"Keep your fists up, Katie, remember..guard up," Chris urged.
Katie, intently circling her boxing instructor, pulled her gloved fists closer to her chin. More than a month of lessons had passed and Chris reminding his pupil to guard her head had become routine.
Not that Katie was a bad fighter: the attractively fit, 25 year-old blond had good foot work for a beginner. Her punching and jabbing only needed the right training to become effective.
"I can't see over my gloves," she answered with a high, girlie voice that annoyed and stimulated Chris, almost at once.
Chris had decided, no matter what anyone insisted, Katie was not a ditz. She was a blond, a natural blond, in possession of a 34D chest and an uncompromising dedication to being feminine. It took two lessons before Chris got Katie to stop wearing makeup in the ring. Chris operated on the assumption that Katie, always slow to both ask and answer questions, was "girlie" to cover personal insecurities, mistakenly leaving others with the impression she was a flirty dim wit.
Chris shot a few punches at Katie's torso, which she deflected precisely. Bobbing sideways, Chris swung around at her side. Katie blocked and hooked a left to Chris' head. The instructor staggered and returned fire at Katie's head. Her gloves shot up in defense, but left a portion of her jaw exposed. Chris tagged the spot perfectly.
The girl fell sideways, arms flung out, feet grabbing at the canvas.
"Chris...I..." purred Katie.
"Katie!" Chris called out, but his words evaporated in Katie's ears. She wavered in place and dropped into the ropes in an effortless, wave-like fall.
Landing ass first, Katie slid along the ropes. Her compact red lips drifted open and she sighed.
Chris cursed to himself, imploring God to damn a number of things except the unconscious girl spread out before him.
Drained of anger, Chris checked Katie's pulse and thumbed her eyelids.
"Okay Katie, please wake up." Chris said as he slapped the sides of Katie's face. Her head jerked side to side and Katie breathed in loudly.
"Was I....I..thought I was...in bed..." Katie whispered.
"Yep," Chris replied blankly, helping the girl to her feet. Katie leaned on him completely, her legs slipping over each other as they edged toward a nearby chair.
"Chris?"
"Yes, Katie?"
"Do you have a girlfriend?"
Chris held a small flash light to Katie's eyes and clicked the on button. To his relief, the pupils contracted.
"Not right now."
Katie felt warm sleep swarm over her and she smiled, sinking downward.
Love and sex always collapsed into the same urge for Katie: if she wanted sex with a guy, then she must be in love with him. And since she was obviously in love, sexual desire followed naturally.
After their last session, Chris concentrated on Katie's road work, further development of her upper body strength and insisting she avoid boys until she showed progress.
Katie followed through on the first two directives and failed miserably with the third.
Katie was smitten with Logan, another boxer at the gym, a little older than her. She questioned Chris about him continually. Initially, he told Katie only the facts he knew about Logan: half done with law school, unattached and a strong right. After more questions, Chris said what he'd been holding back: Logan and a few other guys in the gym were in a contest to see who could nail the most females by the end of the year.
"How do you know?!" This was the first time Chris ever heard Katie angered.
"Because I was invited to participate," answered Chris. "If you don't want to be treated like a slab of meat, stay clear of Logan."
A few weeks later, Chris discovered Katie didn't take advice.
"Katie? It's three in the morning!" Chris mumbled in exasperation as he tied his flannel house coat.
The blond, her eyes only half open, stalked uninvited into Chris' living room and pitched herself on the couch.
Uneasiness crept over Chris.
"Are you drunk Katie?"
"No...a little.." Katie's response was a slow, high-pitched mixture of anger and frustration. Chris knew why the girl was inebriated, but waited to hear it from her.
"Logan is such an asshole!" she shouted, pounding the cushions with her fists. Chris asked if she wanted some coffee. Katie requested a beer and Chris said no.
Silence flourished between them until Chris sat on the couch next to Katie.
"Chris, do you think I'm stupid?"
"No."
"Just a dumb blond with great tits?"
Chris recognized a disdainful imitation of Logan through the alcohol-slurred voice.
"Katie, I've never thought you were dumb and you are a very attractive girl."
"I am?"
"Never doubt it."
Katie threw her arms at Chris, lassoing his neck and kissing him with a ungainly passion. Chris panicked and felt himself falling. His tongue weaved with hers and then they were staring at each other.
Katie felt Chris' breath on her face and got to her feet, pulling Chris with both her hands. The older man followed his pupil into the bedroom and pulled her top off over her head.
Chris woke to find Katie asleep on his chest, her arms clutched around him
"How you doing?" Chris asked when Katie stirred awake.
Both Katie's lips and eyes smiled at Chris.
Three months speed by before Katie accepted the challenge match. Veronica Mitchell, at 42, was the oldest female fighter at the club and certainly one of the best. She had recently begun taunting Katie about Logan's sexual prowess and how she had done what the blond had failed to do: transform Logan into a one woman man.
Chris told Katie to ignore the older woman. "She knows you're impulsive and not ready to fight an opponent with her ring experience."
"I am so ready!" Katie shouted rashly.
"Veronica is stronger than you are and she does not fight fairly!"
"How do you know?"
"Because I've seen her in the ring and we've..."
"And...'we've what'?"
"I don't trust Veronica."
Katie was momentarily silent. "She likes hurting people?"
"Yes, Katie."
"Outside the ring, too?"
There was understanding in Katie's voice. She hugged Chris and gave him a kiss before she went to her locker.
Katie slept tranquilly. The fourth round of her match with Veronica was half done and she was flat on her back, her entire body so limp that it seemed to Chris like liquid poured onto the canvas. Only Katie's chest moved up and down rhythmically.
"There's a rule that says any female who's great in the sack is shit in the ring," Veronica said, reclining against the ropes, undoing her gloves, as Chris checked Katie's pulse. "So I'll assume this one's rocking your world."
Veronica had waited until round three to describe to Katie sex with Logan. Katie became increasingly careless in her anger until round four when the power of Veronica's right upper cut pitched her backwards, smiling in a giddy daze. Katie's world swirled into darkness.
"Of course, I'm the exception that makes the rule, as you already know, Chris."
"Get lost, Veronica!" Chris barked.
Katie inhaled and then expelled a soft sigh, signalling her return from dreamland.
"You know, Chris, Karin here was.."
"Katie!"
"Yes, right, Katie...was trying to hurt me and not just because I'm making Logan's eyes roll from so many orgasms." Veronica retreated through the ropes and climbed down from the ring. "It was like she was looking for vengeance for something or someone else."
Chris settled Katie against the ropes. Her eyes blinking suddenly, Katie felt light flood her brain.