Caged (Bound by Cage Book 1) Read online

  It wasn’t until my mom called me out one day about two years ago. She stumbled into my apartment to find me passed out with a stripper, the place was a complete mess, liquor bottles and trash scattered everywhere. There we were, the stripper and myself, completely naked on the kitchen floor. The look of disappointment in my mom’s eyes when she walked in that day gutted me, and I vowed that day that I would be a better person. Do better so my mom would be proud of me.

  Luckily, I have always been focused on my training and the partying didn’t get in the way of slowly climbing up the ranks as a fighter, because I would cut women out when the fight got closer. After reflecting on my first few years in the business I realized what was truly important and began to cut out all of the negative bullshit.

  When I saw Savannah peeking through the window at my gym, seeing her innocent eyes taking in my body, I realized I was a goner. Those big beautiful green eyes, I can tell exactly what she is thinking because they are so expressive. I only meant to scare her to break the ice and invite her in. As soon as I noticed her snooping, I knew I had to talk to her. When I got outside and she was nowhere in sight a wave of disappointment washed over me thinking I blew my only chance. The thought of never seeing her again, made my chest ache.

  When I walked into the bar and saw her slinging drinks I practically dropped to my knees to praise Jesus. What were the odds that the girl I couldn’t stop thinking about worked right next door to me? I figured I’d talk to the owner quick then park myself at the bar. Finding out that she was the owner, that was sexy as hell.

  Starting up my truck, I make my way home as thoughts of Savvy continue to consume my mind. I have never met anyone apart from my family that didn’t try to use me or my fame once they knew who I was. Who am I kidding? Most people know who I am. That’s not coming from a cocky play boy, it’s just a fact. That’s one of the things I love about moving up here, nobody bothers me, I can go for a run and actually finish it without being chased down. When you start making bank, people you haven’t seen in forever, start to appear out of the wood-work. Everyone needs something whether it be money, an in to a party or just to say they fucked a fighter. I learned real fast to tell them all to fuck off. Savannah is definitely different, I can feel it in my gut. She seems genuinely interested in getting to know me, and fuck, when she put me in my place with that sassy attitude my dick got so fucking hard. She’s definitely a feisty little thing and I love that I can make her blush.

  Walking into my house I am greeted by my little girl Daisy. A pudgy little Basset Hound that is like a child to me. I give her belly rubs before I let her outside to do her business. I go to the fridge to pull out a meal as I think of a plan to convince Savannah to give me a shot, a real honest to god fighting chance. She doesn’t seem like the type that would go for an expensive dinner and thank Christ for that, high maintenance girls are nothing but trouble. Maybe if I text her tomorrow asking her to meet me at the gym I can show her who I truly am. Show her what my world is really about instead of the assumptions I’m sure she is going to get from the internet. Hell, if I were in her shoes I’d look into me too.

  Going over to let Daisy in I decide that’s the best route to go with her and fuck me if I don’t get hard thinking about her in the octagon with me. Nothing is sexier than a woman in the ring, yup I will fuck her in the octagon someday. That image is making me hard as a rock.

  Needing relief, I head upstairs to my bedroom and strip out of my clothes. Getting into bed I imagine she is with me right now, straddling my legs hovering over my dick with those full pink lips. As the movie plays out for me I begin to pump my hand up and down, root to tip as she bends over and takes me in her mouth. Imagining her sucking me off with that innocent expression on her face as she looks up at me has me coming faster than I ever have before.

  “Fuckkkkk,” I moan out when my climax hits me.

  Laying back in my bed trying to catch my breath I reach over and grab my tee shirt and wipe myself clean. I have never gotten so worked up over a woman before, let alone a woman I’ve only spoken to for a little over an hour. As I lay down on my side I grab my phone shooting off a text letting her know that I am thinking of her. Sleep appears fast for me as I dream of a set of big beautiful green eyes staring up at me.

  CHAPTER 4

  “Fucking kill him!” my dad yells at the TV.

