SYLVIE
We stood there staring at each other, fists raised but neither of us moving to hit the other one. Aedan nodded at me. He wants me to hit him. He wants me to hit him while he just stands there!
“Fight me!” I yelled over the crowd. “I can’t do it if you don’t fight me!”
He just stood there, solid as a rock, only his eyes betraying his emotions. I could see every muscle in his arms standing out, every vein.
“Hit me!” I screamed.
Rick re-entered the ring, a gun in his hand, and tapped his cane meaningfully on the floor. If one of us didn’t make a move, he was going to kill us both.
Letting out a low moan, I stepped forward and swung at the man I loved.
Standing perfectly still while someone hits you is one of the hardest things in the world. Aedan didn’t even flinch. My fist glanced off his jaw, a clumsy hit but enough to snap his head to the side. My guts knotted up. Jesus, what am I doing?
Aedan nodded at me to do it again.
I couldn’t hear anything and I realized the crowd were roaring, the shouts and cheers and leering comments about my body all blending into one noise. Rick was still standing beside us, gun raised.
“I love you,” mouthed Aedan. “Hit me.”
I hit him, this time putting my full force behind it.
I just wanted to get Rick to back off. Normally, my fist wouldn’t have even got close to him or, if it did, it would have been like hitting a brick wall.
But Aedan hadn’t tensed up. He’d left that ripped stomach relaxed and my punch seemed to go right to the very center of him, doubling him over.
The crowd roared so loud that my ears hurt.
Aedan struggled for breath. I’d been winded a few times in training, though never that severely, so I knew the bursting, aching pain and the desperate fight for air. It tore my heart apart to see him like that and my mind screamed at me to do something, to stop the monster who was hurting my man.
But I couldn’t. The monster was me.
And now I saw Rick turn towards Aedan. His message was clear: he wanted this to be a real fight.
He wanted Aedan to hit me.