I watch her full pink lips form the words, her throaty voice rippling through me like a smooth stone skipping across a tranquil lake. It’s the very opposite of the chaos that characterizes my normal everyday existence.
“Now I know your secret. How are you gonna beat me?” I still have her wrists gripped tight and I pull her closer, unable to think straight under the hypnotic haze of lust and desire clouding my mind.
She tilts her head backward, gazing up at me with a half-hooded gaze that makes my cock jump. A slow lift of her lips tells me it didn’t go unnoticed, either.
What the hell am I doing right now?
Every reason for being here has fizzled away, fading to the corners of my mind like white noise. It drowns out every last bit of my sanity, every sliver of logic until I am consumed by carnality.
She needs me to protect her but right now I’m too focused on what I need.
What I want.
What I’d fantasized about since I first had her in my arms.
Suddenly, she whirls around, looping her arm through mine as she comes full circle, a smirk on her lips as she holds out my wrists.
I just let her best me.
Goddamn.
“See?” she says in a sultry tone. “Surprise.”
“So you want to go toe to toe with me? You think you can beat me?”
“I think it’s looking good so far, bodyguard.” She lifts an eyebrow. “What the hell am I paying you for again?”
“Ouch. That’s harsh.” I crack my knuckles. “Why don’t you show me what you’ve got? Let’s see your skills. Unless you’re afraid it might have been a lucky fluke to catch me off-guard like that.”
“Oh, I’m not afraid of that.” She flashes a bright white smile at me. “I’m only afraid of hurting you.” With a glance over her shoulder, she nods toward the array of pads sitting on a long table along the far wall. “You want to put on some padding? Just in case?”
“The only padding you’re gonna feel is your back pressed against the mat once I take you down.”
“Sounds so kinky.” Her gaze takes on a deviant glow. “So dirty.”
“What can I say? I know my audience.”
She circles me like a predator eyeing her prey. “Funny. But you know what will be funnier? When I knock you on your ass.”
“You think you can get me on my back? You think you can dominate me?”
“I do.” She jumps forward in an attempt to fake me out. My arm flies up to block the punch that never comes.
She thinks I don’t know her next move.
She doesn’t realize I know all of them.
I swing my arm in front of my groin, instinctively knowing that’s her next target.
I was right.
I block the shot, grabbing her wrist and spinning her around so her back is against my chest. I lock her with my arm, preventing her from doing another spin-out.
She struggles, fighting against my tight grip.
“You’re wasting too much energy trying to get away,” I whisper against her hair. “Don’t work against me. Make me work for you.”
A few seconds later, Kristina stops writhing. She allows her body to go limp, sliding down the length of my torso. She crouches low to gather her footing before leaping at me, her arm shooting out to sucker-punch me.
I expect it, though, and that pisses her off. Her eyes flash with anger, her cheeks bright pink as she sweeps a leg out in an attempt to send me flying face-first into the mat. I grab her around the waist, taking her down to the floor. Her long, dark hair splays out around her in a glossy crown of waves. She shoots a defiant glare at me, my hands pinning her to the mat, my legs straddling her.
“So that was your plan this whole time, huh?” she whispers breathlessly. “To get me on my back?”
“Nah. My plan was to show you that even the best moves can be used against you.”
“I’m out of practice,” she huffs. “Like I said, I haven’t been home for a while. And I haven’t worked with my dad in…” A shadow eclipses her taut features, her eyes welling up with tears. “So long. Too long.” She sinks to her knees, covering her face with her gloved hands. A sob escapes her throat. “Every time I think about coming down here for a workout, I remember that he won’t be here ever again. I never realized how much I’d miss him if he was gone. Now he is and I can’t ever get that time back.” Her shoulders quake as the tears spill down her flushed cheeks.
I drop to my knees next to her, draping an arm over her shoulders. “You put up a good fight. He’d have been proud of you.”
She rolls her eyes, and I notice that she doesn’t make a single move to slide out from under me. And I know she’s got plenty of them.
“I’d like to believe that.” A deep sigh expels from her lips. “I guess I’ll never really know. But that was my choice,” she mutters. “Something I’ll have to live with.”
“Was there a reason why you stayed away? Was it school or something else?”
Her gaze ices over like a thick shield to whatever is going on behind those stormy irises. “I don’t know you well enough to talk about it.”
Total dick deflator.
I sit back on my heels. “I shouldn’t have asked.”
Kristina sits up, leaning back on her hands. “Why do you even care?”
“Because when things get too personal, too close to home, people become vulnerable. I just want to know exactly what I’m dealing with.”
She regards me with a cool stare. “I won’t fall apart like a cheap suit in the rain if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m more concerned about what you’ll do to make sure you never feel that way again.”
“What way?” she asks, her eyes narrowing to slits.
“Vulnerable.”
“You make it sound like a criminal offense.”
“It can be dangerous. It will change the way I do my job.”
Kristina leans toward me, rising to her knees so that we are eye level. “Haven’t you ever felt that way before?”
“Plenty.”
“And you’re still here, so…”
“Some would call that luck because of what I’ve been through.”
“Color me intrigued.” She closes the space between us.
“I don’t know you well enough to talk about it.”
“Touché,” she mumbles, edging closer still.
The rich scent of her perfume smothers my sensibilities, my fingertips tingling with the need to stroke the side of her flushed face. I could just reach out and run them over her smooth, creamy skin, tracing the outline of the lips I long to taste—
“Kristina!”
She jumps, scrambling to her feet and smoothing down the front of her shirt, unceremoniously yanked out of our steamy little bubble.
I’m still stuck inside of it, sweat drizzling down the back of my neck.
“What’s up, Sofia?” she calls up to her sister.
“If you guys are going to talk to Wade, then I’m coming with!”
I jog up the stairs, taking them two at a time. Kristina’s feet pound on the steps as she runs up behind me. Uncle Frank greets us in the front hallway, his thick arms folded across his chest.