TKO (A Bad Boy MMA Romance) by Olivia Lancaster Read Free Book Online Page B

fall back onto the table with an exasperated sigh as the pain in my side subsided.
     
                  You really fucked up this time, Marc.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER 6 - GEMMA
 
                  “Trina, can I talk to you about something?” I asked, peering around the corner into her open office space. She looked up from the files spread across her desk and smiled, taking off her purple reading glasses. It was around noon, the day after my third training session with Marc, and I hadn’t been able to get him off my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking about the way he touched my arm, the bulge in the front of his pants, that mischievous, longing glint in his eyes.
     
                  I shuddered and bit my lip. Trina set down her fuzzy pen and got up.
     
                  “Something on your mind?” she pressed, true concern and interest in her voice. I was so grateful to have a genuine friend to confide in here at work. I mean, having Alice to talk to outside of The Fighting Chance was great, but this was not a subject I wanted to broach with my fifteen-year-old sister. Not exactly an appropriate topic of conversation.
     
                  “Uh, yeah,” I said meekly, twirling the end of my ponytail around one finger.
     
                  “Well,” Trina began, closing her laptop and walking around the desk to link arms with me, “it’s lunch time, anyway. Let’s go to that little cafe down the street and talk. I’m starving!”
     
                  I lit up at the mention of food. My stomach immediately growled its approval at this plan. This morning, I’d been feeling so off-kilter what with the situation yesterday that I might have pushed myself too hard during my workout. It was an old habit left over from my running years: whenever something was going wrong in my life, I hit the gym extra hard to distract myself. Physical pain and exertion had always been much easier to deal with than emotional or psychological issues. And sore muscles heal faster than broken hearts.
     
                  “Sounds awesome,” I replied, a grin appearing on my face despite the worry clouding my mind. Trina was always so upbeat and optimistic, it was hard not to be swept up in her contagious, perpetual good mood. I was lucky to have her and Alice around. Their self-confidence and easygoing nature balanced out my own borderline-neurotic worrying.
     
                  “Danny, we’re headin’ out for a bite to eat! Be back in an hour or so!” Trina called out over her shoulder as she flounced down the hallway, arm-in-arm with me.
     
                  “Bring me back a protein bar, will ya?” he answered. We both laughed. Everyone here ran on superfood shakes and protein bars, a diet I was still a little wary of.
     
    When I was growing up, my father always did his very best to make up for the fact that our mom wasn’t around. She died from breast cancer only a year and a half after Alice was born, so my dad had to really step up and become a fully-functional single parent. He never wanted us to miss out on anything, so he taught himself how to cook, clean, and even do our hair in adorable styles. Dad used to watch cooking shows in the morning while getting us ready for school, and on the weekends he experimented with new recipes. Sometimes they turned out terribly and we ended up ordering pizza or getting Chinese take-out instead. But more often than not, he cooked us fantastic, over-the-top meals that looked like they could’ve been plucked straight out of a Martha Stewart cookbook.
     
    Dad, Alice, and I used to spend hours in the kitchen together dreaming up new recipes and experimenting with healthy ingredients. We were always exceptionally well-nourished, with plenty of vegetables, fruits, and lean meats. He didn’t deny us anything, even when we craved ice cream or cake-- he just