Page 63 of Caged

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I takemy seat behind Hud’s brothers, next to Carys and Chloe, and try to control the nervous energy bubbling beneath my skin. “I don’t know how I’m supposed to sit here and watch someone hit him,” I tell the girls.

Jace Kingston turns around smiling. “You’re not. Hudson doesn’t take too many hits. These fights don’t last long, Maddie.” The hot-shot hockey player may not be as tall or broad as his older brother, but that cocky grin and sexy confidence definitely seem to run in the family.

Sawyer smacks the back of Jace’s head.

Jace pulls back and glares. “Ow. What the fuck, Huck Finn?”

“Don’t jinx him, jackoff.” Sawyer grumbles something else, then turns to me. “Ignore him, Maddie. Hudson’s got this.”

The lights dim and Mason “Maniac” McGuire’s intro music is played as he’s announced.

My hands begin to shake, while McGuire takes his time walking to the cage, surrounded by his team. Once he steps inside, he seems bigger than before. Scarier than I want him to be.

“I don’t know if I can watch this,” I whisper over the heavy bass in the dark room before the music changes.

Chills break out over my entire body as the first chords of Avenged Sevenfold’s “Hail To The King” are pumped into the arena, and a loud roar is heard from the crowd when Hudson is announced. He owns the room while he walks to the cage, followed by Cade and Cooper with Jax holding his last title belt proudly in the air.

I think I might actually pass out from lack of oxygen. “I can’t breathe,” I tell Carys before she grips my hand.

His golden skin glistens over every hard-earned dip and muscle when Hudson removes his shirt and flexes, stretching one last time. He jumps high in the air, pulling his knees up to his chest as he goes. Then he bounces on the balls of his feet, the muscles in his thighs bunching and pulling and sweat already glistening on his skin.

Cade grabs both sides of Hud’s head and pulls him in, forehead to forehead, telling him something I can’t hear and probably don’t want to know, before he releases Hudson and moves himself out of the cage.

Both fighters meet in the middle of the cage with the ref standing between them.

The ref goes over the rules, giving them instructions for a fair fight.

They bump fists, and my stomach revolts as they go back to their sides.

The ref signals to start the fight, and both men attack without hesitation or fear.

McGuire punches Hudson in the face, and I close my eyes and peek through my fingers, like a child watching a horror movie, only this is real life.

They circle each other, getting space and sizing each other up.

The Kingstons are on their feet in front of me, screaming and yelling for their brother.

The girls and I jump to our feet, not wanting to miss anything.

“Oh God, how bad is it that he’s been hit already?” I ask no one in particular, then scream as McGuire goes for Hud’s legs.

Hudson brings his bad knee up and nails McGuire in the face as the crowd goes insane with a deafening roar.

McGuire falls backward like he’s a solid sheet of ice as he hits the mat, and the announcer grabs Hudson’s hand and holds it high in the air, declaring him the winner and still reigning world champion by a knockout.

MADDIE

After Hudson showers and changes, we slide into the backseat of a limo, and he pushes a button to lower the divide between us and the driver. “Hey, man. Do you think you could make it take a while to get to the bar?”

My face flames red, and I bury it into Hudson’s shoulder.

“Absolutely, sir.” The driver closes the divide, and Hudson is on me in a single heartbeat.

“Jesus Christ, Madison.” He pulls me onto his lap, and my legs fall open on either side of his thighs as my hands splay flat against the starched cotton dress shirt covering his muscled chest. The adrenaline of the night is bubbling just beneath my skin, excitement and anticipation twining together and rocketing through my veins like a drug.

Rough, calloused fingers trail over my collarbone, then down to trace the top of my plumped-up breasts. “You’re in my colors.” His hot tongue follows the same trail his fingers just forged, and I shift against the hardness pressing between my legs.

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