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I shrugged and said, “I’m game. I’ll still kick your ass then, too.”
Jake rolled his eyes at me.
When he made no move to respond verbally, I added, “You know I’m down to spar with you whenever you need to, but I was thinking about it, and I’m curious about something. Did you ever consider trying to work out your frustrations another way?”
He cocked an eyebrow. “You have a recommendation?”
My lips twitched. “I don’t know. I’d think a healthy dose of fun in the bedroom with a gorgeous girl could help.”
“Yeah, I wish,” he huffed.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
There was a lengthy pause as he considered my question. I thought he was struggling to come up with an answer, but when he spoke, I realized it wasn’t the case. Jake just wanted to explain it in a way that might make it easier to understand.
“You ever have those moments where you do something to injure yourself and the pain is so intense that you grab a beer in hopes that it’ll help take the edge off?” he questioned me.
Confused by his response to my question, I cautiously answered, “Yeah, but it just barely helps.”
Jake nodded. “Exactly. That’s exactly what it’s like when I feel the way that I do sometimes and attempt to work it out with sex. It just barely helps, and that’s mostly because I’ve yet to have a woman that’s got anywhere near the same level of stamina.”
My lips twitched. “Maybe you need to work them up to it. You know how it is to start a new workout regimen. It takes a few weeks to build up endurance. Perhaps you’re being unreasonable.”
Shaking his head, Jake noted, “Maybe, but I’d have to have one I’d want to keep around for more than just a single night, if that’s going to happen. I want someone that’s got some drive and dedication to something. I just haven’t found her yet.”
I reached out, put a hand on his shoulder, and said, “Well, until that happens, you know I’m happy to meet you here and kick your ass.”
“One time,” he muttered. “You got me one fucking time, and suddenly you’re so confident. After class, I’m knocking you off that pedestal you’ve put yourself on.”
Shifting my attention to the clock, I noted we only had a matter of minutes before the women would start filing in for our women’s self-defense class this morning. “Yeah, well, right now we’ve got to get this place ready for class.”
At that, Jake and I got up and got the room cleaned up in preparation for class. It wasn’t always just the two of us teaching classes together, but it was often the two of us who sparred together before either one of us started work. This week, we were doing both.
Jake was one of my closest friends, and since the two of us had given our service to our country together, we had a different relationship with one another than we did with the rest of the guys we worked with. Our friendship led us to talking to one another about things we didn’t share with everyone else, and we certainly didn’t hesitate to give each other shit about anything that necessitated it.
But the minute classes began, and we needed to be focused on what we were teaching, we pushed all of that aside and kept it professional.
That was precisely what happened today, too.
No sooner had we gotten the room cleaned up when some women had started arriving. The first three that had walked in were women that had been coming in for weeks. They were friends who had decided to do this together after one of them had gotten mugged while walking down the street in the middle of the afternoon one day.
The two women that walked in after them didn’t come in together because they were friends. They simply showed up at the same time, and that wasn’t all they had in common. They’d both been in abusive relationships in the past but had struggled to move forward afterward. Somehow, they finally decided to take a stand for themselves and make sure that they learned what they needed to, so they could find a way to give being in a relationship another shot again.
The sixth woman that walked in was the one that had me stopping in my tracks, though.
It was Ellery.
I was surprised to see her walk through the door, considering she’d just been here yesterday. Generally, most individuals—men and women—didn’t take classes on consecutive days. There wasn’t necessarily any reason not to if their bodies were up to it, but I was shocked that Ellery was someone who’d want to.
Unfortunately, I didn’t know anything about her like I did about the women who’d come into the room before her this morning.
She was a bit mysterious and a lot gorgeous.
It had always kind of been an unspoken rule that we didn’t get involved with the women who came in looking for self-defense training. All too often, women came here looking for the skills they needed to defend themselves because they’d experienced something where they didn’t have them. Needing to fend off an attacker and growing confidence in their capabilities were the goals. They didn’t need us hitting on them at the same time.
But a woman who looked like Ellery didn’t make it easy.
Her long, dark hair and bright blue eyes were stunning. She had a beautiful body, evidenced even more today by the pants she had on. Ellery was a petite woman. Next to me, she was tiny.
