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    reminding Jabez he‟d chosen to service a client that night would not alleviate his fury.
    Andreas guessed honesty was the one thing Jabez prized above everything.
    “Yes, I did,” he admitted.
    “Did you want more?”
    “Yes.”
    “Do you want it now?” Jabez pushed relentlessly, his voice husky. The very
    timbre of it coupled with the suggestion started a slow burn in Andreas‟s belly.

    Cage Match

    21
    He hesitated, choosing his words carefully. “I won‟t deny I‟m attracted to you. It
    would be pointless and clearly a lie, but I told you that‟s not what I hired you for and I
    meant it. You‟re here to train me in martial arts. You don‟t have to do anything else.”
    “What if I want to?” The low rumble fanned the flames heating Andreas‟s flesh.
    He could feel his cheeks burning.
    “That would be up to you.” He kept his tone as cool as his body was hot. “Right
    now you should probably concentrate on healing.”
    He tried to steer the conversation back to less volatile subjects. “Can you tell me
    how you ended up in jail?”
    There was another long pause before Jabez answered. “Armed robbery. When I
    had a chance at a three-year fight contract instead of a ten-year prison term, I took it.”
    The succinct answer only made Andreas want to ask more: What had he stolen?
    How had he survived in the Brick Town slum? Who taught him to fight like a warrior?
    What was his story? But pounding this wary man with questions would only make him
    more guarded.
    Jabez stretched and rose, seeming less stiff and unsteady this time. He stood by
    the window and gazed down into the garden. “You live in this house alone?”
    “My cook and housekeeper, Mrs. Gamble, lives here, but other than that, I‟m
    alone.” Those final two words sat squat and ugly in the ensuing silence with a weightier
    significance than he‟d meant to give them. But it was true. He was alone, had been
    alone all his life. Friends like Timon, Rabi, and Simeon or the lovers Andreas
    occasionally hooked up with couldn‟t fill the void.
    Jabez snorted and shook his head. Andreas didn‟t know if it was the mention of
    servants or of one man having all this space to himself or both that annoyed him. He
    got up and joined him at the window, seeing the lush profusion of flower beds and
    meandering walkways as though for the first time. The landscaping was luxuriant, and
    the paths begged to be strolled. The gonging of wind chimes and the trickle of the
    fountain were soothingly musical. His garden was a little bit of heaven on earth.
    “I spend a lot more time here than I do in my office,” he confided. “There really
    isn‟t much for me to do. Corporate figurehead only, you know?”
    Son of the figurehead, if he was going to be completely honest. He was the heir to
    the family fortune and about as out of the loop as it was possible to be.
    “What do you do all day?” Without turning his head, Jabez glanced at him from
    the corners of his eyes.
    Andreas was ashamed to give him the answer. “Entertain myself. Go out with my
    friends. Sports, sailing, galleries, parties, nightclubs, races.”
    “Cage fights.”
    “Yeah.” He smiled ruefully. “I have a hectic schedule of activities.”
    Jabez looked out the window again, and Andreas felt dismissed. His life had never
    before seemed so inconsequential.

    22
    Bonnie Dee
    “Who do you plan to fight against after I‟ve trained you?”
    “I don‟t know. I guess I just want to have some self-defense techniques in case I‟m
    ever, um, attacked or something.”
    “Rich guy like you must have a bodyguard.”
    “I did growing up, but when I moved out of my father‟s house, I ended that. I was
    tired of having someone watching me all the time, and I don‟t think I‟m much of a
    target as long as I keep a low profile.”
    Jabez grunted. “Heir to the Fortias Corporation? You need a bodyguard. Maybe a
    pack of them.”
    There was a knock on the door, which kept Andreas from having