Chapter 24

"All right, Elena," Charles said, positioning me so I could look in the wall-to-wall mirror in the studio. Mats covered the floor except for a small periphery, and a punching bag hung from the corner. "How tall would you estimate this guy was? And it was a man, you think?"

I nodded. "I'm ninety-five percent sure he was male. And maybe a half-a-foot shorter than you? It's hard to tell with the coat he was wearing but I think he was a lot wider than you."

Charles nodded. He was wearing tracksuit bottoms and a thin, grey shirt. It made his intense blue eyes pop and I could see the muscles of his abs clearly outlined through the material.

I swallowed hard. I needed to control myself and take this seriously. I needed to learn, just in case.

"Attackers tend to grab women from behind first. It's a more vulnerable position."

He put his hands on my shoulders and leaned in toward me. His voice was gentle, concerned, and he spoke close enough that his vetiver smell overwhelmed me.

My heart began to pound.

"Anytime this feels too scary or too intense, you let me know and we'll take a break, okay? I need your mind clear so you can absorb all this. And I'm not going to go easy."

My mind clear? I almost laughed. If only he knew the effect that he was having on me! I took a big breath.

"Let's do this."

He nodded.

For every move, he would talk me through it first, then we would go slow, him speaking the moves as we went, then faster and faster until I was successfully moving at full speed, grabbing his warm fingers around my throat with my own, flinging myself backwards into him and taking us both down.

Next, he showed me how to quickly step back and swing a fist back into his crotch when he put his forearm around my neck.

He jerked away quickly when I swung, as I was aiming toward the middle, and I whacked him a few good times in the thigh. It felt like I was hitting lean tree trunks.

"Don't worry," he assured me. "I know you're coming so I'm ready. Your assailant won't be, though, and you'd have scored a direct hit with those last two."

I tried not to allow myself to feel anything when his body was close to mine, when we were touching, but I couldn't help it.

His bicep and forearm, now around my neck, were hard and strong. The heat from his body was intense. It was like being encircled by a heated wall that smelled like heaven.

I felt overwhelmed by his scent and before I knew it, I was relaxing back into him. My insides felt like liquid, my heart racing.

"That's kind of a good move," he said into my ear.

"What?" I said, looking up into the mirror. What I saw there made me warm down to my toes. Him, his arm around me, dwarfing me with his body so close to mine, his face turned toward me.

It was like I'd imagined us in my dreams as a teenager. It looked like he was embracing me.

"Slumping down like that," he said. "It makes it hard to hang onto you."

Then I should definitely stop, my mind sassed back. I tried to stop the blush from rising in my cheeks. This reaction was the opposite of what I intended.

It was just that I had suddenly felt comfortable, as if leaning into him was the right thing to do.

I tried to play it off. "I think I've seen something like that on TV once. So it works?"

"Anything they don't expect works," he said nodding his head. "Now, l want to show you what to do if someone grabs your hand."

We spent some time with him swinging me around and me collapsing to the floor to use my legs and hips, a female's source of strength and center of gravity, unlike the male's shoulders. From a prone position I could take out knees and ankles with a vicious sidekick.

"Wonderful, Elena," he said, standing back and looking at me with admiration. He helped me to my feet and looked at the clock.

"One more before lunch?" he said. "And I'm going to randomly choose an attack after pretending to have an encounter, okay?"

It felt silly, to pretend to answer his questions like he was a stranger on the street, but as he pointed out, assertive, aware language was the first self-defense.

"Okay," I nodded.

We took up positions at the other sides of the room and made eye-contact. A jolt went down my spine at his intense look. Something in me wanted him to grab me, to make me down to the ground with him.

He nodded and we began to walk.

"Hey, you," he said in a gruff, aggressive voice that made my throat constrict. Even when I knew he was putting on a character the power he had was unmistakable. "Got the time?"

I made eye contact like he taught me, ("Show them you see them") and responded dismissively and with force, ("Sound like they shouldn't mess with you"), "11:45. Have a good day," and kept walking.

His hand grabbed my arm from behind like a vice and spun me around. Instead of flinching back out of instinct I stepped in, my palm slamming upward into what would have been his nose if he hadn't ducked sideways.

He used his already crouching movement to tackle me down and even as I landed hard on the mat, I was already twisting my hips, using my power to throw him off. Every muscle in my legs groaned but I was also yelling, as he taught me, and his body, heavy and strong as it was, moved enough so that I rolled quickly out from under.

He grabbed my nearest forearm to prevent me from fleeing and I came back, dropping my entire weight into my elbow which went into the firmness of his abdomen.

I heard him grunt. He let me go, and as I rose up to flee I heard him gasp, "Holy shit!" and try to inhale.

"Oh my god!" I flopped back, sprawling next to him and leaning over his chest to look into his face. "Are you okay?"

He was gasping, but he held up a thumbs-up sign and I relaxed.

"You scared me!" I smiled into his blue eyes.

His hand went to my face.

I was suddenly aware that we were mostly laying on each other. His body was half underneath mine, warm and hard.

I had the crazy urge to throw my leg around him, to straddle him and feel all of him against me. My stomach clenched in anticipation and my own breathing became tense.

His finger caressed my chin and I felt myself suddenly get warm between my legs. What would he do if I kissed him? After all, he was the one who said he wanted to have sex.

But not because he liked me, I reminded myself. But because it made him work better.

The thought sobered me and I immediately sat up.

"Are you really okay?" I asked.

His eyes were soft and followed my movements. He smiled and nodded.

"That was excellent," he said a little hoarsely. "You pass the class."

"Did I hurt you?"

"You did exactly what I said, Elena. And you did it so well that I didn't have to time deflect, even though I knew it was coming. You have good werewolf speed in your human form" he said, sitting up with a grimace.

He nodded his approval one last time. "I think we need to take a moment and give credit where credit is due. You obviously had an excellent teacher."

I scoffed.

He stood and pulled me up.

"I feel a little better now about you walking around the city. Let's go have lunch."

He hadn't let go of my hand. His was warm and strong. Our eyes met and I felt myself blush.

A blast of tinkling bells jolted me. I looked wildly around for the source of the familiar sound.

Charles languidly rolled a little and reached to the side of the mat where our bags and jackets were piled.

He pulled out a cell phone. "Hello?"

With another start I realized that it was mine. "Hey!" I reached for it but he sat up and out of reach.

"This is Elena's boss. She's busy at the moment. Yes, yes, I will let her know."

He hung up and held out a hand.

"What are you doing? That's mine!" I said as he pulled me up.

"You need to call your friend Cathy when we're done with lunch. I think me answering just made her have a heart attack on the phone."