The Fighter's Secretary by Ann Mayburn

for a present, and had instead found pictures of his dad having sex with dozens of different women. It had sickened him so much he’d lost his mind and had tried to kick his father out of the house.
    Instead of leaving, his father beat him and, for the first time in his life, his mother had stood up to his father, telling him to get the hell out and not come back. Soon after that the financial support dad had given them vanished just like the man and his uneducated mother from a small town in Texas had found herself alone, raising three teenage boys who had more than their fair share of anger. Luckily they belonged to a good church which not only gave his mother a job, but a few of the men who belonged to the congregation also took Dallas, Austin, and Huston from then on, acting almost as surrogate fathers. One of them, an old black man with a face as wrinkled and dried out as a raisin, ran a boxing school in their neighborhood. It was there that the Ortega boys had learned to fight, learned to channel their bottomless anger into something productive.
    But tonight his anger had slipped its leash and he’d lashed out at the only woman who’d ever made him feel complete.
    He was such a fuckup.
    Dallas must have said those words aloud because a moment later Amanda’s voice came from behind him. “Well, I don’t know if you’re a total fuckup. Maybe just a little bit.”
    Disbelief filled him and he had trouble taking a deep breath as she sat down next to him and swung her legs over the edge of the dock. Her hair was still down and it floated about in the soft breeze coming off the ocean. He wanted to tell her he was sorry, that he didn’t mean what he’d said, but his usual easy charm had vanished, leaving him silent like a tongue tied teenager.
    She gave him a glance out of the corner of her eye. “I’m sorry I said those things about you. I had no idea about your dad.”
    God, she was so kind, so good. He didn’t deserve her. “Amanda, you don’t have to stay if you don’t want to. I’m sorry about this whole blackmail bullshit and I meant what I said. I’ll be more than happy to give you two months salary and help you find a new job. What I did…I’m sorry.”
    She shrugged. “It hasn’t been that bad. I mean, I had dinner with your family. That wasn’t a hardship.”
    Guilt flayed him as he remembered spanking her in his office. The fact that his cock started to stiffen as he thought about her smooth, bare ass turning pink made him shift uncomfortably. “I shouldn’t have touched you back at my office. I’m a bastard.”
    She shrugged again and her legs swung faster. “Yeah, well…that wasn’t really a hardship, either.”
    The last part came out in a whisper and he turned to face her fully, struck by her beauty in the dim lighting from a night that was never really dark in the city. She wasn’t perfect, didn’t have the kind of face used to sell beauty products or magazines. But to him she was the most striking woman he’d ever seen. The fact that she wasn’t pushing him off the dock into the water right now threw him for a loop, but he tried to not get his hopes up. Maybe she just felt guilty about hurting his feelings. Amanda was kind hearted like that, but the last thing he wanted was her with him out of pity, so he had to make sure.
    “Are you saying you liked it?”
    Tilting her head forward so her hair hid her face, she nodded.
    His own personal bullshit began to recede as he studied her, taking note of her body language, how she’d turned herself towards him but wouldn’t meet his eye. “Talk to me, Amanda.”
    Blowing out a harsh breath, she tossed her hair over her shoulder and gripped the edge of the dock. “I liked it, okay? But I don’t do casual.”
    He almost laughed, but managed to hold it back. “I could never do casual with you.”
    “I want to believe you, I really do, but Dallas I know you. I’ve seen firsthand the endless parade of women in your life. Beautiful,