Coached by the MMA Fighter_An Older Man Younger Woman Romance Read online

  “I know your passion for storytelling and I know U.S.C.’s film school is the best in the world. You’re going there, aren’t you?”

  She nods.

  Now I know to who I owe my good fortune to…her father, my best friend.

  “Your dad sent you?” I ask.

  She’s still nodding when her head movements turn from an up and down motion to a side-to-side motion.

  “Not your dad?” I ask. She continues shaking her head. “Not your dad,” I say, but this time as a statement at the revelation.

  She’s here on her own accord…of her own free will. She chose to come here.

  “Will you help me?” she asks.

  Just her word choice makes me feel like more of a man than I already am. A woman who needs my help, but not just any woman. My girl.

  The girl I’ve seen pictures of.

  First she was just a cute kid…my friend’s child. Then over the years she was the kid with the pigtails, braces and lack of coordination as she grew up, but not out.

  But she’s grown out now all right. I can see her chest heaving as her blood must be pumping furiously under that dress. She’s still nervous and as her body moves to take in more oxygen it only makes her chest look that much bigger.

  And her backside is bigger too. I don’t have to look to see her hips are wider now, even more so than that day at her house just a few weeks back. It’s incredible what’s happened in just one month.

  But she still has that young innocent look to her. When combined with her much more womanly figure and the way she carries herself beyond her years it’s intoxicating.

  And after years of giving out “no’s” to people asking for training there’s no doubt that this will be the first time that word doesn’t immediately and instinctively slip from my mouth.

  “I’ll do anything you need,” I say looking down at her.

  She may be an adult now but she’s still so small, at least compared to me.

  I almost wonder how I’m going to be able to train her, her body seemingly so fragile…almost as fragile as the willpower I will have when she has on a lot less clothes than she has on now.

  I can just imagine her in a sweaty sports bra and short shorts as our bodies roll around on the mat.

  It’s too hot in here to practice in a karate ji or other martial arts uniform. We may be up in the mountains but with so many guys in the gym training at maximum intensity the gym gets hotter than you can imagine.

  And I can’t imagine what I’m going to do the first time one of those breasts comes to rest on my forearm or close to my face or…damn!

  And how will I train her out of the watchful and hungry eyes of the other warriors up here?

  They’re full of lust, as am I, but this is so much more than lust.

  This is the passion to make her mine forever.

  And by mine I mean mine and all mine.

  And I don’t want anyone else looking at her and no way in hell is anyone else training her.

  I’ll have to get her a place to sleep. I’ll need to prepare…

  There’s just so much to consider and my brain is about to explode.

  Not to mention I have my title fight coming up soon. The one I’ve waited my whole life for.

  The one I want to go out on top with. To win and then to retire.

  Fighting is a young man’s game. I’ve still got a lot left in the tank, but best to go out on top, especially considering I’ve never had any serious injuries.

  Knock on wood.

  And now my ability to avoid injury just became much, much more important.

  Because I need to be at full strength both mentally and physically when it comes time to raise my children…our children.

  CHAPTER 4

  Anastasia

  I hear Maddox on the phone and I can hear my dad’s voice coming through the other end.

  Maddox doesn’t keep a phone with him during training…he’s literally unreachable and he demands the same from the other men training although they do keep one old school landline in one of the cabins in case of emergencies.

  I guess this qualified.

  My dad seems confused at first but he’s known Maddox forever and trusts him. Plus dad is always encouraging me to take up a sport or something more athletic so even though what I’m doing is very odd, he’s okay with it.

  For now.

  If only he knew this wasn’t just about training and staying safe.

  Or at least staying safe in the way of protecting myself, but instead of how Maddox might just be my protector for life after this is over.

  After the call Maddox takes me back to the housing which is more like a huge log cabin hotel. It’s extremely basic and Spartan and after checking the occupancy Maddox says the words that really make my insides feel all warm and fuzzy.

  “We’re running at complete capacity. You’ll have to stay with me…in my room.”

  I nod as if it’s totally okay and not a big deal at all.

  Of course it’s a very big deal and by the bulge I see that’s starting to form in the sweatpants he switched into after his training session I can see he feels it’s a big deal too…a very big deal.

  He’s getting so much cardiovascular training that his blood must be pumping at an extremely elite level. And when your blood pumps that strongly it doesn’t take much effort to get a whole lot of it to his groin area and to let me know he’s not only big in the muscles department.

