Chapter 10 #2
If I hadn’t been looking at her, I wouldn’t have caught her cringe.
She bit her lip, and after a few seconds of saying nothing, she sighed.
“It’s not your fault. It’s a trigger point for me.
And with the kind of conversation we were having with Sophie, my mind wasn’t exactly in a cool and calm space. Sorry I slammed you like that.”
“No, it was fair. I promise you, it won’t happen again.”
She gave me a small smile and nodded, turning her eyes back to the road.
What caused her the trigger? Did something happen to her? Who would dare do something to this fierce woman? And how fucking dare they?
Questions bombarded my mind like a freight train. The way she pointedly stared at the road told me that the topic was closed for further discussion.
I pulled out my phone and texted Maxim to set up the security detail for Sophie. I was in the middle of replying to Maxim’s text when the car stopped, and I found us parked right across from Thunder Claw.
“Are we getting started with work?” I asked as Samaira unbuckled her seat belt.
She looked me dead in the eyes. “We’re here to fight.”
She got out of the car, making me run after her. She entered the bar without pausing, and I caught up as we walked to the back, toward the basement staircase I now recognized.
We stepped into the basement where I’d first had a meeting with all of the Wildcats, and the view was slightly different today. The intimidating desk and chair setting was absent, transforming the vibe of the place from secret society to a large training room.
We walked in on two women mid-workout—or rather, frozen mid-rep. One held a hundred-pound lateral raise on a cable machine, while the other was stuck in a sumo squat holding a giant kettlebell. Their eyes tracked us, their jaws slack in shock.
Paying them no mind, Samaira headed past them to the fighting ring beyond. Their gazes were stuck on us, and I was still wondering about their reaction when a pair of gloves hit my chest.
I quickly caught them before they dropped on the floor as I watched Samaira step out of her boots. She was putting on her gloves as I said, “Um…I’m not dressed to fight.”
I didn’t care about my clothes. I just didn’t want to fight Samaira .
I heard two snorts from behind me as Samaira looked at me pointedly. “Are you going to wear special clothes to beat up your sister’s rapists?”
“Fuck you,” my lips uttered before my mind could put a leash on my mouth.
A vicious smile stretched across Samaira’s face, and then, she fake yawned.
Keeping my eyes trained on hers, I placed the gloves on the ring and removed my shoes and socks. The belt went next, the watch after that. At last, I rolled the sleeves of my shirt to my elbows, not pulling my gaze off her.
Fire danced in her eyes as she climbed into the fighting ring, hitting her hands against each other to warm up.
I shook my head and started to put on the gloves. “You know, I’ve been boxing for a few years now.”
She smirked. “Good to know. I’ll go easy on you then.”
A laugh escaped my lips at her confidence.
“Don’t go too easy on him,” one of the two ladies shouted from behind.
I turned to look at who shouted and found the two of them resting against the machine, all prepared to watch the fight.
The woman with pink hair winked at me as she chewed on gum while the woman with the short hair gave me a small smirk and a thumbs-up.
The moment I climbed into the ring, Samaira continued to hit her gloves and jump on the spot, warming up her body. I followed suit, then asked, “You ready?”
She stood in the orthodox stance, her left foot and hand in front. “You need to step closer so we can begin.”
Once I mirrored her stance, she said, “It’s not going to be a traditional match. We’re just letting off some steam. So don't hesitate to tap out.”
I scoffed. “Just start the fight.”
Her smile widened, and she counted down, “Three, two, one. Fight.”
And she was on me. She came for my face, and I blocked the punch. Then came stomach, ribs, face again, all of which I blocked. She circled me as I kept my guard up, loving the way her entire focus was trained on me. Only me.
She lunged at me again, her hand flying at my cheek.
I raised my hand to block, and she landed a solid punch to my stomach.
The moment my body bent down in response, she had her arms around my neck.
I tried to get her arm to loosen, but it was like a band of steel across my throat, blocking my airflow.
Pleasure unfurled in my veins as the blood flow started to get restricted in my body, and it became more and more difficult to get a breath in.
Her skin was hot against mine, her sharp exhale against my throat making my body hum with need.
I still didn’t tap out. A quiet, pleasurable burn was starting to rush through my system.
