Chapter 16: Caged: Chapter 16

“Are you already there?” I ask Hudson whose handsome face is smiling back at me through FaceTime.

“Yeah. We got here a while ago. I’ve got to start stretching soon.” He lowers his voice and licks his lips. “You got your bag packed?”

Apparently, he wasn’t quiet enough because Cade comes into view, scowling. “Off the phone, King. Get your head in the fight.” He smacks the back of Hudson’s head, and I smother a laugh.

“I’ll see you after,” I whisper, not liking the idea that everyone can hear us.

His image bounces as he walks away from his team bustling around the room. “Text Coop when you get here. I want to see you before the fight.”

I bite down on my bottom lip with heady anticipation. “Are you sure?”

My bedroom door swings open, and Carys and Chloe walk in with Le Désir bags in their hands. “Is that him?” Chloe asks, sticking her face in front of my phone. “Don’t suck tonight, Kingston.”

“Hang up the fucking phone, King,” Cade yells, and Hudson laughs.

“He’s never going to get used to the fact that I thrive in chaos. I’ll see you soon, sunshine.” Hudson ends the call, and I toss my phone on my bed.

“Holy shit. Look at your face,” Carys gasps as I feel my flush growing. “You’re so red.”

“Mads, red is not your color.” Chloe hands me a bag. “But lucky for you, blue and gold definitely are.”

“What are you talking about?” I peek into the bag filled with boxes. “What did you two do?”

Carys flops down on my bed, already dressed and ready for tonight’s fight. “Nothing.”

Chloe simultaneously replies, “Everything. Now look at the goodies we’ve brought you.”

I pull out three separate boxes, all wrapped in purple ribbon with the black-foiled Le Désir labels glinting in the light. Once I open the first one, my fingers trace the royal-blue silk and gold lace tucked between tissue paper. It’s soft and decadent against my skin, and they’re the same color as the shirt Hudson wears when he walks into the cage for each fight.

I hold the bra and panties up, dangling them from the tips of my fingers and flush. “These are beautiful.”

Carys opens the second box and pulls out a gorgeous blue silk corset. “We thought you might want to wear this tonight. You know . . . to the fight.”

I hold it in front of myself and look in the mirror. It’ll show a little more skin than I typically go for if I’m not in the gym, but I can’t ignore the tingles I get at the thought of Hud seeing me in this top. “What would I pair something like this with?”

“Tight, dark jeans and sky-high heels,” Carys tells me with a flair. “They need to hug your ass, Mads.”

Chloe snags the panties from my hands and flips them around to show off the high-cut lace on the back side. “That man has a thing for your ass, Mads. So, Brazilian panties all the way. Just enough to cover. To tempt and tease.”

“How would you know what he has a thing for?” I question, and she laughs at me.

“Because I’ve watched him watching you teach your class. It’s obvious to anyone who’s not you. Besides . . . you’ve got a great ass. I’d do you.”

“Aww . . . If I swung that way, I’d totally be down.” I open the other boxes and find two more sets of lingerie and two nighties. “It’s one night, guys.”

“It’s the first night, Mads, not the only one.” Carys grabs my overnight bag from the floor and adds the additional lingerie to it. “Now, go get dressed. I told Cooper we’d be there in thirty minutes.”

Carys lied. We don’t make it to the convention center in thirty minutes. By the time we’re escorted to our seats, it’s closer to an hour later, and Coop has been blowing up Carys’s phone for the past ten minutes.

Hudson’s family is seated already, spanning the row in front of us and talking among themselves as the three of us move to take our seats. But before we have a chance to sit down, Cooper appears and kisses his wife.

“So much for half an hour, babe,” he kids. Coop’s dressed in a royal-blue Crucible shirt, which I’m assuming matches the rest of Hudson’s team and everyone representing our gym family. Supporting Hudson.

He reaches out for my hand. “Hudson wants to see you before the fight starts, Maddie.”

I slide out of the row of seats and let Cooper guide me through the packed house of spectators, back down the roped-off corridor, and past the security guards who are half the size of the men they’re protecting. Undercard fights have been happening for hours already, crowding the halls long before Hudson and his team got here.

Coop knocks on a heavy door before Imogen opens it and steps aside, and a wave of nervous energy washes over me.

Cade’s glare is the first thing I see, and it grows with each step I take deeper into the crowded room. But I block him out and move around the space until I find Hudson at the very back, sitting on what looks like a padded massage table. His dark shorts fit snug over his muscled quads, and that shirt I knew I’d be matching stretches tightly over his powerful chest, highlighting every hard ridge and rippling muscle. His golden skin is glowing under the light, and my goodness . . . Is it possible to spontaneously go up in flames? Because this man lights a fire in me. He makes me feel things I’ve never felt before and want things I didn’t think I ever would. Heat builds slowly until I can feel it singeing the strands of my hair, while I stand in this chaotic, testosterone-filled room, anticipating being alone with him later. Imagining myself licking every line of his ink tonight.

A league official is watching someone tape Hudson’s hands before he signs his initials on Hud’s knuckles, then leaves the room.

Cade whistles, getting everyone’s attention. “Okay, let’s focus, King.”

Hudson’s dark eyes meet mine and hold me in place as excitement moves down my skin. “Can everyone give us the room for a minute?” The statement is worded like a question, but the commanding voice is demanding, not asking.

The tension hangs so thick, the weight of it sits heavy in the air. And Hudson’s eyes never leave mine.

Nobody responds. They simply begin to filter out of the room, but I stay put, knowing deep down I’m who he wants in here.

Cade, however, doesn’t move either.

“King—” Cade starts, but Hudson doesn’t give him the chance to finish.

“Just give us a minute, coach.” His tone is clipped.

Cade’s expression is tight when he shuts the door behind himself, leaving us alone.

“Come here, sunshine.” Hudson’s velvety voice wraps around me and tugs. His hungry eyes warm my skin as I walk into his outstretched arms. I cup the back of his head in my hands and lean my forehead against his, breathing him in.

We connect in the stillness, absorbing the magnitude of the moment.

The energy in the room has a static charge, and feels important.

Being here before fight.

Being in his arms while he silently centers himself.

“You’re sitting with my family.”

“Yeah, King. The girls and I are right behind your family.” I run my fingers through the short hair at the nape of his neck. “Do you need anything?”

“No, baby. You’re here, and I’m ready. That’s all I need. We’ll have to make an appearance at Kingdom afterward, then we’ll go home.”

With every breath he exhales, I inhale. “You gonna win tonight for me, King?” I tease and scrape my nails lightly against his scalp. “I can be your prize.”

“You’re gonna be my everything, Madison.”

With a soft inhale, I lift my head and drag my shaking thumb over his bottom lip. “Then I guess you better go win this thing.”

He doesn’t kiss me.

This isn’t sexual.

It’s so much more.

Two people realizing that so much more.

“I’ve got to get back out there,” I whisper, knowing my time is running out.

Hudson pulls me closer for a single beat before dropping his hands. “Can you send Cade back in, sunshine?”

“Of course. I’ll see you soon.” I smile and walk out of the room, coming face-to-face with Cade on the other side of the door. “He’s asking for you.”

I take my 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.