I heard some irritated subtext there though. "But?" I prompted, holding his gaze and doing everything possible not to pay attention to Rafe. That was basically impossible with his hard dick still crushed between us and my panties growing damper by the second... but I owed it to Jordan to at leasttry.
"But you only have forty-five minutes until the formal Honor Cup dinner. That means I'm giving you thirty minutes to get this shit sorted and fifteen minutes to clean up and change. Understood?" He arched a brow at me, and when I nodded, he shifted his gaze to the back of Rafe's head.
"Thirty minutes will be more than enough...thistime." Arrogant son of a bitch. "It'll only take five minutes to hand Cinderella her ass, then I’ll have twenty-five left to show her what happens when sherepeatedlydisobeys me."
Jordan made a sound, and Rafe's gaze flicked to his friend for a second, then locked back on me. "Us," he corrected. "You promised Jordy you'd stop scaring him like that. And now look where we are." There was a dark, purring tone to his voice that said he was way too fucking excited about this fight. Or maybe he was excited to win? Well... it wasn't happening.
"Get on with it then," I snarled, shoving him in the chest to move him away a step. Because holy shit, if he kept grinding that dick on me, the only fight happening would be over who got to be on top. Him, preferably. I loved when he fucked rough.
Rafe let out a low chuckle, stepped away to create space, and adjusted his erection in his pants. Fair enough, I wasn't above fighting dirty and that was an all too tempting target sticking out like it had been.
"You staying, bro?" he asked Jordan, turning his back on me in a painfully obvious trap, as if I was that fucking dumb to try and attack while he was "distracted" with Jordan. Crock of shit. He was taunting me.
Jordan gave a short nod. "I'll stay and make sure you don't kill each other." He eyeballed Rafe hard. "Violet's face is totally off limits, Rafe. The last thing we need is her showing up at the dinner tonight with a black eye. She only just healed from the last bruise, too."
I grinned at the fact that Rafe was being given limitations but I wasn't. On a deeper level, though, I recognized the line Jordy was drawing. Sparring was totally fine, beating each other up was not. We were competitive, violent, and altogether fucked up. But we were not abusive.
"What, but she can hit my face?" the Swiss prince asked, joking. He’d definitely heard the same subtext as I had.
Jordan shrugged. "You easily could have caught an elbow to the face during one of the matches today. No one would question you being bruised up." He said it so fucking casually, but the wink he shot me was pure evil.
I read between the lines there. He wanted me to hand Rafe his ass and punch holes all through that inflated ego of his. Well, luckily I was in the mood to give Jordy what he wanted.
This time when Rafe's stance shifted to argue with Jordan's rules, I saw my opening. This wasn't a trap anymore, it was an actual opportunity to catch him unawares.
"That's unfair," Rafe protested. Not because he had a problem withnotpunching me in the face, but because he wanted us both handicapped in the same way. Had to love a boy that was all for equal injury opportunity regardless of sex. "You know she'll use—"
Smack.
His words cut off with a whoosh of breath as my kick caught him right in the abdomen and knocked the air from his lungs.
Jordan snickered an evil laugh. I flashed him a grin, but that was all the time I had. Rafe hadn't earned his name in the fight rings for his good looks. He was lethal, and that had been a lucky shot.
Blow for blow, we matched each other flawlessly as our fight took on a more serious tone. Neither one of us was willing to lose; we werebothtoo pigheaded to concede defeat to the other. Thank fuck we had Jordan to mellow us both out, or Rafe and I wouldn't last a week as a real couple.
"Careful," I taunted Rafe when his fist narrowly missed my cheek. Sometimes our ingrained fight training took over, and he probably hadn't even known he was going to throw that fist until it was in motion. "If you break Jordy's rules, it'll beyougetting spanked later."
An evil smile curled Rafe's lips, and he huffed a laugh as he bounced from foot to foot, his hands up in a mirror image of me. Neither of us wore gloves or even tape. Neither of us used weapons, either, because as badly as I wanted to metaphorically kill Rafe, I didn't want toliterallykill him. He was way too good in bed, so I wanted to keep him around.
Oh yeah, and I was a little bit in love with his infuriating ass.
Fine. A lot in love.
Fucker.
"You say that like spanking is the worst that might happen to you, Violence. But we both know I'm more creative than that." His sapphire blue eyes sparkled with anticipation, and my stomach flipped. Maybe I wanted to lose after all.
He took my moment of hesitation as weakness, but I'd played this game too many times to allow that to happen. Being underestimated because I was a chick was deliciously perfect.
Being underestimated because my opponent thought my vagina was the brains of the operation... even fucking better.
His flip kick was designed to send me flying and, no doubt, end the fight immediately. Dropping to my knees as his powerful leg swung toward me gave me the perfect angle to power drive my fists, one after another, into his ribs as he crossed above me.
Once set in motion, the boy had no choice but to continue, and he'd thought me too distracted to react.
"You see," I said, when Rafe rolled over and was back on his feet in a second. "My speed is unmatched. Along with my reflexes. It was learn quick or die—"
His hand dropped to his ribs, and he looked impressed. "It's been ten years since someone has landed a hit like that on me," he said, and it was clear that the fire in his eyes now had nothing to do with anger and everything to do with us and this flame of attraction that had sparked to life long before either one of us were willing to admit it.
