“Now, now, Yoga Pants. Don’t get in a snit. Let Professor Gavin show you how it’s done.”
She rolled her eyes, biting back a smile. Man, she’d missed his sense of humor. There was something really wrong with her. “I am more than my yoga pants, Professor.”
He sighed. “Somuch more.”
Not wanting to ask what that meant, she said nothing and simply followed his instructions.
They tugged each other back and forth, gripping shoulders, and Gavin showed her how to break free from his grasp. Their proximity caused the butterflies in her belly to spasm and dance, no matter how hard she tried to see him objectively. A self-defense instructor. Just her teacher. Her hot, sexy, totally built teacher.
They seemed to be touching a lot more than they normally did in class, but since he’d done nothing inappropriate and had agreed to help her, who was she to judge?
He said something else, but she couldn’t think beyond the feel of all that muscle under the thin T-shirt beneath her hands. He was so hot…literally. Like a furnace as he moved, all that power bunching under supple flesh. God, he even smelled good. Not funky, but clean. A healthy sweat that did nothing but rev her engines.
I have got to stop touching him. He’s frying my circuits.
“You got it?” he asked.
She nodded. Sure, sure. Maybe Piper had been right about her fixation—
He yanked her off her feet and flipped her onto her back, flat on the mat, though he’d moved with her, easing her landing.
Leaning over her while she sucked in a breath, wheezing, he stared down in concern. “Zoe? You okay?”
She glared between pants, trying to catch her breath, and rasped, “You…threw me…to the…ground.”
“You said you were ready.”
It took her a moment to realize that had been the meaning behindYou got it?—which she totally had not. Served her right for ogling the man.
When she was finally able to stop gasping for air, she took hold of her embarrassment and let him help her to her feet. “Show me that again, but slower.”
Gavin nodded, unsuccessfully biting back a smirk, and took her through the steps of using his counterweight and her own body mechanics to basically trip her opponent over her, adding her opponent’s momentum to increase the pressure of his fall.
After a few dry runs, she motioned for him to grab her again. “For real this time.”
“Okay.”
“And don’t take it easy on me.”
He scoffed. “Sure. I’ll punch you in the face a few times and slug you in the belly, bend you into a pretzel, maybe pull your hair too. Then I’ll see if you can flip me over. You sure you’re ready for this, lightweight?”
“Smart-ass.” Though if he really wanted to, he could crush her. He clearly knew how to use deadly force. “Hey, you’re the one teaching us this high-level stuff. If you didn’t want us using it in real life, why bother?”
“You’d never use this if someone was attacking you, not unless you were really advanced in martial arts or self-defense.” He shrugged. “But it’s the last class. I want you to have a little fun. I mean, the class needed something punchy to liven it up.” He grinned. “Get it? Punchy?”
“Oh my God. Please stop. No more talk. More action. Now come at me.”
He rotated his head, cracking his neck. Then he stretched his arms over his head. Seeing her obvious impatience, he held up a finger. “Hold on. I’m preparing for the role of a lifetime.” After another annoying minute that felt like half an hour, he gave her an irritating leer and advanced. “Hey there, little lady. You sure are pretty.”
“You going for cowboy or southern thug?”
He blew out a breath and muttered, “Bitch and moan, bitch and moan.” After clearing his throat, he tried again. “I’m looking for a good time. How about you and me go into a dark, dangerous alley and have hot monkey sex?” He grabbed her shoulder. “And I meannow. I won’t take no for an answer. Not even if you pay me. Because I’m mean. I’m hungry, and I’m… What are you doing?”
Instead of trying to move away, Zoe slid closer and wrapped her arms around his neck.
He froze. “Uh, Zoe?”
Off-balance, just the way she wanted him. She tilted her face up for a kiss. When he leaned down to meet her, she slid back and, in the same motion, pulled him down, then used her legs to kick him up and over her. Not exactly what he’d shown her, but she’d tried this move before at her friend’s gym, and the modified leverage worked.
