Page 22 of Starlight

Marco put his hands on his hips. “Like what you see?”

I felt the heat rise to my cheeks. But in for a penny, as the saying goes. I grinned at him. “I’m not blind.”

He let out a soft laugh and shook his head. “Come on. Let’s get started.”

Marco had me stretch before he brought out a large pad with straps. He slid his forearm through the straps and held it in front of his chest. “Okay,” he began. “I know you’ve had some tae kwon do training. Do you remember how to do a palm-heel strike?” I nodded. “Good. Hit the pad as hard as you can.”

It had been years since I’d done any kind of sparring—outside of dodging Gerard’s punches at the clinic. Luckily, my muscle memory kicked in pretty quickly, and I soon got into a rhythm. After about fifteen minutes, he moved on to teaching me a kick designed to disable an attacker so I could run away.

By the time Marco was satisfied, I was a pathetic, sweaty mess. When we stopped for a water break, I narrowed my eyes at him. “Is this payback for ogling you?”

He snorted and choked on his water. After he wiped his face, he glared at me. “Who says ogle anymore?”

Marco looked so offended that I had to laugh. “My mother?”

He rolled his eyes and shook his head. “It’s not payback for anything. Repetition will make it second nature.”

“I know,” I sighed. “I was just messing with you.”

Marco’s smile looked almost fond, which surprised me. Usually, his expressions were closed off or impatient. It prompted me to be brave. “So what happened last night? Were you able to rescue the rest of the boys?”

“In a manner of speaking,” he replied. “We figured they’d try to relocate the kids before the cops could move in, so we disabled their van and called in a tip to the detective who took your statement. All the boys got rescued and four more scumbags are in jail.”

I was so excited that I threw my arms around his neck. “That’s wonderful! Thank you so much!”

Marco’s arms came around me automatically, and for just a moment, everything stopped. For just a moment, he pulled me closer, and I could feel the long length of his semi-hard cock against my thigh. His nostrils flared and his pupils dilated. I thought he was finally going to kiss me. Then he gently put his hands on my waist and stepped back. I dropped my hands back to my sides and also took a step back. Clearing my throat, I asked, “So what’s next?”

With a slight shake of his head, Marco answered, “Now we put your skills to practical use. I’m going to put you through some attack scenarios and then show you how to get out of them and get away.”

And that was what he did. For the next half hour, Marco created different attack or capture scenarios and taught me how to get out of them using a few simple moves. Every time he switched up his attack, he checked in with me to ensure I wasn’t triggered by the close-combat training.

He grabbed me from behind, put me in a chokehold, shoved me against a wall, and put his hand on my throat. And that was when I discovered a kink I didn’t know I had.

The moment his thick fingers encircled my throat, my dick became a steel spike. Shit. I stared up at him wide-eyed. He was right against me, pinning me to the wall, so he had to notice. I swallowed hard and struggled mightily to keep my hips from grinding into his.

Marco stepped even closer, the heat of his big body enveloping me. “You should be careful who you let touch you like this,” he said, his voice low and gruff.

My brain short-circuited. “I haven’t…I never…” My words dried up, and I just stared into the molten depths of his warm brown eyes.

He hummed low in his throat, and I felt his thumb lightly caress the fluttering pulse in my neck. “Good. It’s always best to be safe when you…experiment with new things.”

I was pretty sure my answer came out as a squeak. “I don’t do much…experimenting at the moment.”

His brows rose in surprise. “Yeah?” He stared at me for a little longer before shifting his stance. The moment was broken. “Let me show you how to get out of this kind of hold.”

13

Marco

The bass beat of the music coming from Paradise nightclub vibrated through the chilly night air. Somewhere in that club, Liam was dancing with some man, moving his lithe body in time with the beat. I only knew this because he’d mentioned he was going with Miguel when we were scheduling our next practice session.

It had taken every ounce of self-control I had not to give him what he wanted when I had my fingers around his throat in the gym. I was losing the battle between what I wanted and what was right. My better self told me to leave him be. He was soft-hearted, and I could hurt him. My baser self told me to go for it. He was a grown man, and as long as I was upfront with him, he should be able to handle himself. My baser side was winning.

I went to the door, paid the cover charge, and walked into the noise. The dance floor was a sea of writhing bodies. The drag queens were all on stage, dancing and pumping up the crowd. I scanned the room, looking for Liam’s familiar dark head.

I finally found him toward the edge of the crowd, dancing with Miguel and a few other people I didn’t know. Liam wore a long-sleeve jade-green button-down with black skinny jeans. The shirt accentuated his gorgeous pale-green eyes. Those jeans made me want to grab his sweet little ass with both hands and have him wrap his legs around my waist. He was no twink, but I could still easily hold him against a wall and fuck him.

Liam hadn’t seen me yet, so I moved until I was in his line of sight. I saw the second he clocked me. His eyes widened and his gaze heated as it traveled up my body. I wasn’t dressed fancy—just dark blue jeans, a black T-shirt, and motorcycle boots—but Liam seemed to like what he saw.

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