Page 41 of Say You'll Stay

“What do you think about a fighting lesson later?” he asks. “Feel up for it?”

She nods. “I feel fine, better than I have since this all started. Are you okay, though? Don’t overdo it for me. We’ve got some downtime.”

“I’m good. We’ll keep it easy. No body slamming or right hooks,” he jokes.

“I’m not allowed to body slam you. Got it.”

He scrapes up the rest of his food in a final bite. He’ll show her a few self-defense moves. Keep it simple. No chance at all he’ll get himself in another situation where he’s gone love-struck.

She needs to learn to take care of herself should the worst happen and it’s better to start sooner rather than later.

* * *

This was a shit idea. What the hell was he thinking? He has to get close to her to teach her how to defend herself. He wishes they could do this from opposite sides of the room, but that’s impossible.

She’s wearing a flowy tank top that’s been giving him dirty thoughts since she put it on, all that smooth skin on display, and damn if those freckles don’t scatter right down her collarbones and across her arms. He is no better thanevery other man left on this earth, he realizes sadly. Lusting after her when he has no right. Thank god she can’t read his mind.

“We don’t have to.” She picks up on his hesitation. “We can rest today.”

“No. We’re doing this. It’s important. First lesson is that it only takes three pounds of pressure to rip someone’s ear off. So, grab on and yank. Even easier to gouge an eyeball out. That’s soft tissue. You can dig a thumb in and go to town on it. Don’t try to do anything crazy if you can go for the easy stuff like that. Second lesson, how to get away when someone’s grabbed you. Stand right there. Ima come up behind and snag you.”

Jesus, his heart has never beat so fast in his life. No amount of mortal danger he’s encountered compares to his excitement and fear of being that close to her. It’s not like they’re about to get naked in this dusty living room. He’s short-circuiting from impending proximity alone.

Her face is serious but tone teasing as she mimes an elbow hit. “Okay. Then I sock you, right?”

“Something like that. I like having all my teeth though, so not really.”

She turns away from him, looking over her shoulder with a promise that turns low and shoots right for his groin. “I’ll be gentle. Don’t worry.”

She would be, too. Gentle. If they ever…

No. Nope. Can’t go down that road. If he’s not careful, he’ll have to explain a hard-on and that’ll only make this worse. Then, she might leave him here to chance it out in the wild alone and he wouldn’t blame her.

It’s only a self-defense lesson. Nothing sexual about it. He’sthe one making it weird.

Slowly, he approaches her, expecting a flinch on contact. She’s as skittish as he is sometimes, but she doesn’t so much as twitch. Lets him wrap his arms around her from behind and hold snug, even leaning back the smallest bit like she’s enjoying it. It’s right about then that he realizes he’s rarely been this close to anyone for this long.

“How would you get out of this?” There’s no chance she hasn’t noticed how strangled he sounds.

“What if I don’t want to?” she replies, flirty and teasing.

That’s her personality, he reasons. She likes to tease, and it’s not about him. “Will you be serious?”

“Okay, okay lemme see. Can’t do the elbow to the face because you’ve got my arms pinned…head butt?”

“Actually, yeah. Aim for the nose, elbow to the ribs might work too if you have leverage. A heel slammed into the top of my foot is an option. Lots of tiny bones there.”

“Back of the head to the nose. Elbow in the ribs. Foot stomp.”

“Mmhmm. Go on, give it a try in slow-mo.”

It’s easy enough when they aren’t actually struggling. He’s on his way to controlling himself just fine until they move into the next practice pose and she turns to face him, then all the air in the room crackles and sparks like his sizzling nerves.

This is too close, too much. Her face is inches away, her chest is warming his, and if he weren’t hallucinating, he would be certain that her eyes have glanced down at his lips more than once. It would be so easy to close that two-inch gap.

“How do I get out of this one?” she whispers, as if they’re sharing a secret.

He gulps hard. “Bring the heel of your hand up between usand aim for the chin. Can also bring both arms up and then out, sorta like an airplane, then push my mine outta the way with your elbows.”

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