“You’re welcome.”
Khalil shakes his head, but then his humor is gone in a flash and he’s wearing a stern “coach” expression again. “Why, Aurelia?”
“Um…I didn’t know how?” That should be obvious, so why was he pushing?
“You also didn’t try,” Khalil scolds, “so you’re going to now. How would you do it?”
I start to roll my eyes when Khalil’s brows pull down in warning, and I gulp. I grab his wrist and tug with all my might, but he just stares at me. I claw at his arms, hoping the pain will make him release me, but he yawns like I’ve bored him. I try to knee him next, and he just sighs.
“Commendable effort but no.”
“So what then?”
“Your hands are free, but you haven’t even tried to hurt me yet.”
“What do you mean? I scratched you.” I indicate his arms where we both can see the long, jagged lines now. Some of them are even bleeding.
Khalil gives me a look as if to say,get serious. “You’ve clawed me harder than that when I’m deep inside you, Goldilocks. I meanrealpain.”
“Youwantme to hurt you,” I say just to make sure we’re on the same page.
“Yes.”
Remembering how he pulled my hair and his disappointment that I wasn’t more aggressive in defending myself, I don’t hesitate before I curl my fingers. My fist collides with his mouth, and the blow snaps his head to the side. His hand is still aroundmy throat, but I notice his grip has loosened, so before he can recover, I punch him again and slap his hand off my neck at the same time.
Khalil actually stumbles away, but I don’t fall for it this time. I keep my guard up, and when he recovers, he flashes me a red smile before turning his head and spitting out the blood pooling in his mouth and staining his teeth.
“You know how to punch and you’re mean with it,” he remarks rhetorically. “Good. That’s good. It’s a decent foundation to start with.” Khalil walks over to his pack and tugs out two sets of boxing gloves. “Put these on,” he orders after tossing a pair to me.
“What is this about?” I finally ask as I do what he says.
“It’s about the fact that your uncle is trying to kill you and you don’t have the first clue how to defend yourself. You got lucky the first time because we were there.”
I pause. “You think he’ll try again?”
“Most definitely. You need to be ready for it.”
“But I have three big, strong, murderous boyfriends who apparently live to die for me.” It sounds so ridiculous, but it’s practically their motto.
“Boyfriends you refuse to listen to,” Khalil retorts. “What happens if we’re not there next time?”
“Hey, I listen,” I argue. Under my breath, I grumble, “When I want to.”
Hearing every word, Khalil tosses me an impatient look before snapping a mouth guard over his teeth. He has a new set for me, and I open my mouth to let him slip the guard in since I already have my boxing gloves on.
“Now what?”
“Now we work on your stamina,” he says as he slips his gloves on. “When your enemy is bigger and stronger than you, exhausting them before they can finish their assault is the besttool in your arsenal. That means you need to be faster, and you need to build up your endurance.”
“So what are the gloves for? Don’t you want me to run laps around the lake or something?”
Khalil’s smile is sharp as he regards me. “That will come later. First, I want to assess where you are. You’re a stage performer and, from what I’ve heard, a really good one. I imagine it takes a lot of breath control to dance and sing at the same time.”
“Sure, but I’m out of practice. I haven’t toured in a couple of years and I was supposed to start rehearsals this summer for my upcoming tour, but I was in a plane crash and I’ve been held captive by three sex-starved mountain men for months so…” Khalil just stares at me. “All right. Fine.” I throw up my hands. “So how do we do this?”
“I’m going to attack you, putting you on the defense. I want you to do your best to either evade me or free yourself from my hold using one of maneuvers I showed you. We’re going to do this until you either knock me out or I can’t continue.”
“But that’s impossible. You’re in amazing shape. If this were a video game, you’d be this huge, scary boss, and your health bar would be a mile long.”
