Maya was scared, filled with emotions she couldn't name, her body reacting in ways she couldn't understand. Why did only the mention of the name Gabriel send her heart racing and start a fire in the pit of her stomach, stirring feelings she had never felt before.

Her father had called her a whore when she had looked twice at another teenager when she herself had been a teenager. She had felt angry then and rightfully so, it had given her the self determination to beat her father's white room torture. Now she wasn't so sure, was this what it meant to be a woman of low morals - to want the body of a man on top of her's, doing things to her that no one had done before, a man she barely knew.

In her minds eye, she saw him. The way he had been at the arena the focus in his gaze, the rhythm in his moves. He had obviously not needed to stay focused in other to beat all his opponents, even a dummy could tell he was the better fighter -- yet he had fought with a concentration she had never seen before.

The ringing of an alarm jolted her from her reverie, it was coming from somewhere in Rachel's room. She looked at the clock by her bedside, it was five o'clock.

She had been living in the policewoman's house even though her house had been cleared by the police and she was free to go back yet she didn't want to go home, not yet. She wasn't ready to face her nightmares, to stand in the same house where her mother had been brutally murdered by her own father. There were to many memories, memories she wanted to lock up somewhere in the recess of her mind. Her father had hated birthdays, he had simply ignored her's or he had forgotten her birthday but he hadn't spared her mom and each day that would have been a day of celebration in other families had been a horror in her own house. Her father had always locked himself up with her mother in their room and she had always ended up needing ear plugs and very loud music to block out her mother's screams.

Somehow in the last few days she had felt free, from being herself, from the horror story that was her life. She had felt emotions that she had never felt before, she had even made a friend. Even though she knew Rachel was only putting up with her out of pity, the policewoman was still the closest thing she had ever had to a friend.

She got out of bed and took a shower, she was going to have to face her fears and move back into her house and like her English teacher always said, there was no better time than the present.

"Good morning beautiful." Rachel said as she stepped into the sitting room, she was already in her uniform.

"Good morning Rachel." Maya smiled, trying to be brave. "I'll be going back to my house today."

Rachel looked concerned immediately. "Are you sure you're ready for that, you know you can remain here as long as you want."

Maya sighed. "I know. It's just that I'm going to have to go home one of these days."

"It doesn't have to be today -- you can stay here for a month or two, until we're sure that--"

"Sure that what." She shook her head, a bit confused. "What are you trying to tell me Rachel."

Rachel sat down gently. "He has been granted bail, a thousand dollars but we all believe he can't afford it."

Maya suddenly couldn't breathe, her breath was coming out in whooshes and she couldn't draw in enough air. She tried to concentrate. She had not snitched, her father had no reason to punish her but deep down, she knew he did not need any reason. He had been in jail, he didn't like that and that was reason enough to want to punish her, he could even throw in the fact that she had not come to visit for good measure.

She felt Rachel's reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Breathe." Rachel was saying and gradually, she forced in air into her lungs and forced it out again.

"Like I said earlier, you don’t need to go back there, not today"

Maya shook her head slightly, dread written all over her face. "Yes Rachel, I do have to go back."

With the tournament drawing closer the arena got more busy, many crews practiced in the arena for want of better rehearsals space, others challenged people randomly, beating and getting beat, learning new tricks and teaching old ones.

Maya arrived wearing her mask again, she couldn't let anyone know she was a woman, she wondered how they would react if they found out. Obviously, they would not be very pleased. She shuddered to think what a multitude of men who were not pleased with her might do, her father served as the only example she could come up with in her mind.

"Still feeling embarrassed?'' Maya turned to find who had spoken and saw Bryan.

"Embarrassed? I don't understand what you're talking about." Maya was momentarily confused.

He pointed. "Your mask. You're still wearing it."

She shrugged for want of something to say.

