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But he did. The smile slid off his face, and he backed up to stand.
She launched herself off the ground to punch him in the stomach, using all of her momentum. Then a leg sweep. He went down.
She was straddling his chest before he could move.
“I can throw you off,” he said.
“But you won’t.” She felt breathless and exhilarated and wished he would. She loved the feel of his hands, the way his power sparked against her skin, the way she felt him in her space.
Hunter smiled. His eyes studied her face, and she knew she was flushed. Her heart was almost louder than the music from the carnival.
Crap. The carnival. She glanced around. Silver was probably watching.
Hunter felt the change. Kate watched his smile fade. “Get up, Kate. I wasn’t kidding. I don’t want to play.”
The Merricks could wait for fifteen minutes.
She put her hands on his shoulders and looked down at him, feeling her hair fall along her face. “Where’d you really learn to fight like that?”
“My father. Where did you learn?”
“My mother took me to some guy who lived in a barn and slaughtered animals to make cured beef. He taught me.”
“Now that’s a touching story.”
She wondered what he’d say if she told him the whole story, how every night Roland had come after her with the same knives he used on the beef.
She wondered why Hunter didn’t know who Roland was. She’d been told that every Guide went to Roland first.
If Roland broke you, you were out.
Hunter was still looking at her. Either he was the greatest frigging actor in the world, or he didn’t know what he was.
Or what she was.
She smiled. “He taught me enough to bring you down, didn’t he?”
Hunter gave her a look, like he was merely tolerating her weight on his chest. “What did your dad think of the slaughterhouse treatment?”
“He didn’t think much about it at all.” She paused and shrugged. “I never knew my father.”
“Divorce?”
“Nope, my mom said she got what she needed out of him.” She raised a suggestive eyebrow. “Get it?”
He frowned and reached up a hand to push a strand of hair out of her eyes.
Such a simple touch, but her breath caught.
She knocked his hand away. She couldn’t take simple touches right now—this was throwing her all off balance. Was she really talking about her mother?
Kate leaned closer to Hunter. “How about a ride?” she whispered.
Hunter’s eyebrows went way up.
She pointed at where lights rose high above the ground, blues and yellows and reds. “Ferris wheel?”
He looked like he was going to refuse.
