After her meeting with her father, Billie felt enraged and there was no constructive place for the anger to go. She needed an outlet. Billie pulled into the garage and with one look, Carlos was by her side.

"Hey, what's happened? What is it?"

"You must be the only person who doesn't know." Billie got out and reached back into her car to pull out the paper. She shoved it at Carlos's chest. "The bastard set me up. He must have known there was a photographer in that alley."

A stream of expletives poured out of Carlos's mouth as he stared at the picture. Quentin had Billie locked in his embrace, and Billie was kissing him passionately upon the balcony, but what he knew hurt Billie most was the headline which read, "The Ice Queen Billie Dupree Finally Thawed Out by Smokin' Hot Playboy Quentin Harrison."

Carlos saw red. "Get to the gym, Billie. I'll meet you there. I just need to find someone to cover my shift."

Billie nodded. That was one of the things she loved about Carlos. She never had to explain herself to him. He immediately understood what she needed. She kissed his cheek and he smiled.

"Go!" Carlos waved her off with the paper in his hand.

Billie nearly sprinted to her apartment. A quick change and she was ready. She grabbed the bus and got to Johnny G's gym in Brooklyn. Billie walked in, threw down her bag, and sat on the bench while she wrapped up her hands.

It hurt. Bad. This situation brought back so many memories and feelings she thought she buried. How dare he?! Quentin said he wanted to help her. Billie got up and swung at the heavy bag with a vengeance. How could she be so irresponsible?

Was he behind there being a photographer in the alley? It was his suggestion to find a back way out of the co-op. Was his plan to appear innocent while manipulating the entire event? Billie pummeled the body bag and refused to stop swinging, just like the picture of them kissing refused to stop playing in her mind.

It didn't help that the photographer captured her neediness perfectly. It looked like Billie was the aggressor, not Quentin. That must have been his M.O. when he kissed her in the way that he had.

Billie could feel several eyes locked on her as she beat the crap out of the heavy bag. Yeah, she was mad, and she didn't give a damn who knew.

The owner of the gym came up behind the bag to hold it in place. "Hey kid, take it easy on the equipment, will ya? Some of this stuff is as old as me. Need to talk it out?"

Billie shook her head no. Johnny's expression held the wisdom of a man who has seen it all and knew what she needed. "Okay, let's do this then."

He started to instruct her on the proper way to hit the bag, and Billie kept swinging until she had to stop to catch her breath. She leaned over, her sore hands on her knees.

"Feel better?" Johnny asked.

"I'm getting there," Billie got out between pants.

"I don't envy the boy that got you this riled up," Johnny said with a grin. "Get in the ring."

Billie looked up at him surprised. "Did I stutter, girl? In the ring, now!"

Billie got up to the ring and climbed between the ropes, having no idea what she was doing there. She watched as Johnny snapped his fingers at someone and one of the lightweight class boxers had grabbed some sparring gear.

Johnny got into the ring. "You need a target? Now you got one," he said as he helped her put on her gloves and headgear. "You're Carlos's girl, right?"

Billie nodded, too scared to speak. She never sparred with anyone but Carlos. "Well, show me what you got, kid."

Johnny explained the rules, while Billie stood staring into deep brown eyes and a smirking grin that was beginning to irritate her further. The bell rang and the boxer hit her in the head, hard. Billie felt a little dazed.

Johnny came over to her and put his hands on her shoulders. "Guess now you know Danny isn't going to pull his punches because you're a girl, don't you?" the old man said getting in her face and looking into her eyes.

Billie shook it off and nodded. "Next time, don't let your guard down." He got behind her and shoved her back into the fight.

Don't let her guard down. That was the mistake she made with Quentin. A mistake she won't ever make again. Her hands came up and blocked her face. The boxer swung again and this time, Billie dodged and landed a kidney punch, causing the man to groan. He pulled back.

"Nice shot," Danny said rubbing his side. It was game on.

***

Carlos finally had gotten someone to cover his shift and was about to leave when an Aston Martin pulled in and the window rolled down. "Where is she?"

"Like I'd tell you!" Carlos said to Quentin who was sitting behind the wheel.

"Please, I've been searching for her everywhere. They said she left the office and she's not at home. I have to find her."

"Why? You not through using her yet?" Carlos said throwing the paper at him through the window.

Quentin blocked it, scattering the pages along the ground. Carlos stormed out of the garage. Quentin left his keys in the car, yelled to the attendant to park it, and ran after Carlos. 

"Carlos! Please, it's not what it looks like."

Carlos scoffed. "Save your excuses. Not interested. You hurt her and if she didn't need me right now. I'd lay you out flat for her."

