Mason_ Inked Reapers MC(2)(10)
“Kait?” As he moved towards her he did his best to hide the limp in his walk.
“There you are!” Kait gestured angrily towards him. “Where the hell have you been?”
Jasper opened his mouth to respond, but she pointed a shaking finger at him.
“And don’t you say the gym!” she shouted. “I went there to…to talk to you, and you weren’t even there! Where the hell have you been, Jasper? Why are you lying to me?”
Jasper sheepishly looked around the empty hallway.
“Come on, let’s talk inside,” he awkwardly rummaged for his keys before unlocking the door and letting them both in. Automatic lights clicked on and bathed the open plan apartment in an elegant glow.
“Well?” Kait remained by the now closed door, her arms folded across her chest.
“Kait,” Jasper’s head dropped to his chest. He wanted to lie. He didn’t want to admit to her the terrible truth that he was broken, that he was at risk of losing everything he had.
“The truth, Jasper!” Kait demanded. “Are you cheating on me?”
“No!” Jasper gasped, appalled at the suggestion. “Of course not!”
“Then what’s going on?”
Jasper couldn’t remain standing any longer; his knee was throbbing unbearably. He hopped over to the far side of his apartment and his leather sofa which boasted a backdrop of floor length windows which gave a magical vista over the city. As he dropped onto the sofa, he groaned. Kait had reluctantly followed him, her eyebrows pulled together in confusion.
“I was at the hospital,” Jasper admitted shamefully.
“At the hospital?” The anger in Kait’s expression was quickly replaced with concern.
“Yeah,” Jasper didn’t want to make too big a deal of it. He just wanted to rest up and prepare himself for a day’s worth of training the next day.
“Why? What happened?” Kait was now beside him on the sofa. Jasper pointed lamely at his knee.
“Your knee?” Kait gasped in horror.
“I dislocated it.”
“Oh, Jasper!” Her hand fluttered up to her mouth. “You should have told me, I would have come with you!”
“But I don’t want you to see me like this,” Jasper cried empathetically. “I’m broken, Kait,” he said as he thrashed his arms angrily against the sofa. “I’m fucking broken, and I’m a loser.”
“You’re not a loser!” Kait insisted.
“Yes, I am!” Jasper snapped back, his jaw tightening. “I risk losing all of this,” he gestured around his apartment, “unless I get one more win. I’ve already lost my trainer and some of my sponsors.”
Kait reached for his hand and squeezed it.
“Win or lose in the ring, you’ll always have my heart,” she promised him tenderly.
“If I go out, it has to be on top,” Jasper explained. “But right now, that’s not happening. Right now, I’m a laughing stock.”
Kait listened intently to his words.
“I have to get back on top,” Jasper told her. “I just need one more win to keep my sponsors, to keep my dignity.”
His knee burned with a sharp blast of pain, and Jasper winced and reached for it.
“You can’t fight in this state,” Kait noted with concern.
“I have to!” Jasper shouted. “Kait, I’ve no choice!”
She chewed her lip for a moment.
“Then let me help,” she quickly suggested.
“What? How?”
“Let me help you train.”
“Kait,” Jasper was shaking his head in refusal of her offer.
“You said it yourself; you’ve lost your trainer. Let me step in and help, please, Jasper. I had no idea you were going through such a hard time.”
Jasper looked over at her, feeling sheepish. He’d never accepted help from a woman before. Usually women only wanted to see him as strong and powerful; they never stuck around long enough to witness his weaker moments.
“I want to see you train,” Kait told him, her voice level and soothing.
“You do?”
“I think it would be hot,” she purred the words, and her eyes sparkled with desire.
“Well,” Jasper modestly flexed his bicep.
“I also want to be a part of your life. Of all of it. The good and the bad.” Kait added.
“What if all the good is over, and I’m just going to be left with bad?”
“I don’t care,” Kait leaned in close to plant a tender kiss upon his lips.