The weather was clouding like it was going to rain and a few bouts of thunder had already waltzed through the atmosphere. Many people crowded into the building and not for the first time, Maya noticed just how many people assembled on a daily basis at the arena simply because they loved to dance -- or fight, she didn't know the difference anymore.

"Want to go inside?" Bryan asked.

"Sure." Maya shrugged and followed in his wake then she realized what he was saying.

"You seem to be here because you want to prove a point to yourself and I don't know what that is but-- it's obvious you don't belong here, I mean, I'm not trying to be mean but look around you, what do you see?"

All Maya could think of as the tears clouded her vision was that boys didn't cry. She tried to do as she was told and looked around. All around her, she saw men of different ages, sizes and races but one thing was common among them, they were all doing what they loved most with utter abandon. She choked down her sobs and answered Bryan with the clearest voice she could muster. "This is my home now Bryan, I cannot go anywhere from here."

Bryan sighed and she saw him pull at his hair from the corner of her eye. "Look Buck -- though I have a feeling that's not even your real name. You cannot really call this home, firstly you're more of a dancer than a fighter and secondly if this were home to you, you wouldn't be wearing that mask. You're built small, what would you do when the bullying comes because trust me, you're going to attract nothing but bullying with the way you stick out like a sore finger."

"So what's your point!" Maya cried out in exasperation, she didn't care anymore about the tears that were freely flowing down her cheek, mingling in and out of her mask.

"Wooh!" Bryan was momentarily shocked, being faced with feminine tears was a horror many Men liked to avoid but being faced with tears from another man was something he was totally unprepared for. "I'm sorry Buck but I lost -- Gabriel said you could join if I could beat him, I didn't --"

"Would I be accepted here if I did this?" Before Bryan could understand what she meant, Maya tugged at her mask and pulled it off.

Bryan drew in a breath as he watched rich curls tumble down a face that was so exquisite, it belonged only in paintings, falling down to her waist then she dug her hand beneath her shirt and pulled out the binders she had used to bind her breasts.

Bryan watched the under formed youth standing before him transform into one of the most beautiful women he had ever come across. "I'm not sure if this helps you're case." He said huskily

"Well at least, we've started getting real around here." They both turned at the sound of Gabriel's deep voice and Maya found herself pinned down by piercing blue eyes that held her with their unfathomable gaze, she could give her right arm to be able to read his mind at that moment.

"Follow me Buck." He said the name with obvious mockery. "We have a lot to talk about."

Maya felt the menace in his words even as she felt heat rush up her neck, she had no idea why she was blushing as she followed Gabriel meekly to a room that looked like an office, praying silently to heaven that he wasn't as experienced as her father in punishment.

Gabriel had finished work that day and headed straight for the arena, with only one thought in mind -- to submerge himself totally into the world of rhythmic fighting as his emotions got lost in the wordless melody of the South American musicians.

Work that day had been typical, so typical he had started to wonder at the pointlessness of his world. The editor of the Daily times had called to ask for his permission to publish some article about how the Di Marco family had been immigrants. Gabriel hadn't given his permission but the fact that the editor had had to ask for his permission before he okayed an article in his own paper was ...... why couldn't people just stand up for what they believed in, didn't all the journalist have some code of honor or something. All it had taken to buy the editor had been a mere hundred thousand dollars. And then there had been Sam. He had remembered her name because he had been fond of her, he had imagined what it would be like to have sex with her, had in a way looked forward to it, then she had appeared in his office, horny, dressed like a hooker and not wearing any underwear. It had been the easiest sex he had ever had and something about it left him feeling hollow even though they had had a so called happy ending.

He had drove over to the arena in his silver mustang, exceeding the speed limit, feeling the need for a bit of danger something a bit on the edge of the unknown but breaking the speed limits in New York was already old territory to him.

He had parked his car at his usual parking spot and jogged up into the arena when he spotted the scrawny masked kid talking with Bryan. Something about the kid irritated him but he couldn't quite put his finger on it, probably had to do with the cowardly way the kid continued to wear his mask each day to the arena. He had already told the boy that he couldn't join his crew and he knew the kid would not be accepted elsewhere yet the boy had continued to show up doggedly, he was even taking lessons from Bryan, and each time he came in his oversized shirts and his mask.

