“Macio is in love with me. It’s time you accept it.” I looked at my watch and saw that the match was due to start in under ten minutes. “You better get out there and look pretty, darling. We don’t want the sharks starting to speculate that there’s trouble in paradise.”
“Asshole.” Kathy flipped her hair over her shoulder and headed for the door. “Are you coming, Rupert?”
I looked over at Macio’s publicist and found him watching me with his head tilted slightly to the side. He looked at me as if he were seeing me for the first time and didn’t know what to make of me. He was so lost in his thoughts and hadn’t heard Kathy speak to him.
“Rupert,” she yelled shrilly.
He jumped and followed her without a word, which was okay with me. I needed a minute to gather myself. Regardless of what I said to Kathy, I knew Macio wasn’t going to like Troy’s article. He was going to like the possibility of Troy having seen the message he sent me even less, but it was something I would need to tell him.
Idrew closer to Jaxon, arms raised defensively, but also offensively for when an opportunity presented itself for a strike. I’d watched numerous video tapes of Jaxon’s ring performance. He was a damned good fighter and I had to pay him proper respect or risk making a rookie mistake. I was already bleeding from a shallow cut on my left brow and we were at least two minutes into our third round. The longest match I’d had before this one was only nine minutes and nineteen seconds, which was pretty much two rounds.
Jaxon was huffing and puffing as he inched closer to me. This fight was taking its toll on him too, but he was more conditioned than I’d given him credit for at the weigh-in. I stepped forward, then jumped back, guard up, blocking a right kick from him. He tried to follow that up with a leg sweep, but I dodged that one too, and landed a blow to his temple. It wasn’t a good one, as my distance and angle wouldn’t let me get enough power behind the punch, but he still felt it. His nose was bleeding profusely, I’d broken it in the second round and I was going to make sure I followed up on it since it was already injured.
The crowd was thriving with an energy that I was feeding off of as we fought. They were hyped up big time and loving this championship battle. Seeing as we were now in the third round, I was sure they felt like they were getting their money’s worth. I threw a kick that Jaxon blocked, then followed it up with a punch to his midsection. He tucked in his elbow, protecting his ribs, which left him open for another blow to his face, which I tried to capitalize on, but he ducked, catching me with a blow to my abs.
I puffed out the air and stepped back to size him up again. It would seem that he had been studying my fight videos as well. I was going to need to get his ass into a ground game. He charged me and I blocked the first blow, but his second blow caused me to lose my balance and I fell back against the gate. That was when he hit me with a right hook that knocked me down. There were a few stars floating, but I wasn’t completely out.
He was on me then, punching furiously, but I was blocking him effectively and as soon as I saw an opening, I grabbed his fist, then locked my legs around his neck in a triangle chokehold. One of my favorite maneuvers. My thighs were like steel vices as I tightened them around his neck. I could taste the copper flavor of my own blood as it leaked into my mouth from my busted nose. Jaxon was exerting a lot of energy in his attempt to break out of my hold, but he wasn’t going anywhere. I switched my grip on his arm to where I could apply pressure to his elbow joint. If he didn’t tap out, I was going to break that fucker.
The referee was in our faces, waiting for the moment when Jaxon submitted or his arm broke, whichever came first. We were both screaming and growling, but for different reasons. Finally, he couldn’t take the pain anymore and tapped out. The referee hit my biceps twice, ordering me to release my hold. I did, and then shoved Jaxon away from me before rising to my feet. I threw my arms up victoriously as I jumped around the octagon. I was running on pure adrenaline and loving every minute of the excitement the crowd was giving me.
Lights flashed, cheers roared, there were a few boos, too, but fuck them. My corner came into the ring, congratulating me. I only wished Aiden was here and I could hug him in front of the world and that would be acceptable. As it was, this was a man’s sport and according to hearsay, not a place for fags. I hated hearing shit like that, and sometimes I wondered how they’d feel knowing this fag kicked their fucking teeth down their throats.
Ah well, I may not be able to celebrate openly, but I was planning on giving Aiden a few rounds in the bedroom, or on kitchen counter, or even in the shower tonight. I stayed in the ring for a few minutes, doing a quick post fight victory interview with ETC promotion president, Shane Dixon. He was asking me questions I knew I’d have to answer again at the post-fight conference in a half hour. However, this was part of my job—granted, the part I hated—but my job, nonetheless.
“This was your longest fight ever, almost going into the fourth round. Was there any moment during the fight that you thought this might be it, I’m going to lose?” Shane asked me.
I shook my head. “Hell no. I never enter the ring with any thoughts of negativity. Fuck that,” I said, using the towel Barry had draped over my shoulders to wipe away some of the sweat that was dripping into my eyes. My entire body was slick with it and I couldn’t help but wonder just what kind of dirty thoughts were floating through Aiden’s mind as he looked at how my body glistened with it. He really got off on the sweat I could work up fucking him… hell, I did too.
He laughed. “With this being your longest bout, how did it weigh on you physically and mentally?”
Barry patted me on my back and I turned to him, smiling, before facing the camera again. “I train like a fucking beast before every fight. I mean, look at these abs,” I said, pausing to do a little flexing. I could hear the women in the audience get louder than the men at that point. “It was rough, but I knew I could go the full distance if need be. We could have done the full five rounds and I’d still have energy to fight some more. There was no fucking way I was giving up my championship.”
“What do you think of your opponent?” Shane asked.
“He was tough, I mean, I’ll give credit where credit is due. He’s a tough son of a bitch, but this wolf was hungry and I don’t give up my bones,” I said, holding my championship belt up for all to see.
“All right, Champ, I’m going to let you go,” Shane said, and I was relieved.
I did a little bit more grandstanding for the audience’s benefit, the president had informed me that he liked for me to play up to the audience more, so I did. After that, I went back into my dressing room. My corner followed me, which was Barry, Mike, and Victor, along with my ring cut doctor, who immediately looked at my wounds.
“Nothing is broke,” the doctor said after checking my nose. I sat there letting him patch me up a bit, then took a quick shower. He looked over my wounds again, determining that I didn’t need stitches. He did bandage up the shallow cut over my brow. My eye was starting to swell a little, so I had an ice pack for that. I got dressed quickly and made it to the post- fight conference where I answered a lot of the same questions Shane had asked me and a few more.
Finally, that was over and I could head to my hotel. I was planning to spend the rest of the weekend at the hotel with Aiden, and then go back to Vegas on Monday. I’d already made arrangements for Aiden to be waiting for me inside my hotel room. I thought that would be easier. Right now, I was climbing into the back of the rented limousine with Kathy. Normally, Barry and Rupert would be with me, but they stayed to celebrate with the president of the promotion. I was invited too, but no way was I going to keep my baby waiting.
“That fight was amazing,” Kathy said as she slid in closer to me.
I smiled. “Hell yeah… shit, it was the hardest one I’ve had to date, though. That fucker almost knocked me out with that right hook,” I admitted. It wasn’t easy for me to do, but I did.
“I was so scared when he had you up against the gate, and then when he punched you and you went down. My heart just stopped beating,” Kathy said, putting her hand over her bosom.
I nodded. “Yeah, I knew I had to work my ground game at that point.”
“I know you’ve got to be charged after a fight like that,” she said.
“I am. I’m still like, floating high on adrenaline.” I smiled thinking about how I was planning on spending all of my pent-up energy.
“I could totally help you,” she purred, and out of nowhere, her hand slipped between my thighs.
