by Day, Laura
Marie wasn’t ready yet. She technically shouldn't even be in the program. If he gave her to another trainer, they might send her away, or put her on a treadmill instead of a boxing ring. She didn’t want to get into better shape. He understood without needing to ask that Marie wasn’t interested in bikini season or slimming down to look better in photos. She wanted to learn how to fight.
Hayden was out of town; he was in Philly meeting with the promoters. There would some kind of press tour leading up to the fight with magazine interviews and television interviews that would need to be scheduled. It was a lot of work, but that was Hayden’s job. Axel’s job was to train and mentally prepare for the fight. Hayden didn’t know about Axel’s little training sessions with Marie and he was hoping he could keep this going a little longer.
She arrived five minutes early. Her long dark hair was pulled in a sleek ponytail. She was wearing tight fitting, black stretch pants and a black tank top. With a bottle of water in her hand she looked ready for a work out and he was going to give it to her.
“You’re back,” he said when she walked into the gym.
“Did you doubt me?” she asked.
“Not for a moment,” he responded. “But you know it only gets harder from here on out, right? It doesn’t get easier. The weights get heavier, the reps grow higher; it’s an uphill climb the whole way.” He didn’t know why he was trying to scare her away, but he couldn’t seem to stop himself.
“I’m ready,” she said.
He led her back down to the boxing gym, which was almost empty at this hour of the day. “This is the heavy bag,” Axel said, hitting the large punching black bag that hung from a heavy chain on the ceiling. “We’re gonna work on this today. Now, I don’t want you to just hit it. I want you to imagine it’s an enemy. Imagine it’s someone coming to get you, someone who’s determined to fight you. You can’t run away; you have to face it.”
Something shifted in her face when he said this. The fear wasn’t pretend for her; it was very real. But he wasn’t going to shield her from it and he wasn’t going to coddle her. If she did have someone coming for her, gentle whispered words weren’t going help. Only hard work would help.
“Give me your hands,” he said. Tentatively she held out her hands, like a criminal waiting to be cuffed. Her took her delicate wrist in one hand and he couldn’t help but caress the back of her hand with his thumb. It was a quick gesture, one that could easily be confused for an accidental touch. But it wasn’t accidental. He had wanted one brief touch of her knuckles before she destroyed them on the heavy bag.
He took a roll of white tape and slowly wrapped it around the knuckles on her right hand. Around and around he wove the tape as she made and unmade a fist to make sure the tape wouldn’t be too tight. He glanced up at her when he switched to the other hand and he could see her wide brown eyes staring up at him. She looked away quickly, as if she had been caught doing something naughty.
“So, I want you to stay on the balls of your feet. Your feet need to always be moving,” he said. He stood across from him and demonstrated the moves, bouncing from one foot to another. His motions were quick and swift. “Keep yourself moving, always moving. In a fight, you never stop. You’re on your toes so if someone tries to make a jab at you, you can duck out of the way and land a punch when he’s weak and vulnerable.”
She nodded and he could tell that she was taking all of it in. He positioned her in front of the bag. “On your toes,” he said and she complied, standing up and bouncing back and forth a little bit, weaving and bobbing in front of the bag. Her hands were up, the white tape of the knuckles standing out in sharp contrast to her tanned skin. She looked gorgeous.
“You always want to aim for the center of the bag. Later we’ll go over weak points, but we’re focusing on the basics right now. So, I want you to rear back not just your arm, but your whole body. Put all your weight on your right leg and then step forward and give a hard punch, right here.”
She nodded and did as she was told, but her punch was weak and the bag barely moved. “Oh no,” she said a look of defeat coming over her face.
“Don’t worry,” he responded. “Everyone’s first punch is that bad. I promise you. Now you know what it feels like. You know it will only hurt your hand a little; it has some give. So try again.”
Marie nodded and she took her previous stance up again. She took a deep breath and stared at the bag. Her expression changed. She didn’t look scared anymore. Now she looked fearless and angry. She was like some ancient goddess of vengeance. He wanted her. Right then and there on the gym’s floor. He wanted to rip her clothes off her and throw her down. No! he reminded himself. You are doing a job; you are helping her. You aren’t hooking up with her. You can keep it professional. You have to.
She hit again, and this time her punch landed with some real force. “Good!” he said, hearing the surprise praise in his own voice. “Again.” She hit again, this punch even more confident than the one that came before. “Other hand,” he said and she switched and hit with her left. The hit was a little weaker with a non-dominant hand, but it was still solid. “Back and forth,” he ordered and she complied.
He could have watched her all day. He never wanted her stop. Sweat was dripping down her face and onto her chest. There was nothing other than the heavy bag for her. She was focused and dedicated on hitting it and thinking about nothing else. It was beautiful to behold.
Finally, she stopped. Her arms fell to her side and she threw her head back as she took deep gasping breaths. “My arms are killing me,” she said putting her hands on her knees and resting. She was right. He should have stopped and given her a break, but he hadn’t wanted her to stop.
