Healing Love (Love to the Extreme) (6 page)

She shook her head and backed up a space, her gaze darting to his. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. Just block my advances.”

She inhaled then exhaled slowly while she worked her shoulders as if trying to loosen the muscles. Lance tried his damnedest to hide his confusion. He’d barely tapped her. She was acting as if she’d been rocked hard.

Finally, she brought her gloves back up to her chin, signaling that she was ready. He called a line of numbers. After she landed the last one, he made a lightning fast swipe at her, which met its mark on her side. Again, her entire body froze, and she dropped her guard.

Seeing she’d completely shut down, he lowered his hands to his side. “If you’re not ready for this, just let me know. We can work on something else.”

Ripping at the Velcro on the gloves, she paced to the other side of the ring and threw the gloves down, then stood staring at the wall. Man, she really couldn’t take someone getting the best of her.

“Hey,” he said, coming up behind her. “You’re not the first person to freeze, you know? It happens all the time to beginners.”

She spun on that. “I’m not a beginner. I’ve had years of training. I shouldn’t be freezing up.”

This was true, but she had, and there was really only one explanation he could think of. “Kelsey, you’ve had phenomenal training, but some people just can’t go that extra step. They’re too afraid of being hit. I see it happen all the time. Guys come in here, think they’re just going to jump in the ring and go at it, but the moment they receive their first tap by an opponent, they fall apart. That’s what you just did.”

A concerned, anxious expression he couldn’t understand crossed her face. “What’re you saying?”

A part of him wanted to soothe away her worries with false encouragement, but he wouldn’t do her that disservice. She wanted to be treated like an equal. He’d give her the same advice he would any of the guys. “I’m not saying anything. This is your call. But you have to be okay with taking a hit if you want to get the training you’re asking for. If you freeze every time, there’s no point.”

She chewed on her bottom lip for a moment then asked, “Is it something I can get past?”

That same vulnerability he’d heard the day before was laced in her question. He had to clench his fist against the urge to touch her.

“Of course,” he said, stepping away so he wasn’t so damn close to her. “But you’re going to have to work through it. Stopping and throwing your gloves isn’t helping anything. If we train properly, eventually those taps and knocks I land on you are going to piss you off and you’re going to respond to them in that instinctive way you want to.”

Kelsey studied him for a long moment, her bottom lip caught between her teeth. He forced his eyes to stay glued to hers and not dip down like they wanted. A sweet, plump lip caught between teeth equaled trouble for him.

“You’re a damn fine trainer, Lance. Thank you. I believe with you I’m going to knock down some really important walls, which will take me to the next level.”

She wasn’t training to fight professionally. He realized that wasn’t what the next level was for her. As much as he wanted to ask, he kept the question to himself.

…

Ella hurried down the sidewalk to meet Lance at the gym. The crisp mid-October air smelled of autumn, and she breathed in deep, trying to calm the frenzy of excited energy whizzing around inside her stomach. Seeing Lance had that effect on her, which was shocking. Even though her first impression of him had involved something shady, her suspicions had faded fast. It’d been almost a week since she’d stepped into that alley, and the Lance who now dominated her thoughts was the one she trained with every day.

A patient and enticing man. A man who was more dangerous to her than the one she’d met in that alley. If she wasn’t careful, she was going to lower her guard and let him in, and it scared the hell out of her. That would make her vulnerable on a whole different level. She hadn’t allowed a man close to her since Randy put her in the hospital.

Ella opened the door to Coolier and stepped inside. She immediately glanced around to check if Lance was there. Yesterday, he’d been thirty minutes late. She was tempted to ask him where he was when he ran late, but a part of her didn’t want to know. If he skirted around the question, then she’d know for certain he was involved in something bad. They had no association outside this gym, and she didn’t want to ruin her training time in here with worries about what he was into.

Thankfully, today he was on time, standing with Amber. The excited energy she’d dealt with all morning intensified to all-out zaps. She took a small calming breath, hoping beyond hope she didn’t look like a googly-eyed teenager. It was a new feeling, something she hadn’t dealt with in years, and she’d be lying if she said she didn’t find it thrilling, if not completely terrifying.

