Page 100 of Heritage of Fire

“Just going to stand there?” she asks, placing her hands on her hips.

“Maybe.” I wink at her, and a flush breaks out over the apples of her cheeks.

“What are we learning today?”

I push away from the wall and join her on the training mats. At my instruction, my men moved the gym equipment out of the way so we could have a reasonable amount of space to train. I bounce on the cushiony material and stretch out my arms.

“Worried about pulling a muscle?” she jokes.

“Nah, just warming up.”

“Mhmm.” She circles me, her sneakers sticking to the mat.

“We’re going to touch on the below strike.” I walk behind her, toeing her legs apart. “Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, elbows slightly bent.”

She follows the simple instructions. I guide her through pivoting her body and using her hips—which I can’t seem to take my hands off of—to generate power for the strike.

“Strike the attacker with the pointed part of your elbow, aiming for sensitive body parts. Face, throat, and ribs work. Let’s try it.”

I move around and come at her from the side. Switching to the balls of her feet, she rotates, using an elbow to poke my ribs.

“Like that? I don’t want to hurt you.”

“Don’t worry about hurting me. We’re going through the motions.”

She smiles, and now I can’t focus. Watching Luna doing something about her fear, and learning to defend herself, is sexy.

I decide on two more escape drills.

“If an attacker grabs your wrist—” I take a hold of her wrist, fanning my thumb across the soft underside. She looks up at me through thick lashes, her pulse fluttering. “Rotate your wrist in the direction of the attacker’s thumb while pulling away. Then create distance.”

“Okay,” she says, trying to pull away without shifting her wrist in the right direction.

I hold fast to her, and she struggles. Her nostrils flare as she tries to pry my grip off her wrist. I yank her to me, and she collides with my chest, her mouth panting close to mine. Her tongue darts out to lick her bottom lip. I lean forward, holding her eyes.

“You aren’t turning your wrist the right way. Come on, Luna. Where’s the spark?”

Her mouth parts, and she yanks away, freeing herself. But only because I let go.

“Try again.”

“Gosh, you’re bossy.” She stalks toward me and I snatch her wrist once again. This time, she twists toward my thumb and pulls down, breaking the connection.

“There you go. Nice work.”

We practice several more times before moving on to another front attack move.

“If someone approaches from the front and wraps their arms around you, downward force is your best friend. Immediately drop to your knees, lowering your center of gravity.”

I approach her, wrapping her in a large bear hug. Her scent hits me and want thrums through me.Shit.

She drops by bending her knees.

“Okay. Now, from here you can do a couple of things. Stomping on a foot is a good option, followed by one of our practiced elbow strikes to the ribs. Should give you enough time to create some distance.”

We practice again, and she doesn’t hold back stomping on my foot. It actually hurts. Then she elbows me in the ribs, knocking the wind out of me.

“That’s great, Luna,” I huff out, catching my breath.

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