Page 62 of Captured By the Highland Devil
“Keep strugglin’ against me and see how fast yer strength wanes,” he told her. “Go on, struggle.”
Doing as he said, she did struggle but soon she found Ruben’s words to be true. The more she struggled, the more her strength drained from her. Tired, she sagged against Ruben, her bosom raising and falling with her frantic pants.
“And ye can still nae move me arm, can ye?”
Paige shook her head. “Nay.”
“Which leads to what ye need to do when ye cannae outmatch his strength, ye need to use his weak points to yer advantage,” he said.
Moving his arm from around her neck, he slid his hand down to her arm. His rough touch made her skin pebble with gooseflesh.
He bowed her arm and cocked her elbow, “Bring yer left elbow up as back as hard as ye can straight into his face or into his belly,” Ruben said, “If ye reach his face, it will take him by surprise and if ye get to his belly, if will make him double over. Now, try it.”
Paige was briefly distracted by his touch and the closeness of his body to her before she responded. “Are ye sure? W—won’t I hurt ye?”
Ruben snorted, “I am a battle honed warrior, lass. As ye are now, nothin’ ye can do will hurt me.”
She swallowed and flung her elbow up again and jabbed it into his jaw, and to her surprise, Ruben hissed. “Do ye have blades in yer elbows, lass? That one is sharp,” he teased her.
“I take it that is a good thing,” Paige replied before slamming her elbow into his gut.
She did not get a reaction from him, but he did grunt in approval. “That’s good. Now, the next thing ye need to do is quick succession with striking his face and his gut is to stomp yer heel into his foot and grind it in. That way, ye’ll maximize his pain and throw him off beat enough that ye can run away.”
Paige attempted to do it twice before he egged her on to put more force into her stomp. “Think about the man who grabbed ye and almost shoved ye over that horse. Would ye be so delicate with him?”
A fire flared in her belly and recalling the fright and fear of that moment, she lifted her arm, snapped into Ruben’s middle. She lifted her leg and stomped hard, forcing him to stagger away.
“That what I am taking about,” Ruben’s approval made her heart warm. “Now that ye are away from him, ye have two choices, ye can run and flee or ye can stay and fight.”
“With the daggers?”
“Aye,” he said. “And ye have an opportunity to disable yer attacked even more. Ye should knee him in the groin.”
Her mouth dropped open. “What? Ye cannae be serious.”
“I am as serious as death,” he said.
Paige’s mind spun at his words. It went against every ladylike behavior that she’d ever been taught. But then, what was more important? Being ladylike or surviving an enemy attack?
“Ye can run or spin around and knee him in the groin.”
Paige reviewed the steps in her head. “It seems simple enough.”
“Try it.”
“But I daenae want to hurt ye,” she protested.
Ruben rolled his eye and before she could respond, both his arms slid under hers and he dragged her back, almost lifting her in the air as well.
In a swift movement, she brought her elbow down instead of up against his face and jabbed it into his middle just as she stomped on his foot with all her might.
His grip loosened enough for her to whirl around, snap her knee into his groin. Quickly, he deflected her attack with both his hand and stood facing each other, both panting with the sudden rush.
“I am glad that ye are a quick study,” he said while rubbing his belly.
His praise made her feel amazingly strong and powerful. “Show me more,” she said.
“Just when I though ye would beg off to go and rest. I am so glad ye asked,” he said. “Now ye’re being a responsible woman.”
