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He chuckled. ‘I’m going to take that as a compliment.’
Gabriel clearly wasn’t going to try to widen his experience, so Clara would have to improvise. She reached out, guiding his hands to her shoulders, ignoring the sweet electricity of his touch as one finger seemed to caress her bare arm.
Then she moved.
* * *
Gabriel had thought that Clara was about to demonstrate a fail-safe technique for escape. But she moved so quickly that she took him off balance, and suddenly he found himself up close and personal with her. And at her mercy.
Clara had stepped to one side, and her right hand was at the back of his left bicep, his arm twisted back at an angle that threatened pain if she went any further. He tried to pull away and she relaxed her grip a little, obviously giving him some room to move without releasing him from the hold.
‘Be still... I won’t hurt you.’ Her voice was clear and firm, and seemed close enough to reverberate through his whole body.
Gabriel took a breath. Adrenaline was pulsing through his veins, and perhaps that was why everything suddenly seemed so clear. If he tried, he was sure that he’d be able to feel Clara’s heartbeat.
‘All right. Relax...’ Her voice soothed him, but when he stilled she tightened the hold a little. Not enough to hurt, but Gabriel knew that if he tried to struggle it would probably feel as if she was ripping his arm off.
‘Is that it?’ He wanted her to go further. Right to the limit.
‘You wanted to know if I could bring you to your knees...’ Clara obviously wasn’t anywhere near her limit just yet.
‘Yes. Do it.’
‘All right. You’re going down. Move with me.’
Yeah. That was all he wanted to do right now. Clara could take him wherever she wanted to go.
Slowly, she tightened her grip, bending him forward and forcing him onto his knees. His pride was long gone now, and something else replaced it. He trusted her.
‘Are you okay?’
Surprisingly enough, yes. This was something real, and the thoughts of the insubstantial threats that had been bugging him over the last three days retreated at last.
‘Yes. Just don’t make any sudden movements, will you?’
She chuckled quietly. ‘Right you are. Just follow me, we’re going down a bit further.’
An iron fist, in the sweetest of velvet gloves. She moved again, and Gabriel had no choice but to follow. He found himself face down on the carpet, and felt her knee behind his shoulder, keeping him down. The grip on his arm changed a little, and he felt her free hand at the back of his other arm. She must be practically on top of him.
The thought of physical violence had always disgusted Gabriel. But this was something different. It was trust and confidence. Testing each other, going to the edge together.
‘What do you call this?’
‘It’s a version of a hammer lock. Still all right?’
‘Yes. Climbing the learning curve.’ Gabriel felt a trickle of sweat running down his spine
. Trapped and helpless wasn’t something he ever wanted to be. But Clara made it...interesting. Without the ability to see her face, he found himself listening for every inflection in her tone. It was an unlikely intimacy.
‘Have you ever done this for real?’
‘Only once. Not in this job—when I was a paramedic.’
‘You were attacked?’
‘Yes, it was a fake call, they were after the drugs we carried. The only casualty was my own partner. I ended up treating him for a broken nose.’
Suddenly her grip on him relaxed and Gabriel rolled over to see her sitting on the floor next to him, her dress spread out around her legs. If you didn’t count the glistening look in her eyes, and the slight flush of her cheeks, it would be a pose that would have been perfect for a summer picnic.
