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Joining her, Miller took a shoulder-wide stance. He inched his left foot forward, relaxing his knees, his back heel slightly off the mat. He raised his hands in front of his face while keeping his elbows tight. With Galena in medium strike-range, he jabbed his left hand forward in a straight line, his same-side shoulder and hip rotating to generate more force. He prepared to jerk back his palm at the last minute before it struck her jaw. He had no intention of re-arranging her lovely puss.
But she was nowhere near his hand when it popped outward. Miller was fast, but she was a streak of light, almost invisible to his eye.
Time to get serious.
Returning to his original balanced stance, he drove his knee up and forward. When it reached its peak, his lower leg whipped out. Missed. She was gone from the spot.
Damn.
They had drawn a small audience, all cheering for her, snickering at him.
An hour later, Miller was drenched in sweat. Out of oomph. His Firebrand opponent was fresh, still standing, not so much as a black hair out of place. When he collapsed onto the mat face first, she said something that really cheesed him off.
“Give up?”
“I’ll be on my feet again, luv, after a short kip.” Miller rolled onto his back, flinging his arms out, knowing only a few things could entice him to shove off the floor. A cold shower. A single malt aged Scotch. Sex with the female looming over him. Nope. He was too tired to give a good fuck. She’d have to give him a hand job while he rested. But he wasn’t sure his cock had the energy to rise to the occasion.
Chapter Sixteen
After returning to their lavish five-star hotel, Indigo ate dinner across the table from the traitorous kinda-shifter, avoiding his big-ass grin the entire evening. The meal was great. The bill humongous. Since Roark was paying, she ordered an expensive steak, the highest priced glass of wine, and an elaborate dessert which involved fire. She swallowed the last bite of Bananas Foster. “That was the best.”
Roark pushed away from the table, his ankle cocked over a knee. When he slung an arm across the back of his chair, his oily slick response was “You deserve the best.”
Ugh.
He signed the room charge. After the staff cleared plates, they were alone in a private dining corner. “Are you ready for some of the honesty Kole talked about?” he asked.
“No. I don’t trust a word that slithers out of your mouth.” When Roark stared at her lips, Indigo licked off a drop of sauce. She tossed her napkin on the table. Sliding out of her chair, she beelined for the elevator.
Once in the safety of her room, she whipped out her iPad, flopped cross-legged onto the bed, and opened her notes. Roark slammed into the suite. He barreled through her door. His cloudy gray gaze speared her as both hands gripped the top of the jamb, his body leaning forward, shoulders bunching, chest heaving.
She got the picture.
Swallowing a lump in her throat, she wondered how to calm a dangerous kinda-shifter. “I can see you’re upset.”
His lips curled into a wicked grin. “Oh, Indy, upset doesn’t begin to describe what I am.”
“You have no right to be upset.”
“Correct. Nonetheless, I am.” He unlocked his arms to push off the doorway. Nearly two-hundred-and-eighty pounds of male headed her way with a loose-hipped prowl, his angry energy contained behind a mass of muscle.
Glancing left to right, she planned an escape route, bristling at Roark’s threatening approach. “Stay where you are.”
“Don’t poke an enraged male, Indy.” He paused at the edge of the bed.
She held up a hand. “Do not think about it.”
“I’m thinking about a lot of shit right now.” He hand-and-kneed it across the mattress until he was beside her. Snatching the electronic pad from her hands, he flung it onto the side table.
“Hey. Don’t break my stuff.”
Before she could push off the bed, Roark snagged her arm, dragging her back. With a palm slammed onto her upper chest, he shoved her against the headboard.
“You’re gonna listen. First, I don’t have you wrapped around my finger or anything else. Not for not trying. Second, you’re definitely not expendable, though I wish you were. Those were effect statements to convince Lort I was a loyal soldier.”
“You were quite convincing.” Indigo blew a stray lock of hair off her face while Roark sat within striking distance on his thick haunches like a hungry, riled beast. His pupils flashed beware. “What are Kole’s reasons for wanting me to cut you some slack?” she asked.
“I was a plant.” He sneaked closer, no less rankled than before.
