The smaller guy pushed up hard into the other one’s chin, then wrapped his legs around him, catching his head in a painful-looking choke hold.
“Oh Christ,” Uma said aloud, repulsed by the violence but entranced by the image they presented.
“Well,” the woman chuckled, “variations on this.”
She finally looked at Jessie. “I wouldn’t mind learning how to do that.” Her voice came out a tad breathless.
“You’ve come to the right place, then.” She moved up to the edge of the mat and stomped hard on the floor, twice. “Okay, guys! I got ladies lining up here, chompin’ at the bit to get started. And it’s not to look at your ugly mugs.”
Uma glanced back toward the door and was surprised to see that several women had indeed arrived. They were taking off shoes, shooting the breeze, stretching on another mat. The stragglers shivered as they entered, and all everyone seemed to want to talk about was the cold snap. The idea of having to interact with them made her regret the impulse that had brought her in here. At the same time, she knew she wouldn’t leave. Not with the way her heart raced, not with this messy mix of anticipation, fear…excitement. Besides, where the hell was she supposed to go? With the coming cold, the best thing she could do was stay inside.
The men high-fived into a hug. Then the big one turned and…
It was that man again. Ivan.
He pulled off his headgear as he approached, followed by Jessie and the other guy. His face changed when he spotted Uma. From relaxed and smiling to serious. He stopped a few steps away.
“Hey, Uma. Good to see you again,” he said.
“Hi.”
“You doin’ self-defense with Jessie?” Ivan reached back and grabbed the woman behind her shoulders in a squeeze that looked slightly too tight. Not waiting for a response, he went on, “This is Jessie. Jessie, I told you about Uma.”
It all came back to Uma then: the coffee shop, the kid, this woman walking in.Of course.She watched as Jessie wended her hands around Ivan’s arm and twisted so she ended up outside his hold, rather than inside it. On tiptoes, she threw her arm around his neck in a choke hold of her own.
“Don’t ever let ’em get the better of you, Uma,” Jessie said with a wink before pushing away to the center of the room. “All right, ladies, let’s get started. Line up on the mat, please. We’re going to begin with a little warm-up and then go into some simple evasion techniques.”
Uma inserted herself into the back row, unable to stop her gaze from returning to Ivan. He left the mat, catching her eye before disappearing into a back room. She looked away a second too late, embarrassed to have been caught staring.
When Ivan and the other guy reemerged a half hour later, his messy hair was damp, curling around his face and the nape of his neck. He looked freshly showered and healthy, dressed in a tight T-shirt, with sweatpants that must have been a couple of decades old. Uma tried to ignore him, but the man was true north to her wandering eyes.
Like a car crash, she thought wryly.I don’t want to watch him, but I can’t look away.
“It looks like it’s that time again, ladies. Our guys are back. Let’s put our moves into situations we might encounter with real-life attackers.” Jessie turned to the men. “Get your bottoms over here, boys.”
Oh hell no. No, no, nonono.Uma barely caught herself before saying it aloud. She’d done okay with the other women, but this was touching men and pretending and—
No. No way.
“Ladies, as you know, here we have Ive and Steve, our handy man-puppets for the evening. They look mean and ugly—especially the big one—but it’s nothing we can’t handle, right?”
The women responded with a few raucous catcalls as the two men walked toward them. Uma’s eyes caught Ivan’s for a moment and shifted away.
Chicken.She faked bravado, forcing herself to look back.A strong woman. That’s what I am. Fearless.
Their gazes met and held until her face must have turned the same shade of fuchsia as her sparring partner’s shirt. The color looked fabulous on the other woman. Not so sure about her face.
“Okay, we’re going to get out of a wrist grab. Let’s show these guys what we’ve learned. Monica, you go with Ive, and Anne C., head over to Steve.” They all moved to the center of the room and started in on their new moves. Everything was different—heightened—now that the men were back here. Uma kept her eyes riveted on Anne and Steve, avoiding the sight of Ivan’s muscles shifting beneath his absurdly tight shirt.
“Great. Now, Penny! Get up there and show us what you got. Anne Riley? Why don’t you try it?”
Jessie was working her way down the line, with Uma at the end. The wait was agony.I can’t do it. I can’t. I won’t.
Penny and Anne finished up, and the next two went. Binx and somebody else. Uma stopped remembering their names and concentrated instead on preparing.
Okay, okay. She could do this. She could let a man touch her. In fact, this wouldn’t be any different from when Ivan had held her hand. She wouldn’t be intimidated by him.
That wasn’t his goal though, was it? Intimidation. That part was all in her head. The man might look scary, but so far, all he’d done was act inviting and friendly.
