The Fight for Love (Contemporary Romance) Read Online Free Page A

Lucie again but he couldn’t risk it. Dalton didn’t do relationships, he never had. He was already fully committed to his fighting career. Most women he met he slept with a few times and then cast them aside for a newer model. But he felt that Lucie deserved better than that. She wasn’t the sort of girl you could just push aside.
     
    “Hey!” His trainer was standing in front of him, angrily clicking his fingers in front of Dalton’s eyes. “Are you with me this morning or not?” Steve demanded contritely.
     
    “I’m with you,” Dalton nodded.
     
    “Because surely you don’t need me to remind you how important this next fight is?” Steve asked as he resumed his position holding up the punch pads in the center of the ring. He was shorter than Dalton but what he lacked in height he made up for in muscle. Even though he no longer competed he still trained and was in impressively good shape for a man his age. Over the years he’d become more than just a trainer to Dalton, he’d become a father figure.
     
    “I know how important this next fight is,” Dalton promised him. “I was just…” his voice trailed off. He sensed that Steve wouldn’t approve of Dalton potentially considering dating a girl.
     
    “Just what?” Steve stared at him expectantly.
     
    “When you met Julie, how did you know she was the one?”
     
    Steve had been married to his wife, Julie, for twenty blissful years although they’d never been blessed with children.
     
    “Oh, so that’s what this is about,” Steve sighed and lowered his arms. “How many times, Dalton? You don’t need to be dating right now, you have to focus on your career!”
     
    “I know, I know. I was just asking, that’s all.”
     
    “I don’t know,” Steve shrugged, getting uncomfortable. He wasn’t the sort of man who enjoyed discussing his feelings. “I just knew,” he declared unhelpfully. “And in the end I gave it all up for her.”
     
    “You gave up fighting?”
     
    “Yeah,” Steve laughed a little. “I was well and truly whipped.”
     
    “But you’re happy now, right, it was worth it?”
     
    “Dalton, I didn’t have as much as you to give up. I was a good fighter, but I wasn’t great. When I met Julie my head had already left the ring, I was just waiting for my body to catch up. I don’t regret my decision, but if you walked away from all this tomorrow, wouldn’t you miss it?”
     
    Dalton’s heart seized in his chest. Of course he’d miss it. Fighting was everything to him. It had been his ticket to a better life. Through fighting he’d found a family in Steve and Julie and his place in the world. He was rich and famous, all because of what he did in the ring. He needed fighting like he needed oxygen, without either he’d just cease to exist.
     
    “I could never give this up,” Dalton admitted forcefully.
     
    “And are you about to let it be taken from you?” Steve asked, firing him up
     
    “No!” Dalton roared.
     
    “Good! Then let’s go again! Now punch, hard!”
     

Chapter 4
     
    Lucie giggled girlishly to herself as she looked up the details of Dalton’s fight online. Each time his chiseled features came up on her computer screen she found herself blushing, remembering how it felt to have his lips pressed against hers. She was struggling to focus on the task at hand and make the notes she’d need for the fight.
     
    Adrian had sent over the questions she was supposed to ask Dalton if she was able to catch him backstage, also what the paper expected from her coverage of the fight. Lucie had covered sports events before but never a fight.
     
    “You’re really helping me out on this,” Adrian had fondly squeezed her shoulder as he passed her on his way out of work, leaving at five like a lucky few were able to. Lucie had turned and smiled at him, telling him it was nothing but she’d noticed the way he lingered behind her desk as if wanting to say something more. She hoped he hadn’t