Page 85 of Cruel Legacy

So I stand in front of the class, waiting for a decision to be made. If they want me off the training mat, they’ll have to physically move me, and the minute someone touches me, it’s on.

I eye Coach Wolfe, waiting for him to say something. It doesn’t take long. “LaReaux, I didn’t call you up to demonstrate, so sit your ass back down.”

Michael takes that moment to walk over to me. I guess he thinks he’s about to help me to my seat. Yahtzee. That’s just what I wanted to happen. As soon as his hand lands on my shoulder, I duck under his arm, pulling it with me to wrench it behind his back, before putting my foot to his ass and sending him stumbling forward. I don’t even put a lot of energy into it, since he wasn’t prepared for it to happen. He turns to look at me with a smirk on his face. He thinks I got lucky.

I signal for him to come at me again. He hesitates for a second before deciding to humor me. He lunges, trying to fake me out, and I pretend to fall for it. When he goes to grab me, I slip out of the way and shuffle to the side. He’s fast on his feet and adjusts quickly, grabbing me around my waist, pulling me against his chest.

With my arms pinned to my side, there are only a few options I have to break free. Before I can decide on one, Coach Wolfe blows his whistle, and storms over to us, yelling, “LaReaux, my office! Everyone else, go over the moves we learned last session.”

He stalks towards his office door, and I follow behind, taking my sweet ass time to get there. When I do, he’s standing behind his desk, with his palms flat against it.

He’s pissed. I’m fixated on the way his chest is heaving. It reminds me of the way he was huffing against my ear the night we met. The way he’s gripping the desk sends my thoughts into overdrive. I know what he can do against a wall, but is he as talented on a flat surface? I force that imagery out of my head. He’s my teacher, and he’s nothing like the guy he pretended to be the night we met. That guy was a sexy hottie. This dude is a condescending prick.

“You wanted to see me, coach?” I ask, infusing all kinds of sweetness I don’t feel into my voice.

“Close the fucking door.”

I do as he says. I don’t need an audience for this and fold my arms across my chest. He’s staring at me as if trying to decide where to start. I stare right back. He told me to come in here. Clearly, he wants to chew my ass out. I’ll just stand here and wait until he musters up the balls to do it.

I think I know why he can’t. He’d have to admit that this attitude towards me is personal, probably stemming back to our hookup. Well, suck that shit up. It happened. It’s over. If he’s secretly got a wife or girlfriend or something, he’s being really stupid about how he’s handling things. Treating me like shit might be the wrong way to go about getting me to agree to keep my mouth closed. Not that I’d track this person down and tell them what happened. I’m not into causing drama like that.

Maybe if I tell him that, he’ll start acting human, or showing some sense of decency like he did when he wrongly assumed I was being abused. I’m willing to give it a go.

“Look, I think I know what’s going on here. So let’s clear the air. I assumed you were single. If I had known you weren’t, I never would’ve sent you that drink. But you can relax. I’m not here to fuck your shit up or anything. And before you say I joined this class to blackmail you, I didn’t. I just moved here, and if you remember, we didn’t share any details about ourselves that night. I’m good for continuing to pretend it didn’t happen. So you can drop the crappy attitude now and treat me like everyone else.”

Chapter40

Deacon

Irealize my mistake the minute Thea closes the door. I have a decent sized office, but suddenly it feels like a coffin with the two of us in here.

That suffocating feeling does nothing to ease my temper, and neither does that little speech she just gave. Pretend it didn’t happen? That’s the part I focus on, because all that other shit about being married or having a girlfriend is unimportant.

I don’t have one and it honestly never crossed my mind to think she was here to fuck with me or blackmail me. But she’s obviously given it some thought. That’s a different type of conversation that we’d need to have if there was something going on between us. There’s not. There can’t be.

I brought her in here, because I have a point to make. I keep my anger pulled around me, and inflect every bit of the emotion into what I’m about to say. “Are you hard of hearing or just too stupid to value your own safety?”

“All my senses operate perfectly well, so let’s go with stupid, since I was dumb enough to think I’d get a fair shot in this class.”

She actually has the nerve to look down her nose at me, and finishes with, “Among other reasons.”

I get the hint, hooking up with me is now considered a stupid mistake. I don’t disagree with that assessment. It’s turning out to be one of the worst decisions I ever made, but not for the same reason, she thinks.

“LaReaux, that remark you made about discrimination was way off base. If I didn’t think women could handle this class, they wouldn’t be in it.”

“You can’t segregate based on gender. The school would get in trouble.”

“It’s a private university. We can make boys and girl fitness training separate if we want. Most of these students are used to it.”

I straighten to my full height. “Now if you read the class rules, you’d know disrespect of one’s self, the class, or the teacher is a disciplinary offense.”

Her gaze never leaves mine as I stalk around the front of the desk. “In case you’re not sure what your crime is, I’ll lay it out for you. You disrespected the class by interrupting their training when I called another student to demonstrate. You disrespected me by arguing with me and accusing me of being gender biased.”

I’m standing right in front of her now. I lean closer, putting my face close to her ear. “And can you tell me how you disrespected yourself?”

“Is it when I let Michael get me in a bear hold from behind?” She says with too much sass, letting me know she’s still not taking this seriously.

I clench my teeth. That’s not where I was going, but yeah, I’m pissed about that part, too. I would have let them go for a few more minutes just to see what she’d do, but when he was pressed against her, I could tell he wasn’t thinking about any holds and escapes.

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