Mason:Inked Reapers MC(52)

Kait found him on Twitter where he had over ten thousand followers. As  she scrolled through his time line, she scrutinized each Tweet for  something revealing but they gave nothing away. Jasper's Tweets were  solely focused on his sport and sometimes his diet. He photographed the  protein shake he had in the morning and the weights he was currently  working in the gym. There were a few shots of him before a match but  nothing about who Jasper was outside of the ring. Also, nothing about  the night he had spent with Kait.                       
       
           



       



Her eyes misted as she found posts for the date they had met. There were three in total.



Up fresh and early, ready to hit the day hard - @J_Duboix



Time to carb load before my next big match - @J_Duboix



Feeling pumped after my work out #workhardplayhard - @J_Duboix



Kait slumped back against her pillows. There was nothing about saving a  stranger who had made his heart race. Had their encounter truly meant  nothing to him? Fighting back tears, Kait slammed the laptop shut and  curled up on to her side. She needed to forget all about Jasper Duboix.  She needed to move on with her life, as clearly she had meant nothing to  him.





Chapter 8



Bright rays of sunlight burned against Kait's eyes causing her to moan  and roll over. With a deep groan she sat up and pushed her palms against  her temple. Her body ached from sleeping awkwardly, and looking down  she realized that she was still wearing her clothes from the night  before.



"Urgh," Kait coughed. Her mouth felt as though she'd spent the night  consuming sand. Reaching for her nearby cell phone, she saw that she had  a new message. It was from Anna.



My head is banging like you wouldn't believe this morning. Great night though! We MUST do it again soon! Love ya xoxo



Kait dropped the phone back down and pushed her fingers through her  golden hair. A few seconds passed as she gathered her senses and then  her body froze with panic. She was surely late for work. Outside the sun  was already shining which meant she wasextremelylate for work. She made  a panicked dash towards the bathroom but stopped abruptly in the  hallway when her brain finally caught up and she remembered that it was  Saturday. She didn't need to be at work. With her shoulders sagging with  relief, Kait continued towards the bathroom, figuring that she needed a  shower to sharpen her senses and wash away the fog of fatigue.





Chapter 9



With her skin glowing from the heat of the shower, Kait made herself  breakfast and flicked on the television. A news report was on which she  glimpsed at with mild interest. For some reason, she was struggling to  focus on the presenter despite their serious expression and grave tone.



Holding a fresh mug of coffee, Kait wandered back into her bedroom and  grabbed her phone. Then she flopped down on to the sofa with no  intention to move for the rest of the day. Her head ached with the  promise of a blinding headache, and her bones throbbed. She needed a day  of rest and relaxation, but as she sipped her coffee, she found her  spare hand calling up Jasper's twitter page, unable to suppress her own  curiosity. He'd already tweeted twice that morning;



I'm up and hungry for more! Last night was just the appetizer, the main course is coming at 8pm! - @J_Duboix



Tonight! Ample Garden Theatre @8pm! Tickets $25 at the door! #bringthepain - @J_Duboix



He had a fight that night. Kait ceased looking at the television,  completely entranced by the message on her phone. Jasper was fighting  again tonight despite the brutal beating he'd endured in the cage. Yes,  he'd won, but at what cost?



Guilt swelled through Kait as she thought of his wounded chest. A wound  which could have been avoided, a wound which he refused to seek medical  attention for. How could a professional athlete be so careless with  their own well-being? His recklessness infuriated her.



Two fights in as many nights seemed crazy. Admittedly she didn't know  the industry, but it felt excessive by any standards. Surely Jasper  needed more than a day to recover from a bout in the ring. Why was he  pushing himself so much?



Looking back at his Twitter, Kait noticed that some of his followers echoed her thoughts in their replies to his message;



Woah, @J_Duboix is an ANIMAL killing it again in the ring tonight!



Seriously, dude, do you ever like, sleep?



@J_Duboix must be sponsored by #duracell because he never stops!!



