Page 24 of New Girl in the City
I let out the breath I had been holding. “Yeah, okay,” I said. I didn’t know what else to say. “But you never answered my question. Where, and who am I learning to fight from?”
He shifted and his hand went back to lying flat against the passenger side seat. I followed every movement with my eyes, my breath shallow and sounding like a freight train in my ears. It was usually easy to pretend that I didn’t think Liam was attractive. To draw on my annoyance at him, or even play up my ‘spoiled princess’ vibe when we were in traffic and bickering, or when Claudia was there. But none of that was here now to save me.
Now it was just the two of us in a dead silent car. Alone. And he’d just been making me hot simply by staring at my ankles.
This was not good.
He raised his gorgeous eyes to mine and gave me a half smile that stole my breath entirely. “That’s easy, Princess. Me.”
“What?” I squeaked.
“Me. I’m gonna show you how to throw a punch. Block a hit, break a hold, what to do when you get grabbed.” He jerked a thumb back at himself and then turned away. I tried to act as if I hadn’t just been nearly panting or thinking about throwing myself at him. Couldn’t he sense that? It was as if none of that had affected him whatsoever, and maybe it hadn’t. Maybe that’s why he was so casually offering to teach me to fight.
My cheeks burned hot at that and not in arousal either. This was embarrassment, hot and sickening. Maybe he saw me just as I was. An older, single, woman alone in the city. Acting like an idiot over her personal safety, and her driver. A woman who was, at the very base of everything, his employer.
That did a lot to keep my libido from making me do something stupid. I sucked in a deep breath and gave him a jerky nod.
“Sure, that sounds great. I don’t want to cut into your free time though. I’m sure you have a lot of things you’d rather be doing.”
“You don’t worry about that,” he said.
“But—” I began.
“I wouldn’t be offering if I wanted to be somewhere else. I only do what I want, yeah?” He was looking at me again, this time just over his shoulder but the effect was enough. I saw that he meant it and nodded again, this time less jerky and managed to give him a smile back.
“Yeah.”
“We start tomorrow after work, so plan on wearing actual footwear and not those things.” He narrowed his eyes in the direction of my feet. I rolled my eyes, grateful for the familiar pattern of disdainful banter. I scoffed at him and reached out to open my door, waving him off when he made to get out to do it for me.
“These things make my legs look awesome,” I said, extending one leg out of the car. I admired said appendage because damn was I right. A scarlet heel against my tan skin was a good look, and I knew it.
“Trust me your legs would look good in anything, Princess.”
I stumbled and nearly fell flat on the sidewalk at that. I was suddenly glad I hadn’t let him open my door, because it would have been a whole scene. As it was, I still stumbled, barely managing to keep myself standing with a hand to the car. I turned to offer him a quick, strained, ‘thanks!’ before I was slamming the door with too much force and hurrying away. I didn’t need to embarrass myself further by showing just how much his little comments affected me.
