Page 58 of The Mating Frenzy
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She could almost thinktheir time in Florida was a vacation, except for the fact that Kieran kept insisting she was a werewolf and Darcy insisted thesame.
Not only that, but Kieran had begun what he called her “training.”
The morning after the park incident, he told her to get dressed in workout clothing. Then he took her to the ground floor of the house, which served as a small gym. Kieran selected a long pole from the rack on the wall and tossed herone.
“Watch me,” he told her. “And then, we’llfight.”
Fight? She’d rather watch. In his tight gray t-shirt and running pants molded to his powerful thighs and calves, cupping his very impressive dangly parts, Kieran was fluid male beauty in motion. He went through a series of maneuvers with the pole, explaining to her that these were basic moves she would finduseful.
“Let’s try it. I’ll goslow.”
When it came to any kind of self-defense, she was clueless. Useless as an air conditioner in asnowstorm.
But to her shock, she found herself twirling the pole, a perfect mimicry of his earlier move. With cat-like grace, he sprang forward andattacked.
Ella blocked his move. Again. And again. Stunned at her own speed, she lowered thepole.
Whack! He hit her on back of the knees, sending her toppling to theground.
“Never lower your guard. Ever. Control your emotions in battle or you willdie.”
She took the hand he offered and stood. “Battle? Are we going towar?”
Sweat beaded on his temple. He wiped his face with a towel, and then threw her a fresh towel to do the same. “Everything is a battle, Ella. You must be prepared to fight at all times, because the enemy can attack at any moment. Evil is all around us, ready to infiltrate. My father taught me that from the time I wasyoung. ”
“Sheesh, you must have had a fun childhood,” she muttered, throwing the towel aside after drying her perspiringface.
“Idid.
They sparred for another hour, until she begged for a break. After, she cooled off with a swim in the turquoise pool. Kieran dove beneath the water and swam close to her. In his navy swim trunks hugging his lean hips, he was gorgeous. She could watch him forhours.
“I didn’t think cats liked water,” she told him, splashinghim.
Water beaded in the dark hairs of his chest and his inky lashes. Kieran grinned. “Jaguars love toswim.”
Ella regarded him thoughtfully. “Kieran, I don’t know how to fight. How come I didn’t turn into a complete klutz? I nearly failed phys ed in high school because I’m notathletic.”
Wading through the water, he stood near her, and traced a line down her cheek. Ella shivered with pleasure from thecontact.
“You are coming into your true nature, Ella-mine. The wolf will not be denied. The wolf inside you will always know how to fight.” He smiled. “And your beast is no ordinaryLupine.”
“Lupine? Notwerewolf?”
“Lupine is the politically correctterm.”
She splashed him again as hegrinned.
After showering, Ella sat down with her laptop in the living room. Prepared to work, she called up a file she’d copied from the secret archives in the collegelibrary.
Sitting beside her at the dining room table, Kieran scribbled notes on a paper as he helped her with the translations of thescrolls.
“The crystal is key to freeing your mother. Xavier told me I’m to help retrieve it foryou.”
“This is hard tobelieve.”
“Once you activate the crystal, you will be enormously powerful, Ella. Almost as powerful as the Brehon, the council of wizards like Xavier andGideon.”
