Reese’s mouth twitched slightly. “We know who you are, Shay.”
Well, okay, then. I wasn’t gonna assume.
“I like severe impact and extreme degradation,” I said.
The other guy, River, seemed to find that amusing for some reason. It showed in his eyes, and he exchanged a glance with his brother.
No words, just a quick look.
Reese smirked faintly and eyed me. “If we had a nickel for every time we’ve heard a masochist say they want anything extreme… Most people don’t know severe pain.”
I wasn’t most people, and I wasn’t going to let myself be intimidated by their superior asshole behavior.
“Are you sure you’re not just looking for a bit of flogging?” Reese wondered.
“Are you sure you have a dick to go with that big-dick personality?” I asked in return.
He offered a full-fledged grin at that. Then he sat forward and rested his forearms on the table. “Tell you what. We’re not actually looking for a temporary plaything in the city. But if you’re interested in coming out to the house in Mclean so we can brutalize you the way we like, let us know.”
Brutalize.
That word did something to me. It weighed heavier and carried a promise, because you didn’t throw it around for shits and giggles. They were serious.
I wanted to be brutalized for my failures.
“When?” I noticed my throat had become dry, so I swallowed and closed my mouth around the lollipop.
The twins exchanged another brief look.
“I reckon tomorrow’s out for both you and me,” Reese said, observing me with a contemplative expression.
I frowned. No, tomorrow wasn’t a good day for me, but what did he know about it?
“Turns out we have a bit in common.” The pinch of mirth in Reese’s eyes bugged me as much as when I saw it in River’s. “Last weekend, we were checking out the new place where I’ll be fighting. Imagine our surprise when we saw you in one of the cages.”
I reeled back and stiffened instinctively, and all kinds of alarms went off in my head. What kind of fucking ambush was this? It didn’t feel like a coincidence. Shit, were they gonna turn me into the poli—wait. Reese was a cage fighter?
I narrowed my eyes.
“I’ll wait till the shock has passed,” he said mildly. “I admit, it took us a minute too.”
My breath gusted out of me, and I tore out the lollipop and placed it on the table. This wasn’t good. This wasn’t good at all. I didn’t know why, but every part of me screamed to get the fuck away from the Tenley twins.
You approached them, you moron.
Yeah, but maybe they’d…what? Maybe they’d done what?
“You’re a cage fighter,” I stated, mostly to test the words. It was fucking weird.
“Is that unthinkable?” Was everything amusing to these two?
“Yeah,” I answered bluntly. “It wasn’t that long ago I received a sanctimonious rant about following the rules and adhering to all the safety measures in the community you started.”
Reese remained unfazed. “And? Does a CEO follow the company policy when he comes home at night? Just because we have strict safety rules to protect our asses in a BDSM community doesn’t mean River and I gotta be saints.”
Evidently.
“What we do off the clock is our business,” he finished. Except, he wasn’t quite done yet. “That means we hope you’ll keep this shit to yourself.”
Two thoughts struck me at once. One, their goody-two-shoes friends didn’t know about their illegal hobby? Two, everything was we with Reese. He didn’t merely speak for himself. He spoke on River’s behalf too. Like they were one entity.
“So, is it safe to assume you’re fighting tomorrow too?” Reese asked.
I lifted a shoulder. “Maybe.”
He chuckled. “Well, if you do, steer clear of facing me.”
Conceited motherfucker. He and I wouldn’t place in the same starting groups. He was significantly taller and heavier than me, so he’d have to defeat everyone in his category before he got to fight against the scrappiest fighter of my group. And even then… Hell, I’d lost count of the men who’d entered a cage with all the confidence of winning, only to be carried out with their breath knocked out of them.
It was finally my turn to be amused. “When was the last time you lost your breath?”
He didn’t take the bait. Shame. “I get it. You have a chip on your shoulder and think—”
“I’ve taken down men twice your size, buddy.”
Both Reese and River found that funny, and it was fucking infuriating.
Reese chuckled and scratched his jaw. “Everyone’s looking for a payout, yeah? Rigging a fight to have a scrawny little punk defeat a behemoth must’ve made someone rich.”
He did not fucking imply that the bigger men I’d faced were throwing the fights.
I scowled. “How stupid do you have to be to underestimate someone who’s trained in martial arts since he was seven?”
He squinted at me. “And you’re what, twelve, now?”