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“Did they come after you?”
“No.” She hesitated. “I chased them off.”
“How?” His voice was even.
“First with my car. I just kind of ... um, drove at them.” She had to be blushing. Her face felt like it was on fire. “But then they came back, and one of them grabbed me, so I did some self-defense stuff, and they bolted.”
Now he smiled. “Some ‘self-defense stuff’?”
“Don’t tease me! It’s true.”
“Okay.” He sobered. “Show me.”
Like she needed to make a bigger fool of herself. “No. It’s silly.”
“Silly? You chased off two big guys. I’d like to see this ‘self-defense stuff.’ Maybe I could use your techniques.”
“I’d just taken a class the school offered,” she said. “It was fresh in my mind. I couldn’t do it again.”
He raised an eyebrow.
Ugh. She folded her fingers the way Paul had told her, and did a halfhearted swing.
Hunter caught her wrist. “Stand up. Show me. For real.”
His eyes held that challenge again, like they had in the car. She pushed to her feet and stepped off the blanket, feeling the sun on her face. When Hunter joined her, Casper shifted forward to nose at the abandoned box of potato wedges.
“I don’t want to hurt you,” she said.
Hunter grinned. “Now that’s funny.”
Oh, he wanted to get cocky about it? She didn’t even warn him, just folded her fingers and swung.
He caught her hand. He was quicker than she’d expected. Stronger.
It stole her breath for a second.
“Not like that,” he said. He gently pried her fingers loose and refolded them, making her thumb more prominent. “Like this. Do it again.”
Holy crap. “You know about this stuff?”
“Oh yeah. I’m a ‘self-defense stuff’ expert.” His tone was wry, but it didn’t sound like he was kidding.
“Really?”
“Nah.” He shrugged. “I know a little. You’re stalling.”
She swung. He caught. His hand was warm, wrapping around her knuckles.
“Try again,” he said.
She remembered the way he’d grabbed the paper clip out of the air, that first day. “I’ll never be faster than you.”
“The point isn’t to be faster than me. The point is to mean what you’re doing.” He took a step closer to her, until there wasn’t room for her to take a swing at him. “Try again.”
She backed away and started to swing, but he caught her wrist and took another step. “Try again.”
She took another step back. He came after her.
