“You will spar against my sister, but not me? Is it because you know you will not win?” She was taunting him just like the day they’d traveled here.
He would not fight a woman who was not fully present, but perhaps that was what Thalia needed. A release. A way to blow off steam, to silence the dead that passed on. Who was he to deny her of that?
“Are you insinuating that I would lose to an overly feral little thing like yourself? Oh,gatáki.” Dimitris took a step toward Thalia, lifting her chin up with his thumb. “I could pick you up and toss you to the ground with one arm before you landed a single blow.”
She smiled—a raw, unfiltered, excited smile. “We will see,fengaráki.”
Walking to the nearby bench, Dimitris lifted his shirt above his head. If Thalia wanted a show, she was going to get one. He picked up a roll of fabric and began to loop the material around his fingers and hands as he had done many times before.
This was going to be fun.
“You removed your shirt? Really?” Thalia called at him, but Dimitris still caught the small glance she gave up his abs. The way her skin pinkened at the sight. Exactly the reaction he was hoping for.
“What? Is it too distracting for you?” He grinned, wicked thoughts flowing through his mind.
“Hardly. Now are you accepting my challenge, or are you going to just stand there flexing your muscles all day?” That received a snicker from a few of the soldiers nearby.
For a moment, Dimitris had forgotten there was anyone else in the gymnasium. Thalia did that to him—made every living thing surrounding him fade to just light reflecting on the walls. When Thalia was in the same room, his attention was only ever on her.
“I accept.” Returning to the mat, Dimitris breathed in deeply, letting every sound of fists and swords clacking calm him. The woods, his ship, and the mat. The three places he always felt at home.
They shook hands before taking three steps back from each other, as was the tradition in Skiatha. Rolling forward onto his toes, back onto his heels, then steadying his stance on the balls of his feet, Dimitris readied for the match.
Thalia attacked first, her fist driving for his chin, but it was too forceful and Dimitris dodged easily. It was not like the seer to be off kilter according to what he learned from fellow soldiers. She was one of the fiercest members ofThe Nostos’s crew and had beaten almost every Skiathan that challenged her. Dimitris switched his stance, throwing a punch for her stomach while she regrouped, but Thalia caught his fist, swatting it away with her forearm. They continued like this for several minutes, Thalia always being too aggressive, and Dimitris not wanting to let the seer lose just yet. But then he had a chance he couldn’t pass up—Thalia looked down, using her arm to wipe the sweat from her forehead.
Grabbing hold of her arm, Dimitris spun Thalia so he had it pinned between her back and his chest. The scent of lavender and mint swirled in the air around him as he leaned down, letting his lips just graze top of her ear. “If you want to beat me,gatáki, you need to let go.”
The hairs on her arms rose, goosebumps peppering her skin. For a moment, Thalia leaned back into him, muscles relaxing against his own. Then her booted foot slammed down into his instep, using the brief falter to break free of his hold.
“I am letting go,” she snapped.
Her fist came at him, aimed right for his nose. Dodging right, Dimitris sent a hook into her ribs, landing with a hollow thud. “You really should learn to block more.”
Immediately, her other fist went right to his jaw, causing a trickle of blood to slide down his lip.Fuck. She hadn’t even flinched at his punch. Thalia was more skilled than she led on—Dimitris would give her that. Had he not just given this same lesson to Dafne? Do not underestimate your opponent.
“You should really learn to take your own advice,” she said through heaving breaths.
Without a moment to rest, Thalia’s leg kicked out, targeting the back of his knee and sending Dimitris to the ground. He reached out for her foot, pulling hard until the seer lay next to him. Before she could catch herself he twisted his body on top of Thalia, locking his hand behind one leg and using his other arm to pin down her throat.
Once again a glaze flashed across her eyes, sending those violet orbs a milky white. Coughs sputtered out of her throat and not from his forearm on her.
“We can stop, you know. You need to rest if you’re—if you’re having those visions again.” Dimitris eased up on both his grips.
“Not until I am finished with you,” she spat, though that vitriol he loved so much was not there. Instead, it was replaced with pain. Ravaging, unadulterated pain.
Why did she have to be so stubborn? And why did it make him want her even more? He slid his hand that was behind her knee further up her thigh and a shutter ran down Thalia’s body. Another scent hit him, one he’d been desperate to smell again since that day on the horse. The brief falter cost him, but Dimitris didn’t care.
Her legs wrapped around his waist and she rolled them backwards so she landed on top straddling Dimitris’s waist. Sweat dripped from her face onto his chest, sliding down until it hit the mat below them. “Yield,fengaráki.”
That thin black top did nothing to hide her heaving chest nor the two perfectly peaked nipples that showed through. Whatwould they feel like if he could trace them with his tongue? If she would let him explore every corner of her skin?
“I’d gladly yield control to you.” Threading his fingers through hers where they pinned him, Dimitris squeezed hard, bucking his hips up just slightly. He watched as Thalia’s gaze fell from his and lingered near his waistband. Her tongue brushed lightly along her bottom lip before her teeth rolled over it.
“And if I wanted you in control?” she whispered, moving her hips forward so her body brushed over his.
Looping one leg around her, he flipped them so Thalia’s back was flush with the floor. She tilted her head back, exposing more of that beautiful neck Dimitris wanted to claim.
“Everyone, out!” he growled. The entire training room went silent and the pairs of ten other soldiers who had been sparring turned to stare directly at them. Dimitris stared every single one of them down. “Did you not hear me? I said, out!”
