Read Stone Cold Knockout (House of Pain Book 1) for Free Online Page B

between her ribs.
    “Who is that man?” he asked, his grey eyes sweeping her from head to toe.
    “ Tate,” she replied, bringing her gloved fists back up into sparring form.
    “ You have a lot of boyfriends,” he said, bringing himself to his full height and stretching his arms up over his head gracefully. “Why can't one of them train you to fight?”
    “ Not boyfriends. Family,” she said, punctuating the words with a whack to the bag. “And they can't train me because they're not as good as you.”
    “ Not as good?” He was uncomfortably close now, grabbing ahold of the bag to steady it as she pummeled it. “You flatter me. I like it.”
    “ I'm not flattering you. It's true.” She grunted as she punched, the newly steadied bag unrelenting. Shockwaves of the impact shot through the bones of her arm.
    “ What about him?” Mikhail nodded toward Donny, who was still in the ring, firing off quick jabs to Mr. Bert's outstretched hands.
    “ You're fishing, hombre .” Gennifer couldn't suppress another smile as she steeled herself for the next shot.
    “ Fishing? I do not understand,” he said, his eyes shining and his teeth flashing. He knew exactly what he was doing. He wasn't fooling anybody.
    “ Fishing for a compliment.” She rolled her eyes, switching to her left fist. “But since I'm trying to butter you up, yes. You're better than him.”
    “ He is younger. More hungry,” Mikhail said, his eyes searching hers. Fishing.
    “ You look plenty hungry to me,” Gennifer said and that earned her a genuine laugh from the Russian. She dropped her hands to her hips and cocked her head. “So let's hear it.”
    “ Hear what?” Amusement shone in his eyes and he scratched his chin nonchalantly.
    “ Are you going to train me or not?”
    “ Yes.” He shrugged, like his words meant nothing at all. “But like you said, it will cost you.” He stepped around the bag and into her personal space, but she didn't back down. She stared right up at him, wishing she could grow a couple of inches to meet his gaze directly. “You will have to listen to me and do what I tell you to do.”
    “ Okay,” Gennifer said slowly, narrowing her eyes. There had to be a catch.
    “ You will not want to listen, but you will.”
    “ Will I?”
    “ You will,” he said, snapping his gum.
    “ So that's it? You want me to listen to you?”
    “ I do not want to waste my time on you,” he said. “If you do not listen, it will be a waste.”
    “ I'm sure your time is very precious.”
    “ Priceless.”
    “ Right.” Gennifer's eyes dropped to his mouth, annoyed and excited at the same time. She'd never had a true trainer before, but like Mikhail had said, she was undisciplined and she knew she needed one desperately. However, she wasn't exactly one to bend over backwards to be agreeable. She didn't like the idea of him expecting her to obey him. That shit was not gonna happen, no matter how much she wanted to win.
    Damn Russian. He probably thought he already had her wrapped around his little finger.
    “Gennifer,” he said, his voice low and she snapped back to attention. “You would not waste my time, would you?”
    “ No,” she said, arching an eyebrow. “But I better win.”
    “ Oh, little girl,” he said, stepping even closer. “If you do as I say, you will. Believe me, you will.”

Chapter 4
     
     
     
    T wo days later, she knew for certain she'd made a mistake.
    “ You've got to be fucking kidding me,” Gennifer murmured. She stood at the edge of a big, olympic-sized swimming pool, her arms crossed over her chest, as a half-naked Mikhail swam toward her, his big arms cutting cleanly through the blue water. It was 5:00 a.m. On a Saturday. She'd barely gotten any sleep the night before, then she had to drive an hour into Manhattan to the fancy gym in Midtown that he'd insisted on. She didn't know what she was expecting when she'd agreed to meet Mikhail for their first training session that early on one of