Chapter 1

Mike came out of his day-dream just as he approached Jake’s Gym. He found a parking space right in front of the place; he parked his ten year old Honda Civic and walked swiftly into the relative darkness of the old time-style, single-ring gym. Jake was there to meet him.

“That her?”

Mike looked up at the blonde standing in her corner. Her back was to him so he couldn’t be sure. His gaze was drawn to the fighter sitting on the stool in the opposite corner. He didn’t look good. His corner man was applying an ice bag to his left eye, desperately trying to bring down swelling that had all but shut the eye. There was blood running out of his nose, some of which was smeared all over his face and chest.

At that point his attention was drawn back to the blonde; she had just turned around and was using the upper rope to stretch her obviously heavy muscled shoulders and arms.

“Bubba, is that you? I was just thinking about you. Why don’t you get changed and put on some gloves.”

“I just came here to talk.”

“Okay. This won’t take long; I’ll see you in a couple of minutes.”

It took less than a minute. The bell rang and she practically ran across the ring, catching her already-defeated opponent still in his corner. Several hard uppercuts to his ribs brought down his guard and a savage left hook sent him down to the canvass. The referee started his count as she calmly walked back to her corner, removing her gloves and wraps as she went. She was out of the ring and standing directly in front of him as the ref reached the end of his count.

“So, you wanted to talk?”

“Yeah, can I buy you a cup of coffee?”

“Make it a beer and you got a date. Just let me wash off this blood and clean up a little first.”

As she turned towards the women’s locker room, Mike realized that he was actual a little shaky, such was the overpowering sexuality that she possessed. She was at least three inches taller and judging from her muscularity at least thirty pounds heavier than him.

Twenty minutes later, she came out of the locker room, dressed in jeans and a tight tee-shirt that did little to hide her obvious assets. Mike turned to her saying,

“Since we’re not dressed for the Ritz, why don’t we just walk down the street to the corner bar? It’s not much to look at, but the beer is ice cold and the burgers are big and juicy.”

“That sounds good to me,” she said as she reached into her pocket and handed Jake a handful of her business cards.

“Tell those guys that they passed the first audition and if they want to earn some extra money they can reach me at that number.”

When they reached the pub, they found themselves a corner booth and put in an order for a couple of drafts and a couple of burgers.

“You know we’ve never been properly introduced; I’m Mike.”

“I’m Karla; it’s a pleasure to meet you. We’ll just forget about those previous encounters and start fresh. Okay?”

“Alright. What was that all about back at Jake’s?

“I came here for a couple of reasons; first of all I’m looking for some fighters to work in my gym,” she said, handing him her card.

“The Amazon Combat Arena,” he read. “That sounds intriguing, what’s it all about?”

“We promote physical combat between men and women; boxing, wrestling, and martial arts. I’m always on the lookout for new talent.

There was a break in the conversation as the bartender brought over their beer.

“Mmmm that’s good,” she sighed after a healthy swallow, “just what I needed after a good workout.”

“Karla, you said there was another reason why you came here today.”

“There is Mike; I’m also looking for a new boxing instructor. That used to be my job, but I’m just too busy to give the proper attention that the position requires. I’m ashamed to say it but, because I wasn’t aware of how much one of my female fighters had improved, I put her in the ring against a novice fighter. She ended up beating him pretty badly. It’s lucky for me that he’s a really nice guy and accepted my apology and agreed to stay on and not sue me.

“My plan was to stop by your place after I got finished at Jake’s. I figured I’d see if there were any prospective fighters that I could use, but more importantly I was coming to see you.”

Just then their burgers came and the conversation was put on pause.

“This burger is delicious and so juicy; it’s almost decadent. I can imagine what my conditioning instructor would say if she knew I was eating something like this.”

As they ordered a second round of beers, Karla reached into her bag for an envelope and handed it to Mike.

“Mike, before you open it I just want to thank you. It was you who got me into this business and showed me where the real money was to be made. Our first fight confirmed something I instinctively knew: that there was something sexual in women fighting men. Even though I lost that first fight, I was so turned-on by the end of it that I just had to get out of there before it turned into something I wasn’t ready for. It was obvious that you were turned-on as well.