KAGE (KAGE Trilogy #1) (13 page)

“Not a lightweight,” I gasped between hacking coughs. “I was just expecting ginger ale and grenadine. This is more like rubbing alcohol and cough syrup.”

“Well, this is the grown-up version of the Shirley Temple. Time we were putting some hair on that chest of yours.” His eyes dropped to my chest, and I swear even though he couldn’t see through my shirt, I felt almost violated. For a moment, I thought I could relate to women on that subject.

“Okay, that wasn’t creepy at all,” I mumbled under my breath.

“Pardon?” Mark asked.

“Nothing.” I slumped my shoulders and finished my Robitussin cocktail while Mark wagged his eyebrows salaciously at a pair of bottle blondes down the bar from us. I groaned inwardly when one of them settled her hopeful gaze on me. “I gotta go to the bathroom,” I told Mark.

“Well, why don’t you do it at the next bar? We need to get out of here.”

I glanced at the girls and back at him. “I thought you were working something there.”

Mark gave me a pitying look and shook his head slowly. “Don’t ever take the first offer, Jamie. I’m just warming up. There’s plenty of night left to explore.”

The next place we stopped was more of a dance club with a slightly younger crowd. Mark ordered two Jack and Cokes and led me to a table near the dance floor. He nearly spilled our drinks, because his eyes were trained on the gyrating dancers and he wasn’t paying attention to where he was going.

“Whoops,” he said with a laugh and put my drink in front of me. I sipped mine through the tiny cocktail straw and sulked.

“Is this your usual after-work tour?” I asked, trying to make conversation.

“Yeah, I hit several bars. Then I pick my poison and get busy. That’s what I love about Vegas. I never have to go home alone.” His obvious bragging was more sickening than the first drink he’d bought me. “You see anyone you like, Jamie? Wanna go dance with someone?”

I shook my head, wishing I’d never agreed to go out with him.

“Aw, go on,” he urged, gesturing toward the dance floor with his drink. “Go have some fun. Pick a couple of young ladies to bring back to the table.”

And there it was. The reason I was here. Mark wanted me to pick up young girls for him.

Fuck. This is not good.

Three more drinks, and I was almost drunk enough to be Mark’s ho-bagger. I was watching the dance floor with some interest when I noticed a couple cutting it up near the center of the dancers.

The guy was built, really good-looking, and his female dance partner was riding his back like he was a bucking bronco, her short sun dress barely covering her ass. She wore flesh-colored strappy sandals, and her ankles were hooked around his waist. I had to give them an A for originality.

The fact that the bucking bronco was none other than Michael Kage was just the icing on the cake of my night. I shook my head to make sure I wasn’t hallucinating.

But as I watched, it became ever clearer that it was indeed my client— or was he my boss?— giving that girl a rodeo ride.

“Oh, Jesus,” Mark groaned when he spotted them. “I heard he was dating her again. Who the fuck do I have to blow to get a girl like that?”

I turned my head drunkenly toward Mark and squinted. “Maybe that’s your problem. Blowing someone usually gets you a boyfriend, not a girlfriend.”

Mark ignored my derisive comment. “Do you see this? She’s a goddamn Victoria’s Secret model now.”

“Really?” I gave Kage and his partner another look. “That’s impressive. Way to go, Kage.”

“You haven’t met her already?” Mark’s tone was oddly accusing, and I drew back.

“No. What’s her name?”

“Vanessa Hale,” he breathed reverently. “You’ve never seen her in the catalogs?”

“Uh, I’m afraid I don’t subscribe. Though come to think of it my girlfriend has them lying around her dorm room all the time.”

Damn, I’ve gotta quit calling her my girlfriend.

“Well, if you have a pulse I don’t see how you could have missed Vanessa Hale. She’s the hottest thing on the planet.”

I looked again. Kage was smiling so broadly, I was betting there was laughter coming out of that perfect mouth of his. Vanessa’s long brown hair swung across his face as she held onto his thick shoulders.

“She
is
very pretty,” I admitted. “Beautiful hair.”

Kage’s hair was down, and it mingled with hers as they played on the dance floor. I felt a pang of jealousy as I watched them having so much fun, and here I was sitting with Mark the molester.

Just as the song ended, Kage started galloping toward the edge of the dance floor right in our direction. I wanted to sink into the floor, but instead I sat there like a deer in the headlights as he spotted me.

His step faltered, and the smile fell from his face, leaving a distinct frown in its place. He looked from me to Mark and back again, then bent his knees and allowed Vanessa to slide to the floor. The pair approached our table, her still smiling, him regarding us in a suspicious way that had me wondering if I’d still have a job by morning.

Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea after all.

“Mark,” he grated, stopping in front of our table. “I see you’ve decided to show my little Gemini the ropes even before his birthday.”

“You remembered my sign,” I said stupidly, noticing that he had a dark half-moon in the soft flesh beneath his left eye.

A black eye on a fighter should not have been shocking, but it was the first time I’d seen anything marring the perfection of Kage’s face. I had the ridiculous urge to reach out and touch it. To ask him if it hurt.

God, I was drunk.

He didn’t even glance at me as he growled at Mark. “I thought I made myself clear when we talked about this in the office. Maybe I need to use plainer language.”

His right fist flexed at his side. It didn’t look like a threat so much as a reflex, which made it all the more intimidating.

“You snooze, you lose,” Mark said with a cocky smirk.

In that moment, I realized Mark truly was an idiot. He was the kind of guy who would climb into a lion’s cage just to prove he was a man, and Kage was the lion who would eat him just because he could.

