War of A Rose

War of a Rose • Chapter 37

Chapter Thirty-seven
Rosaelia

Sweat beaded down my temples. My arms throbbed, and my hands ached. Not enough to make me stop, though. I kept throwing punch after punch. Kick after kick. I even managed to get a few pins in. The blonde bounced around the mat, keeping my pace. She was good. Really good. But I was better. And if I weren't, I would keep going until I was.

It had been months since I'd trained with either her or Niccolò. The very few times that we did spar, she hardly tried. It was different this time. We both burned with passion today. Our anger had riled us both up. We both had something to fight for. As soon as she walked into the gym, I could tell she came here to win. But so did I.

When Alessio paired us to train together, I expected her to protest or not even show up. But she did, and she was ready for it. I knew it was nothing personal, even when she landed three right hooks to my face. Or when she slammed me twice on the mat. I knew her frustration was toward the quiet man in the corner of the room. The one who pretended he wasn't watching her. I saw it, though, how his eyes would slide to her whenever she was caught up in pummeling my face. I saw that gleam, and I knew if he weren't so angry with her, he would have cheered her on. Cousin or not, he would cheer for the winner always.

And I knew—hoped that she understood that my rage was directed at my father and the loss of my mother.

The rest of the guys stood around the mat, cheering and commenting on all of our moves. It was so distracting I cussed them all at some point. Niccolò stood silently next to Alessio, whose eyes were just as distracting as his friend's words. I couldn't focus with that icy stare burning into my back. Whenever his sister had the upper hand, I couldn't shake the embarrassment as he watched us.

Luckily I had finally got her down. I straddled her stomach, holding her arms down with my own. Enzo yelled for her to get up before switching to yelling at me, demanding I finish her. He was the most distracting of all with his ludicrous comments and bipolar attitude. She sent the blond a glare before turning back to me. I didn't have time to lean back before she bucked her head forward, slamming it right into mine. A low-pitched ringing sang in my ears, and for a moment, I could see nothing but stars as I fell back on my ass.

Liliana took the opening to flip our positions so that I was now on my back with my arms pinned. Now it was Enzo yelling for me to fight back and for her to finish me. My muscles ached too severely, and for a moment, I really considered giving up. I relaxed them and leaned into the mat. Someone had begun to count down. My eyes slid to Alessio's, and for a moment, we were the only ones in the room. Green to blue. And those ice-colored eyes willed me to get up.

So I did. I thrust my hips, sending her forward. I brought my knees up with her and kicked her over me. She flipped over herself and landed with a thud on her back. While the impact dazed her, I climbed toward her. Realizing what I was doing, she turned to crawl away. On her stomach, I pounced on her back and slid my fingers around her ponytail band.

I'll apologize for this later. I slammed her face into the mat. I didn't need to look to know that those blue eyes were proud. I could feel it. I could feel him and the smirk on his stupidly handsome face.

"Oooo!" Enzo grimaced from the side of the mat before looking up at me and smiling, throwing a thumbs up when I caught his gaze. Luckily Liliana was out cold, or he might have been the next one on this mat with her.

I let go of her hair and pushed myself up. My knees wobbled at the action, and if I had been alone, I would have allowed them to give out beneath me. The smell of iron was the only thing in the air. Liliana stirred on the mat beneath me. Slowly, those brown eyes opened. Tears had pooled in them from how hard I had slammed her head into the ground. Reaching my hand out, I offered an apologetic smile. Though my face hurt too much to actually smile. My lips had hardly moved, and I'm sure I looked fucking stupid.