The Cage King (7 page)

Didn’t matter. That was what she reminded him of. Her scent was always a mix of citrus and salt while her eyes and skin glowed under moonlight. She was wondrous, his escape from a shitty life, and always had been. Her eyes alight with pride as he fought in the ring, making him a hero and a warrior instead of a thug. Or how she never stopped teaching him or acted like he was too stupid to be bothered with.

He nipped her, a little harder, teeth a little deeper into her velvety skin, and her answering moan had his cock beating against the zipper of his jeans, demanding to be let out.

“Esh, let go,” she whispered, those long fingers still digging into his upper arms.

She wasn’t saying anything he wanted to hear, so he concentrated on licking the tang from her skin and listened to that tiny hitch in her breathing.

“Warned you.” And before his brain processed, Nalah shifted, using her leg to dislodge him while those fingers twisted his body and had him on the floor.

She got off the bed and now stood above him, hip cocked to the side and fists on them, her eyes sparking in an all-to-familiar way, one that used to mean he was sleeping on a couch that night. “Damn woman, who taught you that?”

“Who do you think? I might not be a warrior, but do you think I’d let myself be totally vulnerable?”

She
was
vulnerable. Any of Beylor’s men could have her on her back with either a sword in her belly or them crawling on top of her in five seconds flat. But right now, with her foot that close to his balls, he wasn’t going to point that out. Instead he rolled and got to his feet, watching her watch him the entire time.

There was appreciation mixed with the earlier anger, the way she followed the bunching of the muscles in his thighs and his arms. Nalah wasn’t immune to him any more than he was to her. “Why’d you stop me?”

“Again, why do you think? I’m not here to be your personal amusement. Already told you.”

He snorted. “When have you ever been that? If that’s all I considered you good for, do you think I’d be here?”

That stopped her, her mouth closing, her face scrunching up in a
V
of confusion. She collapsed on the nearest chair, her arm draped across the table. “You and I need a little clearing of the air. Cards on the table?”

Yeah, that didn’t promise a good time. He shrugged, going to sit across from her.

She waited until he was settled before she began. “Why did you agree to do this?”

Talk about denial. He met her gaze, held it, until she was near fidgeting but still didn’t look away. “You aren’t stupid. You know why. I’m not changed.”

At that, Nalah did look away, out a window that overlooked the nearby forest. “It’s been five years,” she said, her voice as low as he’d ever heard from her.

“So? Fuck does five years mean? You’re it for me, always have been. Knew it as soon as you looked up at me with those big brown eyes and I told you so back then. Told you the same before we came here, though you wanted to pretend that wasn’t what it meant. If it won’t change in fifty years, why do you think five years is some magic number?”

She swallowed, the movement doing little to hide the slight quiver of her chin. “’Cause I haven’t been around.”

He snorted. “Yeah, like that changes shit.”

Now she turned back to him, her chin square, her eyes dead set on his, hard in a way they rarely were back before. “Because Jac is dead.”

“And?”

As if she had been touched by a live wire, Nalah jumped from the table, pounding her hands hard against the wood surface. “What do you mean,
and
? You could have stopped it. You
should
have stopped it.”

He rose to her challenge, stepping toe to toe with her. “Why? So he could turn around and do the same stupid shit the next year, the next month? He knew and he chose to do it anyway. He did it knowing I wasn’t going to get involved.”

“Oh yeah, you and your famous
I don’t get involved
.” She flung her arms wide, the movements wild and her voice loud and angry. “That’s why they thought it was safe to target him. Because there was no worry over retribution. The Cage King’s best friend, and they killed him, all because you
don’t get involved
.”

“So what’re you saying? You blame me for his death?”

That shocked her still, her voice and body going slack for a moment. She looked…she looked like she wanted to argue, and she wanted to cry, and she wanted to bang her head on a table and not stop…all of it, rolled together.

Her arms wrapped around her waist, one hand stroking along the length of the other arm. “I’m not saying – That night, when I disappeared, do you know why I went with the Guild?” She didn’t wait for him as she dove into the answer. “Because I didn’t care. Whatever they had in mind for me, I was okay with it. I knew what they said they wanted, but if it was something else? I’d just lost everything and I was so tired. As long as the pain ended, I was okay with it.”

Gods
, why didn’t he have a fight now? He needed to hit something, feel bone break and flesh part under his fist. “What the
fuck
am I supposed to do with that? Why are you putting that on me now?”

“I’m not telling you to worry you, not even to punish you. It was five years ago, and there is nothing of that feeling left.” With effort, she unhooked her arms from around her, let herself open up to him, her neck and body exposed as any prey hoping to appease a predator. “I’m telling you so you understand. I am not the seventeen-year-old you knew, not even close. I’m still attracted to you – hell, probably ninety percent of the women and twenty percent of the men in the New Realms are attracted to you – but whatever was between us… It’s not there anymore, not like it was, because I’m not like I was.”

She said it like it was some big revelation, and while he wasn’t going to convince her of anything right now, not with all the emotions running high, he also wasn’t going to let it lie, let her have the last word and think he believed what she was saying. “You aren’t telling me anything I don’t see. So what you’re not seventeen, the core is still you. What we feel for each other is still real. Doesn’t matter how attracted you are to me, you wouldn’t respond if it wasn’t.”

Nalah’s stubbornness came out full force as she shook her head. “That’s muscle memory. It’s part of the reason I’m here. I wanted to get some closure to move on.”

If he ever got the asshole who thought up that word in the ring… “I hate that fucking word. What, you’re supposed to put a bow on us? Closure doesn’t exist.”

