Hard Love: A Bad Boy Fighter Romance Read Online Free

dismissively with his hand, “that you used to date
the big boss. There goes everything I’ve fucking worked for.”

 
    “What? What ?” she cried out, this time the
tears sliding down her cheeks. His words hurt. All she had ever done was be
supportive of his dreams even if she hated watching him in action. “I just want
to get out of here and I want you by my side but, look, here I am every time
you step into the ring. Why? Because I love you.”

 
    “You think he
fucking cares if you love me? You don’t think that’ll only boil the fucker’s
blood even more?” His words were scathing.

 
    She knew he was
seeing red, but she felt it was all so unfair. It wasn’t as if she could hop in
a time machine to go back and never date Nick. None of her past could be erased
and she didn’t want her future with Nathan to be in even more jeopardy than it
already was.

 
      “God, Nathan. Is that all you care about? What
he’ll think and how he’ll react? What about me?” There was a brief moment of
silence filled with tension before she cried out, “I’m reaching my fucking
breaking point, but that’s not something you take into account!”

 
    “What the hell,
Emma? You know fighting is my life,” he shot back, but quickly clamped his
mouth shut. In the heat of the argument it came off as if fighting came before his
relationship with Emma.

 
    “Right,” she spat back,
turning her back on him and starting to pace in an effort to calm down even a
tiny bit. She turned just in time to see him open his mouth to speak, but she
beat him to it. “And my wanting to get the hell out of this shit lifestyle and go to California isn’t important at all to me.”

 
    They stared at
each other in silence for what felt like hours.

 
    “That’s not it,” Nathan
defended, finally breaking the silence. “You have to admit not telling me about
you fucking Nick in the past was a shitty call on your behalf.”

 
    “Is that what
really bothers you, Nathan? The fact that I’ve fucked him?”

 
    He slammed his
closed fist on another locker door and it popped open with a dent. A few items from
another fighter spilled out and clattered across the floor. “Don’t fucking play
that card on me,” he warned. “He’s out here thinking he has the right to call
you a whore and here I am, the fool who had no idea you two even knew each other.”

 
    “And do you think he has the right to call me a
whore?”

 
    “Oh, come on,
Emma! Don’t twist this into something else. You should’ve fucking told me he
was your ex. You should be smart enough to figure out how this could affect me
down here in The Ring, especially when you damn well know I want to be the
best. You know this, fighting, it’s all I’ve got. It’s all I’ve known.”

 
    “And, to you,
that’s a perfectly valid reason to just throw everything else out, right?
That’s why you can’t quit or come with me to California. Because it’s all about
the fight and it always will be. Never mind how much I love you and you love
me. The love of that title you’re after, that’s stronger in the end.”

 
    “Don’t be so
fucking unfair. You know it’s not like that.”

 
    “It doesn’t
matter, Nathan.” Her voice had finally softened.

 
    She was no longer
shouting or crying out, but her tears were flowing even more freely now. The
words she hadn’t wanted to think, let alone utter out loud, were about to fall
from her lips. Now was the moment. Everything she feared had reared its ugly
head and there was no more avoiding it. She just wished it hadn’t been because
of a stupid, insulting comment coming from Nick.

 
    “It doesn’t matter
what the reasons if the end result is the same. I want out and you, well, you
want to stay and make it to the top.” Nathan stared at her and she could see
the realization enter his mind. His expression was still harsh, but there was
something else there—a softer side. She could tell