Quentin caught up and grabbed hold of Carlos's shoulder forcing him to stop. Carlos whirled on him and easily knocked his hand away. "You don't want a piece of me," Carlos warned.

"I don't want to fight you," Quentin agreed, "but I have to get to Billie. I have to explain."

"You really think she's going to give you that chance? Just goes to show how little you know." Carlos kept walking, hit the button to open up his Jeep, and jumped in. Quentin opened the passenger side door and got in with him.

Carlos looked shocked at the audacity. "Get out of my Jeep!"

"You're going to her aren't you? I have to talk to her. Please?" Quentin begged.

Carlos wasn't sure why he relented. Maybe it was the desperation in Quentin's voice.

"I'll give you one chance to explain yourself. If you don't convince me, I'm dumping your butt somewhere between here and Brooklyn. Otherwise, I will take you to her."

***

When Carlos arrived at the gym he was surprised to find Billie in the ring going toe to toe with Danny, Johnny's newest acquisition. He let out a loud whistle, which stopped the match.

"You got the wrong target, Johnny," Carlos hollered.

"Is that so? You've trained her up right, Carlos. She's nowhere near going pro but she's given Danny a run for his money."

Billie looked over at Carlos and smiled, but the smile quickly faded upon seeing who was standing behind him.

"What's he doing here?" Billie demanded to know.

Carlos didn't answer. He looked back at Quentin. "Good luck, you're going to need it."

"What?"

Before Quentin had a chance to do or say anything he was stripped of his jacket and geared up to go into the ring. 

"Are you serious?" 

Carlos jammed the headgear on his head. "You want to fight for her? You want to talk? You got to get in the ring."

"Fight for her, Carlos, not with her. I'm not going to hit her!" Quentin said, astonished by the mere thought.

"Really? Because she's going to hit you," Carlos said pushing Quentin towards the ring.

Johnny's grin was ear to ear when he held the ropes down for the guy Carlos brought to fight.

Billie took the farthest corner from Quentin and leaned over the ropes. "What are you doing? Why would you bring him here?" she asked Carlos who stood by looking up at her.

"Eyes on the prize," Carlos told her.

"Prize? Pfft! He's no prize," Billie turned back around and smacked her gloves together. Quentin was going down.

***

Quentin couldn't believe he was standing in the ring with Billie. He heard the old man saying something about rules but he couldn't concentrate. He needed her to know what really happened. He had to make her listen. How was he going to ...

A bell sounded and he was doubled over by a gut punch he received from Billie that brought him to his knees. Shit that hurt!

"Get up!" she demanded. "All that talk about wanting to help. You freakin' liar!"

Quentin got to his feet. She swung at him again, but this time he was ready and blocked the punch, but he refused to hit her back. "I do want to help you."

"Liar!" Billie landed another body blow.

Quentin was glad she was so damn short or he'd seriously have to be worried about her knocking him out cold.

"Damn it, Billie!" Quentin winced in pain. "Yes! I saw that photographer and yes that's why I kissed you. I knew the gig was up. You were out of time. Exposed whether you wanted to be or not. So..." He blocked another blow. "So I gave them what they wanted."

Billie landed another hit. "And that's supposed to make me feel better? You used me! Did you and your father have a good laugh as you read the paper this morning?"

She swung again and Quentin dodged.

"I know how this looks, Billie but we can use this to our advantage. We have their interest, if you just go along with our plan, we can make this work."

"Oh, so now I'm supposed to trust you?!" Billie swung at him again. Tired of taking the shots Quentin used a take-down move he knew from sparing when he took Jujitsu. Billie was now flat on her back and pinned in his guard. She struggled beneath him but he wouldn't let her free.

"Yes, Billie you're supposed to trust me. I haven't lied to you. I've never lied to you. I kissed you to help you, damn it. It was too late not to play my father's game, but it's a game we can win, together."

Billie stopped struggling and the look that she gave him, was heart-wrenching. "You should have told me. You made me feel like a fool. Do you have any idea how humiliating it was to walk into the office this morning? One kiss and I was reduced to some plaything. I lost all respect."

"You can't lose something you never had," Quentin said bluntly and she winced like he did when she landed a blow.

"Get off of me!" she demanded.

"No, not until you hear me out," Quentin said but before he knew what was happening Billie bucked him and put him in a reverse guard.

"No, you will listen to me."

Quentin knew he had enough strength to overpower her but he chose to let her have her say.

"You're right. Those men have no respect for me. They fear me but that's not the same thing. But you didn't have any respect for me either."

Quentin was about to interrupt her, to disagree, but one look from her silenced him.

"You saw that photographer. You made your decision and mine. Then you didn't have the balls to tell me what you'd done. You let me walk right into that minefield and my world got blown up. That's not respect. That's not trust. That's not anything."

