Body Shot (Tapped Out) by Cari Quinn Page B

to attend Giovanni’s fights. Like a bloodhound, I dug around until I discovered their location and made sure I was in the audience. That he never took notice of me wasn’t the point. I knew I wasn’t the kind of girl he usually ran with. Or even looked at twice.
    I startled as Giovanni jumped down from the ring to speak to one of the girls in his harem before climbing back up into the octagon. He lifted his head and I swore he glanced my way. His gaze pierced me straight down to my toes but he didn’t so much as smile. He just stared at me— into me—then swaggered back over to his corner to talk to his trainer. The second round was starting soon, and he obviously didn’t have time to bother with little girls with crushes.
    Screw that.
    Hell, lately I barely had time to make my case for more with him. I’d been visiting culinary schools in the tristate area, trying to figure out which one suited me best, while working almost full time at Salad Hut. Preparing fancy salads all day for unappreciative teenagers and Jenny Craig escapees wasn’t exactly getting me ready for my future career as a chef, but it was a job and I needed one with school coming up. Expensive school. Grants and loans would only take me so far, and my sister wasn’t able to contribute much. That was part of why she’d come up with that crazy plan to fight a guy—to make more cash. She felt like she needed to look out for me, and that included pretending she was my mom because ours was dead.
    As much as I loved her for it, I yearned to break free and do something wild. Something my sweet, overbearing sister would never, ever agree with.
    Yeah, so I never said I was smart.
    I also never said I knew what I was doing. How could I? At eighteen, no one really does, at least not someone like me who had lived in the shadow of a girl who’d been on a milk carton. Not really. But Mia had lived through something no one should, and as the one who’d been left behind for those three months she was missing, I’d been sheltered to the point of insanity.
    Tonight, however, I was shedding the chains of overprotection. Mia and Tray had the night off and were catching a movie, which meant it was safe for me to be out later than usual.
    So far I was off to a rip-roaring start.
    I didn’t get it. He wanted me; I would’ve staked my measly savings account on it. But he wouldn’t take that step. So I would have to. I just didn’t know how.
    The second round started and Giovanni stalked across the mat to the now more visibly unsure X. Giovanni punched and kicked and spun until his opponent was left in a quivering mass, barely able to defend himself. I couldn’t help staring. The man’s muscles were a masterpiece, and I saw a good amount of them parading through my apartment on a daily basis. Mia’s boyfriend was no slouch in that area either, and fighters apparently liked to be close to naked a lot.
    I liked them to be close to naked a lot too.
    Round two ended much like the first, and Giovanni was declared the victor. X shuffled out of the ring, his spirit broken but his body still mostly intact. They’d drawn some blood tonight, but I’d definitely seen way worse.
    Eventually Giovanni finished up parading in front of his female admirers and headed to the showers. I debated waiting around to talk to him, then decided to take another tack. Talking had gotten me nowhere so far. He’d seen me, I was almost sure of it, and he still hadn’t come over to speak to me. Even a “hello” would’ve been nice.
    Just the same, I didn’t want to flirt with the guy. Or not only flirt. I wanted to be the woman he saw me as. I knew he did. Why he kept denying us both, I didn’t know.
    But I would.
    By the time he came out of the back exit of the gym, I was biting my lip and trying to convince myself not to go any further. I could still go home and catch a couple of episodes of Girls . I hadn’t turned into a full-fledged stalker yet.
    Then he climbed behind the