“Yeah, get some water,” he said, shaking his head to clear his mind of the image of her body moving before him.
He kept pushing her. He added more weights and more repetitions. Her arms and legs were shaking with the stress and exertion, but she didn’t quit. She kept going, kept pushing herself. Axel could see her glaring at him out of the corner of her eye as she completed one final, painful, exhausting repetition. He could see that she wanted to hit him, to yell at him. Anything to make it stop. But she didn’t She just grit her teeth and keep going.
He had her sitting on the bench with her arms behind up lifting up fifteen-pound weights in a seated dumbbell extension when her arms finally gave out. He was there; he supported her back with one hand and grabbed the light weight with his other. She gave out a small cry of pain as her arms came down to her sides and she sunk into the bench.
“Are we done?” she asked, glancing up at the clock.
“Almost,” he said. He saw her face fall and he added, “we just need to stretch you out.”
She blew a stray lock of hair out of her face and nodded. He handed her a towel and she wiped the sweat from her face and arms and chest. He had to force himself to stop staring at her, but she was all around him. Her reflection looked back at him from every wall. When he looked away from her, he only ended up looking at reflection in the mirror, her pale neck, the curve of her ass. It was far too dangerous.
Together they stretched. He put his hands on her and guided her movements. He ordered himself to be professional. But his imagination would not cease. He pressed down on her back to increase her stretch. He touched her thighs and her arms and her stomach. They didn’t speak as he stretched her. She from exhaustion, he worried about what he might say.
“Take this,” he said at the entrance to the gym as he handed her a bag of Epsom salt. “Put a cup of this in a hot bath and soak in it for at least thirty minutes. Take two ibuprofens and drink a lot of water. Be sure you’re eating a lot of protein and potassium; coconut water and bananas should be a staple of your diet going forward.”
She nodded. The redness in her face had left leaving behind a dewy glow. “I’ll see you in a few days,” she said as she left.
Chapter Fourteen
She hated him. She wanted to scream at him and r
age against him. She hated when he told her to keep going and to focus on being strong. She wasn’t strong. She was weak and tired and she wanted to quit. But she couldn’t. She refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing it. She pushed herself until her body gave out and only then did she let him help her.
It felt good. It felt cleansing. With every repetition, with every lift she was turning herself into someone else. Someone who was stronger and tougher than the Marie De Santa from Phoenix, Arizona. Someone who would never let anyone lay a hand on her child. She hated him, but she knew she would go back. Nothing could keep her away.
She kept remembering the way he looked. His body was just muscles on top of muscles. They lay hidden everywhere on him popping up when he lifted or punched. His arms were as strong as tree trunks, the shapes and colors and outlines of his tattoos accentuating his strength. She couldn’t stop herself from staring at him. From the corner of her eye and in the reflection of mirrors, she saw him and she wanted to see more.
It was crazy. She wasn’t ready for anything with anyone. She still jumped every time she saw a car on the road that looked like Austin's. She still heard his voice in her head at her lowest moments. She was still trying to figure out who she was. But it had been so long since she had felt anything other than fear and desperation. She wanted him to touch her. She wanted to feel his hands on her skin. She wanted to be held in his strong arms.
It is just a fantasy, she said to herself. I am just dreaming. It is the same thing as lusting after Alexander Skarsgård. It was nothing real, nothing would ever come of it. It would just be a fantasy for her alone. Axel Connelly never needed to know her inner thoughts.
Her body ached. But it was a good ache. It came from doing something hard, from pushing herself harder than ever. It was well earned. She followed his instructions and took the long luxurious bath and she slept like a rock that night. For the next three days he was all that she thought about. She watched videos of his fights and read his interviews online. She counted down the hours until she would see him again.
“So, we’ve been working pretty hard at the basics,” Axel said once they were back in the boxing gym. “But I think today, we should talk about some self-defense tactics. That is why you came here, right?”
“Yeah,” Marie said with a nod. Her hands were on her hips and she glanced up at him as she agreed. She didn’t want to burden him with her history and she appreciated that he hadn’t asked anything about it. They only ever met in this gym. It was almost like their lives outside of it didn’t exist. She didn’t have a past here, there was only sweat and hard work and Axel watching.
“So,” he continued. “I’m going to teach you how to get out of a chokehold.” He walked behind her and said, “If I were someone who was trying to grab you, a chokehold is how I would do it. I would sneak up behind you, wrap my arm around you neck and grab my wrist, holding you in place.” He detailed the movements as he did them. The hair on the back of Marie’s neck stood up as she watched him in the mirror. He came up to her slowly and put his arm around her neck, but gently, not holding her.
Her stomach formed one big knot. She didn't like this. It was too familiar, too scary. She had been in a chokehold before and she didn’t like it. But she wasn’t running away now. She needed to learn how to do this. If she could just figure out how to get out of a chokehold, she wouldn’t need to be afraid of them, or him anymore. But she was still nervous.