“No, I know that. I do. But the way it was before, how I left, that was wrong. Too many open wounds for both you and me are left from it. Yeah, I agree, closure doesn’t exist, but what it is now … Five years later, and it’s still bleeding. I want the bleeding to stop. I want the scar to form so I can go near it without constant pain.”

“And you think us here will accomplish that?”

“If anything can, it’s this. Not that this is a relaxing vacation, but outside in the world, there would be too many questions of me being in your life, people maybe remembering me from before. This way it’s as blank a slate as us two can manage.”

“Cards on the table?” he echoed her earlier words. She nodded. “You might be going for your closure, but the only thing I’m working for is you back in my life and my bed. I warned you before, and the words are still the same. While you’re here, you’re mine, and all I want is for you to never leave me again.”

‡

N
alah rubbed her
neck where Esh had marked her yesterday, once again holding her head high and refusing to acknowledge the smirking looks directed her way. Damn Esh. Because of him she looked like she’d been attacked by a vampire and total strangers thought they had a right to comment on her private life.

“Where are you going?”

Startled, she stopped short in front of one of Beylor’s men, the shitty attitude and weapon in hand both giveaways to his identity. “I’m just looking around.”
For innates and a magic ring
, but he didn’t need to know the end of the sentence.

“Women need to stay in the lodge unless there’s a match. Turn around.”

For one brief moment, a wish that Fallon was here to deal with this sexist idiot bloomed bright in her heart, but she turned and took herself back to the lodge without complaint. Underground matches were not a haven of sexual equality, and women talking back, well, not so much. She wasn’t going to bring scrutiny to herself, no matter how good flipping him off might feel.

A few dozen women milled around the common room a few other guards pointed her toward, the overall mood cautious but still welcoming. Before she finished even a handful of brief introductions, in came the blondest, boobiest woman she’d ever seen in person, wearing about two pounds of make-up, ten pounds of jewelry, and a few ounces of clothing.

No magic ring, but if this woman wasn’t Beylor’s plaything, Nalah would get a makeover from Laire.

A slavering entourage surrounded the woman, high-pitched giggles in response whenever Blondie spoke. Definitely the queen of the compound.

Blondie gazed around until her eyes locked with Nalah, and she came over, all blinding white teeth in a horsey face. “Omigods, you’re the Cage King’s woman! How did you get him?! Omigods! Oh, I’m Tiffany, and you’re Nalah! I’m so glad to meet you!”

She pulled Nalah to sit beside her on the plush pink loveseat, three other women taking seats wherever there was room in the circle. Needing to get into Tiffany’s good graces and taking a chance due to Tiffany’s own pink ensemble, Nalah opened with, “I’m so glad to see other women here. I’ve been waiting for a chance to get away from the fight talk. By the way, I
love
this room. You should give a bonus to whoever decorated it. It’s so cheery.”

As Nalah suspected, Tiffany’s eyes lit up. “I did! I told Bey that women needed a little color! He’s so involved in all those fights, he forgets we’re not all dark and dreary like the boys.”

Tiffany continued to speak in exclamation points, and Nalah endeavored to nod at appropriate places. Unless Tiffany was putting on a hell of an act, she was, perhaps not the brightest of lights, but genuinely friendly and enjoying the female company – as well as her place as the alpha female whom everyone else sucked up to.

Finally, Tiffany leaned forward in the universal pose for conspiratorial gossip sharing. “Soooo, you and the Cage King? How did you get him? He is soooo hooottt… Like, we were all talking, and there is no one better looking on the circuit. Honestly, you should keep an eye on some of these women. I wouldn’t trust any of them alone with him.”

The other women nodded, and from the flash in the eyes of a couple, perhaps one or two of the women Tiffany was worried about were sitting right here.

“I’ll remember that,” Nalah said, “but I trust Esh. He knows how I feel about straying.”

“Honey, they
all
say they know, but it’s really ‘Don’t ask so you won’t be told.’” Tiffany waved that away as if it was a known quantity, and continued. “But when did you get together? I only heard about you when Esh accepted the invitation – and gods, that was a complete surprise! Bey near had a heart attack when he got word!”

Figured there would be gossip. If luck prevailed, Beylor wouldn’t think about how the Cage King accepted an invite after so many years and brought a new woman no one had ever heard about. If he did, and then realized how it coincided to the acquisition of the ring, she might be screwed. “I knew him when we were younger. My family moved a lot, so we got separated, but not long ago I walked in on one of his fights. When I realized it was him, I met up with him just to catch up, and one thing led to another…”

Nalah trailed off, gave a half shrug. The less detail, the better, and the best would be to let Tiffany and the rest of the girls create their own drama from those few sentences. Judging by the giggles and the half-friendly/half-envious nudges they were giving her, they were concocting some serious stories.

This was all well and good, and making a connection with Tiffany was a lucky chance, but training time was waning and she needed to check out the fighters still. Nalah slapped on the most false-feeling simpering smile she could manage, and said, “I’d really like to watch Esh, surprise him a bit. You can imagine how hot it is to see him during practice.”

Waggling eyebrows and lewd comments met that statement, but then Tiffany gave a small frown. “Bey said we’re supposed to stay here. He said the women aren’t safe on the grounds.”

“I know, I know,” Nalah cut in, quick words to stop the conversation from derailing. She lowered her voice and leaned in. “But just finished from training, dripping sweat, those muscles all defined…” And she gave an exaggerated wink, full of false sisterhood.

Giggles became shrieks and grown women fanning themselves, and Tiffany looked around, her gaze locking on where the guards stood, very bored and very not listening. When no closer guards were found, Tiffany whispered. “The back door never has many guards, and they change shifts for lunch, so they won’t be looking for anyone. But if you get in trouble, you didn’t hear anything from me.”