She nodded.
As he shouted a number sequence and moved his hands in different positions, she always connected with the correct combination. Double jab, straight, uppercut, rear hook, lead hook. She didn’t miss a damn beat, and his admiration for her grew. He watched her movements, waiting for her to relax and let her guard down. The second she did, he quickly lunged and popped her on the shoulder. Blinking, Kelsey froze. So he sprang forward and lightly tapped her on the side of the head. The pink, lively color on her skin from the workout bleached out, and still she didn’t move.
“You okay?”
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.