Brawl (12 page)

“I can’t. He’s dead,” she answers me in a smartass tone. Closing the distance between us, Gabbi places a small hand on my forearm. “
Please.
Just give me a try, I promise I’ll give you my all. You can call it quits if I’m not good enough.”

My skin burns where she’s touching me. It makes me want to rip my arm away from her and tell her to never touch me again
or
sweep her into my arms and kiss the living daylights out of her. One or the other—just don’t ask me which one.

The muscle in my jaw works as I grind my teeth and stare down at her hand where it rests so casually on my arm. One small touch and my cock has leapt to attention and is trying to leap out of my shorts and introduce himself to her. I watch her head tilt toward me and I feel her pleading eyes running a hot path over my face, weakening my resolve. “Please, Hooligan.”

I don’t know if it’s the breathy tone she uses to beg, her hand on my arm, or my stupid fucking cock that makes me come up with this hair-brain scheme, however I regret it the second I say it.

“I’ll train you...” Gabbi makes a small squeal of delight and Nate breaks into a broad grin. “If you can beat one of my boys tonight.”

‘Done.” She agrees with eager ease. Spinning on her heel, she faces Nate and points at him. “I’ll fight him.”

Knowing my nephew, and effortlessly gauging his desire for Gabbi, I’m not down with that plan. He’ll throw the fight, just so he can have her at the gym with him all the time.

Fuck.
What have I got myself into?
I can’t have her at my gym regularly. My cock’s having a hard enough time dealing with seeing her twice. Memories of blowing my load to her vision attack me, making me feel like a dirty old man. Gabbi’s nineteen, maybe twenty at the most, and I’m thirty-fucking-two and barring up like a bloody teenager around her. Nothing good will come from me training her to fight.

“Jep,” I yell across the vast space.  “Come here.”

He’s not my best fighter, but he’s the most competitive. There’s no way he’ll throw a fight because he wants to get in her pants. I can count on him to put an end to this madness. Nate guesses my tactic and sends me a look of annoyance.

I feel bad but a man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.

“Yeah, Hooligan.” He jogs over to us. Doing a double take when he spies Gabbi, his easy demeanor stiffens and he pulls out a lady-killer smile that he shoots in her direction. “Gabbi, fancy seeing you here. I was going to call you. Been busy, is all.”

Rolling her eyes at him, she laughs. It’s a taunting laugh, full of disbelief. “Sure you were.”

When Nate breaks into chuckles and joins her laughter, a smile crosses my face as well. Poor Jep hasn’t a clue why she’s here.

“Stop stressing. I’m not here to see you. I want Hooligan to train me.”

“Good luck with that,” Jep scoffs. “He doesn’t train girls.”

“He will once I’ve kicked your ass. That’s our deal.”

Jep bounces on the spot, then starts punching the air before letting loose a high kick followed by a vicious elbow jab. Nate and I roll our eyes at each other as we watch his display. Jep’s a natural born show-off.

Gabbi surprises me again. Instead of laughing or being intimidated, she steps back and watches him like a hawk with an air of assessment. When he finishes, she claps her hands and then puts two fingers in her mouth. A piercing whistle erupts from her and the guys in the gym stop what they’re doing to stare in our direction.

“Well done, Jep. Look at that everyone. He beat the oxygen right out of the atmosphere. What a talent.”

Jep turns to face her with his hands on his hips and his lips pressed together tightly when everyone laughs with her. She’s gotten under his skin...and I’d bet my left ball that’s what she was hoping to do.

“Yeah, laugh it up. I’m not gonna take it easy on you like Nate did. You’re a hottie but I don’t let chicks put me on my back no matter how much I wanna fuck them.”

Two red spots take up residence on Gabbi’s face, getting darker and spreading to her neck when she regards Nate for a second and finds the truth behind Jep’s words written all over him.

“Motherfucker,” she mutters before standing on her tiptoes and flicking his earlobe. “I should kick you in the nuts for that.”

He lifts his palms in surrender. “Hey, the first time was all you.”

A cheeky smile curls her ruby red lips and sends a new bolt of desire right to my cock. “Guess, I only have to kick you in one nut then.”

Her smartass comeback makes me laugh, hell, it makes everyone in the gym laugh. The guys are all looking like they’re a little in love with her; none of the usual animosity toward a woman being present in their domain is present. Every extra moment I spend around her is making my attraction to her ramp up another notch. She’s proving the right mix of sassy, sexy, and funny. And it’s wrong on so many levels. Her age. My age. The wife I still love. The son I’ll never forget.

