“Which newspaper are you with?”
He leaned in and I felt his breath graze over my ear, evaporating the sweat from my shoulder and the back of my neck. And God, I wanted him to lower his mouth and kiss my skin, trail his hot mouth all over me and ravage my lips like I knew he would if he let that that cool calmness slip.
“We both know I’m not a journalist.”
“Do we? Then what the hell are you?”
“A full blooded male, last time I checked.” I wasn’t going to disagree with that when I could feel the evidence pressing into me when I had him up against the ropes. “Who the hell are you, is the more usual question.”
I stepped back, threw an arcing hook that I knew was wild before I let it go, chin tilted up as I bounced back on my toes, out of his reach. He was being cocky and I was being cocky too.
“And what’s the answer?”
“Toropov. Maxim Toropov.”
Before I realized what he was doing, he’d yanked off the velcro straps that secured the circular pads to his hand and delved into his pocket. He held a card aloft between his fingers and the glint in his eyes as he tucked it into the top of my sports bra was devastating.
My nipples all but throbbed at the lack of touch, pebbled and aching beneath the thin layer of structural lycra pressing my breasts flat to my chest.
I was breathless and it had nothing at all to do with our sparring session.
The back of his hand skimmed my ribcage on the way down, and I virtually whimpered at his touch. It flared across my skin like his body held the key to everything I was made to be, leaving me breathless and shaky. But it was the opposite of bad.
I was entirely screwed.
One skim of his knuckles had me craving him. I knew that I wanted him in ways I hadn’t let myself want anyone for all of my teenage years. But I wasn’t a girl any longer. I was a woman now, and he was the man I wanted to show me exactly what that meant.
“Watch for me. I’ll find you, Sugar.”
I glanced down at the creamy white cardstock and up again, just in time to see him climb over the ropes. He shoved both the pads at Mitch and his long legged swagger took him towards the door before either of us managed the brain power to get out another word.
“The hell was that about?” Mitch finally managed.
I shook my head and swallowed hard, to get my voice to work, but it still came out croaky. “I have no idea.”
“What was that about him showing up at your house? Has he been bothering you, luv?”
“Nothing Mitch, don’t worry. He’s definitely not been bothering me nearly enough.”
My trainer blew out a breath over his teeth, shaking his greying head. “I’m too old for this. Boys are simpler.”
I laughed. “I’ll be out of your hair before you know it. Don’t worry, old man.”
CHAPTER 6
Maxim
I’d been involved in field combat as well as fighting in the ring for the better part of twenty years, but Elizabeth had read me like a book in there. Any opening I left and she was on it. Any inclination to favor one side, and she was hounding me down, putting herself too close for me to use it.
My treacherous head took that further than the ring. I wanted her naked, reacting to my every move as I took her through her paces in the bedroom, tangling with her in the sheets. I wanted to fight her and I wanted to fuck her and I didn’t rightly know which one I wanted to do more.
I had to walk out when I did. Any longer in there, up close like that, and I’d have barely been able to walk because I’d be too bloody hard. My cock seemed to think it could strain through my pants to get to her. And I wasn’t entirely in disagreement, because she turned me into the damn Incredible Hulk, suddenly huge and hard enough to rip through my clothes.
There would be time for that, once I had her trust. Once I had that, I was going to have everything else too. She needed to be mine, and I needed to make her want that too. No way was I letting her go when the chemistry between us was hot enough to set the air on fire.
In the ring with her, up close, everything I thought I knew from watching her seemed to amplify. I’d been wrong before, about how good she looked. She was better up close than I could have imagined. Exquisite, exceptional. Light on her feet and wiry and strong, and ruthless and calculated.
It took me less than thirty seconds in that ring with her to fall in love completely. From that point on, the female population of the planet had ceased to exist apart from her. I was never going to look at another woman again as long as I lived. Not one of them had what she did.