Logically, I couldn’t argue, but the part of me that was having issues with it didn’t give a fuck about logic.
“You—”
“Can take care of myself. Now, drop it. You’re not winnin’ this one.”
“Maybe not, but you wouldn’t turn down a bet, would you?”
She stopped dead in her tracks and slid her eyes to mine on an exhale. “Terms?”
“Bet you can’t get out of a choke hold within thirty seconds.”
“I can get out in fifteen. And the prize you’re never gonna win?” she asked, her eyebrows raised.
“You don’t come here by yourself at night.”
“Mhmm, and when I win, you’ll shut the hell up about this and allow me to go on as I’ve been doin’ for the past almost twenty-eight years?” Her tone was drier than a desert.
“I guess so.”
“Fine.” She stopped in her tracks and spun around to face away from me. “Let’s go.”
“Now?”
“Yes, now. I’d like you to get over the notion that I’m incompetent as soon as fucking possible.”
“I never said?—”
“As soon as fucking possible.”
I chuckled under my breath, loving that she’d finally gotten some of her fire back, if nothing else. Stepping up behind her, I stopped just before our bodies touched, and that last millimeter of space was killing me.
I dropped my head so my lips were directly next to her ear. Quietly, I said, “Some might say you have an unfair advantage since you know the attack is comin’.”
She shrugged as if she were unaffected by our proximity, but the shiver that stole over her shoulders proved otherwise. “And some might do anything to excuse their failure.”
“Love you feisty…” I murmured in her ear right before I locked my arms around her.
One minute I had her in a standard choke hold and the next, my arm was twisted behind my back and she was pushing it to just this side of pain.
She stood on tiptoes and nipped my ear. “Feisty enough for you?”
Then, without another word, she dropped my arm and raised her eyebrows. I was surprised she didn’t actually bow.
Goddamn, I wanted to bend her over the nearest desk and fuck her until we both saw stars. Kenna under normal circumstances had me half out of my mind, but a Kenna who could take care of herself and bested me by doing so?Christ.
I didn’t even try to hide the rasp in my voice when I asked, “Where’d you learn how to do that?”
She shrugged and continued down the hall. “Took self-defense classes years ago. Loved it so much, I started teachin’ it down at St. Mary’s a few times a year. Taught it to Nat, too, before she went off globe-trottin’ by herself.”
No matter how much I knew of Kenna, it seemed like there was always something new to unearth. Some facet of her I’d missed out on in the time I’d been gone.
It didn’t surprise me in the least that she’d taken it upon herself to become well versed in self-defense and then to teach it to her sister. That was Kenna, through and through.
She flipped on the lights in the mayor’s office. The desk was much less cluttered than I’d have guessed it’d be, but one look at the smaller desk in the outer office—no doubt for the mayor’s assistant—revealed why. Piles upon piles of paperwork were just hanging out, as if waiting for someone else to do it.
“Looks like the assistant’s more backed up than your daddy.”
Kenna huffed out a humorless laugh. “Yeah, except the last assistant quit—again—and with all the commotion of everything, we haven’t hired anyone else. So, I’m playin’ mayorandmayor’s assistant, and I don’t exactly know how to do either one.”