I was near delirious when she growled in my ear, “What the fuck are you doing?”
She let go of my neck a little, causing me to gasp for breath. Air rushed through my lungs, and blood rushed to my brain. “What do you mean? Getting choked by you?”
She threw me away from her and came at me with a five-punch combo at my ribs and stomach, all of which I blocked. “Why aren’t you hitting me?”
She got me there. “You think I’m not trying? I’ve never hit a woman in my life. Not even while playing with Sophie, not in fun, and not while boxing. My body wouldn’t let me.”
She scoffed and landed a punch to my cheek so fast, I couldn’t even block it. The hit threw my head sideways, and a zing of pleasure hit my bloodstream, thrumming and writhing and begging for more.
“Not the pretty face.” The pink-haired woman groaned. She now leaned against the ropes of the fighting ring.
“Screw you, Sloane,” Samaira grumbled and turned her eyes on me.
What I saw in them had me rethinking my words because fury blazed in her eyes like a bubbling volcano at the brink of an eruption.
“You,” she rumbled and held me by the collar of my shirt while her other hand clutched the shirt at my abdomen.
Before I could comprehend what she meant to do, she picked up my two-hundred-pound body and slammed me down on the ring. Hard.
Pain raced across my back as my body jerked from the hard impact.
I groaned as every organ in my body shuddered, my brain rattling in my skull.
But she was not done. She came down on me, her muscular legs on each side of my chest. She pressed down on my chest with a gloved hand and looked at me.
“You think you’re showing me some kind of respect by not hitting me? ”
Pain and pleasure wreaked havoc in my body.
This glorious, powerful woman had trapped me between her thick thighs, her gritted teeth and sharp eyes trained on me with so much intensity, she completely enraptured me.
I would only have to grab her hips and pull her mere inches closer to me, and I could drown myself in the scent of sweat, fight, and sex.
But one thing I couldn’t do was throw a punch at her. “I could hurt you, and I don’t want to hurt you.”
Two loud scoffs came from the side.
She raised her eyebrows at me, not acknowledging the scoffs.
“You think you can hurt me? You think you can get a single punch in? You think I’m giving you my hundred percent?
You not giving me your hundred percent is the kind of disrespect I won’t tolerate in my ring.
If you want me to give you my all, you better bring your all. Or get out of my ring.”
With that, she got back up, waiting for me to follow suit. She wasn’t wrong, not one bit. To gain her trust, I had to give her my everything. If she said she could handle it, I'd just have to trust her.
I stood and twisted my neck from side to side and jumped on my feet, loosening my body after getting slammed on my back. Which reminded me, I removed one of the gloves with my teeth, and then another. Her face tilted a little, watching me with curiosity.
I put the gloves on the floor and started to open the buttons of my shirt. Her eyes tracked my fingers as I popped the buttons open one after another. When she looked at my face, her cheeks were flushed red. I gave her a wink. “Don’t need to give you that easy of a hold to slam me back down.”
Two loud woots came from the sidelines as one of them catcalled, “You want me to hold your shirt, sweetheart?”
A loud growl came from Samaira as she glared at Sloane. “One more word from you and you’re in the ring next.”
Sloane let out a loud, ringing laughter. “I’m good with Lena. She actually cares about my face.”
“Eyes on me, Dominic.” Samaira growled my name, and I hadn’t realized my eyes had strayed. Her eyes slowly traveled down my body, starting from my shoulders to my pecs, down to my abs. My core tightened at her perusal, heat spreading everywhere she looked.
She started to circle me. But this time, I circled back.
Our eyes met. Challenge and attraction spun a weave of magical violence in the air between us.
My eyes tracked the light falling on her arm, the roar of the tiger in her tattoo stirring an inferno of heat inside me.
Her eyes glowed with challenge. Her lips curled up in so much confidence that I wanted to slam her on the ground and devour her mouth.
Taste the danger that poured out of her in waves.
Where the hell did that thought come from?
She was driving me to the brink of insanity.
This time, when she came at me with a punch, I blocked and punched back, aiming for her ribs. She easily blocked the punch. In fact, she grabbed my outstretched hand and landed a solid kick to my stomach, hitting me so hard that I bent over with a loud “oomph.”