Page 60 of At Her Pleasure

Yes, fight me. Goddamn you, fight me the way you would fight a man.

She snarled and struck at his face, bringing her knees up to shove him off. He blocked her and they rolled. For one superb moment, she was on top and landed another face punch before he flung her off. She rolled again, but he’d hit another gear.

The motherfucker had been holding back.

He brought her down to the mat once more. He’d been a wrestling champ in high school, because his mother wouldn’t let him go out for football. Ros had told her that.

She hadn’t had a helicopter mother. Just the thought incited the laughter demons shared in hell. Hopefully while they disemboweled her mother for the thousandth time, which would be half the number of times she deserved.

They’d abandoned any pretense at MMA fight forms. She gloried in it, a battle with no rules except keeping it…fair.

Winning a fair fight means you can respect your opponent when it’s over.

She was back on her feet. When she waded in, she went for the side she’d kicked, a fast series of double punches.

Matt blocked, spun, twisted around. In hindsight, she realized he’d intended to ram her in the chest with his elbow to push her back.

But she ducked, thinking he was swinging for her face with the other hand. His elbow cracked her in the bridge of her nose, and the pain blinded her.

He’d followed through on the shove with the other hand. Normally she would have landed on her ass, turning it into a backwards roll to bring her to her feet. Instead, the pain in her nose took over everything so she landed flat on her back, her head bouncing off the mat.

“Fuck.” She wheezed it, even as she tried to turn over and scramble to her feet. She couldn’t do it, because she couldn’t breathe.

“Goddamn it.” Matt was down on one knee. He put his hands on her and she tried to shove him away, so she had room to get up and wade back into the fight.

“It’s done. Fight’s done, Cyn.”

Ros’s voice penetrated. Matt might have said it first, but it didn’t register until it came from her boss, now bending over her. Grizzly was there, too. He’d probably brought Ros into the ring to break Cyn out of attack mode.

“I knew this was a mistake,” Grizzly said.

“Not a mistake. It was a good fight.”

Cyn was trying to take a normal breath and see past the pain obscuring her vision from her throbbing nose, but she heard that firm statement.

It came from Matt.

She squinted and turned her head gingerly to look at him. The emotions she saw prompted a shame she didn’t want to address. But one of the things she felt from him was even more unexpected.

It was pride. In her.

A weird quake went through the crudely mended cracks in her heart and soul.

“Take a moment,” he was telling her. “You got your wind knocked out of you.”

“Ros,” she wheezed.

“Right here, you crazy bitch.” She had her hand on Cyn’s shoulder, which was no longer flinching at her touch. It was done. The feelings that had driven her to do this were pacified. She was okay again. She was herself.

Cyn jerked as large hands descended on her face. “Hold still,” Grizzly said mildly. “I need to make sure that cute little nose of yours ain’t broke.”

“You call anything about me ‘cute’ or ‘little’ again, yours will be broken.”

“Won’t be the first time,” Grizzly said, unimpressed.

She was more breathless than wheezy now, an improvement. Air hunger sucked. His pressure around her nose incited a humiliating desire to whimper. She held it back with effort, and by closing her eyes before they watered and someone decided she was crying. If that happened, she’d have to kill everyone.

“Okay, I can’t rule out a fracture, but if you’ve got one, it’s not severe. Ice and avoiding being punched in the face for a while will heal it up. With anyone else, I’d say there’s no danger of that, but you’re you.”

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