“You can feel that my right arm is doing all the actual work and my left arm is just hanging there, so you want to reach behind you with your right arm and grab his head and then with your left hand push his elbow up and over your head. Then you keep hold of the left wrist as you spin around then using the left arm as leverage you’re going to force the person to bend over and give three kicks right to the stomach.”
It seemed so easy with his big strong hands. They went through the motions slowly, almost dancing as she spun free of him and then twisted around. Then it was time to do it for real. He turned her around so she was facing the mirror and he came at her. Marie wasn’t ready for how fast he was. In an instant his hand was around her neck and she was frozen in place.
“Sorry,” Marie mumbled. She couldn't move. She had forgotten the moves she had learned only a few minutes ago. She felt like some tranquilized animal waiting to be tagged. “Give me another try,” she said snapping herself out of it.
He stepped back and nodded, but he wasn’t any gentler the second time. He came up behind her and wrapped his hand around her neck and she was ready. Recalling the moves, she wrenched his elbow up and over her head and took his wrist firmly and spun him around. It was over. He was at her mercy. Marie, a girl who had never been in a real fight had just escaped from a chokehold.
“Not bad,” Axel said with a nod.
Marie nodded at him suddenly out of breath. She stood there heaving for breath with Axel standing across from her. It was at that moment that she realized they were totally alone. There was no one else in boxing gym. She looked up at him through her eyelashes and was surprised to see him staring down at her with a look of naked longing in his eyes. She was startled, but not afraid. She wanted him, too. She shouldn’t, of course. She couldn't. She had just left Austin a couple of weeks ago. It was too soon for her to do anything like this. She wasn’t a casual sex kind of girl. In fact, Austin was the only person she had ever had sex with.
But she knew she should deny herself; that would be the right thing to do. But she had spent so much time denying herself and focusing on the happiness of others that she had forgotten about her own happiness. She wanted to be touched. She wanted to kiss someone and be held. She wanted to screw Axel right here in this gym.
He took her chin gently in his strong hands and tilted her head and then his lips fell upon hers. She sighed as she kissed him. His lips were soft, but she could feel the light stubble that peppered his cheeks and chin.
Marie brought her hand up and rested in on his back as he took a step closer. He slipped his tongue into her mouth, tracing along the inside of her lower lip. Marie couldn’t help but let out a little whimper as he sucked on her lower lip before breaking the kiss. He leaned his forehead against hers and she could see he was a little out of breath. His hands moved back along her neck and he pulled her against him pushing his body onto hers.
His lips crashed onto hers again. His hands traced down her back and then cupped her ass. He lifted her off the floor until Marie stood on her tiptoes, straining to reach him. She didn’t want to stop. She wrapped her arms around his neck and leaned against him as their tongues slid over each other and she bit down on his lip. He let out a low growl and grabbed her ass, holding her in place against him as they continued to kiss.
She wanted this. How long had it been since she had felt this wanted? She came off her tiptoes and broke her kiss. Her fingertips traced down along his chest over the silky fabric of his shirt. His hands traced down her arms making her skin tingle. He kissed her again, deeply. It was almost like he was consuming her and she was only too happy to let him.
“Come here,” he said and he took her hand gently in his. He led her to a small back room. It was where a chiropractor and a masseuse held hours, but it was empty at the moment. She felt a sudden plunge in her stomach. Was she really going to do this here, now, with him? He closed and locked the door and then spun around and picked Marie up.
She gasped and held onto his shoulders as he sat her down on the table. He settled himself between her knees and he began to kiss her again. Her legs wrapped around his waist as his hands ran through her hair. He pulled back and then he tilted her head to side and kissed a trail of fire up the sensitive skin of her neck. Marie shivered from the sensation of his lips and tongue and she grabbed his head, taking fistfuls of his hair in her hands.
She could feel his hands as they reached for the hem of her workout shirt. He ripped it up and over her head and tossed it to the side. He hooked his fingers under her sports bra and pulled that of
f, too. Her small, pert breasts strained for his touch. Her pink nipples were hard and she grabbed at his loose t-shirt and ripped it off of him.
His abs were a perfect six pack. She could see the lines of his muscles and she traced on with her fingers. He was firm and strong. He was so tempting; there was no way she could ever hold herself back. But what about Austin? What about the life she was running from? Was she really ready for this? Could she even stop herself if she wanted to?
He leaned down and took her breast in his mouth. He swirled his tongue over her nipple and she arched her back. She was pert and ready for him and he clamped his teeth gently over her breast making her gasp and shudder. He pulled back and he stared her in the eye as he took her other breast in her hand and he massaged it. He stroked his thumb over her nipple and her legs tightened around him as goosebumps erupted over her arms. She pulled him closer, pushing and grinding herself against him.
He scraped his teeth over her breast and Marie writhed against him. Her hands were buried in his hair as she urged him to keep going, to give her more. More, she wanted more. She never wanted him to stop. His hands were gentle up into the point where they weren’t and then he pulled back leaving Marie constantly on her toes. It was like a push and a pull, a dance only she was learning the steps to as they moved.