“Don’t you have king duties to attend to?”
“And miss out on embarrassing you? Nope.” Before I can come up with a proper comeback, he’s grabbing my right leg out from under me. “Kick my hand as hard as you can.”
I do as he says, not holding back as my foot makes contact with his palm.
“Again.”
I kick three more times before he stops me.
“You’re not following through. You’re pulling back too soon.” He pauses, looking around the room. “Come here.” He walks me over to one of the weighted bags that hangs a few inches off of the ground and steps behind it. “I want you to kick the bag and imagine your foot splitting the middle in half. When your foot hits the bag, don’t stop, keep going.”
The first couple of kicks has him shaking his head, but the third one earns a slight nod of approval. After a few rounds, I can really feel a difference. Not only because the bag is swaying a little more, but because it feels like my foot is breaking through an invisible barrier.
“Thatta girl. How’s that feel?”
“Powerful. I don’t feel like I’m kicking a concrete wall anymore.”
“Good. Now let’s work on that back leg, shall we?”
I follow him back over to one of the sparring mats and he stands beside me, instructing me to kick the air. As I do, he kneels down to adjust my back foot still glued to the mat.
“You’re putting too much of your weight on the ball of your foot. You need to keep your heel planted and dig your whole foot in so that you have more support on your back leg.”
As he’s moving my foot around, I completely lose balance. I try to catch myself, but it’s no use, I’m already on top of him. Before things can get awkward, I quickly try to get up, but I’m instantly pulled back down.
“Wait, you’re stuck.”
I watch as he attempts to untangle my jacket zipper from a chain hanging from the holster strapped around his chest.
“How did this even happen?” I ask, trying to fill the silence.
“I don’t know, but it’s stuck in there good.”
“Let me try,” I insist.
I reach for the tangled mess but end up jabbing my elbow into his stomach when I’m unable to keep myself upright. He reflexively sits up and his forehead slams into mine, sending a wave of dizziness my way. By now, I’m practically sitting in his lap, which might bother me if I wasn’t so distracted by the throbbing pain pulsating through my head.
“Shit, I’m sorry.” He grabs my head in his hands, drawing my focus. “Look at me. Are you okay?”
“I’m fine,” I promise. “It’s my fault anyway.”
He rubs his thumb over a tender spot on my forehead. “Oh no, it’s starting to swell.”
I reach for the spot he just touched and feel the giant welt taking form. There’s a slight moment of embarrassment imagining what it must look like but then a fit of laughter starts to take over. I don’t even think it’s that funny, but it’s as if my body needs the release of emotion after everything with Damien.
“We’re a mess,” I manage between giggles.
“We? You’re the one who caused all of this,” he playfully accuses as he continues to work on untangling the chain.
“You did this on purpose,” I counter. “You pulled my foot out from under me.”
“Oh, darling. You needed no help losing your balance with that atrocious stance of yours.”
I do my best to look offended, but when our eyes meet something shifts between us. The playfulness is gone and nowit’s just the two of us, inches from one another. His gaze drops to my lips for only a moment, but it’s long enough to make my heartbeat start to race.
“There you guys are!” In unison, our heads snap to the side to find Emeric and Amaya. “Uh… are we interrupting something?” Emeric asks as they make their way to us.
“No! Of course not,” I immediately blurt out. “We’re stuck.”
