“Interesting how?”
He cleared his throat and shrugged again, and his squirming was so fucking cute that I wanted to squeeze him to me. He was about to make my day again, wasn’t he? I could feel it. He was a smart man, and he couldn’t be blind to our chemistry. He wasn’t typically afraid either. It was one of the many things I loved about him.
“A bet, of course.” He lifted his gaze to my chest. Progress, I reckoned. It split me into two, which was normal around this boy. There was always a battle between the comforting Daddy and the hell-raisin’ Sadist. “If I win, I can take you and River out on a date.”
My chest swelled and seized up at the same time. “And if I win?”
His timid stare shifted a little higher, and he chewed on the inside of his cheek. “If you win, you and River have to take me out on a date.”
I dipped down and captured his mouth with mine. Best bet I could ever agree to. “You’re on, little fighter.” I deepened the kiss after that and brought his hands around my neck, then hugged him to me and reveled in the feelings he’d awoken in me.
This boy had changed everything.
“You deserve a reward for taking that initiative,” I murmured. Fuck, I had to stop kissing him. The others were waiting. “Maybe a session with the Sybian and some nipple torture.”
Shay shuddered and nodded quickly. “Yes, please.”
The Sybian would get interesting, and nipple torture was a given. Nipples, ass, and balls were his most sensitive pleasure points.
I’d become obsessed with studying him and learning his zones.
I bet I could get him off just by squeezing and rolling his balls in my hand.
“Are you ready to fight Daddy?” I reluctantly ended our kiss after tasting him once more.
“I, um, I guess so.” He drew an unsteady breath and pushed back his hair. “Now I’m all hard, though.”
I grinned. “You’ll have some time to calm down before we begin.”
“What, like a thirty-second-long minute?”
I let out a laugh.Mere minutes later, we stuck our bare feet into the proverbial shoes of community leaders, and River and I stood in front of the cages with Shay kneeling between us with his eyes downcast.
In the flickering flames from the torches, he was an unearthly vision. An obedient, beautiful little devil with all his tattoos and his trim body on display.
Colt and Penelope joined us before I addressed our guests and participants.
“Last month, we welcomed you all to The Games, a year-long competition where we’ll host a new event each month.” It sucked that we hadn’t made Shay ours sooner; he would’ve been perfect to chase down in the woods. Luckily, there would be more chances. “Some of you attended our first Game,” I went on. “Our Predators got to hunt down their prey in the woods behind us. Those of us who were stuck up here heard their screams.” The Sadists in the crowd grinned fondly. “We didn’t have the privilege of seeing the prey go down, however. So this month, we welcome you to The Cages and bring the fight to us, right here, where everyone can watch.”
A low murmur of excitement and anticipation traveled through the crowd, and I gestured for Colt to run his safety speech.
He took a step forward. “As y’all read in the event’s TOU online, each couple will have five-minute rounds in the cages, and you’ll adapt the fightin’ to fit your dynamic. Reese and his boy will compete first and demonstrate what it can look like when you come from a background of martial arts and physical combat.” He paused. “That’s not them settin’ the bar in any way. It’s them fightin’ on their own level. As participants, you will compete against your partner, no one else. Our four judges—Greer, Penelope, Macklin, and myself—will compile your score based on three things: the time it takes for someone to win, creativity and kinks applied to your fightin’ style, and overall authenticity and credibility of the fight.”
“For instance,” Penelope chimed in, “I know a few of you are trying this out for fun, without caring for the actual fighting, and have mentioned taking on a more choreographed approach. You might score higher on creativity and kinks, but lower for authenticity. In short, the three components we’ll judge were chosen so that fighters of all backgrounds can score high and low depending on the discipline.” She gestured toward me. “I have a feeling we can count on a lot of authenticity from Reese and Shay, while they won’t bother demonstrating that many kinks.”
She wasn’t wrong.
Colt took over again. “The reason we’ve chosen five-minute fights is partly for safety. It’ll give the Top a chance to check in with their partner in between fights. So if both parties are still standin’ when your five minutes are up, you have another couple minutes to vacate the cage. That’s why we have two cages. When a fight ends in one, another begins in the second. It’ll also give our two Little helpers time to make sure the cage is ready for the next fight.”