Free Hooked (The Submission Fighter Book 1) by Sophia Hampton

with him. And in the moments where she lay in silent sleep with Micah, she didn’t dream of robberies or mysterious muggers. She hadn’t even thought of the ring that was still missing. Instead, she felt something completely new: protected.
     
    But now, someone was trying to get ahold of her, and she had a good guess of who it could be. Micah watched as she crawled, hands and knees, towards her fallen dress. She slipped it on along with her white lace panties and then swept her tangled hair to the side. Easing herself down the side of the ring, she walked to her purse and retrieved the still buzzing phone. It lit up the gym and illuminated her face as she clicked the on button.
     
    “Oh shit! Micah! It’s three in the morning!” Alice rummaged through her purse, grabbing a discarded hair tie, pulling her hair into a bun that sat sloppily on the crown of her head.
     
    “So what if it’s three a.m.? The gym doesn’t open for another four hours. We still have time for another lesson, if you’d like.” He leered at her, seductively. He could go at least three or four more rounds with her and really never be fully satisfied.
     
    “No, Micah. I go to work in three hours, and my roommate’s been trying to get ahold me since midnight. I promised I’d call.” She scanned the texts for the first time as a smile crept up on her face.
     
    “What? What’s so funny?” He was a bit suspicious of her complete change from panic to humor.
     
    “I’m not the one in trouble… you are.” She walked to the ring and pushed the phone to him. He read through the texts out loud, mimicking a high pitched, valley girl voice. 
     
    Micah stopped on the last one. “Who are Jace and Pete?” 
     
    “Oh . Um ...well… Jace is Caroline’s sort-of boyfriend. She has a lot of them. And Pete…” she trailed off and sighed, looking for the right way to approach it. “Pete is the guy I was with . H e’s actually my boss.” Alice prayed he wouldn’t go further with the questioning.
     
    “The guy who forced himself as your date to the match?” Alice nodded her head as a response to his question as she lifted her dress and slipped on her bra. “He’s your boss? Jesus, what a fucking tool.”
     
    “Yeah. Tell me about it. Last week, he tried to sleep with me, pinned me down and everything on the couch. And when I didn’t give in, he changed my hours to the morning shift as punishment , which is why I have to get going.”
     
    Micah sat straight up, grabbing his jeans and t-shirt from a pile underneath his head. “Wait-wait-wait, what ?!” he exploded. “He tried to force himself on to you? Shit, Allie. Screw Pace or Trace or whatever his name is. If I see this Pete, I am going to beat the shit out of him for you.” His anger startled her, knocking her back down to reality. He was moving quickly now, almost as if his purpose meant more to him than getting her to work on time.
     
    She moved towards the ring’s outer edge where he was slipping on his shoes. From even a distance, she could feel the heat of his madness build. It was dangerous and mysterious, and she wasn’t sure if what she felt was intrigue or terror. Yet, she still reached out to touch his back and used her fingertips to spin him around. And in the moment, she did something she wasn’t really familiar with: she embraced him in a warm hug, burying her head and her mess of hair into the crook of his arm and abdomen.
     
    Micah wasn’t sure where to go with this. He couldn’t remember the last time he had been hugged or even embraced by a woman in such a non-sexual way. This was comfort and calm, and he was not brought up or taught to feel this kind of pleasure. Yet, the way she tamed him was almost like a remedy for a sickness he had never known he had.
     
    He kneeled down towards her, making contact with her mouth. The sweet sensation of her lips collided with his own mouth in a burst. She wrapped her arms around his neck, as he picked her off of