  Its football Sunday and we are watching our boys annihilate the other team, yelling at the TV while eating shit for food and drinking cold beer. I live for this.

  “You know, those asses look fantastic in those little pants,” Ashlyn says getting an eye roll from my dad. She loves to mess with him.

  “Ashlyn how many times have I told you to stop objectifying my team. They are men, they are playing football. You should be yelling for them to get the 4th down, not talk about their asses in their ‘little pants’,” he quotes with his fingers.

  I love Sundays. The three of us have been getting together for the Pats games for as long as I can remember. Just me and my two favorite people. I’m watching Brady in the huddle as I hear my phone chirp. I grab it and realize I have a new text and when I see who it’s from I spit my beer out of my mouth.

  My Sexy Fighter: Hey beautiful. I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you since last night. What are you doing?

  Holy shit. He called me beautiful and now I feel like a 13-year-old girl. I wipe my mouth, assure my dad I am just fine and write back.

  Me: I should say I’m surprised you put your name under that, but that would be a lie. You are a cocky bastard after all. ;) I’m at my dad’s for Sunday Football Baby!

  Before I have time to change my mind I snap a selfie in my Pats jersey holding up my beer, then hit send.

  My Sexy Fighter: Now that’s what I’m talking about, a beautiful girl who loves football! By the way, you look sexy as hell in your jersey even though it should be a Texans jersey.

  Me: I’m sorry we can’t be friends anymore with our differing views on football teams. It was nice while it lasted.

  My Sexy Fighter: Friends is the last thing I want to be with you Savvy.

  Before I can respond he shoots me another text.

  My Sexy Fighter: Meet me later.

  I get a shiver up my spine. I can just hear him in my head saying those words.

  Me: Hmm, I don’t know. Give me a good reason.

  I have to make him work for it a little bit.

  My Sexy Fighter: If I wasn’t a gentleman I would say I have nine inches of good reason. Since I am, I will say I can’t wait another day to see you.

  Me: Good thing you’re a gentleman. Okay just tell me when and where.

  My Sexy Fighter: 8 pm at my gym.

  Me: I’ll see you then. XO

  “Why are you smiling like you just found out NSYNC are back together,” Ashlyn says interrupting my thoughts.

  “No reason,” I lie.

  She lunges for my phone and grabs it. I try to grab it back but she runs into the bathroom and locks the door. She is in there for a minute then opens the door with the biggest smile on her face while she practically pummels me and says “One step closer to Charlie! Fuck yes!”

  “I’m glad my love life is getting you what you want,” I say sarcastically. “I don’t know what we’re doing, so I don’t know how to dress. I don’t want to seem too eager and assume we’ll be going somewhere nice.”

  Truth is I’m just a simple girl and I don’t really like going to fancy places. It makes me uncomfortable when someone spends a lot of money on me.

  “Eh, you have plenty of time. Let’s go finish watching those Adonis’s playing football, then we’ll figure it out.” Ashlyn always the voice of logic. We head back into the living room and my dad eyes us skeptically. He is currently cleaning up my spit off of the floor.

  “What the hell was that show and dance about?”

  I keep my mouth closed because my dad is never thrilled about my dating life. He always gave my dates a hard time in High School. Wh
en a boy would pick me up, he made sure to put on a show of cleaning his guns at the kitchen table to scare them. Truth be told it always made me laugh even though I acted like I was angry. One time when I was dropped off five minutes after curfew, I found him in his hunting gear with black make up under his eyes hiding behind a tree ready to scare my date. Just thinking about it makes me laugh. I think Jimmy nearly peed his pants.

  Leave it to Ashlyn to open her big mouth. “Our little girl has a date tonight!” she sings out.

  My dad jumps out of his seat and yells “I’ll go get my guns ready.” Jumping up I go to chase him down. There will be no guns tonight!