Vanessa Hale leaned in toward me, swaying a little on her feet, sticking her heart-shaped face right in front of mine. “Oh, Mikey, this is Jamie? He’s adorable. If my lashes were that long, I’d never have to wear falsies on a photo shoot again.” She studied me with big eyes that looked green under the low lights. Tendrils of dark hair curled at her temples and twisted around her narrow shoulders. “Can he hang with us? Pretty please? I’d love to get to know the guy who’s going to help you get famous.”

“I don’t think so,” Mark interrupted. “Jamie and I were just about to find a couple of hotties to spend the rest of the evening with. We’ve got a few on the line already, and we were just narrowing our selection.”

Oh, Jesus. How lame does that make me sound?

“Jamie has a girlfriend,” Kage said matter-of-factly, as if he’d never considered for a moment that I might cheat. I liked that.

I didn’t correct him about the girlfriend thing, though, because I would’ve had to admit I’d lied. That was the problem with lies; they had a tendency to compound and to get out of control. I figured in this case, silence was the best plan of action.

Kage waved a hand dismissively at Vanessa. “Whatever you want, Nessy. If he wants to come with us, it’s fine with me. I’m just ready to go home and watch a movie or something.” He seemed awfully sullen compared to the guy who had just been galloping around the dance floor with a famous model on his back.

Vanessa grinned, assuming already that she’d gotten her way. With a face and body nice enough to rate a Victoria’s Secret gig, I was pretty sure she was used to getting her way in all things. Personally, I didn’t particularly want to let her get her way, but the prospect of having a legitimate escape from Mark was too tempting to pass up.

I leaned over and whispered in his ear.

“Sorry, dude. Between you and a Victoria’s Secret model, I’ve gotta go with the model. I’m sure you understand.”

Mark gave me a sour look, but he knew he’d been outbid for my company. “Go,” he said. “Have fun, and fill me in on Monday. See if you can get some pictures.”

I stifled a laugh. Mark really was a shameless sleaze bag.

8

KAGE’S apartment was similar to mine in style, but about five times bigger. I had no idea how many bedrooms it had, but the center was an enormous great room with a living area, a dining area, and a stainless kitchen. The view from the wall-sized window was astonishing.

Vanessa danced into the apartment and fell onto the pale blue sectional, clearly comfortable in Kage’s apartment.
She’s definitely been here before.
I sat awkwardly on the sectional as far from her as I could get, because the last thing I needed was to get an MMA fighter jealous by sitting next to his girl. Apparently Vanessa didn’t understand that concept, because she scooted right over next to me, kicked off her strappy sandals, and pulled her legs into the seat Indian style. She sat sideways facing me, but I faced straight forward, looking about as geeky and nervous as a guy possibly could.

A supermodel,
I thought.
Sitting right next to me.
And then on the heels of that thought…
Kage’s girlfriend.

That really put things into perspective. I glanced around for Kage, who had disappeared as soon as we’d entered the apartment. I wondered what he was doing, and when he was going to come back.

“Mikey and I are just friends,” Vanessa said, as if reading my mind.

I whipped around to face her, wishing it wasn’t so obvious that her comment had affected me. “Doesn’t matter to me one way or the other,” I said. “That’s your business.”

She smiled, revealing teeth that had a slight gap between them. Rather than being unattractive, the imperfection had the opposite effect, amping her sex appeal tenfold.

Like Kage, she had the kind of face you couldn’t get enough of looking at, each glance revealing a new facet of attractiveness. Her kohl-rimmed eyes were unnaturally large, her nose slim, lips full and slicked with a clear balm. My eyes kept wanting to drop to the swell of her breasts and the trim waist beneath, just to see what society’s ideal looked like in person.

Her dress was shoved up around the tops of her thighs, barely covering the important stuff. In her little sun dress and loose curls, I thought she would look right at home in a sunny meadow on a spring day. A light sprinkle of freckles across her nose added to the illusion.

A melodic rap song suddenly started playing over a central sound system, and Vanessa started bobbing her head to the music.

“So Mikey tells me you’re a Journalism major. What made you choose that?” Her tone was light and friendly like her expression.

“Yeah, I guess I just like writing, and I like sports. That led me to the communications field, and eventually to where I am now. Interning for Kage. Uh… Mikey.”

She laughed at my obvious confusion over what to call him when I was talking to her. “Mikey and I go way back,” she said. “We went to high school together.”

“Really?” That got my attention. Talking with his childhood friends was a great way to get to know my client. “Has he always been… the way he is?”

Okay, I’m not going to win any Pulitzer prizes in journalism with that vague question.

“He’s always been unique, if that’s what you mean. But don’t let the hard edges fool you. He’s a big, soft Teddy bear inside. I’m telling you right now, if anyone ever hurt him, you’d have to pull me off the sonofabitch. I’d go to jail for Michael Kage in a heartbeat, no questions asked. I would do anything for him. Kill, maim…” She narrowed her eyes menacingly at me. “In other words, watch your step.”

She was so earnest. I laughed when I tried to picture her being Kage’s body guard. “That’s so sweet. The big bad MMA fighter needs the protection of a size-three lingerie model.”

“Size zero,” she corrected, raising a delicate brow. “And I see my reputation precedes me. Or have you seen my pics?”

Why did that sound like an accusation?

I blushed, imagining looking at images of a scantily-clad Vanessa in a lingerie catalog. I’m sure Mark Gladstone would not agree, but it seemed like it would have been an invasion of privacy to know what this girl looked like almost naked before I’d even met her.