Broken #4 (The Broken Series - Book #4) (4 page)

Maybe she didn't think about
people at all. It was possible that when she drew that she imagined places
instead of bodies, or maybe her mind went to superficial areas and she thought
of last night’s episode of
Law & Orde
r or
The Office
. Did she
think about what she was cooking for dinner that evening or what homework she
had to do? Was it at all possible that she thought of me just as much as I
thought of her? The girl was a mystery, and one that I thought I may never be
able to figure out, but one thing was for certain, and that was that I wanted
to figure her out. I wanted to know about the things that went through her
mind. I wanted to know everything.

What made her happy? Yes, that
was very important, and I needed to know that part of her. What made her tick,
and what would push her away from me? That was the last thing I would ever
want. I had finally won over the little vixen; the last thing I wanted to do
was to lose her.

Those were the thoughts that
pored through my head as she sat there in silence drawing me. When she finally
looked up to let me know she was finished, she smiled in a way that made me
think I might be the luckiest guy in the world.

Chapter Five

Natalie

Class had ended, and I was due to
get to the training center right after to meet Jet for more
self-defense
training. I’d had a headache all day, and no amount of pain medication made it
go away. I almost
teared
up when I closed my eyes to
try to alleviate the pain. I knew what the problem was; I was stressed out about
training with Katie again. I had just about enough of seeing her flirt with
Jet, and now that he was my boyfriend I was in far less willing to deal with
it. I wished that she didn't have to be a part of my training but I understood
how important it was for me to work with a female, since in a fight I would
only be up against a woman of my own size.

I liked working with Jet, though,
and it's not like I ever intended on going in for a real fight, so there was no
reason for me to have to train with other women. Well at least not women who
wanted to steal my boyfriend away from me. And this was no normal female; she
was gorgeous and
more fit
then I would probably ever
be, and she was “one of the guys.” Guys always loved those girls, the kind who
would go to a baseball game and eat hot dogs and beers with you. I was not that
kind of girl. Not that I would ever be opposed to going to a game, but I had
never been before, and I certainly wasn't “into” sports.

I knew that as soon as I saw
Katie, my migraine would probably make my head explode. But I needed to get
over there and not be late, as the later I was, the more time Katie had to
spend with Jet alone. I would just get the session over with and then go home.
I’d make myself some tea and a bath, and retire to bed early that evening. It
was a sure-fire way of getting rid of my headache.

When I walked into the gym I
looked around. I saw Jet on the bench waiting for me and after a quick scan
around, I didn't see Katie anywhere. Maybe she was still in the locker room
changing.

“Hi Jet.”

He looked up from where he was
sitting and smiled.

“Hi, baby, are you ready to work
hard today?”

“Is it just us?”

He smiled. “Yeah, is that okay?”

I nodded and just like that, I
started to feel much better about the day. I wondered if Jet consciously didn't
invite Katie or if it was just a scheduling issue.

We did a
circuit, which was a little more extreme than I had anticipated in terms of a
workout. But the idea behind the circuits now focused solely around making my
kicks and punches more explosive, and therefore more powerful, which made sense
to me. The way Jet made her feel while training was incredible. It made me feel
like I could take over the world.

I was rounding down to my last
few minutes in the circuit. I was dripping sweat everywhere and feeling
exhausted. Maybe taking a break from the gym in general the last few days had
been a bad idea, but I was feeling energized and alive. I figured I should
probably consider hitting the gym more, especially since my boyfriend was there
so much. I felt ready to kick some butt.

I thought the circuits were my
entire workout, but that wasn't the case at all. Jet wanted to go throw my
techniques again in regard to my punches and kicks. After we worked on the
pads, we started in on defense once again. It was quite incredible how after
doing these procedures for so long, things just started to come naturally. Jet
didn't even have to tell me what he was throwing―I would just
automatically react to the movement I saw in his shoulders, and move to avoid
whatever he was throwing my way. It was all really quite astounding, and it
made me respect the game that much more.

After our pad work was complete,
Jet took me over to a matted area and we did windshield wiper ab exercises,
which to me were easily the hardest exercises I had ever done with my abs. As
he applied pressure to my legs and pushed them away, I had to stay stabilized
within my core, and raise them back up again.

We also did a medicine ball
exercise that consisted of Jet dropping a large weighted medicine ball on my
stomach as I release my breath. Not only was it meant to strengthen my core,
but it was to train me how to breathe out when throwing punches or taking hits.
If I had no air inside my body when I took a hit, then someone couldn't knock
the wind out of me.

“Do you want to see something
cool?” Jet asked.

“Sure.”

“I'm going to jump on your
stomach.”

“What? You can't do that. You
will crush me; you're too heavy.”

“No, I'm not at all. I will jump
on quickly and jump right off. If you keep your core tight and flexed, it won't
hurt you at all.”

I agreed to allow him, but I was
nervous about it. I decided to trust him, though.

“Ready?” he asked.

I nodded as I focused on keeping
my abs flexed. He jumped lightly on top of my stomach, and although I felt the
pressure of his weight, it didn't hurt at all, and he jumped back off. I
laughed. “
Wow, that
was kind of cool.”

He held his hand out to help me
off the mat.

“So how do you feel about
fighting an amateur MMA fight, just as practice to test your skills?”

“Are you joking? Jet, I'm not a
fighter. I've just been coming here for fun.”

“I know, and that's okay, but you
will get to see how much you have progressed, and I think it would be fun.
Everyone else who fights amateur is doing it for fun as well, and they are just
as inexperienced as you are.”

