn’t he at least deserve a chance to tell me why not? I’m an idiot if I let a few smooth words and touches from a player come between us.

  Turnin’ around, I reach up and thread my fingers through Senn’s brown, chin-length hair and pull his face down to mine. His amber eyes blink in surprise a second before his arms wrap around the waist of my white, strapless dress and our lips crash into each other. Soon, his tongue is plungin’ into my mouth urgently, showin’ me exactly what he wants to do with his cock that’s pressin’ hard and thick against my stomach. I wait for that warm pressure to start to grow, the same feelin’ of need from earlier when I was with Mason. It doesn’t come, not when Senn’s hands grope my ass the same way Mason did, or when he reaches up and squeezes my breast just like the other man had a few hours ago. Nothing. At least, not for me.

  “Let’s go to my room,” Senn says into my hair between heavy pants. “Or your room. Any room.”