Below the Belt Read Online Free PDF

like a good Stepford wife.”
    Flashing him a saccharine smile, she slung the towel around her neck and strode over to her gym bag.
    She tossed her workout gloves inside and hoisted the bag onto her shoulder. Ignoring Cooper, she kissed Ray on the cheek as she passed by.
    “I’ll see you tomorrow,” she said.
    Then she headed for the house, her stride long, her head high, every muscle in her body signaling to Cooper Fitzgerald that he could go hang, thank you very much, as far as she was concerned.

     
    C OOPER SLID HIS sunglasses up onto his head, the better to watch Jamie Holloway stalk away from him.
    He was still coming to terms with the way his body had reacted to seeing her again at close range. The tight black shorts and form-hugging crop top she’d been wearing left precious little to the imagination, especially when soaked in sweat from a good, hard workout. She had a sizzling body—all firm muscle, with high, full breasts. His body had gone to red alert the moment he’d recognized her, then she’d turned around and a visceral stab of emotion had ripped through him when he’d registered her bruised and battered face. He was still trying to work out exactly what that emotion had been. Protectiveness? Anger? Frustration?
    As her rounded, muscular butt disappeared into the house, he turned to Ray, a frown on his face.
    “Who is the old guy, anyway?” he asked.
    “Her grandfather. He did a bit of fighting in his time,” Ray explained vaguely.
    Cooper swore. “You’re kidding me? She’s got her grandfather giving her advice in the ring? No wonder Jovavich ate her for breakfast.”
    “She wants it. She’ll learn. Losing that fight is burning her up. It won’t happen a second time,” Ray said.
    Cooper gave the other man a frustrated look. “I saw the fight, okay? She’s a long way off being ready to go pro. She’s got bad habits—and now I can see why. She’s used to fighting with her feet as well as her fists.”
    “I had to be in Melbourne and I couldn’t make the fight. What happened?”
    Cooper slid his sunglasses back onto his face. “She wasn’t ready. Someone ought to tell her that.”
    Ray spread his hands wide. “You think I want her in that ring in the first place? I felt freakin’ sick when I saw her face this morning.”
    You and me both.
    “Yeah, well,” Cooper said, suddenly aware that he was wasting way too much time on a dead-end subject that had nothing to do with him. “I wanted to talk to you about your training schedule for next week.”
    He sat beside Ray as he began to outline the new training regime he’d come up with, a plan designed to build stamina and capitalize on Ray’s speed in the ring. They talked for half an hour or so before Cooper checked his watch.
    “I’ve got to be someplace else, but I’ll see you at the gym tomorrow, yeah?” he asked as he stood.
    “Yeah.” Ray ran a hand over the bristle on his scalp, his gaze fixed on the horizon for a beat as he thought something through. “She’s got another fight in two weeks time, you know,” he said.
    Cooper palmed his car keys. “Then she’ll lose again. Someone needs to tell her to quit while she’s ahead.”
    “She’s not a quitter,” Ray said, looking at Cooper as though he was the one who could do something about the situation.
    “She’s not my problem,” Cooper said very firmly.
    He was almost sure he meant it, too.

     
    Y ET TWO WEEKS LATER , Cooper was watching as Jamie Holloway made her way to the ring for her second pro fight, the old man following in her wake with bucket and water and stool.
    Why am I here?
    He’d asked himself the same question about a million times. There was no promising young fighter to scout here tonight—there was only Jamie and her pigheaded determination. And still he was sitting here, on the edge of his seat, hoping to see a different outcome for her this time.
    Stupid. Pointless. Frustrating. Because if she fought the way she did last time—and the