Parker caught sight of me and waved me over. His gaze ran from my head down to my bare toes still adorned in A Good Man-darin is Hard to Find, and I watched his Adam’s apple move as he swallowed. The other guy was talking and I saw Parker’s lips moved as he replied.
“Hey,” I said once I was close enough. It felt strange to be with Parker in this setting, but he slid his hand around to the small of my back like it was no big deal.
“Sage, this is Mac,” he said. “He’s my sparring partner.”
“Nice to meet you, Sage,” Mac said with a smile as he shook my hand. He had an accent I couldn’t place, with brown hair and gray eyes.
“Same here,” I said, feeling a little intimidated with these two huge guys flanking me.
“I’m going to show Sage a few self-defense moves,” Parker explained.
“A little Krav Maga for the lady?” Mac asked.
“Hey, if you’re going to teach self-defense, might as well do it right,” Parker said with a shrug.
“What’s Krav Maga?” I asked.
“It’s a form of self-defense created by the Israeli Defense Force,” Parker explained. “Its premise is not only defense, but counterattack to disarm and disable your opponent and come out the survivor of any physical confrontation.”
“It looks like she could’ve used a lesson a few days ago,” Mac said, eyeing the bruises and scrapes on my legs before his gaze landed on my stitched shoulder.
“Tell me about it,” Parker replied grimly.
“You want to show her a demo?” Mac asked.
“Sure.” Parker motioned for me to stand aside so I moved off the mat to lean against the wall.
Mac got behind Parker and wrapped an arm around his neck like he was putting him in a choke hold. Parker moved so fast I couldn’t even track what he’d done, but he was out of the choke hold and Mac was down on the ground.
Parker held out a hand and helped Mac up. They faced off, then Mac attacked Parker. I sucked in a breath at the vicious jab, but Parker sidestepped it, then moved in close. They both moved fast, with their arms and fists and feet and every part of their bodies it seemed. I watched in wide-eyed amazement. I’d never realized Parker could do … all the stuff he was doing.
They finally hit a point where Mac tapped Parker’s leg. They were on the floor and Parker was doing something to his arm. When they stood up, they were both breathing hard.
“Nice,” Mac said with a grin. “I let you win, you know. Didn’t want to make you look bad in front of your lady.”
Parker laughed. “That’s mighty thoughtful of you.”
Your lady. Hmm.
They did this man-grip handshake thing, then Mac nodded at me before heading off toward the men’s locker rooms. Parker turned toward me.
“Ready?”
I gave a nervous huff of laughter. “I’m not sure I’m able to do anything like that.” Talk about intimidating. Plus, I hated learning something new. I always felt like an idiot until I’d mastered it.
“That’s what I’m here for,” he said. “I’ll teach you. Come on.”
He took my hand and pulled me to stand on the mat. “Okay, the first thing you need to learn is that part of it is energy and will. You have to throw everything you have into your moves. Be decisive and intend to harm.”
“Intend to harm?”
“Absolutely. If someone starts something with you, you want to be the one to end it. Not just defend yourself, but attack and disable them so they’re out of commission.”
That made sense. “Okay.”
“So, last night, the guy pulled your hair, right?”
I nodded.
“Okay, well if someone grabs your hair, it’s going to hurt no matter what. You might as well resign yourself to that. But here, let me show you how to get out of it.”
Reaching out, he grabbed a handful of my ponytail. “The first thing you want to do is grab my wrist with both your hands.” He showed me where to circle his wrist. “Then you want to create some distance between us, though it’s going to hurt because I still have your hair. When there’s distance, you use your feet. Vulnerable parts of the body. The knee, the groin.”
“I’m not kicking my boss in the groin,” I said.
His wide grin flashing perfectly white teeth made me lose my train of thought for a moment.
“I’d prefer you not either,” he said. “This is practice. We’ll go slow so you can get used to how it feels. When you get better, I’ll put on gear and you can move faster and do real hits.”
So we practiced. Using my hair, he’d pull me close, then I’d go through the moves he taught me, with him making corrections and suggestions. He was careful of my shoulder, which I appreciated. The stitches were healing, but I babied it since I was a complete wuss when it came to pain.
“Okay, now what if he does this?” Parker asked, using my hair to spin me around so my back was against his front. He put an arm across the front of my shoulders above my breasts and the other across my hips.
And I could feel every inch of his body against mine.
Sweet Jesus.
He was still warm from his sparring with Mac, his skin slightly damp with sweat, and I could smell his scent mixed with his cologne. A powerful aphrodisiac that made my bones want to melt.