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No!
Where the hell had that thought come from? That was utter nonsense. They were talking about fighting and not caressing a lover’s willing body.
Hale’s fingers were soft and a little silky, but there were rough calluses on the tips. Maybe he was a musician. Or did he have some other hobby that brought out those calluses?
No!
His brain was wandering, and he was just standing there, holding Hale’s fingers in both of his hands like a fucking idiot. He chanced at glance over at Hale’s face to find the man patiently watching him as if he didn’t think it strange at all that Harrison was playing with his hand.
Focus!
“Your thumb goes outside your fingers. You punch someone with your thumb tucked inside and you will break your damn thumb,” Harrison corrected in a terser tone than he’d meant to use. As he spoke, he closed Hale’s fingers into a fist and placed his thumb against his fingers.
Hale smiled at him and offered up his other hand for Harrison to correct. And Harrison, being brain-dead at this point, fixed his hand as though he were adjusting something for a child. What the hell was he doing? Hale could have done that for himself, and yet the moment Hale offered his hand up, Harrison took it without a single thought.
He was tired. That was what it had to be. He didn’t have some greater instinct to protect and care for Hale. He didn’t want to protect the man with every fiber of his being. The goofy grin and happy twinkle in his blue eyes did not make his heart thump in his chest or cause his stomach to somersault. That was utter nonsense.
“There. Fists up, and keep them up to block anything you can’t dodge.” Harrison pushed Hale’s hands up in front of his face but was careful to make sure they didn’t block his line of sight. He moved behind Hale, hoping that it would help to get his own thoughts focused.
Of course, then he just had to place his hands on Hale’s shoulders. And of course, his brain instantly had to notice that while Hale was thin, he had surprising muscle mass there. He was far stronger than he looked.
“Don’t tense up. You need to stay loose so you can move and react quickly.” Harrison used his hold to shift Harrison slightly from side to side, getting his stance to loosen up a little bit. “Your left is your jab. It doesn’t have a lot of power, but it is faster than your right. Stun with your left, and then change to your right for power.”
Hale took two practice swings, switching between his left and his right. While the man was lightning fast, his punches were sloppy. They’d need far more work. His overall form wasn’t bad. He just needed practice. Lots and lots of practice. Preferably against someone or something that wasn’t trying to kill him.
Twisting a bit, Hale smiled at Harrison over his shoulder, that same enthusiasm undimmed as it once again quickened Harrison’s heart. The scent of cheap hotel soap wafted around them, and he found himself missing the lighter floral smell he’d picked up on Hale recently.
His mouth had gone impossibly dry as they stood there with Harrison’s hands on Hale’s shoulders. His skin was warm and soft under his fingers, his body relaxed. It wouldn’t take much to pull Hale back, his shoulders resting on his chest while Harrison wrapped his arms around him. To pull him into an embrace and hold him, to press his face into Hale’s neck and breathe him in. Would he be able to find the true scent of Hale under the cheap hotel soap?
A soft hitch in Hale’s breathing was enough to wake Harrison from his thoughts. Had the man been able to read something in his expression to alert him to the fact that Harrison’s mind had traveled down some strange and dark path?
His hands jumped from Hale’s shoulders and he stumbled back a couple of steps, needing to put several feet of empty space between them. But even now, Harrison’s palms burned as if he’d been scorched by Hale’s flesh. What the hell was wrong with him? He wasn’t attracted to men. And by the goddesses, there was no way in hell that he’d be attracted to such a scatterbrain as Hale.
No, that was wrong.
Hale was quite brilliant. The thoughtful words that flowed from his tongue time and again proved that he was probably a genius, but his manner was so lackadaisical that it was disconcerting at times.
“So, yes, that’s the proper stance,” Harrison blurted out, suddenly desperate to fill the too-silent air with some noise even if he wasn’t entirely sure what the hell he was saying. “Just practice throwing some punches, and tomorrow I can show you some more basics.”
