Beauty and the Billionaire

Mason looks tired, but determined as he steps toward his opponent again. He waits until Jones comes at him with a hook before dodging and throwing his first hard punch into the weak area of Jones’s ribcage.

Jones winces and I can’t help but feel a little bad. Then again, he’s trying to beat up my boyfriend. Screw that guy.

“Take him out, Mason!” I shout.

Jones is a little slower with his next punch, but it connects, rocking Mason backward a little, but my man comes hard with a hard kick to what could seriously be the exact spot he’d landed the punch.

Jones staggers back, clutching his side a moment and everyone in the crowd who didn’t know what was going on knows now.

“Right side! Right side!” people all around me are yelling and I’m pretty proud of myself as Jones’s eyes go wide.

Mason doesn’t let up, either. Not all of his strikes go toward Jones’s right side, but enough of him do that the latter is really starting to slow down.

For the first time in the match, Mason is out-striking his opponent.

Jones lunges forward desperately, trying to take Mason down the way he had so easily in the previous round, but Mason chastises him with a hard knee to the right side and then another.

Mason’s got Jones in a grapple now and he’s just pummeling his now-frequently-blinking opponent with knees and fists.

Jones finally gets a leg between Mason’s and uses it as a fulcrum to take Mason to the ground, only this time, Mason has every advantage.

“Arm bar! Arm bar!” Logan is shouting behind me.

I don’t even know what words are coming out of my mouth, but I’m shouting, my blood pumping. Honestly, I could probably do pretty well in a fight, myself, right about now.

Mason gets Jones’s arm between his legs when the announcer shouts, “Round!”

Seemingly every voice in the room—Jones’s excepted, naturally—seems to say, “Aww,” at the exact same moment.

Mason lets his opponent go and the two get to their feet.

Tom does his thing and Logan and I just stand behind Mason, silent. As far as I can tell, he knows what he has to do and he’s doing it.

When the ref signals to the fighters, Mason glances back at me and we share a look that may as well be a conversation. His eyes are fixed on mine as mine are on his and without even consciously thinking about it, my head starts nodding on its own.

Mason nods once and then turns back toward the ring as the announcer shouts, “Round five!”

Both Mason and Jones almost run toward each other, coming into a grapple. Mason tries to get a knee into Jones’s ribs again, but the latter’s wised up since the last round.

Still, Jones is hurting and when Mason takes him down, the fight is all but over.

“Arm bar!” Logan shouts again, and I’ve just decided that I’ve really got to learn some of these terms.

Mason has Jones’s arm held with both hands and one leg. He swings his other leg up, trying to close it around Jones’s arm, but Jones pulls away so hard I’m worried the guy’s going to dislocate his shoulder.

The move works and Jones slips out of Mason’s grip and both of them get to their feet. It would have been nice if Mason could have ended it there, but he’s got the advantage now. It’s just a matter of time.

Mason takes a step forward the same time Jones does, the latter throwing an uppercut and just like that, Mason’s off his feet, landing limply on the ground.

I lunge forward the same time Jones does, only Logan holds me back as the ref basically throws himself on top of Mason, waving his hands and calling out, “It’s over!”

Logan releases me and I beat Tom to Mason’s side.

Epilogue

The Falling In

Ash