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“Good,” said Hana. “Now do each of them yourself in slow motion so I can do corrections.”
I followed the instructions, doing my best to move exactly like she had shown me. She tweaked my positioning and made me go through the motions until she was satisfied and I was about ready to keel over.
When she finally called for a pause and passed me a bottle of water, I almost wept with joy.
“You’ve got a good grasp of things,” said Gabe. “There's a lot to learn with all of this, and it does take time, but at least with some foundations you have a better chance if anything comes up. Take a couple more breaths, and then I want you to come at me with proper speed.”
I suppressed a whine and set my water aside, shaking out my limbs. Gabe's hazel eyes watched me intently, and he reacted the second that I moved, blocking every blow with ease and grabbing my wrist on the final one to pull me off-balance. He caught me before I face planted.
“That's a good point,” said Hana. I wasn’t sure what point she meant, so I waited for her to continue. “Tomorrow we’ll work on grappling. If someone gets you down on the floor, I want you to be able to fight your way out.”
“Assuming I can move tomorrow,” I said with a laugh.
“We’ll make it work as best we can,” she replied. “I’m not expecting you to win fighting competitions, I just want to get you to the point that you can land a punch.”
“I’ll do my best,” I promised. “How much longer are we doing this?”
“You can be done right now, or you can do one more set and try to hit me.”
I huffed, pretty sure that going after Hana would end even worse than going after Gabe, but I didn’t want her to think I was copping out. I fell into position and did three quick strikes, each of which she blocked. On the fourth she caught my wrist like Gabe had, but instead of unbalancing me, she used it to spin me and trap me against her chest.
Heat burned through my body for a whole different reason than exertion.
“Good job, Nicky,” Hana said in my ear.
“But I didn’t land a single hit.”
I ate up the praise anyway.
“Effort still gets rewarded.” Hana purred and gave me a squeeze. “Let's get you showered, and then we can sit in the hot tub. I’ll give you a massage before bed if you’d like.”
I pushed that particular thought aside, and as soon as she let me go, I disappeared into the showers next to the gym. It was an open situation, and I kept my gaze firmly planted in the wall in front of me while Hana and Gabe stripped down and joined me. I washed up quickly and wrapped myself in one of the giant fluffy towels that were available. It was only then I remembered I hadn’t brought a bathing suit down.
“Give me a minute and I’ll run and grab my swimsuit from the new things we bought.”
“You don’t have to if you don’t want,” said Hana. “None of the neighbours have any view of the hot tub, and it wouldn’t be the first time it's had people in it without suits.”
My cheeks burned. “Are you two going to wear suits?”
I scanned them, both alphas wrapped in the same fluffy towels that I was.
“If you want us to, we will,” replied Gabe.
It seemed almost a little silly to ask for Gabe to put on the suit when I had definitely seen everything he had to offer already. I hadn’t with Hana, but she didn’t strike me as the demure and modest type.
I’d had four new people get up in my business in the last month, so maybeIwasn’t the demure and modest type either. “No suits is fine.”
The three of us went out the doors of the walkout basement, got the hot tub cover off, and set the jets to bubbling. Gabe moved one of the chairs over for us to drape our towels on for easy access to get out, and I held my breath as I dropped mine down to slip into the water.
One part of my brain demanded I stare at the sky as they slid in, and all the other parts demanded that I ogle. In reality, they both moved so fast that I barely got a glimpse.
Hana settled in with a happy sigh. “Nothing like a good soak after a workout.”
I swished my fingers through the eddying water. “Thank you for trying to teach me how to fight. I’m sorry I’m not better at it.”
Hana waved me off. “We all start somewhere.”
“Did you know,” Gabe said, “that Hana used to participate in underground fights?”
