“I’m sure, too.”

“What did you really ask me up here for?” My eyes go to his cigar. “What does it taste like, anyway?”

“It’s difficult to describe. I don’t think you’d like it.”

“Can I try?”

“Sure, but don’t inhale.”

He holds the cigar out, and I take a puff, let it out of my mouth, and make a face. “It’s so bitter.”

“Truth be told,” he says, and he stubs it out on the windowsill. “I don’t know why people even smoke these things.”

“Pierce!” I hiss, going to the window. The wooden sill has been burned, and black ash is smudged in a faint circle. Some of the old off-white paint is now chipping.

“I think we should tell them.”

I spin around, blinking. “No, we shouldn’t.”

“Why not?” he asks. “Don’t you think it would be fun, Pen?”

“They’ll be gone from Melbourne in a couple of days for their honeymoon, and then they’ll be gone from this country in two weeks.”

“So you just want to let them leave without knowing? And we continue our little forbidden tryst in secret?”

I sigh. “Yes.”

He leans against the wall at an angle, and puts his hands into his pockets. “Sounds like a plan, Pen.”

We don’t speak for a moment. He’s staring off into the middle distance.

“What are you thinking about?”

“I was serious, you know.”

“About what?”

“Getting a Prince Albert.”

“Oh for God’s sake,” I say, heaving a dramatic sigh. “No you weren’t. You were just trying to annoy me.”

“I was,” he admits. “But I’ve thought about it a little more. Could be fun, you know?”

“I can’t believe we’re talking about this again.”

“Think you’d like it?”

I widen my eyes in disbelief. “I honestly haven’t thought about it before.”

“Well, think about it.”

I give him a shrug and a head-shake. “I don’t think that I care.”

“Think Tina will branch out into piercings? Hire someone good?”

“Ew, no,” I say. “And besides, I don’t think I’d be comfortable with you getting it done at our shop.”

“Our shop?”

“Tina’s letting me take on more clients now,” I say, grinning. “In fact, I’m starting to bring in business!”

For a moment, Pierce almost beams at me. “That’s great, Pen. I knew you’d make it.”

“I haven’t made it yet. But I’m getting there.”

“How long will you apprentice for her?”

“The full year, if I can.”

“And then?”

“Then I’ll talk to her about starting my own shop. Or I’ll work for her for a little longer, you know? Get more experience.”

“I was thinking about getting a new tattoo,” he says.

“Oh, yeah?” I ask, grinning. I go to him, take his hand. “So was I, actually.”

“Where?”

“I want a half-sleeve. I’ve been sketching up some designs.”

“In your top-secret sketchbook you never let me look at?”

“I’ve got it with me now,” I tell him. “It’s in the car. Want to see them?”

“Hell fucking yes, I do.”

“Then come on. We’ll get them and go sit in the garden. It’s a nice day today. We’ll let all the adults mingle.”

We leave the room together, hand-in-hand.

“You know, I’m glad you’re not fighting anymore. When is the grand opening for the gym?”

“Not set yet. There’s still some work that needs to be done, and I need to get a practice cage in.”

“Ballpark?”

“Sometime next month.”

“So you’re really going to teach, huh?”

Pierce shrugs. “Why not? Man’s got to earn a living.”

“Well, just as long as you don’t teach them how to get into underground fights. Have you got students yet?”

“They’re lined up twice ’round the block. What can I say?” he asks, smugly. “They’re learning from a legend.”

“Oh, shut up.”

As we’re walking down the steps, he leans into me and smells my hair. Then he whispers, “I’m still going to fuck you in every room in this house, you know. We’ve got all afternoon.”

“No you’re not,” I tell him. “You couldn’t do it that many times in one day, anyway.”

In his eyes I see a blaze of competitiveness.

“Want to bet?”

The End

Afterword

I would like to thank you for making it this far into Uncaged. It is my sincerest hope that you enjoyed reading this book.

Penny and Pierce are, to me, extremely similar, even if they themselves don’t realize it. But… that’s not entirely true; at one point, Pierce does consider Penny’s competitive fire, and how it drives her to succeed in life. He compares it to his own, and respects, even admires, that she is chasing her dream.

They are both control freaks, also, though the habit manifests itself in different ways. Penny likes to feel in charge, likes to control for every variable. She’s not a fan of risks, and when Pierce’s capacity for attracting trouble starts to catch up with her, she finds it very difficult to deal with. I think most people can sympathize with her.

Pierce also likes to be in control. He bets on his own fights, and picks and chooses when and where he fights. He’s not as risk-averse as Penny, though – not in the slightest. He often feels he can control a situation, even if logically it doesn’t seem he should be able to. Where Penny only tries to control situations she can, Pierce thinks he can control those he can’t.

I liken Pierce to someone I used to know when I was in school. This person’s life always seemed to just work out, no matter how much trouble they found themselves in, and they often found themselves in a great deal of trouble.

Pierce is like that; he can find himself in unavoidable, inescapable straits, and yet still find a way to worm out, much like how he can slip out of an MMA submission hold. He likes to think that he’s responsible for all of this, but really, I think he might just be an extremely lucky person.

It’s a well-worn cliché, and I’m sure you’ve heard or read it a thousand times before, but the truth is that characters really do write themselves, and even I was mildly surprised to learn very little about Pierce’s father. While I have a character outline jotted down, an intent, it was Pierce who prevented me from putting it into the story.

Penny was a much easier character for me to relate to. She was driven, but conflicted, often times appearing a contradiction. Her young mind, while confident in the type of future it wanted for her, was unused to dealing with sudden complications. Pierce ranks top among them.

She took great inspiration from her father, an architect she considered an artist first and foremost, and while, when she gets older, she may regret the resentment she harbors toward her mother, I feel it made her a stronger person. At a young age she took on a sense of responsibility that she needn’t have, and her own precocious nature made her into the person she is, but likely made the journey there a lot tougher.

But all of this is neither here nor there; these are just my idle reflections. After all, Penny and Pierce only really exist in the pages of this book, though they will make cameo appearances in future books.