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She said, “Cardio. How about we just get in the ring and fight it out?”
“I’m fine with that, but don’t expect me to go easy on you.”
“Pish.” Ella headed over to the ring, around ten-by-ten with three black ropes on either side. She slapped her hand on the mat and got a sore palm for her efforts.
“Harder than it looks, right?” Ben said. He rolled into the ring, sprang between the ropes then stretched his back over them. Showing off now that he was in his element.
Ella bounced up and down on a mat that was less springy than she’d anticipated. The last time she’d been in a ring of any kind was for a charity boxing match about five years ago, where she’d somehow managed to pick up a win despite knowing absolutely nothing about boxing. Her martial art of choice was Bujinkan, but it didn’t matter if it was martial arts, boxing or wrestling; a punch in the face was the same in every language.
“Show me what you got,” Ben said as he began sidestepping around the ring. Ella followed suit, moving away from him, readying herself to show Ben how a woman did things.
“So, what, no rules?” she called.
“Code of the streets,” Ben said. “You always talk about taking guys down. I want to see it for myself.”
Ella laughed, found herself cornered against the turnbuckle, then charged shoulder-first at Ben’s midsection. The poor boyfriend froze in place, tried to minimize the inevitable impact by taking some of her weight on his forearms. They both crashed to the mat in a heap, then Ella got Ben in an armlock and grabbed his free wrist with her other hand.
“How’s that?” she laughed.
Ben swung his legs up, caught Ella’s head between his ankles, and pulled her down. She lost her grip, scrambled to keep herself steady but felt Ben slide his arms underneath her shoulders and press his palms against the back of her head.
“Not fast enough, Miss Dark.”
“Please,” Ella said. “You’ve left your weakest spot wide open.”
“I know, but you won’t hit me there.”
“I won’t?”
“You want kids one day or not?”
Ella cackled and said, “One step at a time.” She wrapped her ankle around the back of Ben’s leg, tipped him to one side and landed on top of him spine-first. She felt the wind gush out of his lungs, not enough to hurt but enough to let him know who was in charge. She tried again for the armlock but Ben had her scouted. He swept her leg, knocked her to the mat, mounted her, and held her down.
“What would you do now, Bruce Lee?” he asked.
“Crotch,” she said. “But in this case…” Ella flung up her knees, pressed them against Ben’s ribs and pushed him back to his feet, springing him off the ropes. Ella jumped to her feet and tightened Ben in a headlock, hooking both of his arms behind her back. She had him in the ultimate submission, the one she’d locked countless suspects in over the years.
“Ow,” Ben shouted. “Okay, this hurts.”
“The Black Dolphin never fails,” she said. “You give up?”
Ben kicked and squirmed. “The what?”
“Black Dolphin. Russian jail. They escort prisoners like this.” She tightened her grip around his neck. “Had enough?”
Ben managed to grip Ella’s locking wrist, pulled her forward then planted her face-first on the mat. She sprang round to her back, feet poised to kick. Ben stopped, laughed. Ella was a little surprised.
She said, “Nice technique. Not many people know how to break that.”
“Including you,” he said.
Ella took a moment to breathe. “You got me.”
“Here,” Ben said as he pulled Ella to her feet. He resumed the headlock position, then said, “Most people focus on the choking arm, but the trick is the locking arm. Yank that and the tension on the shoulder will free up the choking arm, meaning you can do this.” Ben went to do it again, but Ella readjusted, let go of his arms and moved to his wrists.
“Or this.”
She had him bent at the midsection, wrists locked, good distance from his legs to avoid any sweeps. Ella felt her boyfriend about to retaliate, but an unwelcome intrusion came in the form of a ringing phone. Ella glanced in the direction of her gym bag sitting just outside the ring and sighed. She knew this situation all too well. That same ringtone haunted her dreams, and Ben seemed to be a magnet for it.
