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Safeword: Matte(3)

By:Candace Blevins


He smiled. “You didn't say if you were a girlfriend or not.”

“No, I didn't,” she said, working hard to deadpan it, to give no emotion.

When she tried to walk around him he moved to block her, using his larger than life presence to keep her from maneuvering to walk past him. She looked back up into his eyes and noticed they were a beautiful, shimmering dark green, like the brilliance of a mallard's head in sunlight. He was looking at her with a grin, almost mischievous, so she dropped her attitude and said, “Look, I just want to go see my friend, make sure he's okay, and then take him out for a good meal since he has another fight tomorrow and won't be drinking. You won't be fighting him tomorrow, but if you both win your fights tomorrow you'll fight him Sunday in the final event, so right now you're kind of the bad guy in my world. Hitting on me will get you nowhere.”

He smiled, such a beautiful smile. “Friend. Okay, I guess that answers my question. Go take care of your friend. I'll try not to hurt him too badly Sunday, if it comes to it.”

He stepped closer to the wall, giving her space to get around him, and she walked past him without looking back.





Chapter Two





Sunday afternoon the arena was brimming with people. Friday it had been mostly friends and family, Saturday had been a bit more full, but today was the big event and it was an almost sold out crowd. When the first fight started the crowd was so loud she could barely hear herself yelling her cheers and jeers. They made their way through the lightweights and middleweights, and then the pre-fight drama started to work the crowd up to the heavyweight fight. There were videos shown of the fights leading up to this one. Sam wanted to roll her eyes at the hype they were playing on Ethan Levi's one very quick win Friday night, and then his scheduled knock out last night. For his second fight he'd played with his opponent and then given him the knockout punch at the top of the tenth minute, just as he'd said he would in his tweets earlier in the day. Today he had tweeted he would give the knockout punch at the five minute mark.

Sam had talked to Tom about various strategies earlier today, and his game plan was to either knock him out long before the countdown, or to watch for the wind-up at the five minute mark and take him down when he left himself open as he watched the time. The problem with that theory was she'd researched Ethan Levi and discovered he'd used this ploy several years ago, and the crowd had counted down to the five minute mark for him during the final fight of the tournament. She’d told him that and said, “No, you need to either take him out before it starts, or just prepare to block whatever’ll be coming at the countdown, and then go in for the kill immediately after the block. If he thinks he’s delivering a knock out strike he won’t be defending as strong just after it’s been delivered. He's trying to psych you out, don't let him. You’re going to have to get into your zone, imagine the crowd is counting down for you, not for him. And assume the big hit will come at the four or three mark on the countdown, not the final zero. Don’t let it psyche you out, use it against him. Cocky bastard, telling you when he’s going to leave himself open. Right?”

Now, sitting here waiting for the fight to start, she wasn't sure how Tom would ever get into his zone, but she could see he was already on his way there as he stepped into the cage. Both men dressed in shorts with no shoes, no gloves — the only protective gear allowed was a cup. Tom was tall and large without looking like a bad-ass, but Ethan looked like every bit the bad-ass. By the time the signal was given, Tom was fully in his zone and she watched mesmerized as he launched a beautiful attack on Ethan. The two of them fought for the first thirty seconds like they were on fast forward. They fought so fast the human eye couldn't keep up – she couldn't wait to analyze this on video later. At the two minute mark, both were bloody, and when the crowd started the countdown fifteen seconds before the five minute mark, they both flew at each other when the crowd hit three, and once again fought so fast it was impossible to tell who had the upper hand. Blood was flying by this time, but neither of them were slowing down one bit.

The final event fight lasted up to fifteen minutes. At twelve minutes they were both hurt. Both had slowed down, but neither looked like they intended to stop fighting any time soon. Sam knew fighters had to have blood tests and couldn't have any diseases communicable through blood in order to fight, but she still had major issues when there was enough blood flying to make the floor slick with it in places. Ethan had a cut near his eye and appeared to be doing most of the bleeding. She was sure if this weren't the main event the officials would have stopped the fight by now, but the problem was she had no idea who they would call as the winner. Both had gotten in some exceptional hits and a whole lot of wicked kicks. Ethan's face had been cut when Tom had kicked him in the face while flying through the air.