Kait closed the Twitter page and put down her phone. Frowning, she stood  up and went to retrieve her laptop. Settling back on her sofa, she  opened it up and ran another search on Jasper Duboix. This time her mind  was more alert to take in all the findings.



There was a lot documented about his triumphs as a fighter. Jasper  seemed to be a prolific fighter, entering both Mixed Martial Arts and  Cage Fighting tournaments and almost always winning. By all accounts he  was a fierce competitor with a steely determination to win. As Kait read  more about Jasper, she started to discover where some of his  determination might come from.



He'd grown up in the foster care system and apparently never knew his  birth parents after being abandoned in a local church as a baby. Kait  found only the one article about Jasper's childhood. It was on the BBC  website and had come out shortly after his triumph at the Olympics that  year. He'd enjoyed a flush of celebrity yet Kait hadn't recognized him.  Then again, she was always too consumed with work to watch much  television.                       
       
           



       



There were tellingly no quotes from Jasper in the article, just accounts  of where he had grown up and how troubled he had once been. Apparently  he was regularly in trouble with the police in his early teens, but then  he found martial arts at fourteen and turned his life around.



Kait admired his grit and tenacity, but her admiration only angered her.  She wanted to hate Jasper; she wanted to discover that he was a creep  with a wife and a couple of kids who he publically doted on and then  screwed over behind their backs. But from what she could find online,  Jasper was very much single and focused solely on his fighting career.



"Dammit," Kait sighed as she raised her mug and drained the last of her  coffee. As her search had increased, she'd discovered websites listing  his numerous charitable efforts over the years. He regularly helped  various children's charities through donations and also celebrity  events. He climbed mountains for charity, ran marathons, and even  trained some young, aspiring fighters who were within the foster care  system as he once had been. Jasper Duboix seemed like a great guy.  Someone who had worked hard to forge their own success despite their  early knocks in life. The more Kait read about him, the more she liked  him.



"Dammit," she repeated as she picked up her phone and started looking up  the directions to the venue of the fight that night, committing them to  the device's memory.



"No." Kait suddenly threw down her phone and shook her head. What was  she doing? Did she intend to just show up at the fight and try to see  Jasper? She'd look like the world's craziest stalker. But from what  she'd seen online, Jasper didn't have any family or a girlfriend to  watch his back. He was pushing himself too hard with back to back  fights. He needed someone who cared about him to intervene, to tell him  to take better care of himself. Did Kait care that deeply about him? Did  she want to be his girlfriend?



All the questions circling around made Kait's head pound uncomfortably.



"He left!" She lamented to herself in the solitude of her apartment. "He  doesn't want to see you again! Stop being so damn needy! Get a grip!"



But as the day wore on, Kait couldn't stop thinking about Jasper Duboix,  the hardened fighter with the heart of gold. He'd so willingly come to  her aide without a second thought for his own safety. He'd even been  stabbed. Not once did he fret about his upcoming fights. He just gritted  his teeth and helped her. He had been the perfect gentleman. And when  he kissed her, Kait was certain that she'd felt something there and that  it hadn't just been one sided. When they kissed, the whole world melted  away, and that was something she hadn't experienced before.



She ran a new search for Jasper Duboix  –  Girlfriend. He was seemingly  very much single. He was quoted in several interviews on the topic of  his single status:



"Right now my focus is on my career. I don't have time to maintain my training schedule and a relationship."



Kait pouted as she read the quote. Was that why he'd left? Because he  wouldn't have time for her? It felt so petty, and yet Kait sort of  understood. She was driven to the point of obsessed. She regularly  stopped seeing guys because she simply didn't have time for them. Or  more precisely she was unwilling to make time for them, but she also  didn't really care for those guys. When they were together, her mind was  still running over what she needed to do at work or her latest grocery  shopping list. They lacked the ability to make time stop all together in  the way Jasper did. There was something between them; Kait was certain  of it.