“Mine.” His voice is raw, savage, and for the first time, I truly believe he may lose control.

A whistle blast startles us back to reality. The fights are over and it’s time for clean up and take down. Jake wrenches himself away and without a backward glance, stalks over to the cage. I take a few deep breaths to calm my pounding heart and then I join Rampage putting away the chairs.

“All sorted then,” he murmurs.

“Shut up, Rampage. And by the way, gloating is not a good look on you.”

For the next fifteen minutes, I manage to keep my distance from Jake by helping clean up the fight zone. Rampage ushers everyone out and then gives me a wink and a wave as he closes the door. Heart pounding, I head back to the cage where Jake is disinfecting the mat. At first I wonder if he’s seen me, but then he looks up and his eyes blaze like coals in the night.

“Have you ever been in an MMA cage?” He returns to his work, scrubbing the mat with an unsettling vigor. But something in his voice catches me off guard. An edge that makes my senses tingle.

“Um…no.”

“Come and check it out. You’ll have to make a decision sooner or later about whether you want to fight in the cage. Might as well get a taste for it when it’s not being used.”

My pulse kicks up a notch when he glances up at me, and I catch a wild, almost feral gleam in his eyes. His lithe body burns with energy. His muscles twitch. Violence simmers beneath his skin. Danger whispers around him.

“I’m good. I’ll just wait here.”

He studies me for the longest moment and then his voice drops to a low rumble. “Come here, baby. I won’t bite.” He tilts his head to the side and smiles. The familiar gesture eases the tightness in my chest. Taking a deep breath, I walk up the steps to the cage.

Bang. Bang. Bang. My heart thuds a warning against my ribs.

As if he can sense my anxiety, Jake continues to wipe down the already clean mat, his back to me, tight ass perfectly outlined in orange and black satin.

Tiger. Tiger. Tiger. Instinct joins my heart in warning. My skin prickles and I am almost overcome with the urge to flee.

But I am the master of myself. Always in control.

Stiffening my spine, I open the cage door. Jake’s head whips around. A shudder runs through his body. He drops the cloth and sits back on his haunches, watching, assessing.

Tiger. Tiger. Tiger. I freeze midstep and my breath catches in my throat.

“Come.” His voice is soft, coaxing. “It’s just a fight cage.”

Instinct and my rational mind war over what to do. My muscles lock. I force myself to step into the cage. Sweat beads my brow. I wipe it off. Blood pounds through my veins. I release the door and it clangs behind me. Adrenaline surges through my body. My mouth goes dry.

Jake stands and prowls to the opposite side of the cage. His feet pad softly across the mat as he hunts for traces of blood. My breath comes in short pants as he stalks closer and closer to my safe little space beside the cage door.

Tiger. Tiger. Tiger. I reach blindly behind me for the latch.

“What’s wrong?” Jake’s hand slides over mine and he tugs my fingers off the latch. “You afraid of the cage?”

“You.” I swallow hard and force the words through the pounding in my chest. “In the cage, you weren’t in control.”

“I’m always in control.” His hands slide through my hair, cupping my head, pulling me toward him, and the adrenaline rush of fear becomes tinged by lust.

“You…you…aren’t in control now.”

He brushes his lips over my ear and whispers, “If I wasn’t in control, you would be naked, on all fours, in the middle of the cage, and I’d be f**king you so hard you wouldn’t remember your name.”

My heart slams into overdrive and a heat flush sweeps through my body, searing my skin. I grasp for a way out, knowing even as I say the words that I’ve made a poor choice. “It’s a good thing then that we’re just friends.”

Jake growls low in his chest. With two steps, he backs me up to the edge of the mat and then slams his hand against the fence beside my head, sending a chill through my veins. “I told you before, I don’t want to be your friend.”

“Okay.” Definitely not in control.

Drawing in a ragged breath, I try to slide away, but his hand curls around my neck and tightens, holding me still. “I want to be your everything.” His breath is soft on my cheek. “I want all of you, baby. When I make you mine, really mine, there will be no part of you my lips, my hands, and my c**k won’t touch, no desire you have that I will not fill. And when I f**k you, there will be no fear, no hesitation, and no regrets. My c**k will be so deep inside you that you will know nothing but me. You will be mine; I will be yours and it will be so right we’ll feel it in here.” He thumps his chest over his heart and something inside me snaps.

So much longing. So much wanting. Fear. Confusion. Frustration. And anger. “Then do it.” I shove at his chest with two hands. “I’ve made it clear that I want you. I’ve given you all I can give. But still you just tease me and run away. Close but not too close—is that the game?”

Far from making him back down, my anger is fuel to his fire. He grabs my wrists and slams them against the fence over my head. The impact jolts my body, but I feel no pain, only an overwhelming physical and emotional need to slake my lust.

“Do you think it’s been easy?” He presses his body against me. “Do you think I didn’t want you every minute of every day since I saw you again? But I am NOT f**king this up like I f**ked up everything else in my life. I want this to be the one thing that goes right. We were good in bed together, baby, but you never let me close. This time I want to know you inside and out, and I want you to know me, so when we are finally together, it is something more than just a good time. It’s something we both know will last. So yes, when I feel like I’m going to lose control, I back away.”