I stared at him and thought about
it. The idea terrified me in a way, and I wasn't sure how to respond, as I
didn't want Jet to think I was weak. “I don't know if I'm comfortable with it.”

“I understand that but look at
the girl in the ring, for example.”

I turned to see who he was
looking at. She wasn't much bigger than I was, and didn't seem to be much more
advanced that I was, either.

“See her? She has only been here
for a few weeks, and she's not even sure if she wants to fight a real fight.
She just likes coming to train. Would you want to try going one round with her
and see how you do? I think it would be really good for you to see how much
you’ve learned.”

“Jet, I suck at it. I know that
for sure.”

He chuckled. “Natalie, you
definitely don't suck at it. Believe
me,
I would never
even suggest this if I didn't think you were ready. I have no interest in
humiliating you. I think you would do real well, and like I said, you are no
more experienced than she is, and vice versa. She's the perfect person for you
to try fighting with.”

I looked back at the girl and
thought, what the hell? You only live once, right?

“
Ahh
,
okay, let's do it.”

The grin he got on his face after
that was well worth my acceptance. I loved that smile.

Jet left me momentarily to go and
talk to the girl in the ring. While they are talking the girl looked over at
me, smiled, and then nodded to Jet. I was redelivered when I didn't see any
flirtatiousness from her.

“Okay, you're all set. Get your
gear on and meet me in the corner. I will be instructing you throughout the
round, so make sure you focus on my voice as you are fighting. You have to just
go for it, though. Don't wait for my instructions. Pretend it’s a real fight
and remember all the things that I have taught you so far.”

I nodded, terror running through
me, and I had the instant urge to flee the scene. I quickly got my shin pads
and gloves on. My mouth guard was in place, and I headed into the ring to the
corner where Jet stood. He was grinning from ear to ear, and I hoped for his
sake that I would not live to regret the moment.

My
nerves were jangling, and I had the fight-or-flight reflex warring in my head.
It was really freaking me out. This was a lame little practice round; I
couldn't imagine how I would feel in a real fight where there was a chance I
could get hurt. Jet had warned me about that, everyone had them, he said, you
just had to fight through the fear. I had nothing to worry about, though. Jet
would be in my corner guiding the fight, and since it wasn't real, I could
always stop if I felt I couldn't do it. I waited for the other girl to get
ready, and when she got back into the ring, Jet set the timer. The girl was
relatively the same size as I was, but a bit more muscular.

The
bell rang, and we met in the middle of the ring, and touched gloves. We circled
each other with Jet in the corner shouting out commands. I went in for a
straight one two, made contact, and then backed off. The girl came back at me,
and went with a high kick that I blocked. I couldn't even believe I reacted
that quickly but I was also grateful that I had stopped the hit. I came back in
landing an uppercut into the girl's chin. The hit made the girl a little dizzy
and she backed off. Seeing a weakness in the girl, I came back in and connected
with a roundhouse kick, and then gave her a liver shot. The girl backed off
again. I could hear Jet calling my name, and it was amazing how it was only his
voice I could hear, and nothing else. I was getting tired, but I looked up and
caught my breath, noticing the girl’s hands dropping. I came in quickly with a
straight punch and then a left hook, making a connection with her head. When
the girl staggered, I swung around and went for the head kick. She didn’t see
it coming, and it knocked her flat on her ass. Jet was going nuts, and the
fight was called. I had won my first amateur round.

I
came out of the ring to where Jet was standing. I ran into his arms, jumped up
and encircled my legs around his waist. I was so
excited,
I couldn't believe how well I had done. A few weeks ago I would never have
thought that was even possible for me to accomplish, and now there I was, I had
knocked a girl on her ass with a kick. I didn’t care what anyone thought, about
me and Jet at that moment--I was on top of the world, and this was my man. I
kissed him passionately as the girl came up to me and shook my hand while I was
in Jet's arms. She congratulated me, and told me we could train together
anytime I wanted to. I was so ridiculously happy at that moment I didn't know
what I was going to do.

“My little warrior.
I
told you that you had come a long way.”

I
kissed his mouth, loving the warmth against my skin. “It was so amazing. No
wonder you want to do this as your career. It's such a rush, and the feeling is
addictive.”

He
laughed. “Yes I know. I'm proud of you, Natalie, you did extremely well.
Congratulations, my beauty. She didn't even get a chance to draw blood.”

I
wrapped my arms around him and hugged him tight. I hadn’t felt that good in
quite some time. I was truly blissful in the arms of a man that had helped me
get this far. Bring it on, world, because at that moment I felt like I could
conquer anything.

It
was the night of Jet's fight at the nationals, and I may have been almost as
nervous as he was. It was a big night for him, and I wouldn’t miss it for the
world. Julie and I had gotten seats front row center and the arena at our
school was jam-packed. You couldn't fit another body in there, it was that
full. I had done girlfriend duty already by being backstage in the locker room
with him. I kissed him good luck, and gave him a complimentary smack on his ass
as I headed out the door. All eyes had been on me while I was in the locker
room with Jet, and I assumed the rumour mills would be cooking in overdrive
after that. Despite the fact that there were other girlfriends in the locker
room as well, eyes had followed me around the entire time. Maybe I was that big
of an anomaly in Jet's life.

I
had been thrilled to see Jet's entire family at the fight. His brother and
girlfriend were there, as well as a sister I never knew he had, and his mom and
dad. Although they were divorced, they still sat side by side in support of
their son. I wondered what it had taken to convince Jet's dad to show up that
night. Well, at least he was there. That was all that mattered, as I knew it
would mean the world to Jet.