Anna meets her professor at the field house.

Anna walked into the field house with butterflies in her stomach. It was dim and dusty, with beams of light cutting in through windows that hadn't been cleaned in a long while. Dumas wasn't there yet when she got there, but that made sense--she was ten minutes early, as usual.

She'd spent the second half of the day envisioning her boxing match with the professor. Most of her daydreams ended with her triumphant, standing over her professor and taunting him. Others, a little more subconscious, contemplated the possibility that he would beat her. Either way, she was ridiculously horny, and that feeling was currently overpowering the anxiety caused by doing anything remotely sexy with her professor, but only barely. If she won, she'd have some really good leverage over him. But if he won, what might he do to her in return? She didn't want to risk her grades.

Anna emptied her little gym bag onto a bench and put her gloves on. She started hitting the heavy bag and bouncing around to warm up. She was hyper-conscious of her breasts bouncing and her butt jiggling as she threw the punches Billy had taught her. The leather gloves smacked satisfyingly into the bag as she pictured herself unloading punches into Dumas's stomach.

The noise from her gloves must have drowned out Dumas coming in from the door, because she didn't notice him until the hairs went up on the back of her neck and she could feel his gaze on her. She turned around, looking her professor up and down. This was the first time she'd ever seen him in casual clothes. Instead of his usual oxford shirt or sweater, he had on a light blue t-shirt with a printed design saying "Bob's Tacos," and, in smaller print beneath, "Venice Beach." He wore gym shorts and sneakers. Anna noticed a surprising amount of muscle on his frame that wasn't visible when he was dressed for class. The t-shirt was stretched tight over his chest and shoulders, and hung a little looser over his flat stomach.

"Are you sure this is a good idea?" he asked, setting his own bag down and pulling out a pair of gloves.

"Even if I lose, I know I'll prove my point," Anna replied. They stretched out their arms in silence, Anna feeling his eyes roving her body.

"Ready when you are," Dumas said. Anna rolled her eyes mentally. Men never warmed up enough.

"Ready," she said with determination. They climbed in the ring and put their gloves up.

"How does the match end?" Dumas asked her.

Anna pondered the question. On the one hand, it was a bad strategic move, letting her set the rules. Ceding ground to her before the match had even started. On the other hand, maybe he was just trying to be a gentleman.

"Both my matches have ended in knockouts so far, so let's do that," Anna said assertively.

Dumas shrugged. "If you say so," he said, putting his fists up. "But we should try to make it a little safer. Let's say if either of us knocks the other one down, they should have the opportunity to submit."

Anna didn't like that he was trying to change the rules after implying he'd agree to whatever she wanted. But she did appreciate his phrasing: he was already open to the possibility that SHE would knock HIM down. She assumed that was because he'd seen her hitting the heavy bag when he arrived and was intimidated.

She decided to needle him a little bit. "Fine," she said. "But my brother took his knockouts like a man; I'll be disappointed if you don't do the same."

Dumas grinned for the first time since he'd gotten there. "I admire your confidence, but it's misplaced. I was being polite a second ago, but the reality is, you can't beat me," he said, a little smugly.

Anna just smiled and said, "we'll see." She wanted to go on a rant about his sexist attitudes, but she figured she'd let her fists do the talking.