Page 10 of The Fighter
“Very funny.” I moved in a circle, my body expecting her to attack.
“Yeah? If you think I’m so funny, then why aren’t you laughing?”
My next attack came swiftly and the sheer force of my blows to her body forced her back. Raven took three punches while trying to protect her core. When I pulled back to launch my fourth punch, she sidestepped and placed her fist in my ribs.
“Umph.”
Encouraged by my groan of pain she jumped back and screamed when she launched a roundhouse kick to my chest. For all her small size her impact was hard and it hurt. Like always, I let my pain fuel me to fight harder and this time, I used my body to force her to the ground. Maybe Raven remembered Cameron’s words because she rolled like a fucking anaconda and used her legs to wrap around my body. Like two wrestlers, we were grappling for control but my problem was that I was too fucking conscious about not wanting to place my hands between her legs or on her chest area.
Raven was panting and her hair was in disarray from our rolling around on the floor, but tight as a damn parasite, she clung to me, trapping my right arm. “What kind of fighting is this?” I growled, but her only response was to twist my nipple hard.
“Stop that shit.” I got up, but instead of letting go of me Raven clung to my back. Fuck, this woman was a fucking acrobat with unbelievable core muscles and persistence. Falling on top of her to make her lose her grip didn’t work, so I rolled to get her to let go. That move backfired as it gave Raven a chance to reposition herself, this time wrapping her legs around my neck and strangling me.
There was only so much humiliation I would take and by now it was clear that she was a lethal fighter. Using my strength, I tried to tear her off me. All I managed, however, was to get her in front of me, her thighs still locked around my neck, and her arms hooked around my waist. No matter how much I tried to push and hit her, she only squeezed her thighs harder. I was fucking struggling to breathe and at that point I was done playing nice. I let my dead weight fall to the ground with her underneath me. It was satisfying to hear all the air whoosh out from Raven’s lungs and I didn’t care that my crotch was in her face. If I couldn’t breathe, I had no fucking sympathy for her gasping for air like me.
By now my face had to be blue and I reckoned her thighs to be on fire. I could feel her pounding on the backs of my thighs, signaling that she couldn’t breathe, but I wasn’t letting go until she released her hold on my neck. Using the muscles in my legs, I kept her from rolling, while I wriggled and pushed my hand up between her legs to force her thighs apart. It worked. First, I got my whole arm through, then my shoulder, and I could finally break her hold and breathe again. Sucking in a large gulp of air, I rolled off of her and heard Raven cough and suck in air too.
My eyes were wide as I stared at her while panting. “What the hell was that?... Do you call that fighting?”
Raven’s chest rose up as she heaved in oxygen and spoke on the exhalation. “What would you call it?”
“Porn!”
“Porn? What are you talking about?”
“It was like doing a sixty-nine with clothes on.”
“What’s a sixty-nine?”
“You had your head in my crotch, I had mine in yours. That’s a fucking sixty-nine.” I was angry at myself for having allowed this situation to begin with.
“Oh, now I get it.” Her eyes fell to my crotch. “When I couldn’t breathe, I thought about biting. Good thing I didn’t.”
I frowned and got up. “Only a coward would bite in a fight!”
“My dad taught me to use every trick possible and if this hadn’t been a training situation, I would have used my teeth.”
Offering her a hand, I pulled Raven up and when she stood in front of me, she kept her hand linked with mine. “So, I guess this wasn’t what the others meant when they joked about me going down on you?”
I raised an eyebrow. “Are you trying to be funny again?”
Raven used her free hand to brush her hair back and then she gave me a smile. “Iamfunny! I might not be able to take you in a fight, yet, but I’ll consider it a personal victory when I make you smile.” Her eyes were full of amusement and it felt intimate to stand this close with her eyes shining up at me. Taking a step back, I pulled my hand from her grip, cleared my throat, and changed the subject.
“I heard you moved into the Gray Manor.”
“Who told you that?”
“Magni did.” I moved to the fridge to get a few balls of water. “Do you see Mila a lot?”
“Of course. She’s my best friend and it was her suggestion that I should move in there.”
After popping two balls of water in my mouth, I held one up, asking, “Do you want water?”
Raven nodded and caught the one I threw to her.
“Any chance you could put in a good word for me with Mila? I’m fighting in her tournament and I have a good chance of becoming one of the five champions.”
Raven looked down at her torn tank top. “You ripped my shirt.”