  “No way Dad, you haven’t seen one of my dates since I moved out and tonight we will not be taking a trip down memory lane,” he looks a little let down. I know he gets lonely because I’m not home anymore. He used to live for this.

  “Mr. J, you don’t want to ruin this date. Our Girl here has a date with the Zander Cage.” I growl in frustration, sometimes I could just punch her in the tit.

  “Hitman?” my dad asks with a hopeful tone.

  “The one and only,” she replies.

  My dad gets an expression on his face that I never thought I’d see when talking about a date. Excitement mixed with awe.

  “It’s just our first date and I don’t even know if it’s a date. I’m just meeting him at his new gym.” I try to explain. I need to take this situation back.

  “WHAT?” he yells, “Zander Cage, The Hitman is opening a gym in my fucking town and he is taking my baby girl out on a date?” He goes and sits down looking like he may either pass out or pee his pants.

  “So I take it you’ve heard of him?” I ask warily.

  My dad’s starting to scare me a little bit because he hasn’t showed this much emotion since the Pats won the Super Bowl last year. Pretty much the only time he shows emotion is when they win the Super Bowl.

  “Heard of him? Heard of him?” he asks getting louder at the end, “That man is gearing up to be one of the greatest MMA fighters of all time and he is going for the Heavyweight title during his next fight. This is huge and he’s taking my baby out,” he points his finger at me. “You better not mess this up! You need to do some research on MMA, he’ll like that. You know jack shit about it no matter how much I’ve tried over the years. Do you at least know what a rear naked choke is?”

  “DAD! I’m not discussing sex with you!” I yell trying to reel him back in. “He knows I have no clue about MMA, he actually said it makes him like me more. But the fact that you care this much is freaking me the fuck out, so please, by all means go get your guns. I’ll make him pick me up here.” I’ll do anything to erase the last five minutes. Who stole my dad and turned him into a fan girl?

  “Sorry sweetie I just needed to get that out of my system. I need to watch some football to keep my mind off of your date, and FYI a rear naked choke isn’t a sex position it’s a submission hold.” He starts watching the football game then mumbles, “fucking Cheryl and her sex shit,” and all is once again right with the world.

  I shoot a look over to Ashlyn that says “I am going to kick the shit out of you later,” which she doesn’t acknowledge as she sits there with stars in her eyes. I think they’re more excited for this than I am. I go back to watching the football game to take my mind off of Zander. It helps a little, not much. I can’t wait until 8 o’clock gets here.

  I’m on a high leaving my dad’s house because our boys won! We get into Ashlyn’s car and head for home. When we walk up to the house we notice a giant bouquet of flowers on the front steps outside the door.

  “Someone’s trying to get laiiiiddd!” Ashlyn sings as I notice our elderly neighbor outside on her front porch. I give her a wave and shrug my shoulders. I stopped explaining her behavior to people a long time ago.

  I pick up the flowers and walk into the house. When I put them down on the kitchen counter I grab the card that’s inside and read it.

  Can’t wait for tonight, beautiful. –Z

  This guy seems too good to be true and I voice that much to Ashlyn.

  “Not too good to be true Sav. The guys you have brought around have been losers, you set your sights too low because you think you can’t do any better. Well now you have Zander fucking Cage sending you flowers. Do you still think he’s out of your league?” I know what she’s saying is true. I just have to give this time and see what happens.

  “Alright it is currently 5 o’clock, I need to jump in the shower and get ready. Can you start going through my closet to see what I should wear?”

  I should have known I would regret asking for help.

  CHAPTER 5

  At 7:40 I start walking to the gym. It took Ashlyn and me an absurd amount of time to decide what I was going to wear. Mostly it was just us arguing due to the fact that she kept trying to put me in dresses that would show my family secrets, if I bent down. Explaining to her that I wanted him to like me for me, not someone she thought he wanted me to be. Finally, she conceded. Deciding on a pair of skinny jeans, a pink sweater and my converse shoes, I figured it was casual enough for a gym date, but not too casual that he would think I’m a slob.