I’ve screwed up by offering her a shot. I should have shot her down without discussion.

“Let’s do this.” I led them to the closest empty sparring ring. “Three, five-minute rounds. You can either win by points or submission. I’ll score.”

Gabbi cocks her head to the side and hits me with a pointed look. “I’d rather Nate did.”

Did she just call my integrity into account?

“I’ll score. Doesn’t matter how much I don’t want you here, if you win, I’ll honor our deal.” The words leave my mouth without thought as to how they’ll sound. I know that I don’t want her here because I can’t trust myself around the temptation she presents, but no one else knows that. Compounded by my rudeness on Saturday night, it sounds like I simply dislike her for no reason.

“Jesus, Hooligan. Fucking cut the asshole act for five minutes, would ya?” Nate pipes up.  One look around me at the guys who’ve gathered to watch the fight tells me that they all agree. Some of my long-term clients are gaping at me like I’ve grown a second head.

“I didn’t mean it like—”

“Who cares how you meant it,” Gabbi interrupts my excuses. “I’m going to beat him and you’re going to train me. You don’t have to like me to do that.”

Nate makes quick work of wrapping her hands and then helping her put sparring gloves on. Once Jep’s ready, they climb into the ring and I follow. Jep has his game face on, staring at Gabbi with a cold contempt that has me half-wishing that I’d picked a different opponent for her. On the other hand, Gabbi doesn’t seem perturbed by him. She’s talking quietly with Nate, appearing at ease and ready to go.

“Touch gloves,” I command. They do as they’re told before stepping back from each other. “And. Fight.”

Jep doesn’t waste any time. He goes for the easy takedown, aiming at Gabbi’s waist and trying to wrestle her to the ground. It’s a good move, one that I don’t expect her to be able to counteract. He easily outweighs her—almost by double, I’d guess.

What I didn’t count on, and neither did Jep by the looks of things, is Gabbi swinging onto his back and locking her right arm under his chin. Using her left arm for leverage and locking her legs tight around his waist, she pulls tight using a rear-naked choke that’s going to have him tapping out swiftly if he can’t find a way out of it.

He swings around wildly in an attempt to dislodge her. It’s ineffectual. Gabbi clings to him like a backpack. I know what I would do in this situation but I’m not sure if Jep has the killer instinct needed to do it to a girl. If I was him, I’d throw myself on my back and use my superior weight against her. There is little chance of her maintaining her chokehold while she deals with the weight of a fully-grown man crushing her.

“Yes.” Nate punches the air. “Choke him out, ninja girl.”

A feral growl can be heard coming from his best-friend in response to his cheering. Nate smiles at me when I glance his way, smug-satisfaction evident.

Gabbi must sink her hooks in deeper because Jep’s face starts to change color. With pure desperation showing in his expression, he throws himself on his back, trapping Gabbi between his body and the canvas. 

I expect her to let go of him so she can tap out. The crazy girl doesn’t; instead she absorbs the impact without making a sound and sustains her tight hold. My pulse pounds in my ears as my desperation for Jep to win increases. All hope of succeeding at this stupid game I’m playing leaves me, when I witness Jep’s hand frantically tapping on the arm Gabbi has locked under his chin seconds before his eye’s roll back in his head. He succumbs to his lack of air supply and loses consciousness.

“Time. Time.” I call, rushing forward to roll Jep’s unconscious form off Gabbi. Nate and two other members jump the ropes and make their way into the ring to assist me. They deal with Jep, rousing him and making him talk to them once he’s come to, while I grab Gabbi’s hands and pull her back on her feet.

She’s unhurt; a sheen of sweat that covers her smooth skin and a rapidly rising and falling chest the only outward signs that she’s just exerted herself. Well that, and the giant shit-eating grin that’s on her face. 

“I won,” she breathes the words as if she can’t quite believe them herself.

I know I can’t. This isn’t how this was supposed to go down.

“So when do we start, Coach?”

The logical part of my brain wants to scream “never”, while the part that’s strangely turned on from watching this girl use a technique I’ve used on my opponents many times to subdue a man twice her size, is yelling at me to tell her “right fucking now” so I can take her in the locker room and bend her over in the shower, making my fantasy from the other night a reality. 

