He squinted at her. “What makes you think they don’t know already? You said it yourself yesterday. Os protetores serve to protect the city. Maybe they don’twantit to be found, by Vautourorus.”
“Maybe you’re right,” she said, relaxing her shoulders. “Maybe os protetoresaren’treal. But until I have some evidence of that, I can’t just give up. That’s not how archaeologists work.”
“Quinn is an archaeologist—” he started, but Miri wasn’t having any of it, tensing up again.
“Donotcompare me to Dr. Quinn,” she said, glaring at him. “I actually care about what I do and why I do it.”
“You don’t think Quinn cared before he got himself mixed up with the wrong people? What if you were in his position?”
“I wouldn’t ever be in his position.” She folded her arms.
“I’m sure Quinn never imagined he’d be in this situation, either, but things happen, Miri. People fall on hard times. Or…trust the wrong person,” he said, almost as if he had firsthand experience. “All I’m saying is that until you’ve found yourself in a bad spot, you never actually think those things could happen to you.” Rafa untwisted her arms and took her hands, gently rubbing his thumb over her knuckles.
“Fine. You’re right. I have no idea what I’d do if I were in Dr. Quinn’s shoes. But I’d like to think our character speaks for itself, and Dr. Quinn is an ass. And if that’s what you think of me then that’s on you for kissing me.”
Rafa half chuckled, then lowered his chin, shaking his head slightly. “You really are something,” he said.
“Given the present discussion, I’m not sure if I should take that as a good or bad thing.” She smiled at him, hoping it would ease the tension.
They stared into each other’s eyes, questioning everything. What more was there to say, though? Miri had laid her heart out there. She was done fighting. What Rafa chose to do with it was all up to him.
So she let him have the phone, but not without one last plea. “Please, Rafa. I need this.”
Rafa stared at the phone and then lifted his head to the sky, closing his eyes before letting out a long exhale. Miri sat silently atop his lap, biting her bottom lip as she debated what, if anything, to say. Rafa didn’t move, taking slow, measured breaths. Then, with a swift movement, he rolled her off his lap and hopped to his feet.
“Come on,” he said as he reached down for her hand.
“What are you…” Miri started as she put her hand in his and he pulled her up to his level.
“If we’re staying out here, then I’ve got two conditions: One, you need to tell the rest of the crew what happened so they can make their own decisions as to whether they want to stay.”
Miri nodded. “Fair enough. And what’s condition number two?”
“You’ve got to learn how to throw a decent punch that’s not going to leave you cofounding a broken-hand support group with Quinn,” he said, causing her to snicker.
“All right. Deal.”
“Great. Now come here,” he said, motioning for her to stand next to him. “First, you need to ball your fists. Curl your fingers and then tuck your thumb like this,” he said while demonstrating and tucking his thumb over his middle finger. “Do not put your thumb on the inside of your grip or you might break it.”
Miri mirrored his fists. “Like this?”
“Yes. Like that. Okay, next, you need to get in the right stance. You should turn your body to the side so that your dominant punching side is away from your opponent. You’re going to want to stand with most of your weight on the balls of your feet and a slight bend in your knees. Then bring your hands up to your cheeks so you can defend yourself like this. Now you try.”
Miri stood next to Rafa and tried mirroring his stance, but it looked twice as awkward when she did it. He walked around to the other side of her and twisted her hips.
“I’m sorry…” she said, putting her hands to her side and squaring to face him, clearly frustrated. “Are you really able to just move on and not say anything about it?”
He cocked his head to the side. “Say anything about what?”
Miri groaned. “About me kissing you. Look, I’m sorry if I made things awkward—”
“Hey,” he said, stopping her from going into another spiral. “You have absolutely nothing to apologize for.” Rafa looked over to the captain’s cabin, seeing Felix and Logan watching through the window, seemingly amused by this showing. Great. It wasn’t the time for this conversation. Though, thankfully, from Rafa and Miri’s earlier seated position, the guys likely hadn’t seen them kissing, and they couldn’t decipher their words over the boat’s motor.
“Now, get back into the fighting stance,” he continued as he helped reposition her hands, “and then you’re going to extend your dominant arm like this and rotate your palm, so it faces down as you aim for a vulnerable area on your opponent like the nose, eyes, or ears. Imagine that you’re punchingthroughyour target and use your hips to maximize power. Watch me.”
Rafa threw a few punches in slow motion before speeding up his motion for a full demonstration. Miri wasn’t one for watching fights, but there was something so sexy about the way he threw his weight.
“Okay, now you try.”
