“Well, now I’ve growled him away. So going out with him is going to be awkward.”

    Cora makes a sad puppy dog face and I cave, like I always do. I can’t resist that face. “Fine. I’ll do it for you so you can have your own hot MMA fighter in your bed who I’m pretty sure doesn’t kiss like a droid.”

    And I’ll be able to make sure he doesn’t go to the club that night. One down. Countless nights to go.

    Unfortunately for Cora, Blade Saw isn’t teaching jiu-jitsu tonight. Instead, we get blond-haired, blue-eyed Renegade, Amanda’s fiancée, who is chill and laid-back unless he’s in the cage or another male is breathing in Amanda’s direction or we’re in class and I’m trying to avoid touching my sore ass to the mats. We also get his assistant and matching blond beauty, Redemption’s own man whore, Doctor Death.

    “Ladies.” Doctor Death kneels in front of me on the mat. “I’ll show you a trick for breaking the triangle submission. Penny, prepare to be mounted.”

    “I’ll bet you say that to all your women.” I drop my legs so he can straddle my hips in full mount, while Cora drools beside me. If I didn’t know Doctor Death so well, I would be drooling, too. He’s soap-opera-doctor handsome, he’s in great shape, and he has a Ken-doll smile.

    “I do say that to all my women.” He settles his weight and leans forward. “And some men. I don’t discriminate.”

    Cora chokes back a laugh while I roll up into position for putting Doctor Death in a triangle choke submission, which entails tucking his head between my legs.

    “This is good,” he says. “I can do a lot from down here. It makes me think we should go out sometime and play this game for real.”

    I hook my leg around his neck and grab his arm, pulling him forward. “I can’t go out with you,” I say, huffing with the effort of holding him in place. “I know you too well. I wouldn’t be able to take you seriously. If you tried to kiss me, I’d probably laugh and damage your fragile ego.”

    He twists to the side, easily loosening my grip, and I make a mental note to remember that escape trick next time I’m caught in a triangle submission when out with friends.

    “I have a very robust ego, and as long as your lips are in the right place, I don’t care what they are doing. Now, stop trying to submit me, and submit me.”

    “I know that movie,” Cora says with delight. “He’s a geek.”

    “Damn it, Cora. I’m a doctor, not a geek.” He and Cora share a laugh at their private geek jokes while I untwist myself from his grasp.

    After we’ve practiced our submissions, Renegade lines the class up along the wall. “Rampage is joining us today to show us the gogoplata submission that he used to win his last fight. He only just volunteered to help at the start of class, so he’s not wearing his gi. Go easy on him.”

    An excited murmur fills the dojo, mingled with laughter, but this time, mercifully, there are no screams when he gestures to the corner where Jack—I can’t think of him as Rampage after what we did together in the club—is waiting. Usually, he would smile at the class and make a joke, but today he is all scowls. He seems particularly irritated with Doctor Death from the way he’s trying to burn a hole through him with his eyes.

    Renegade clears his throat. “Who wants to volunteer to be Rampage’s partner for the demo?”

    Silence. No one wants to be his bitch, especially when he looks like he’s about to eat someone for lunch.

    “Doctor Death,” Jack barks. “On the mat.”

    If I was a suspicious kind of person, I might think that he picked Doctor Death for a reason related to the scowl on his face and not because Doctor Death needs some practice with the gogoplata submission, but since I’m not, I assume he picked him at random.

    “Go go gadget,” Cora whispers.

    Doctor Death grins at her and drops into a low crouch, facing Jack.

    At a signal from Renegade, now standing beside me, he rushes Jack, who pretends to go down. Doctor Death grabs him around the middle. Jack mumbles something to him, and Doctor Death freezes and shoots a panicked glance at me. He tries to pull away, but it’s too late. Seconds later, his head is trapped under Jack’s foot, and he’s locked up in a pretzel twist on the ground.

    Renegade explains the submission and the different ways to escape. Doctor Death taps out, but Jack doesn’t release him. Doctor Death taps again, flails. Renegade looks over and frowns.

    “Let him go.”

    With a lazy stretch, Jack releases Doctor Death, lifting one massive leg, then the other, until Doctor Death collapses on all fours on the mat.

    Jack gives a satisfied snort and joins Renegade, Cora, and me, his chest puffed out like he just won a fight.

    “What the fuck was that about?” Renegade says quietly to Jack.

    “Message.”

    “What message?”

    Jack’s gaze flicks to me and then away. “The usual message he gets when he’s out of fucking line. Same message you gave him when he was messing with Amanda.”

    Cora jabs me indiscreetly in the side, and I shoot her a dirty look. “Friends,” I whisper. “We’re just friends.”

    Renegade sends us back to our sections to practice the new submission. Jack comes over to our newbie section and watches Cora and me struggle with the move. His thick, broad fingers tap against his thigh, and a rush of longing runs over me as I imagine what those fingers did two nights ago.

    God, this is ridiculous. This is Rampage. Redemption’s mascot. Everybody’s best friend. And a professional athlete. So he has a dark side. That doesn’t mean anything will change between us. He’s still a nice guy, except he’s a sadist who spanked me so hard I came on his hand.

    “Did you watch what I did?”