Letting go of her hands in an attempt to resist the overwhelming urge I’m having to pull her closer, I take a step away from her.

My displeasure is evident on my face and in my voice when I answer her.

“Tomorrow. We’ll start tomorrow.”

She’s lets out a whoop of excitement and shimmies her way over to Nate and a humbled Jep. My eyes are glued on her ass as she bends over and apologizes to Jep for putting him to sleep.

I wish some fucker would put me to sleep and then wake me up when they’ve discovered a way to fix this nightmare I’ve created for myself. There’s no fucking way I can train her properly when all I want to do is listen to her sexy voice calling my name in ecstasy while I slide my cock inside her shapely, young body. 

How the fuck am I going to get myself out of this?

Gabbi

M
y heart’s in my throat, my palms are sweaty, and my feet don’t want to lead me inside the door. Every fiber in my being tells me to run. To call off this stupid plan to earn a living from fighting. And to put the idea of tempting Hooligan out of my head.

He made it clear yesterday that, in spite of my childish belief otherwise, he really doesn’t like me. Amy’s silly idea that he’s acting like the boy who pulled the hair of the girls he liked back in grade three is absurd. Yet, I can’t stop that tiny whisper of “what if” that floats into my mind whenever I think about him.

Adding weight to the confusion I’m suffering is his reaction to me yesterday. His green gaze was mesmerized by my hand laying on his arm and I swear I saw desire covering his face when he pulled me up from the mat after I beat Jep.

“Ninja girl,” Nate greets me with over-the-top exuberance, acting as if it hasn’t been barely an hour since we saw each other at work. “Has Steve calmed down yet?”

Finding out that my boss at the gym and Hooligan are friends from way back wasn’t the highlight of my day. Steve’s ensuing tantrum over his friend stealing his staff didn’t improve my outlook. I hope by the time I head to work tomorrow he’s calmed down enough that I can speak to him. His blessing, and flexibility with work hours, is kinda necessary for this to be successful.

Rolling my eyes at Nate, I gesture to the sports bag hanging over my shoulder. “I don’t wanna discuss the pouting little princess. Where do I stash this?”

Encircling my hand with his, he leads me toward the locker room. I try to tug my hand from his but he ignores me, holding my fingers tighter and dragging me behind him. Banging on the seam of one of the doors so it pops open, he nods at it.

“This one is yours.” Pointing his head in the direction of the one next to it, he continues, “This is mine.”

With deliberate movements, I extricate my hand from his, stuffing my bag into the locker after pulling out my sparring gloves. His touchy-feely approach is going to become an issue; one I’m out of ideas with how to deal with. Knowing that he’s content to let me knock him on his ass is fucking annoying—not to mention, severely limiting to my options.

I’m lost in my head, musing about Nate and his maddening ways, when he pushes me back against his locker door. Pushing my hands against his chest, I stop him from leaning against me.

“Nate, seriously,” I let my exasperation show in my voice. “Get off.”

Dropping his forehead against mine, minty breath washes across my face when he exhales a long, deep breath. “Fucking hell. I like you, Gabbi.”

I match his sigh with one of my own. I’d give anything to go back and change my reaction to him at the grocery store. If I’d just kept walking when he’d hit my ankle, instead of running with the foolish idea of organizing a non-strings fuck with a hot guy, none of this would be happening. He’d be my boss at Steve’s gym and my coach’s nephew—nothing more; nothing less. Amy could’ve imparted her wisdom a little earlier and saved us all this headache.

Stupid, stupid Gabbi.
Actually, no, I hold my wayward pussy solely responsible for this mess. The needy bitch is to blame for it all.

“Nate. I don’t like you like that. I just want—”

“This is why I don’t have girls in my gym. They’re a distraction. If you wanna make-the-fuck-out, do it on your own fucking time.”

Hooligan’s harsh tone booms across the room. Using the hands I have against Nate’s shoulders, I push him all the way off me.

“Thanks a lot. Asshole,” I hiss at him, letting the full force of my aggravation show on my face. “Now we’re off to a great start.”

Satisfied that Nate’s got the message when he flinches at my open hostility, I make my way toward Hooligan. He’s standing at the entrance of what looks like his office, hands on his hips, and a nasty scowl on his rugged face. When I’m standing in front of him, I hit him with a wide-eyed look that begs him to believe me. “That wasn’t what it looked like. He’s a pain in my ass.”