Gabriel had been walking over to them with one goal in mind, to put an end to the boys hopefulness and finally send him away then to face his crew and grill them in a way he had never done before when he noticed the boy crying. Disgusted he had wondered what would make a man who claimed to be over eighteen cry -- in public when the boy had tugged at his mask and pulled it off and in one breathtaking moment, he had watched as the rich curls of the woman he had once fantasized about tumbled out of their confines in the most beautiful and dramatic way he had ever witnessed. For the first time in his life, he had been speechless. The woman dug her hand underneath her shirt and pulled off a tape and Gabriel watched as the gentle swell of her breasts pushed out against her oversized shirt. He felt heat rush to his groin and a strange feeling of anger at the effect of the woman on him even though he knew she wasn't even trying to impress.

Ignoring feelings he couldn't understand and focusing on one emotion that characterized him -- anger, Gabriel walked over. "Well at least we've started getting real around here." Both Bryan and the woman turned at the sound of his voice. "Follow me Buck, we have a lot to talk about." He did not bother to mask the sarcasm in his voice but turned and matched over to the room he kept organized for the sake of minor paper work.

Letting her in, he turned and shut the door and then on an impulse, he locked the door and put the key in his pocket.

"You better start talking."

He watched arousal and something else briefly pass over her face then she squared her shoulders. "You can't make me."

"Really?" He asked quietly, so quietly it would have been easy to miss the steel in his voice but she didn't. He walked closer, slowly yet precisely. He was taking his time to get to her and for some reason, Maya imagined what the last thoughts of a deer was before it was taken by a wild cat.

Standing so close to her so he could feel the slight tremors that came from her and she could feel the heat of his body, he raised a strand of her hair, marveling at how soft it was. "Are you really going to wait till I make you, because --" his voice dropped a notch lower. "I'm ready to do just that." He nibbled at her ear and felt her tremble. "So what's it going to be, Buck?"

Maya drew in a breath and tried to steady her heartbeat, while her body was racked by different emotions she had never felt before. She felt threatened by the man standing in front of her and yet she wanted to bury herself in his arms, like that was the only place she could even feel safe. "You can't m-- make me." But even to her own ears, it came out weak, with a hint of questioning not as a bold statement.

Gabriel laughed mirthlessly. "Do you -- really want to fight me Buck? Have you not yet realized that I never loose?"

Confusion added to Maya's jumbled up emotions. "What do you mean by fighting you Gabriel?

I don't understand."

He traced the bottom of her lower lip and felt her tremble again, stirring something primal in him. "You don't want to do this -- pretend I can't make you do whatever I want. That I can't make you singing your entire history to me including why you want to fight and in the next moment have your beautiful thighs spread over this desk, naked and screaming my name."

Maya tried not to picture herself the way he had just said but failed. Somehow even though she still stood in front of him fully clothed, she felt like she was naked with her legs spread open for him just like he had said. He had that effect over her. "I would fight you Gabriel if you fight fair."

Gabriel drew in a ragged breath. "I never fight fair." But even though he felt aroused and angry at the same time, there was something so fragile about her and for the first time, he felt the need to protect, he wanted to protect. There was something so doe- caught -- in - the -- headlights about her that was endearing and strangely provocative. He stepped back a bit. "Okay Buck, what are the rules."

Maya drew in a breath, surprised at her victory. She relaxed a bit as her cheeks dimpled in a reluctant smile. "First of all Gabriel, my name is Maya and -- it's simple, give me a month and if I can beat you, I'm in the team, just like I said earlier but there's a clause."

"What's the clause Maya?" Gabriel asked, surprised at how he could go from suppressed frustration to easy going banter with just a flash of her smile.

"You're going to have to teach me."