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“Yeah!” I call back, typing out a quick reply to Callie before swigging back some water and returning to him. It’s nearly midnight, and the sporting center closed four hours ago, but that’s not about to stop someone with the connections he has, and I’m glad for it. Coming in to train this late at night is the only way I can avoid being spotted, and it’s not like you can just set up a shooting range-slash-combat facility in the middle of an old country mansion. (To be honest, I’m still struggling to wrap my head around this whole “training” thing, but I’m not going to complain. This is what I signed up for, and there’s no backing out now.)
Liam grins as I come to a stop in front of him. “You take the shortest water breaks on the planet, Vivi.”
“What can I say?” I reply, unable to resist a smile of my own. “I guess I’m just a glutton for punishment.”
“How are you feeling?” he asks, his green eyes roaming over my body, and I tell myself he’s just checking me for injuries. “You good to keep going?”
“Hell yeah,” I reply, smiling. “I think I’m getting the hang of this now.”
“Atta girl,” he says, stretching his long arm across his chest and rolling his shoulders in preparation. He’s dressed in a tight t-shirt that clings to his muscular frame, his sandy hair mussed from the drills we’ve been running, sweat glistening on his skin in the overhead lights. Something stirs in me at the sight, and I do my best to shove it away, but it’s not easy. Chalk it up to the stress, or to the rush of training, or the fact that I’ve spent the past week immersed in combat training, leadership lessons, and more business lectures than a freshman MBA student.
I drop into my stance, my mind already running through all the things he told me: weapon disarms, kicks, punches, grabs, holds... I’m rotten at it, but they say if you train long enough, you get the hang of it eventually. I just hope “eventually” for me is in time for whatever Lucas throws at me.
“Good,” Liam says, nodding as he comes over to correct my form. “Keep your stance wide, yeah?” he adds, placing one hand on my thigh to guide my leg farther out and another on my waist to demonstrate the proper rotation. I jump a little at the electric feeling of his touch on my body, at the strange and dangerous intimacy of it. I have to chastise myself for the images that spin through my head with his body so close to mine, so in control, the same way it was when Sienna showed up at the safe house. Stop it, I remind myself. Don’t go there. He’s Theo’s best friend, and he’s just doing this to help you.
“Power comes from the hips,” Liam says. “Not the arms. Don’t forget to pivot, and don’t lock your knees. We’re working on keeping your center of gravity low, remember?”
“Right,” I reply, nodding, repeating the steps in my head and trying not to think about how easily he could pull me against him, how charged the sensations are that are coursing through my skin.
“I’m going to step out of range,” Liam says. “I want you to throw a punch at me when I do it. Don’t worry if you miss. Just focus on the principles.”
I nod my agreement, and as his hands leave my body, I force myself to slip back into the student role. “All right,” I mutter, as much to myself as to him. “Let’s do this.”
“Eager,” Liam says, and grins. “I like that.”
His voice is playful, and I can’t help ducking my head at the way his eyes dance—almost like he means it.
“Thanks,” I say, trying to pull myself together. “I try.” I swing, my fists flying straight, and even though my movements are clumsy, muscle memory is starting to kick in. Liam easily catches both, but I don’t stumble off balance the way I have been all week... and I don’t miss the nod of approval he gives me when my eyes are on my hand placement. It fills me with a strange sense of pride, one that goes all the way to the pit of my stomach.
“Good,” he says. “Do it again.”
I do, and this time I manage to catch him with a glancing blow to the shoulder. I stumble, but Liam catches me easily. He holds me against him a moment longer than he has to, his arms wrapped around me, my face up against his shoulder.
The thought comes to me out of the blue, against all common sense: It would be so easy to turn my head and kiss him—
My whole body seizes up with tension as I push the idea away forcefully, trying to ignore the way Liam’s body feels against mine. What the hell is wrong with me?
“Easy,” he says, his voice soft. “Don’t tense up. It makes it harder to move.”
“Sorry,” I mutter, shrugging my shoulders and stepping out of his arms. The effort it takes to pull my body out of his grasp is a little embarrassing—he’s barely touching me and I’ve somehow lost the ability to control myself.
“For what?” he asks, and grins, putting me at ease like it’s second nature.
We slip back into the familiarity of our sparring sessions, spending another half hour drilling the basic strikes, blocks and punches. It’ll be a damned miracle if I’m actually able to apply any of this in a real fight, but just the act of doing something, rather than sitting on my ass and waiting for the bad guys to show up, feels good.
I’m still amazed by the way Liam moves. He’s as graceful as a dancer, but with the ferocity of a predator. Even when we’re just going through the motions, he never seems to do the same thing twice.
“Where’d you learn all this?” I ask, breathless, as I close the space with an (admittedly shaky) uppercut.
“Learn what, darling?” Liam replies, easily deflecting my blow. The movement is swift and practiced, but his hand is surprisingly gentle where it pushes my arm out of the way.
“All of this,” I say, gesturing at the air around us. “The fighting.”
“The fighting?” he says, his eyes shining with amusement, and there’s a streak of color in his cheeks. “I’ve been fighting all my life, Vivi. First with my brothers, later with men who wanted to kill me. You learn to fight, or you die.”
“Oh,” I say, feeling thoroughly inadequate.
“Here,” Liam says, and steps closer to help me into a new stance, settling his hand on my shoulder. “Put your hands here—just like that. Keep your stance wide. Harder to knock you over that way. Try again.”