  I try not to stare, and don’t, but I catch a good glimpse when he turns to try and reposition his body so I can’t see.

  Can’t see? What is he thinking? How can I miss it?

  I offer him the nineteen hundred dollars cash I’ve managed to save up the last few years with my high school job working the drive thru at a fast food place.

  He politely declines insisting I don’t ever bring up the talk of money again.

  He mentions something about my father being his best friend and that his house is my father’s house and that extends to his family including me.

  He does take my money though and puts it in the safe in his room. He tells me everyone is extremely honest and trustworthy, but it’s better to keep the money in his safe.

  Safe. A word I think of a lot when I think of him.

  I spend most of the rest of the day just watching the guys hang out and interact. He shows me around the area and explains how they train. He tells me bluntly and honestly that he’ll have some intense training with the men in the mornings and afternoons and then he’ll train me in the late afternoons and evenings after he’s finished.

  It’s more than a fair offer for me.

  He also let’s me know that no one will bother me and that I have free reign to go anywhere and do anything I like. I have to respect the other fighter’s privacy and training, but other than that I can take hikes, swim, fish, read books or do literally anything when he doesn’t have time to train me.

  He recommends some quiet and secluded areas where “there won’t be any other guys around.” I notice his tone changes as his voice deepens even more than it’s normal gravelly pitch. Not only does he want me all to himself, but he doesn’t even wanting them to see me.

  But what I see later that night is the most beautiful thing any woman has ever laid her eyes on.

  And to think I’m the only one in the history of the world to have ever seen it.

  CHAPTER 5

  Maddox

  We turn in early up here in the mountains. There’s not much to do here, by design, and we get up well before the crack of dawn anyways.

  When it’s time for bed I roll out a bamboo mat on the floor and change the sheets on the bed for Anastasia.

  She gets the bed. I get the floor.

  I’ve slept on floors before having trained in Japan and Thailand. The training is partly due to custom and partly due to invoke hardship to make a warrior stronger.

  And hardship is the right word.

  How in the world am I going to be able to
sleep in this small room next to her bed knowing she’s right there next to me. Just a few feet over and a few feet up.

  And not only that but I’m used to the smell of the woods at night, and like the animal that I am my senses have improved since being up here.

  Not least of which is my sense of smell.

  I used to think the smell of fear on one of my opponents was the best smell in the world until I brushed past her earlier today.

  Now her scent is imprinted in my mind never to come out. It just sits there tormenting me, pulling me closer to what I can’t have.

  Not now at least.

  If she knew what was on my mind and how bad I want to be inside her tonight it would scare her. If I told her how deep I want to bury myself inside her, not just in the flesh but bury my soul inside her as well giving her the essence of everything I am making us one, she’d get in that car and drive right back down the mountain.

  Not yet. It’s too early.

  Then the idea of waiting hits a serious challenge.

  She comes out of the shower wearing nothing more than a white T-shirt and a pair of small training shorts.

  Those are the same shorts she’s going to wear when we’re sweating together…touching each other…breathing hard.

  And there’s no sports bra, or any bra, in sight. Just that T-shirt and when the crisp mountain air makes its way in through the window and flows across her chest I see her nipples harden poking through the white cotton and I can practically make out their color.

  I’m fully erect and want her more than ever yet it’s time for me to be getting my sleep.

  Like that’s going to happen.

  No way. No how. Not anytime soon. Not by a long shot.

  She looks at me with that fresh out of the shower look. Not a stitch of makeup and not a single imperfection on her skin. Even if there were I sure wouldn’t notice.

  She’s perfect in my book…too beautiful for words.

  And when I see her eyes run up and down my before bed clothes, which consist of a pair of MMA shorts and a T-shirt of my own, I know she’s just as fired up about my physique as I am about hers.

  But my clothes aren’t pajamas. They’re before bed clothes.

  When you train all day and spend time going from ice baths to Jacuzzis, steam rooms, saunas and the like you absolutely have to let your skin breathe at night.

  And there’s only one way to do that. And I hadn’t even thought about it until now.

  I’m not worried about exposing myself to her. Not at all. I can turn my body away from her to not display the hunger for her that I have and to not look like a complete feral beast.

  But when you sleep on the floor you have no choice but to lie on your back…and the sheet that covers me will be doing anything but lying flat like I will.

