Bitch! I lunge for her but she dodges me easily and laughs while she does it.
“Hmm. Pushed a button there, have I?” she says quietly.
“Fuck you!” I hiss.
“Oh, there we go. Use that anger, princess. Come on, hit me.”
I go for her again, managing to graze her this time but making no real impact.
She hits me again, this time it stings a little and I snarl at her.
“Come on, princess, you know you want to hit me,” she snarls. “Stop all of this dancing around.”
I aim a half-hearted punch at her head but she dodges it, grabs my arm and twists me around, wrapping her free arm around my neck until I’m completely subdued.
“You think that people will fight you nicely because of your daddy, princess?” she whispers in my ear. “They won’t—in fact they’ll make it hurt even more because of who he is.” She twists my arm even more and I wince in pain. “They won’t play nice, so why are you?”
She pushes me away and I stumble to the floor.
“Get up,” she snarls at me. “Get the fuck up and fight me, princess.”
“No,” I shake my head. I’ve had enough. I don’t have to do this. “I’m done.”
“Done?” she laughs. “You haven’t even started.”
I push myself up and glare at her and she walks toward me. She glances at Jax before she turns back to me. “Is this about him? Don’t think you’re special, sweetheart—he fucks every woman he meets.” She winks at me and anger surges through my chest. I jump on her, my nails clawing at her neck. She throws me off and stands before putting her guard up again. “There you are.” She grins at me. “Let’s do this.”
I act on instinct, forgetting that Jax and Benji are watching, forgetting that she is a woman who Jax has obviously fucked. This isn’t about any of them. This is about me proving that I am good enough. That I am worthy enough. She is a freaking MMA champion for fuck’s sake. There is no glory for her being able to beat me up, but there is plenty of glory for me when I knock her on her ass, because I will.
For the next twenty minutes we fight. My lip is bleeding but so is her eye where I caught her with a right hook. She has put me on my ass at least half a dozen times but each time I have got back up and held my ground. At one point we were rolling around the canvas and I managed to pin her until she threw me off.
Every muscle in my body is aching but I won’t give up until her ass is on that mat.
“Come on, princess. Jax is watching,” she snarls and I lose my shit, bringing my arm back and hitting her with everything single thing I have left. My right hook connects with her jaw and she staggers backward before she stumbles and falls flat on her ass.
I stare down at her, smiling, as I wipe the sweat from my eyes. I vaguely hear Jax cheering from the sidelines but I don’t care.
That was for me. I feel like I just won the heavyweight title as I stand there looking at her sprawled on the canvas. I raise my guard though, expecting her to bounce back up and knock me out, but she smiles at me and I blink in shock.
She pushes herself up holds her hands up in surrender. I drop my guard and she wraps an arm around my shoulder. “You did good,” she whispers.
“I did?” I blink at her.
“You know how many people have ever knocked me on my ass?” she laughs. “Not many. A few more sessions with me and you’ll be able to hold your own with anyone.”
I look up at her. “But…” I stammer and she laughs. “You called me princess. You were horrible to me.”
She puts her hands on her hips. “You know how many people I train like this?”
“No.”
“None. Zero. But when your father asked me to do this—”
“My father?”
“Yes.” She nods. “I wouldn’t waste my own, or your, time by taking it easy on you, Lucia. No one out there is ever going to take it easy on you. You want to learn to fight then I’ll teach you, but I won’t hold back, and I’ll say anything I need to say to push you. So maybe next week, you come ready for a fight and I won’t have to tease you so much.” She nudges me playfully before she walks away and climbs out of the ring. “Someone see to that cut before Alana sees it and kicks my ass.”
I climb through the ropes and Jax walks toward me. “Let’s get that cut looked at,” he says as he puts a hand on my shoulder.