  When I rounded the corner the street the gym was on, I saw his truck pull up to the curb. God that truck, I want to do bad things to him in that truck.

  Getting out he notices I’m there and makes his way over to me. He’s wearing his usual wardrobe of jeans and a tee shirt, this time with no baseball hat. It’s the first time I’ve seen him without it and if it’s possible he’s even sexier. His hair is shaved close on the sides and a bit longer on top making me want to run my fingers through it.

  Engulfing me in a hug when he gets to me I inhale and holy shit does he smell great. He also gives great hugs, the type that makes you feel warm and protected and has me thinking about what else he does well.

  “Why didn’t you tell me you needed a ride, I would have picked you up,” he says next to my ear. Pulling back from the hug he puts his arm around my shoulders as we start to walk towards his gym.

  “You’ve seen where I live. It’s a mile away, I always walk to work.”

  “Well it’s late out, I’d hate to think of you walking so late by yourself. Promise me you’ll call me if you need a ride,” he turns to face me. “I mean it, call me, I don’t care if it’s 1am and you just got out of work.” Is this guy for real? I’ve never had anyone but my dad and Ashlyn worry about me and we literally just met.

  “Most of the time Ashlyn walks home with me. No worries I always have a walking buddy,” I try to make a joke out of it to lighten the mood.

  “We’ll talk about this more later,” he says putting his arm back around my shoulders as we walk into the gym. The way he says it makes me shiver.

  I look around when we get in and it looks fantastic. Nowhere near the disaster zone that I was expecting it to be. I don’t see any power tools in sight, I only see a giant cage in the center of the building with a whole bunch of different work out equipment scattered throughout the rest of the area. There are lots of mats all over the floor and a reception desk off the right when you first enter the door.

  “Wow, this looks pretty intimidating. Especially that cage thingy, do you wrestle in there?” I ask.

  His shoulders are shaking and I know he is laughing at what I just said. “That cage thingy is called the Octagon, and we don’t wrestle, we fight.”

  “Well then teach me your ways Mr. MMA Man,” I smack him in the shoulder trying to get him to stop laughing.

  “Sorry, Sorry. Like I said, I don’t come across a lot of people that don’t know about what I do. MMA stands for mixed martial arts and it’s fighting in a couple of different styles. Some of those styles being boxing, kick-boxing, karate, jiu-jitsu and a couple others. I fight in a popular MMA league and I have a big fight a couple times a year.”

  “When is your next fight?” I ask thinking it must be pretty far out since he is spending his time opening a gym.

  “In four
weeks I’m going for the Heavyweight Championship. This will be the biggest fight of my career to date,” he says it like it’s not a big deal. I would be freaking out if I was so close to the biggest fight of my career.

  “Why are you so calm? I would be training 24/7,” I punch him in the arm as he laughs at me, “I need to go home so you can train.” I mean it, I should leave. People idolize this guy, I can’t be a distraction.

  “Hold up there Rambo, I have been training. You can’t train around the clock, I need to give my muscles some time to relax,” he winks at me as he raises his arm up and flexes his bicep.

  My mouth goes dry, I don’t think I’ve ever dated someone as gorgeous as Zander. The guys I have dated weren’t two baggers by a long shot, but they were nowhere near his league. I can just imagine what he looks like with his shirt off and plan to search the internet for that info later.

  “Put those guns away big boy, you might hurt yourself. So why did you want to bring me here?” I need to change the subject away from his muscles before I need a new pair of panties.

  “I wanted to show you what I do. I also want to show you I’m not a douchebag, which is what I would’ve looked like taking you to a fancy restaurant.” He’s right. I am liking him more and more as I learn new things about him.

  “I’m not a fancy girl anyways. Give me some good food and a beer and I’m happy,” he walks over to me, grabs my hand and pulls me to the far side of the room. I don’t ever want him to let go of my hand, he makes me feel safe.