  She’ll see my cock and what she does to me.

  I run through scenarios of how I can avoid it but then realize it’s pointless. We’re both adults here. Adults of free will and sound mind.

  If she wants to turn her head for whatever reason so be it.

  And if she gives me any other indication my “sound mind” is going to be tested really quick. And my free will will be the willpower I have to control myself from climbing right up in that bed and making her mine.

  “Ready to hit the sheets?” I ask.

  She nods.

  As she walks past me her arm brushes mine and my fully erect cock twitches. I can feel the precum that has already formed and this is just from the sight and most basic of touches. I didn’t even touch her with my hands!

  This is all happening in my mind and it’s not because I’ve been up here like this for so long, nor is it because of another secret which I’ll be forced to expose to her one day…not that I’m ashamed one bit of what I’m keeping to myself.

  But she will know. I’ll tell her but she’ll know before I do. She’s intuitive and smart.

  But I may not have been so smart not having thought through the sleeping nude arrangement.

  She gets into the bed and I flip out the small light and then blow out the lantern that lights the other part of the tiny room.

  The only light in the room is the moonlight from the window.

  I look at the bed and I can see her eyes looking back at me. It’s like her eyes are glowing. Those ultra light colored baby blues are shining at me just like nocturnal animals do.

  And for a guy who’s gone to bed early his entire life I’m suddenly feeling very, very nocturnal.

  I want to hunt and my prey is just feet away.

  But I have to sleep.

  “Good night,” she says and I watch as she rolls over.

  “Night,” I say as I grab my T-shirt and pull my shirt up over my head and then grab the waistband of my shorts and bring them to the floor, baring myself no more than three feet from her.

  If I stepped toward her with a single step her arm could reach my rod and a step more and her arm wouldn’t be the only thing.

  I’m tempted to go into the shower and masturbate right now just so I don’t spontaneously combust in the middle of the night.

  Instead I lie down on my back and start counting backward from a million not knowing for sure what will come first…sunrise or sleep.

  A lot of money is wagered on my fights and I’m not a gambling man but if I was I’d pick sunrise.

  CHAPTER 6

  Anastasia

  I slide into my training clothes in the makeshift women’s locker room Maddox has made. I call it a women’s locker room but technically it should be a woman’s locker room. He told me it’s mine and only mine and no other woman will train here after me.

  In the morning and afternoon I explored Bear Lake and the surrounding area. I can imagine how nice it must be to live up here…being secluded out here in nature.

  But I can also imagine how feral a man could become out here.

  And that makes me wonder if his desire is specifically for me, or maybe just from his lack of contact with any woman.

  I need to think these things through if there’s going to be anything between us, if something is really a possibility in the first place.

  I mean I start U.S.C. in the fall and he’s got an MMA career. In addition there’s the age gap and oh yeah lets not forget, he’s my dad’s best friend.

  The odds are stacked against us, but love conquers all right? That’s what I keep telling myself.

  I finish preparing and set out for the gym.

  There he is.

  Maddox is in the middle of the ring bringing his knees up and across his body until they reach his palms which are turned down from his outstretched arms.

  He’s warming up…for me.

  And I can already see the sweat glistening across his muscles and I know some of that sweat is going to get on me. Some of his scent. Some of his body moisture. He’s going to mark me.

  Here in our private training session.

  He’s cleared the gym just as he said he would. It’s just me and him now. No other men to watch me humiliate myself while I try and learn some self-defense.

  I quietly make my way over to the edge of the ring, not wanting to disturb him. He just looks so focused on what he’s doing.

  “Inside,” he says and I slide into the ring wondering just what I’ve got myself into.

  CHAPTER 7

  Maddox

  I move quickly from side to side as if I were preparing for an actual match.

  And I am…the match of my life.

  I need to keep my head clear and my body moving. If I stop and stand still I won’t be able to hide my erection, even through the underwear and jock strap combination I’ve got on. Then again I’m barely hiding it right now.

  I help her onto the mat and get started with some breathing exercises to get the oxygen and blood flowing.

  Breathing exercises shouldn’t be a big deal right? We’re not even touching each other.

  Wrong.

  She lifts her hands toward the ceiling and
inhales deep as she follows my lead, but what’s very different about the way she does it is that when she executes the warm up move her chest heaves and her breasts rise even higher.