Page 137 of The Quiet Witness

“Yes, please.” She nodded, it was pretty much the only move she could currently make.

“Please?!” His eyebrows flew up toward the ceiling. “God must exist after all! Because here are those manners I’ve been looking for all this time.” His eyes narrowed again, taking in the flush she felt building on her cheeks. “Alrighty then.”

Freaking bastard. She let her anger flush over her in a desperate effort to put a leash on her other more… pressing feelings. “Lucien, I swear if you’re not going to—”

“Think that the power comes from your hips, not your hands.”

Hips. The word only further reddened her already popping cheeks. “Hips, Lucien, this isn’t funny.”

“I’m not being funny, I swear.” He shot her a pained smile. “It’s literally the way this works.” The smile turned a little wolfish anyway as he said. “Focus student.” He wiggled his eyebrows. “Think of the… hmmm, hit you just landed on my pretty face.” She felt her lips widen into a smirk. “See, always works. Now you’re going to drive your hips up, explosively, trap my arm and foot on the same side and roll. Got it?”

He didn’t need to tell her twice.

Kate shot her hips up like a rocket and felt his grip loosen over her wrist, shoving her wrist down and away, she forced his hand to let go before trapping his arm against her side, rolling over and ending up on… top.

A breathless laugh burst through her form, she shook her head with a grin, looking at the man trapped below her. For as far as he allowed himself to be.

She let all her weight fall down on his abdomen, grinning even wider when she heard his sharp intake of breath. “Oh, you really have a thing for my ribs don’t you?” But he returned her laugh. “Excellent move by the way, now you’ve got two escapes for that… dreaded position.”

His hands reached to her upper arms, squeezing once. “Well done, Kate. I mean it, a lot of people won’t be able to mess with you now, and if you keep this up? I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.” He stretched out his arms behind his head, fully comfortable with her on top of him. “I definitely don’t mind this sight or shall I say… angle though.”

At once her hand shot out, landing a punch straight to his liver, he squeezed together from the impact. But she was done. Kate slid off of him while her eyes lingered, aflame with indignation. “You so deserved that one.”

“Hmmhmm, I did. But it was effective in getting you off wasn’t it?”

She was ready to throw another retort his way when his phone beeped loudly. He got up at once, grasping at the burner phone. Flipping it open, she watched his smile disappear into the abyss.

Her stomach sank to the floor. “What? What is it?”

Chapter 58

A Message from Hell

“I’m visiting your place. Will be there at 12:00.” Lucien stated the contents of the text as calmly as when he was baiting her in boxing. As much as he had… slipped during their argument, he was at ease now. She could see it, in the speed with which his fingers danced over the keyboard, returning a message to whoever it was on the other end. And his shoulders were fully relaxed while casually leaning against the rack of weights.

Kate felt like a bomb had gone off in her body, shattering her mind in a thousand different directions. With everything that happened over the last couple of days and the change of scenery, she had pushed all thoughts about the threats to the back of her mind. But it was still out there, waiting for her and Lucien to trip the wire.

She slipped her sweat-slick hands out of the pink gloves, wiping them over her black training trousers in a useless attempt to hide the trembles.

“Hey.” Her eyes flew to his, where nothing but grim determination stared back at her. “We’re okay. I have… done certain things to throw them off our scent, this…” He flipped up the phone, catching in again with a fast hand. “is no more than a step up to the ladder that I’ve placed for them.”

Her ears perked up. Certain things? She almost asked what it meant before he dropped the next bomb. “But for it to work, I’m going to need you to go to the sanctuary. In fact.” Lucien popped up his wrist, checking his watch. “We need to leave in no more than fifteen minutes for me to make it back here on time.”

The sanctuary. She hadn’t been back there since… Isabel. And even though things were different between her and Lucien now, not being present during this meeting meant it would leave her with Lucien’s version of answers…

“No.”

He looked up from the tiny screen, eyes scouring over her posture. And she knew what he found there, the defiance that seemed to intrigue him as much as it bode an obstacle to his plans. “I beg your pardon, sweetheart?”

“No.” She crossed her arms over each other. “I’m not going back there, and the time where you dragged me somewhere kicking and screaming is over.” I hope.

He raised an eyebrow. “I wouldn’t place my faith in that, Kate. Because if you’re not planning to get in the car on your own two feet, I might just have to help you a little bit.” His head tilted, a challenge waiting to happen. “Whether it happens screaming is up to you.”

All she could do was stare at him, that tiny bit of hope squashed. His eyes fluttered closed for a second before a pained smile took over. But he didn’t attempt to take back his words.

The alter ego had reared its head again. She turned away from him, gaze shifting to the mats where mere minutes ago they had been playfully bashing each other as if there wasn’t a worry in the world.

A hand fell on her shoulder. “Kate, I know why you don’t want to go. I understand that… Hell, if I could drop you off anywhere else I would. But we have to go.”