She swore her Dragon purred in response.She was kind of getting used to it.Something else had changed, too, in the way she moved.Subtle, but definitely different.Since she’d Awakened, she had gained an awareness of her body.
And with sexy-as-sin Cyn around and half naked, another part of her body had awakened, too.Because for an old man, he totally rocked.
Twenty One Pilots was playing on his sound system, now streamingRoutines in the Night.
Her Dragon sighed.
“Okay, Ruby, pretend I’m an assailant who’s come up behind you.If you’re not expecting it, you’d have the stick down like this.”He guided the stick so the tip hit the floor, molding her hand over the smooth knob at the top with his.“The instant my arms go around you, bring the stick up and hit me in the neck.The element of surprise only lasts a second or two, so capitalize on those seconds.”He clamped his arms over her shoulders.
The problem was that it felt so good that she didn’t want to make him move away.
“Ruby?Attacking you, remember?Don’t worry about hurting me.I’m tough.”He was real tough, not her bluff tough, she realized.
She needed to get real tough, too.
She pulled up the stick, stopping when it touched his neck.Then she twisted out of his grip and swung it toward the side of his head, like a baseball batter.
He didn’t even flinch or try to stop the movement.“Good job.Do it again.”
They worked for another hour, and she was glad he’d made her fortify herself with eggs and toast when they’d returned to his house.He taught her some general moves, for those times when she couldn’t Catalyze and now, when she didn’t have the stick.They moved past the Twenty One Pilots back to the music Cyn had in his music system, and now Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant belted out about needing a whole lotta love.
Which she really did not need to hear with Cyn periodically pressing some part of his body against hers.
She faced him, blocking his attempts to grab her.“Is this what you would have been doing if Mon had brought me to you when I was thirteen?”
“Yes.At the dojo though, in a class.”
She knocked his hand back, hearing their flesh collide with a loudsmack.
Her eyes met his.“And now I get private lessons.”
He merely grunted in response, then lunged forward to grab her.Remembering the move he’d just taught her, she grabbed him back.Which, unfortunately, knocked them both off balance.He tried to right them, she overcorrected, and down to the wood floor they went, her on the bottom.
He braced himself with his hands to keep from falling on top of her, which left him hovering over her.“It would not be effective to have the demon land on top of you.”
He didn’t get up, even though she could see the strain of his arm muscles as he poised over her like he was going to do a push-up.She could feel his heat, and more so, the heat in his gaze as his eyes locked onto hers.He lowered his mouth, so subtly she might have imagined it.Her body strained to meet him halfway.God, her Dragon was going nuts.
He suddenly stood, reaching down to help her to her feet.He’d been about to kiss her.So why hadn’t he?She had to get a handle on her disappointment, and the fact that her disappointment meant she wanted it, too.
He released her hand the moment she’d gained her footing.“Now we do some Dragon work.I don’t know how much time we’re going to have here, or if we’ll get back to the dojo.Still need candles?”
Oh, yeah, a challenge.She saw it in the glint of his eyes.“Yes.”She had to stop letting him manipulate her.
He had a lazy sway to his gait as he walked over and lit the candles.She hit the light switch, plunging the room into a den of candlelight.
“You’re going to have to grow up and get over the candles,” he said as he returned.
“In case you haven’t noticed, I am grown up.”She pulled off her shirt and tossed it to the floor, her gaze on him.
He paused, embers flickering in his eyes.“Ruby, don’t do that.”
“Do what?”She pushed down her pants and kicked them off.
“Play the seductress.This is not the time nor the place for it.”
She laughed, more of a sputter.“Me, a seductress?You’re kidding, right?”Like she could seduce a man like him.
He did not seem to share her amusement.Or her disbelief.“Look at yourself.”