As she walked up to them, Lance gave her one of his charming smiles, and those zaps went nuts again, low in her belly. Dressed in bright blue and black fight shorts and a sleeveless white logo shirt that displayed his tattooed arm proudly, the man was simply yummy to look at.

“Kelsey.”

“Hey,” she said, stopping beside him.

“I had an idea. Wanted to run it by you.”

“What’s up?”

“I’ve been talking to Amber. She has a lot of experience with focus pad drills. It’s what got her started in wanting to pursue a career in MMA. I thought maybe you two could do a drill session together. I’d like to see if your reaction is the same.”

Her shoulders slumped, but she quickly covered her disappointment with a forced smile. She didn’t want to train with Amber. She wanted to train with Lance, but considering he was trying to help, she couldn’t come across as unappreciative. “I’m willing to give it a try.”

“Excellent. Go on and gear up.”

After she grabbed a pair of fingerless gloves and entered the ring, she faced Amber. Immediately, Ella noticed the difference in how she felt. Lance himself didn’t actually intimidate her, but when she squared off with him there was always a feeling of hesitation, of tension. Then, the minute he exhibited any dominance that challenged hers, the past came roaring back as if it had happened yesterday instead of four years ago.

With Amber, she felt confident. She knew she could easily defeat the other woman.

“Ready?” Amber asked.

Ella nodded.

Amber lifted a mitt, and Ella immediately jabbed. After a few warm-ups, the other woman increased the speed of her calls. Ella met each one without hesitation then ducked under a swipe to her head. As the other woman became more aggressive, she met the hits of Ella’s gloves with hard slaps back and closed the distance between them.

At being put on the defensive and forced to back up, enthralling energy filled Ella. A stinging smack landed hard on her shoulder. Even though the hit was much harder than Lance’s ever were, nothing in her reacted negatively. She simply returned a hard uppercut that knocked Amber back a step so she could catch the punch with the mitt. Ella didn’t stop in her aggressive pursuit and kept punching until she had the other woman against the ropes.

“That’s enough,” Lance yelled.

She immediately dropped guard and relaxed.

Amber tugged off the mitts, held her hand up in the air and said, “That was freaking awesome!”

Ella returned the high-five. That
had
been awesome. Most of the focus pad drills she’d done had been with smaller guys who always kept it about her working on her punches, not her defense strategy. Amber had given her one hell of a defensive workout. She’d just proven something to herself, too. She could take a hit and respond to it without freezing. It just had to be from someone she considered an equal. At least that was a move in the right direction.

“You were pretty awesome yourself,” she said.

“Anytime you need a focus partner, count me in.”

“You’ve got it.” She turned to Lance. The admiration shining back from him caused her heart to stutter, and it took everything in her not to exit the ring and throw her arms around him. She settled for mouthing, “Thank you.”

“Don’t thank me yet.” He slid under the third rope then strode toward her, holding out his hand. Amber passed the mitts to him, and he slipped them on. “We now know you can take a hit. Let’s see what happens when you go up against me.”

And just like that, the hesitation crept in, the muscles in her shoulders tensed. One second she was thrilled with her performance, the next she was right back to square one. The most frustrating part was, she was no more scared of Lance than she was of Amber. Hell, Amber’s hit had stung way worse than any of Lance’s taps. The only thing different was his build.

After Amber climbed out of the ring, Ella circled Lance. His bulging bicep muscles flexed as he brought the mitt up, causing the dark lines on his one arm to move.

Don’t let Randy fuck with your mind anymore.

Lance came at her in a burst of energy, his arms slapping down to meet the punches she frantically threw. She had no game plan, just swung. A light pop bopped her on the side of the head and paralyzed her. He instantly backed off. The second there was space between them, her ability to breathe returned, and she ripped off the gloves, throwing them down. “Damn it.”

Without a word, she climbed between the second and third rope, hopped to the floor, and slumped on a nearby bench, hanging her head. Why couldn’t she get past this mind block?

