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She's flirting with me. I can't imagine why, not after everything I'd done to her before we came to Fallenmouth. Perhaps she thinks I need encouragement to keep up the training since I've been letting her genuinely assault me.
Allison walks up to me, our bodies inches apart.
"Turn around," I tell her.
She obeys my command, which must be a first in our relationship. Or rather, our acquaintance. We don't have the sort of dynamic that the word relationship implies.
I wrap my arms around her midsection, locking my hands and pulling her tight against me. "Now I've got you."
The cheeky woman rubs her arse against me. "Yes, you do."
With every breath I take, I smell our sweat but also the scent of her desire. Christ, she's aroused. How can that be? I'm pushing her hard, testing her limits, forcing her to defend herself against my attacks. Her reaction seems barmy. But I'm getting aroused too. For me, it makes sense. I'm a man, and we blokes don't require much stimulation to get randy. But women aren't meant to like fighting with a man. Are they?
"Break free of my hold," I rumble into her ear. "Do it now."
"Don't know how."
"First, bend forward from the waist." When she follows my instructions, I tell her, "Good. Turn into me and ram your elbow up into my neck, and keep doing that, switching sides every time, until you can get leverage to spin around and execute a groin kick. You can also stomp on the top of my foot."
"Are you sure you want me to do all of that? You said you didn't want me to ram your balls anymore."
"Changed my mind." I tug, crushing my locked hands into her torso hard enough to make her gasp. "Do it now. Don't hold back."
She swings her elbow up, on one side and then the other, striking me in the neck or shoulder every time. When she slams her foot down on mine, my grip loosens a little, just enough to let her spin around and nail me in the groin. I grunt and let go of her, not because I chose to do that. She genuinely outmaneuvered me.
Once I've recovered my ability to breathe and speak, I say, "That's enough for now. You're a quick study, so I doubt it will take many lessons to get you ready to defend yourself. I can't say if these techniques will work on Echo creatures."
"I know. But I feel better just having a few tricks I can use. Being helpless sucks."
"You were never helpless. It takes a strong woman to stand up to a brute like me."
"Inner strength is great." She bumps her hip into me. "But I love being able to beat the crap out of you."
When she says that, while aiming a teasing smile at me, I find myself doing something I haven't done in years. I chuckle. "Yes, you did beat the crap out of me quite well."
Her eyes go wide. "Did you just laugh? Or was I hallucinating?"
I flash her a scowl. "Don't make an issue of it."
Allison raises her hands. "Okay, okay, relax. I'll pretend you never laughed. But for the record, you are not a brute."
"Of course I am."
She studies me for a moment, but then sighs as if she's given up on trying to convert me to her viewpoint. Despite the fact I'm still scowling at her, she walks up to me and splays a hand over my cheek. "Your beard has gotten longer and scratchier. It's kind of like sandpaper, but I might kiss you anyway."
Kiss me? Why on earth would she do that? Yes, I want to fuck her again. But she shouldn't want that, which means she should not want to kiss me either.
I pull away from her. "Let's explore the study for clues to what Sefton has done and what he still plans to do."
Chapter Twenty
Allison
I must have embarrassed Dax. Why else would he go all caveman again and change the subject so fast I think it caused a minor air disturbance? All I said was that his beard is scratchy and I might kiss him. I'm guessing it was the part about a potential kiss that made him uncomfortable.
He whips his shirt off and uses it to wipe sweat from his brow.
Uh, what? He didn't need to remove his shirt to do that. I wish he were still covered up because the sight of his naked chest makes me flash back to when we got it on in the warehouse. I can't explain why I suggested I might kiss him, but I guess it was the heat of the moment, when we were both sweaty and amped up, that made me say it. I can't deny that sparring with Dax was hot.
