Aedan
Hit her.
I’d known what I had to do ever since I’d climbed into the ring.
Hell, I’d known it the moment she’d come to me on the docks.
But that didn’t mean I could do it. Moments ago, I’d been staring at her as she tried to use her teeth to do up her glove, so feckin’ cute I wanted to weep. Now I had to hit her?!
She probably thought I was taking it easy on her, letting her warm up.
The truth was, I couldn’t lay into her. I waited for her to hit me, hoping that once the fight got going, it would be easier to open up on her.
But she didn’t want to hit me either—I could see it in her eyes.
I tried to goad her into it, even tried to get her to think of me as some guy who’d hurt her, which made my guts twist. But any anger I roused in her was gone in a second. She couldn’t follow through.
And that meant it was time to hit her.
I waded into it, knocking aside her punches and getting closer, pushing her back towards the ropes. She blocked the first two jabs I threw at her but the third one sent her off balance. She staggered back, her guard down.
Now. I had to show her what happened when she dropped her guard. If she never got hit, she’d never get over her fear.
I raised my fist. My guts knotted. Jesus, she looked so beautiful, so soft and delicate. How do guys do this? Why would anyone want to break something this amazing?
I had to.
I hit her with one good blow to the side of the head, making sure it landed on the padded helmet. Maybe half my usual power. She staggered sideways and I saw the flash of shock in her eyes. Feck.
I was back to being a monster again. Or maybe I’d never stopped.
But it had worked. She’d had that first hit—I’d popped her cherry and now she knew it wasn’t going to kill her. She came at me again, pushing me back with a good combo. I relaxed a little and got in a quick little hook, signaling it well so that she’d be able to block it.
But her eyes were on mine. Distracted, she lifted her arms out of the way...just as my fist swung into her side. I felt the hardness of ribs against my glove...and she went down.