Greetings all! I’m at Lori Foster’s event this weekend, but I’m excited to be able to take part in Snippet Saturday for the ‘fight scene’ excerpt. Everyone’s going to feel like kicking some butt after reading the excerpts from all these fabulous authors, all writing on the same theme. My fight scene is from my latest release, an erotic/time-travel romance–Daring Time
Scene Set-Up: Ryan time travels into one of the more brutal brothels in Chicago circa 1906 only to discover he’s expected to fight an unbeatable opponent. The prize? The life and safety of the woman of his twenty-first century dreams.
A tinny bell rang. Ryan batted his knuckles together twice in a habitual gesture. Strange to feel his own skin and bone. Big Marlo and he were expected to fight bare-fisted. Considering how much this crowd loved blood, he shouldn’t have been surprised.
Jesus Christ, was it his imagination or had he seen Chicago World’s Fair posters of Big Marlo posing as one of the many oddities on the circus-like atmosphere of the Midway Plaissance? Marlo was a behemoth. A freak of nature, as far as Ryan could tell. The bald Algerian towered perhaps six inches over Ryan’s six foot four. He wore a thick black mustache beneath a curved hook of a nose. The abundant hair at his upper lip almost covered a vicious-looking slash of a mouth. Muscle bulged on his shoulders, chest and arms, but he’d started to go to fat on his belly and back. The guy was thick everywhere, the sheer bulk of him being what had stunned Ryan when Jack pointed out Big Marlo’s entrance several minutes ago.
He was slow, though, Ryan reminded himself, trying his best to still his racing heart. Ryan’d have to take advantage of his sloth-like movement.
Marlo lumbered forward to meet him at the center of the ring. He planted his big feet and came to a complete standstill, making it easy for Ryan to maintain the perfect distance. The giant looked confused by Ryan’s limber footwork. He swiped at him with the biggest paw Ryan’d ever seen in his life. Ryan avoided the punch with an almost negligible fade of his torso.
Difficult not to miss a huge, slow-moving target like that.
Marlo took several more wide shots which Ryan avoided with ease. The crowd jeered the big man’s ineffective efforts. Since Marlo was so cordial about leaving his big body as exposed as the dessert to the wind, Ryan got in a few punches in to the midriff.
Marlo snarled in annoyance and came at him throwing a barrage of punches, most of which Ryan managed to either avoid, duck or minimize. The giant’s technique was sloppy, so Ryan had no difficulty landing three tight jabs to Marlo’s midsection while his opponent continued to throw wide. The guy may have accumulated some flab on the gut, but he was solid as a rock beneath it. Still, he could tell by Marlo’s grunts and widening eyes that he’d aimed well.
Some of his typical confidence in the boxing ring began to return until Marlo penetrated, landing a meaty, thwacking punch to Ryan’s solar plexus. A guttural groan exploded out of Ryan’s lungs and throat as pain slammed into him with the force of a charging locomotive.
For a few breathless seconds every nerve in Ryan’s torso shrieked in protest. Even his heart throbbed in pain, utterly forgetting its purpose. Ryan barely had the presence of mind to clumsily duck beneath Marlo’s swinging arm and stagger to the center of the ring, his eyes streaming tears down his face.
Damn that fucker had a hammering punch when he managed to land it right. Ryan took his first full breath shakily and vowed then and there to make sure he minimized at all costs Marlo’s chance of a dead-on swing again.
Now that he had the sure knowledge that Marlo could fell him with one well-placed blow Ryan’s focus narrowed and sharpened even further. This was do or die. He couldn’t let that asshole win. The mere thought of Marlo even looking at Hope hardened Ryan’s already stiff resolve.
The crowd booed when Ryan used his quickness and agility to avoid Marlo’s punches for the rest of the first round and for a majority of the second, but Ryan could have cared less. His goal was to exhaust the slow-moving giant while at the same time to make every one of his own infrequent punches penetrate and pay richly.
By the time the bell signaled the beginning of the fourth round Ryan conceded that his strategy of dancing just outside of Marlo’s reach and taunting the behemoth like an annoying fly was having its effect. Marlo had swung thirty punches for every one of Ryan’s, but the majority of them had been either entirely ineffective or glancing blows. Ryan’s on the other hand, had been far more accurate, including a nailing left that had not only put Marlo’s right eye out of commission for the remainder of the match, but also caused the giant to sway on his feet for a few seconds while the crowd roared in excitement.
Ryan also showed the signs of battle, not having been able to successfully evade every one of Marlo’s flurry of combinations. His ribs were bruised fairly badly and it burned like hell just to breathe. He tried not to dwell on the effect of using his bare fists to hammer flesh and bone. All in all, however, he had good reason to be hopeful, Ryan thought as he watched Big Marlo tip a tankard to his mouth in his corner, slopping what looked like beer all over his already perspiration soaked body. Ryan’s breathing was hardly escalated while Marlo still panted from his last bout of wild punches and ineffective pursuance of Ryan around the ring.
Now that he’d gotten Marlo used to his tactics of buzz and sting, however, Ryan was going to have to change things up and take a risk.
The bell went off and Ryan tapped his knuckles twice, this time much more tenderly due to the cuts and bruises on his fists.
Marlo’s eyes went wide when Ryan stormed the center of the ring. His brief shock at Ryan’s aggressive attack gave Ryan the advantage. He pounded the behemoth with a combination to the liver, ribs and head before he danced back to his typical out-fighter distance. His last jab at the giant’s head had been particularly precise, causing Marlo to stumble back and blood droplets to spray through the air in an arc.
Ryan was only vaguely aware of the boom of approving cheers and applause from the crowd of men, every one of whom was on their feet at this point. Ryan narrowed his gaze on his stunned foe, knowing the fury and pain Marlo experienced at his offensive attack would be mixed with a good dose of adrenaline. That adrenaline would eventually exhaust Marlo even further.
But right at this very second, it would make the giant exponentially more dangerous. Ryan was going to have to take his punishment.
He’d tried to prepare himself but when Marlo’s counterattack came, blind panic flashed through him for a second. Marlo may have been unsteady on his feet after that last right hook to his head, but he was mad enough to move three times as quickly as he normally did. It was like having a slavering, rabid bear charge him. Marlo gave a savage yell, spittle shooting in front of his gray teeth, the whites of his eyes showing ominously. Ryan managed to minimize his first two wild punches by moving away from their momentum, but Marlo caught him with a tight jab to his right brow.
For a nauseating few seconds the lights from the gas chandeliers multiplied before his eyes. As if from a distance Ryan saw a sea of blurred, manic, frenzied faces and punching hands. The loud roar of the crowd slammed into his awareness after a prolonged peaceful moment of total silence.
A white-hot blade of pain pierced his head simultaneously.
He realized that Marlo’s blow had spun him face-first into the ropes. He barely had time to turn around and put up his fists and forearms to protect his head and chest before Marlo flew into him.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Don’t worry, Ryan gets his woman. 🙂
If you’d like to order Daring Time click on the title.
Thanks for stopping by! And now, for more fabulous scenes from these very talented authors…
Shelley Munro
Anya Bast
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Sacha White
TJ Michaels
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Beth Kery
Jody Wallace
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