Healing Love (Love to the Extreme) Read Online Free Page A

they both rose to their feet and moved to face each other again.
    “Told you,” he couldn’t stop himself from saying. “You’re not ready.”
    Kelsey ground her teeth in irritation. “I am ready. Again.”
    While he could respect her tenacity, he still wasn’t giving her everything he had. But maybe she needed to feel the full force of his strength to understand that she was nowhere near ready to take him on.
    They circled each other. Lance studied her position, searching for his opening. He respected the way her gaze was doing the same to him. The woman had a shitload of fighting knowledge in that beautiful head. Too bad he was going to have to give her a serious reality check.
    As she made a slight motion that indicated she was about to lunge, he charged her, grabbed her around the waist, and brought her down on the canvas with a thud. The body beneath him froze. He used the shock to his advantage and locked in an arm bar . “Match over…again.”
    Then he released her and shoved to his feet. When she didn’t move to do the same, he glanced down at her. Her eyes were closed, and her skin was a shade paler than before as she took a long shaky breath.
    “No,” she whispered, then hopped to her feet. She paced the opposite side of the ring for a few seconds then stopped with her back to him, hands on her hips.
    What in the hell? “Hey. You okay?”
    She stood like that a second longer then faced him. A tension resided on her face that hadn’t been there before, making the smile she sent him almost brittle. “Totally fine. The last ten minutes were awesome. Thank you.”
    Yeah, he didn’t believe that thank-you. She was clearly upset, but he wasn’t sure what to say to help. Best to pretend he hadn’t noticed. He preferred when people did that to him. “All right. Same time tomorrow?”
    A thumbs-up was her response, then she turned around and climbed out of the ring. What was this woman’s deal? She didn’t seem angry at him, but upset with herself. While he could sympathize with that, had she really expected to just come in here and dominate someone much larger than she was?
    He followed her out of the ring. “You do understand that, even though you’ve had amazing training, you asked to go up against someone you would never be matched with in a cage, right? There’s a reason fighters are put in weight classes.”
    “I know what I’m doing, and I don’t need a lecture.”
    “All right,” he said, throwing up his hands in surrender. If this was what she wanted, then she’d get it. “Anyway, if we’re going to work together”—he lowered his voice—“I need to apologize for my behavior yesterday.”
    A shrug lifted her shoulders. “Like you said, that’s none of my business, and it still isn’t.”
    He glanced around. Seeing that no one was paying them any mind, he returned his attention to Kelsey, only to find her watching him curiously. He didn’t like the knowing look on her face.
    “Either way,” he said, running a hand over his head. “I acted like a dick and I shouldn’t have. You were just trying to help.”
    She sidled up to him, and his chest suddenly tightened in the age-old telltale sign of attraction. Fuck. It was one thing to notice she was a beautiful woman—quite another for him to respond to it. He didn’t have time for a woman to spark his interest right now.
    “Everybody has secrets,” she whispered. “Yours is safe with me.”
    Not only was she beautiful, but she was perceptive. He was grateful for that.
    She sent him another tight smile then turned to her gym bag. “I’ll see you tomorrow. Try not to be late this time. I have no patience for slackers.” She sent him a wink.
    Lance had to fight yet another smile.
    “I’ll be fifteen minutes late instead of thirty. How’s that?”
    A soft laugh shook her. “You’d be headed in the right direction, at least.”
    He had the insane urge to continue the banter between them, which immediately propelled him to