She climbed off of him and stood up. Danny ran over and helped her undo her gloves. "I respect you," Danny said with as much sincerity as he could muster.  It almost made Billie want to laugh.

"That's only because you know if you got me mad enough I could probably take you," Billie replied with a wry grin.

"How can I not respect that? Johnny's gonna be working me harder than ever now that he knows I can get beat up by a girl."

"Woman," Billie corrected, handing him her headgear and gloves before climbing out of the ring.

"Don't I know it," she heard Danny say as she walked back to where she left her bag. His statement made her smile.

Quentin was still lying on the mat. Johnny knelt down next to him. "Am I calling you out, son or did she knock some sense into you?"

Quentin turned his head. "I feel like I'm washed up before I even started. You still think I got a shot?"

"The only way you lose a fight is when you stop fighting. Sometimes the towel is thrown in, sometimes it's a straight-up KO but if you still have fight left in you then I'd say it isn't over yet, and that girl is worth fighting for."

"Get these gloves off of me," Quentin said making up his mind. He was going after her.

Carlos got Quentin to his feet and Johnny got his gloves off.

"She's already left but there's a diner, half a block from here. They got the best milkshakes ever made. You'll find her there," Carlos told him.

"You're still willing to help me?" Quentin asked handing him his headgear.

"If helping you helps her, yeah."

"Thanks." Quentin knew she was already gone but now that he knew where she was headed it was time to pick this fight up where it was left off.

***

Quentin found the diner and Billie sitting in a booth in the back drinking a milkshake just like Carlos had said she would. He wondered again how it was that Carlos knew her so well. Quentin knew there was nothing sexual going on between them, still, he envied their relationship.

He slid into the booth across from her. Billie said nothing. He took it as a good sign that she didn't start off by telling him to leave. She wouldn't look at him, however.

"Billie, I'm sorry. I should have told you about the photographer. I was afraid. I thought if I told you up on that balcony you'd refuse to be kissed but it was too late not to and then after I did it I knew if I told you later, it still be too late, for me. Either way, I couldn't see how this wouldn't end with you being mad at me. But that's just it, I was only thinking of myself. I didn't think of you. How this would play out on your end. What you'd have to face. What you were walking into. I'm sorry."

Billie played with the straw, swirling it around in her glass. "You were trying to give me the illusion of being in charge. Giving me a chance to think I had a choice in all of this. In a way, that was rather sweet of you. If I'm really mad at anyone, I'd have to say I'm mad at myself, for believing I had a choice, to begin with."

Quentin knew exactly how that felt. He was never given a choice in life. His rebellious nature was the direct result of that, but even then his father was still orchestrating things in the background using him without his knowledge as he had with Billie.

"Well, if neither of us has a choice then it looks like we're in this together."

Billie rewarded him with a half smile. "It does look that way, doesn't it?"

"You need to know, you aren't the only one that plays to win. If we're stuck playing this game let's make up our own rules."

Billie took a long sip of her shake before asking, "What did you have in mind?"

"We get married," Quentin said so nonchalantly Billie was certain she misheard him.

"Come again?"

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but the board of directors were salivating over that picture of us, right?" Quentin asked and Billie wondered how he knew.

"Your father owns the company but he can't sell it without the approval of the other stockholders. Even if your father is blind to the truth, they wouldn't be. They'd do their research and know what my father has done to the last 5 companies that he's acquired."

"Five?" Billie didn't know about the other two but it also showed that Quentin had done some research.

"Yeah, he's trying to build a monopoly to be the last man standing, and right now you're the only company left in his way, which means he'll stop at nothing to acquire Dupree Industries."

"But what has that got to do with the board of directors?" Billie felt more confused than ever, this problem was far more complicated than she realized.

"They know he has dismantled the rest but if they believe the son of Harrison was in a relationship with the daughter of the rival company well then surely Harrison wouldn't put himself before their happiness? He's leading them on, giving them a false sense of security."

"How do you know this?" Billie asked though fearful of the answer.

"He's used me like this before. The only problem being, I really was in love with the girl. I fully expected to marry her, but once the papers were signed and she saw what my father planned and did to her father's company...she broke off our engagement and wanted nothing more to do with me."

It was difficult for Billie not to see the pain that confession brought him. "I'm sorry."

Quentin shrugged. "This time, however, we know his game, and this time we'll beat him at it."

"But marriage? I just don't see how that will stop him," Billie said.

"It's not the idea of marriage but the fact that I'm marrying you," Quentin explained with a grin.

"What's so special about me?" Billie inquired.

"For that answer, you'll need to come home with me. You need to meet my mother."

Author's Note: Had another song stuck in my head while writing this chapter. I hope you found this chapter as fun as I did writing it.