Page 61 of Passenger Princess

He nods at me. "Exactly. People are more likely to come if you yell fire. Yelling for help has proven people don't think they'll be able to help or assume someone else will come. But let's say there's no one around. What do you do?"

"Uh... kick him?" I say, moving a foot back toward his knees.

"Maybe that could work in some situations, but you're pretty small, Ava."

I purse my lips, annoyed even though he's not wrong; in a panic, I don't think I'd have enough height to kick a man behind me where I'd need to in order to make any real impact.

"Ideally, if your hands are below the attacker's, you try and slide out," he says. When I try, basically lifting my feet and using my body weight and gravity, I'm able to wiggle out, even with his arms tight on me.

Jaime proceeds to show me then how to slow and injure the attacker and flee once I'm out, what to do if my armsare locked above the attacker's hands, and how to escape to safety before we try something new.

Next, he's in front of me, an arm's width away, staring down at me, his chest rising and falling with the slight effort he's been expending. In contrast, I'm already slick with sweat. Then his hand, calloused and rough and huge,wraps around my throat.

"A man gets you here; what do you do?"

I smile. It's not that I'm not taking this seriously that makes me smile. It's more that taking ittooseriously will be a complete system overload for me and send me into a panicked spiral I might never crawl out of. And, of course, the way he looksso freaking seriousmakes me want to be the complete opposite.

"Call him daddy?"

He shakes his head at me, and my smile grows.

"Jesus fucking Christ, Ava, please try and take this seriously."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry! It was too perfect of an opening!" He glares, and I give in. "Okay, okay, no more choke me daddy jokes, promise."

His eyes close, and he curses under his breath.

Maybe Ishouldn'thave said,choke me, daddy.Now, way,waytoo many ideas are running through my mind.

"Are you into that shit?" he asks, and instantly his face goes a bit pink like he didn't mean to say it aloud.

"Calling men daddy? It's not for me. Choking? I'm not sure yet. I've never tried it."

His eyes go wider. "But you've called someone daddy?" The words come so quickly, I have to assume they're an impulse.

"Once. It wasn't for me. I ended up laughing the entire time, which didn't do much for his ego." His jaw goes tight, and I smile. "Okay, fine. Choke me,Jaime."

Something snaps in his eyes, and heat floods my belly, but all the same, without a word, he lifts his hand, wrapping my throat and staring at me.

"If someone attacks you like this, the goal is to get their fingers offyou as soon as possible. First, grab my wrist with your left hand," he says.

"Like this?" I ask, wrapping my hand around his wrist.

"Yeah, Higher is better. With your other hand, grab my fingers that are on your throat.

"Grab your fingers?"

“Yes."

I grab them with my free hand, feeling a bit silly. If someone is choking me, shouldn't I try and push him away?

"Good, good. Pushing away fucks with angles and weight distribution, so you have to go a bit against instinct," he explains. "Now you want to grab those fingers tight, squeeze them together. It'll hurt him and mess with his grip." I squeeze a bit, feeling the fingers lifting as I do. "You grab it like that, peel back, and push. Yeah, yeah," he says, as I remove his fingers from my neck. "Then push, shove my elbow into my side." I do it slowly, a bit confused by the instructions, making sure I get it right. "Then push those fingers back toward his wrist. Ideally, you do it fast, but we're just practicing."

"Got it,"

"Then you're going to push back and break my fingers." My eyes go wide. "Not literally, not right now, at least. Now, if you do this, with the elbow moving back, the fingers breaking, he's going to go down. Then you knee him in the face, and yourun, Ava. Run and scream.”

"Got it. That I can do," I say.

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