Page 7 of My Irish Roommate

“What about you?” I ask him.

“Just gloves for me. You’re not gonna hit me in the head.”

“Are you going to hit me in the head?” I ask.

“If you can’t block me? Yes, I am.”

I’m not looking forward to taking a blow to the head from him, but I believe he’s too much of a gentleman to intentionally hurt me. I tell myself he’s just trying to psych me out so that I’ll change my mind about the training.

“You can’t scare me out of this, big man. You promised to train me and you will,” I scoff.

“Oh baby, you’re going to get trained all right. Let’s start by training that smart mouth of yours,” he says and bops me softly on the side of the face.

“Don’t play dirty with me,” I say, rubbing my face. “That was a sucker punch.”

“You know what they say. It’s only a sucker punch if you’re punching a sucker,” he says and laughs hard at his own joke. “Now, show me what you’ve got. Try to hit me.”

We tussle around in the ring for a bit so he can assess my abilities then he runs through a list of things that he’s observed. “You’re quick and your reflexes are good, but you’re tiny and you have no upper body strength. There’s nothing I could teach you that would give you an advantage over a man even half my size, but I can show you techniques that you can use to stun an attacker to give you time to get away.”

As much as Rowan dislikes the idea of training me, we begin again. I’m a bit distracted and find myself peering out into the gym, half expecting to see my stalker staring back at me. Rowan senses my lack of concentration and sweeps my leg, causing me to fall on the mat.

“Why did you do that?” I gasp, trying to catch my breath.

“You’re distracted. You have to pay attention or you won’t learn how to stop me from doing that again.”

“I’m sorry. I just…”

“You just demanded that I train you and now you aren’t taking it seriously.”

“Okay, let’s go. Teach me how to keep you from knocking me on my ass again,” I reply.

He helps me to my feet and we begin again. He spars with me, instructing me how to block holds and prevent being forced off balance by an attacker. I catch what looks like a commotion out the window and become distracted again.

In a split second, Rowan grabs me under my arms, lifts me off of my feet, and slams me into the padded wall behind me. He holds me against the wall with my feet dangling above the floor and presses his body against mine.

“I could do anything to you right now, and there’s nothing you could do about it.” He’s so close to my face that his breath blows my hair back.

God, I want him to tear off my clothes and ravage my body in unspeakable ways, and by the look on his face, he is considering doing just that. Instead, he drops me onto my feet and turns his back on me for a moment.

He turns back, places his hand on my shoulder, looks into my eyes, and says, “If I train you, you’ll become overly confident and that’s dangerous. No matter how good you think you are, your chances of defending yourself against an attacker will be slim. Overconfidence in a situation like that can get you killed, and I’m not willing to take a chance like that with you. Don’t worry though because I don’t plan on letting you out of my sight. I’ll be protecting you.”

“But what happens if I need protecting from you?” I place my hands on my hips and stick my tongue out at him in an attempt to lighten the mood.

Seeing my childish display, Rowan lifts me into a bear hug and drops me to the mat. He pins my legs with his knees and holds my hands above my head.

“You mean like right now?” he grins down at me.

Panting, I look down and see his massive erection stressing the fabric of his gym shorts. He knows exactly what’s gotten my attention, and I expect him to show some sign of embarrassment. Instead, he asks, “Do you like what you see?” causing me to wish that I could hide my scarlet-colored cheeks. “No need to blush, little girl. You caused it so you might as well enjoy the view.”

I raise my eyes and gaze at his soft, full lips, silently begging him to kiss me again. He lowers his face and presses them against mine. In the process, his stiff cock rubs against my aching womanhood. I part my lips and allow his tongue to explore the inside of my mouth.

He still has me pinned down, and his ability to overpower me makes me even hotter. If he stripped me down and took me right here, I would willingly succumb to his desires. How could I have possibly thought I wanted to take things slow? I’ve never been so turned on by a man in my life.

“Rowan? I have a class in five. I need the room,” the trainer bangs on the door and I wonder if he saw us through the window.

“Shit,” Rowan sighs, releasing his hold on my hands. “We need to get out of here.”

He gets up and makes an adjustment inside his shorts. I take a moment to slow my racing heart then climb to my feet, wondering how long it will take for this explosive sexual tension to consume us both.

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