“Hey,” Lance said, in a soothing tone that only annoyed her. But as he sat down, his thigh pressed against hers, she found the gesture oddly comforting. She wanted to lean into him, take his support, but she forced herself to stay where she was.

“I just need a few minutes alone.”

Silence followed her comment, but he didn’t move. He laced his fingers together and let them hang between his knees. “I’ve been fighting in some form or other since I was thirteen years old. The last thing I’m afraid of is being hit.”

She leveled an are-you-kidding-me look at him. “That’s supposed to help me how?”

“Give me a minute.” He waved his hand. “A few months ago, I had a huge fight slotted. Any spare moment I had, I was training my fucking ass off.” He inhaled deep. “The pressure of it got the best of me, and I just froze. Biggest night of my fighting career, over by knockout in less than a minute.” He turned a sympathetic smile on her. “Sometimes our mind just gets the best of us. I don’t know what’s cluttering yours, but you’re not alone. It happens to everyone.”

His confession, that he would open up to her like that, meant more to her than he would ever know. It made her feel less alone…and she hadn’t felt like that in a long time.

“Thank you,” she whispered and leaned toward him. A simple kiss on his cheek to show her appreciation was her intent. But the moment her lips touched the stubbled skin, a floodgate of need crashed open. Instantly, her nipples puckered and the lower part of her body tingled in a very thrilling way. She wanted nothing more than for him to turn his head so she could feel the softness of his lips next. Stunned, she pulled back.

Their gazes locked, and the air seemed to still between them. His gray eyes held her captive. She couldn’t look away. She couldn’t break this magnetic hold Lance had had on her since that moment in the alley. And damn it—she didn’t want to. It’d been a long time—too long—since she’d been attracted to a man like him. Maybe she never had been. Lance was different.

The overwhelming thoughts caused her to pull back and look away.

Clearing his throat, Lance shot to his feet, scratching the back of his head.

“What do you say we step away from the focus pads for the rest of the day? How about getting it on with the bag for a while?”

Getting it on. Yeah, she would definitely like to do that, but not with a bag—with this amazing man in front of her. She shook herself. It seemed fighting the demons of the past wasn’t the only battle she had now. The lure of the present was becoming extremely tempting, when her focus should squarely be on the future and getting back home.

…

Lance tilted his face up into the spray of water. A cold shower helped ease the soreness from his muscles after a training session. But this shower had nothing to with training and everything to do with Kelsey.

The woman was too fucking enticing. The icy water running down his body hadn’t cooled the lingering heat her lips had left behind on his cheek. The shower hadn’t cooled his thoughts, either. He still wanted to know what it would be like to have her body pressed into his, lips against his, arms wrapped around him. If she hadn’t pulled back, he might have gone for it. But she had.

He shut off the water, snatched a towel off the hook, and dried off. Wrapping the towel around his waist, he stepped into the locker room to find Mac wrestling with the paper dispenser over the sinks.

“Hey,” Lance muttered.

“This thing’s a piece of shit.” He slammed his fist against the front, trying to get it to snap closed, but it fell open again. “What the fuck!”

Lance walked over and gently closed it, jiggled it a little, heard the clasp take, then let it go. It stayed closed.

“Thanks,” Mac said sheepishly. “I don’t usually deal with this crap, but Marcus called in sick. The fucking paper was out, and somebody had to fill it.”

“I should’ve watched you wrestle with it a little longer. You losing your temper doesn’t happen as often anymore.”

“What can I say? Being with Gayle agrees with me.”

That it did. Mac had changed from being a snappy asshole to a sappy teddy bear after meeting the lively storm chaser. “How is she?”

“Busy. I can’t believe I am actually saying this, but I’m looking forward to chasing season just so she’s home more. This damn job takes up all her time, but she loves it.” Mac changed the subject. “How’s things with Kelsey? I’ve been watching your training sessions with her. You’re spending a majority of the time on focus pad drills. Not changing it up.”

Lance frowned, irked by the comments. “You got a problem with that?”

Mac had never questioned his training methods before. He saw no reason for him to start now.