Read Cage Match for Free Online Page B

sound like you have a secret.”
    “No.” He didn‟t want to share his news. Timon would insist on coming over and
    seeing his new acquisition, as if Jabez was a pedigreed dog he‟d purchased.
    “Come on. Spill. Ooh, and tell me about that big, strapping hunk of sex the other
    night. That must‟ve been—”
    “Not now. I don‟t feel well. I think I‟m going to throw up.”
    “Too much to drink last night? Where did you go, anyway?”
    “Later. I have to hang up now.” Andreas cut off Timon‟s overly loud voice with a
    flick of his finger. Blessed silence replaced his friend‟s voice in his ear.
    He went into the kitchen and surrendered his tray to Mrs. Gamble. The
    housekeeper was as neat as always with her shellacked hair and perfectly pressed
    uniform hugging her trim figure. Not a wrinkle or stain marred her crisp white apron.
    She gazed at the empty dishes and lifted her brows.

    24
    Bonnie Dee
    “Guess he was hungry,” Andreas replied.
    After taking a few moments to himself in the bathroom, clearing his mind of the
    nervous tension Jabez stirred up in him, Andreas returned to the spare bedroom.
    Dressed in a dark blue, long-sleeved shirt and black trousers, Jabez appeared even
    larger and more imposing. He was taller than Andreas by at least half a head, and his
    shoulders were broad enough to brush the door frame on either side when he walked
    through it.
    “I‟ll show you around first. Then you can have a soak like Dr. Ahim suggested.
    The mineral spa is guaranteed to take away all your aches and pains. I‟m so glad I put
    one in.”
    He glanced at his companion to find him examining the artwork on the walls as
    they walked down the hall.
    “You like the paintings? Simone‟s a great talent. I bought these at her first gallery
    show, and I‟m trying to help promote her work. She deserves success.”
    Jabez dismissed the paintings with a grunt and looked down at the floor instead.
    Andreas felt foolish as he realized he was trying to impress this man, not with his
    wealth, but by showing he wasn‟t attached to it. A patron of the arts and rescuer of
    damaged gladiators—oh, he was a real man of the people.
    By the time he‟d shown Jabez most of the downstairs, the kitchen, dining room,
    living room, and game room, it was apparent his guest‟s energy was flagging.
    “I‟ll take you outdoors another time,” Andreas promised as he led him through
    the weight room to the spa and pool area.
    The blue-green lights shining from underwater, coupled with plentiful vegetation,
    gave the room the ambience of a forest grotto. Swimming laps in the pool every day
    had become an almost meditative exercise for Andreas. It kept him in shape but also
    cleared his head and centered him.
    The adjacent smaller pool set in a grove of tall ferns contained all the restorative
    minerals found in natural hot springs. A soak in it at the end of each day had also
    become part of his routine—when he wasn‟t being rushed from one event to another by
    Timon.
    He gestured toward the changing room. “I have extra swim trunks if you…”
    Jabez was already removing his clothes. His unbuttoned shirtfront revealed
    bruised bronze skin, somehow all the sexier seen in a slice rather than completely
    revealed. But then he shrugged the shirt off his shoulders and Andreas changed his
    mind. The man looked equally stunning completely shirtless. He sat on the flagstones
    that bordered the pool and removed his shoes and socks, then rose again to unzip the
    fly of his trousers.
    Andreas was busy removing his own shirt but paused to watch the other man
    slide his pants over his hips along with his briefs. In a second he shucked off both of
    them and stood as naked as a Grecian statue at the edge of the pool. Andreas felt carved

    Cage Match

    25
    of stone himself, incapable of even breathing while he stared at Jabez‟s beautiful body
    and his half-erect penis jutting from a thicket of brown hair.
    The man exhibited no