“Dork.” I ruffled his hair and swatted his ass. “If you get through the first two chapters and set up the online stuff, I promise you’ll get a reward when I’m done.”
“Fine,” Jeremy huffed, grabbing a book off the neat stack on the sofa table and all but throwing himself onto the couch. “Be a spoilsport. See if I care.” When he stuck his tongue out at me, I had to laugh.
“Someone’s bucking for a spanking,” I warned lightly, grinning when his breath caught. “Now, you study. Otherwise, I might not be able to put out again tonight,” I teased him. “Intelligence is sexy, you know.”
Jeremy made a rude noise and flipped me off, making me laugh harder. “Well, I guess we can feel pretty good about your recovery,” I cracked. “Now you remind me of that hot, sassy Omega that couldn’t get on my dick fast enough.”
Jeremy’s cheeks colored, but he didn’t deny it, instead raising and dropping his shoulders. “No shame in my game, Alpha,” he snorted. “I mean, I’m not the one who came for a booty call and then made myself at home for three days, am I?” He tossed his head, his longish hair tumbling everywhere. “I mean, if the shoe fits, Cinderella.”
Jeremy turned back to his books, pointedly ignoring me as he opened the one in his hands.
“You are so much trouble,” I said with a happy sigh.
“You love trouble,” Jeremy countered immediately.
What was I supposed to say to that? He had a point.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Jeremy
The fight was scheduled for midnight.
I’d been up since four o’clock, unable to sleep. I spent a couple of hours sitting in the small chair by the bed, watching my beautiful Alpha sleep, trying desperately to come up with any way I could help him. By the time he started to wake up at ten, I still had nothing. So I brought him a cup of coffee in bed, instead.
“What’s this?” Kade asked, sweeping the hair out of his eyes. “Bedside service?”
“It’s a big day,” I mumbled, chewing on my lip. “Why aren’t you nervous?”
Kade grinned. “I’ve been in a scrap or two, baby. I’ll be fine.” He set his coffee on the nightstand and reached for me, dragging me into the bed for a deep kiss. “Mmm. That’s what I need to wake up, a healthy dose of sugar.”
“Dork.”
“Takes one to know one,” Kade teased me, burying his face in my neck and blowing a raspberry. “Now, there’s no point in showering when I’m going to get nasty again. And I can’t have sex because it’ll lower my testosterone levels. What can I do to pass the time?” Kade turned glittering eyes on me. There was no warning before he rolled me under him, dropping his weight onto me to hold me in place and rucking my shirt up.
“You said no sex!” I squawked.
Kade lifted his mouth from my nipple to smirk. “I saidIcan’t have sex,” he clarified. “There’s no reason you should be this tense.”
I almost argued, but when his hand wrapped around my cock, those rough fingertips sliding over my sensitive skin, I forgot what, exactly, I was complaining about. And I have to admit that when we walked into the arena at eleven forty-five, I was much more relaxed than I would have expected.
~*~
I’m not sure what I’d expected the fight to be like, to be honest.
Maybe some sort of fight club? Hordes of people betting on blood sports, vendors hawking beer and crappy t-shirts? Whatever it was, it wasn’t the sight that met me.
Itwas an arena. A fenced in circle with a dirt floor and large, athletic field fixtures flooding the arena with light. But that was about where my expectations derailed.
Instead of rows and rows of long, stadium seating, there were only two small sets of bleachers, one on each side of the ring. They were barely big enough for ten people each.
Instead of throngs of bloodthirsty spectators waving fists of cash, there were serious-faced men in business suits that Mr. Keir said were attorneys for the fighters, police officers, and an EMT crew.
Instead of a team of referees, there was a single judge standing on a small platform at the far end of the arena.
Instead of everyone being there to see Kade defend our family, there was a docket of fights posted at the entrance, giving the name of the participants, the amount of time given for each session, and the reason for the challenge.
A bell rang, signaling the start of the first fight. A voice came over the loudspeaker, calling the names of the two participants. The two men entered the ring, standing facing each other while the judge read the charges – a slight of honor, in this case – and then explained the rules.
