After lunch, he
suggested a lesson in hand-to-hand combat and that was when things got
interesting.
I shouldn’t have
been excited about it, considering he was about to hand my ass to me without
breaking a sweat. I had a moment of trepidation when we reached a flat area in
the field Nathan declared a suitable location. That anxiety vanished when he
removed his sweatshirt and tossed it to the ground. Luckily, his back was to
me, and he didn’t catch my eyes bugging out of my head.
The black torn
sleeveless t-shirt he had on underneath revealed the sculpted biceps he’d been
hiding all along, and the sides of the shirt scooped low enough that I glimpsed
a smooth ripped chest when he turned. I was acutely aware that this was the
first time I was seeing so much of him. It was nice, really nice.
His upper left arm
was marked with a tattoo I couldn’t make out from the distance. Other than
that, his skin was unmarked and flawless. Lean and smooth muscles blended and
moved together like a marvelous piece of well-oiled machinery.
I’d bet he had one
hell of a six pack.
“You change your
mind?”
“Huh?” It took me a
moment to realize he had been talking to me as I was ogling him. That was what,
the third time he’s busted me now?
“I asked if you were
ready,” he said slowly, like I was an idiot, which he probably thought I was by
now.
“Yeah,” I said
quickly. “Let’s go.” I swung my arms and clasped them in front of me with a
sharp nod of my head.
“Alright, then.” He
took a wide stance, crossing his arms in front of him and, God help me, all I
could think about was how sexy he looked. “What do you do if someone attacks
you?”
It didn’t help my
case that I hadn’t been prepared for a quiz first, and stared at him dumbly.
He tilted is head.
“Take your time, Kris.”
“Shut up.” I could
do this. I jutted my chin out at him. “Man or woman?”
He hesitated, clearly
wondering where I was going with this. “Man.”
That was easy. “Kick
him in his happy place.”
His lips twitched
and I caught a brief twinkle in his eyes. It took visible effort, but he
managed to keep a straight face—something he seemed to have a hard time doing
around me lately. He considered my answer and nodded objectively. “Good tactic,
and probably effective, but I think we’ll skip over practicing that one, if
it’s okay with you.”
“Sure thing, coach,”
I snickered.
“Plan B?”
I shrugged. “Run?”
He made a face. “How
far do you think you would get before I caught you?”
From him? Not far.
He knew that. He knew that I knew that. But honestly, what were my
alternatives? He towered over me by nearly a foot and had eighty pounds on me.
He was bigger, faster, and stronger. He was a trained part-god. I couldn't
possibly compete with him.
I huffed. “You can’t
expect me to stay and fight you. I’ve seen what you’re capable of. No thanks,”
I said defensively. “Plus, look at you, look at me. It’s hardly a fair fight.”
“Exactly,” he
exclaimed like I’d said something brilliant. “There are ways to use your
opponent’s size and strength against them, so that when you do run, you get
away, and maybe they think twice about following.”
If it worked, he
would be in serious trouble. “Okay, Sensei, and how do I do that?”
He spent the next
half hour going over technique and demonstrating a few maneuvers to
incapacitate an opponent of any size. By the time he offered for me to try a
few moves on him, I was giddy with excitement.
“Aren’t you afraid
I’ll hurt you?” I teased.
He didn’t even
hesitate. “No.”
I scoffed. “You just
taught me how to hurt you. Isn’t that an insult to your teaching skills?”
“It’s an insult to
your ability to use what you’ve learned,” he returned quickly, and then
relented some with an easy shrug. “It is your first time trying.”
I would have been
infuriated if it had come from anyone else. Coming from him, it sounded…right.
Plus, from the smirk on his face, I knew he was teasing me. So Nathan wants to
play? Game on. For dramatic effect, I stretched my arms behind me and tilted my
head from side to side.
Nathan watched me,
and waited. “Let me know when you’re ready,” he said casually.
I put my hands on my
hips and narrowed my eyes at him. “Ready.”
I really was not
ready when he lunged at me, and that was my excuse when I failed miserably and
ended up restrained in his arms. And that wasn’t necessarily a bad
thing.
He let me try over
and over, and I failed each time. Finally, out of breath after five minutes, I
stopped him. “What am I doing wrong?”
“Nothing. You just
need more practice. You can’t expect to be good at it the first time you try.”
“You’re really
fast,” I panted, clutching my side.
“You’ll get faster
too.”
“You have an
advantage right now,” I reminded him. “Just wait. I’m going to surprise you one
of these days.”
He didn’t look
convinced. That only made me more determined. Somewhere along the way, I had
come to seek his approval, and dammit, I was going to get it.
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