Page 3 of Crossing Paths
Despite the logic of that and the high likelihood that he was nowhere near her house, the shadows took on a menacing quality. Someone could easily be lurking in the darkness, staring up at her, taking delight in her fear.
Her breaths came quickly, fogging the glass, and she couldn’t drag her gaze away from the thousand and one possible hiding places right outside her home. Wait—was that a flash of light? She blinked rapidly, but that just made it harder to tell if she’d imagined the glow or not. Her stomach twisted as his typed words ran on repeat in her mind. He could be just a few steps away from her house. If he picked the lock, disabled the alarm, and crept up the stairs, he could be outside her tiny bedroom inmere minutes.
At the thought, her gaze flew to her closed door.Is that creak just the house settling, or did someone take a stealthy step?She went completely still, listening. It felt like the house held its breath along with her. All she could hear was the rapid thud of her heartbeat in her ears, telling her to run.
But she was trapped in her closet of a bedroom. There was no escape.
Her first instinct was to text her sisters. She knew they’d come running to protect her, and they’d deal with the problem so Norah could return to her safe comfort zone, but something in her rebelled at the thought. Leifsen had broken throughhersecurity onherlaptop. Unintentionally, she’d left a back door unlocked, and he’d used it to slither into their home. Leifsen was her mess, and she needed to protect her sisters from him rather than expose them to danger.
You can handle this. Fear still filled her, vivid images of terrible possibilities flashing rapid-fire through her brain, but she forced herself to shove those unhelpful thoughts away. Grabbing hold of the tiny kernel of anger inside her, she focused on making it grow. Leifsen had destroyed her safe, happy place, ruined the only thing she could do to help her sisters, and she wasn’t going to let him get away with it. He’d dragged her out from behind her screen…so he’d have to deal with the consequences.
Because now Norah was mad.
Two
Norah stared fixedly at the fist swinging toward her face, even when the knuckles got so close she went cross-eyed. She wanted to close her eyes, but they refused to cooperate.
The fist stopped abruptly, close enough that Norah’s eyelashes brushed against the battered knuckles. The gym was completely silent until her belated indrawn breath broke the quiet. For the thousandth time, she mentally gave thanks that no one else was ever there during her sessions. It limited the potential embarrassment at least. Physical pain, Norah could handle. Mockery, not so much.
“If you’re not going to block, you should at least move your face.” The voice had a compelling raspy edge, and it took her a moment to actually register what he was saying, just long enough for her eyelashes to flick against his knuckles three more times.
When the meaning of his words finally registered, she pulled her head back and moved her focus from that huge,scarred fist. She hadn’t expected the almost hit to come so fast. It hadn’t given her time to think through each step of blocking his punch, so she hadn’t done anything—not even duck. That had always been her issue when her sister Felicity tried to teach her self-defense. If she wasn’t able to run through her mental what-to-do checklist, her brain froze until it was too late. That was probably part of the reason she’d watched her sisters come very close to dying multiple times recently.
Now she was on her eighth training session with Dash, and she was still freezing whenever a fist headed in her direction. The strength and agility training he put her through was tough but doable, but the part where she actually had to learn to fight… That wasn’t going so well.
Dash dropped his arm to his side and regarded her with his head cocked slightly to the right. Although he was frowning, that had been his default expression since she’d walked into his gym seventeen days ago, so she didn’t take it personally. “It’s better to movebeforethe punch lands.”
When he paused, she figured he was waiting for her to say something. There really was no necessary response, however, since everything he’d just said made sense. Still, in the interest of moving on to the next step, she gave a nod and said, “Okay.”
His scowl deepened. “Don’t just agree.Doit next time.”
She studied him as she mentally debated how to respond. It was an interesting face to look at, with his almost-black irises and prominent cheekbones and the scars mottling the left side of his neck and jawline, but she couldn’t really enjoy it because the majority of her focus was on what to say next.Okayhadn’tgone over well, so that was out, but that was usually her go-to when she wanted someone to stop staring at her and continue.
“I will,” she tried.
To her satisfaction, that seemed to do the trick. Although his expression was still snarly, he took a step back and settled into the defensive position he’d just shown her—base solid and hands ready to protect his face. Despite his burly form, he looked light on his feet, and she knew from their training sessions that he could move surprisingly fast. One of his slashing black brows lifted in a soundless command. Twitching her tank top into place, she moved to mimic his stance.
She’d been working with Dash less than three weeks, but the position already felt natural. It just made physiological sense, and there was nothing Norah appreciated more than when things were logical. If only punches didn’t come so quickly, she was pretty sure she’d actually be able to remember how to counter them.
“Let’s try this in slow motion,” he said as if he’d read her mind. He started extending his arm, the muscles stretching out from their bunched positions. Even when he wasn’t flexing though, his arms were huge. As his fist gradually drew closer to her face, she ran through the steps in her head.
Shoulders up, tuck my chin, thrust palm, connect with the side of his wrist, shove his arm away, move my face in case I miss, and return hand to guard position.
“Good.” The compliment was a mere grunt, but it still warmed her insides. “Again.”
Over and over, slightly faster each time, he threw punches ather face. Gradually, her movements became automatic, and she didn’t have to think about each step. Her body just started doing what needed to be done.
“Okay,” he said, shifting his balance back.
Norah felt a line of sweat tickle her spine, and she wished she could take off another layer. If she took anything else off, however, she’d be down to her underwear. Just the thought of being that close to naked in front of the intimidatingly self-possessed Dash made her flush.
“Let’s work on breaking some holds.” His voice was even as he continued, either ignoring the fact that she’d turned bright red or not noticing that she suddenly resembled a stop sign. As warm as the gym was, he probably just thought she was overheating because of the physical effort rather than embarrassment.
He was waiting again, so she gave him a slight lift of her chin in response. That seemed to be what he’d been waiting for, because he shifted closer and waited for her to imitate his ready stance.
“If I grab you, what’s your first impulse?” He closed his fingers around her forearm, the rough rasp of his skin in direct opposition to the gentle, careful way he held her.
She blinked down at his hand, surprised that she wasn’t more upset. Normally, she wasn’t a big fan of strangers touching her. Her gaze moved to Dash, and she wondered why it was different with him.
