“Well,Ididn’t miss.”
Stassia smirks up at the sky as she listens to us, her eyes closed against the rays. Weston looks down at her and chuckles.
“Looks like you’re getting a lot of good practice in, Stass.”
She gestures to her supine body with both arms. “This is important work, Captain. I can’t be rushed.” She drapes an arm over her eyes, blocking them from the suns, and he smiles again.
We stand side by side in silence for a while, watching Auralie and Fin shoot with Stassia laying at our feet. Fin jumps and cheers when he strikes the target, and the sounds of training and laughter still ring out across the deck. After yesterday, and everything Weston revealed to me, this silence and proximity feels oddly comfortable, and I don’t want to know what that means.
Suddenly, I get an idea. I’m nervous to ask, because I don’t want to do anything that will force us to be closer together, but I want to learn. It shouldn’t feel different from sparring with any of the guards back home.
Fuck it.
I turn toward him quickly so I don’t go back on my decision.
“Can you teach me how to do that thing? That you did in the cave?”
He glances down at my sudden movement, and his lips curve into a smirk.
“You’re going to have to be a little more specific than that, princess.”
“When you took my dagger. Can you teach me how to do that?”
My face heats when I remember back to the fight, so similar to when I tried to escape in the night, yet so different, so much having happened in the time between.
Shall I disarm you again, princess?
My spine tingles, and I stare up at him, waiting for an answer.
“I’m not sure it’s in my best interest to teach you how to disarm me.” His eyes flicker with mischief and I roll mine. It feels good to be more like myself, more how I would act withBrynne, even though my first reaction is to fight back at him or challenge him whenever I can.
“I have a feeling you’re going to teach me anyway.” I rest my hands on my hips and stare up at him, waiting for the ‘yes’ I know is coming. He hasn’t turned down anyone’s request to learn how to defend themselves, and even during the last training session, he told me ways to improve. Those suggestions could be used against him, just like this.
He beckons me with a flick of two fingers. “Come this way.”
We move into the center of the bow, far enough away that if something goes wrong, we aren’t going to accidentally injure someone. I reach in my waistband and pull my dagger from the sheath, holding it out for him to take, but he shakes his head.
“I’ll show you a few times, and then we’ll practice, alright?”
I nod quickly and watch as his fingers close around mine, wrapping them firmly on the hilt and adjusting my hand position so I’m ready to strike. Tingles erupt on my skin everywhere we are in contact, and I refuse to look at him, keeping my eyes trained on my hand so I can pick up the movements.
“I’ll start slow,” he says. Shifting his hand, his fingers wrap around my wrist, pressing into the tendons there, then angling my hand until my fingers become slack. I can’t keep my grasp on the hilt, my hand loosening just as his moves again, quicker this time, fingertips sliding slowly against my palm.
My chest shutters with a sharp intake of breath, as the trickle of heat following his fingers on my skin makes me squirm. I hope he didn't hear it.
The dagger falls into his palm and he pulls it out of my hand, then flips it in his fingers so the blade is facing the right direction, ready to stab his opponent.
I watch the whole thing, my mouth agape at how easy the moves are for him.
“Do you want me to show you again?” he mumbles.
I slam my mouth shut and swallow hard. “Nope, I think I got it.”
That didn’t feel like sparring with the guards back home.
“Your turn then.”
Inhaling a deep breath through my nose, I focus on the task, trying to remember each of the movements in order. He points the dagger at me and I fumble through the steps, each one more difficult than it looked because of the sheer size of his hands. I have to learn how to adjust my grip, all the while trying not to think about how intimate this feels.
