Page 16 of Ruthless Alpha
“I don’t—” she started, but I cut her off.
“It’ll probably be more cathartic than throwing a plate on the ground,” I joked, hoping that she couldn’t read the desperation in my voice. “Come on, you’ve got free rein to hit me as much as you want.”
I expected her to refuse. I told myself that it would probably take another two or three attempts, a few more days of careful gentleness, before she would agree to anything. I was preparing myself for rejection as I watched the micro-expressions flit across her face, the silence stretching between us.
When she spoke, her voice was barely more than a breath, wavering and uncertain.
“Thank you. I would appreciate that.”
As usual, she’d surprised me, and I couldn’t hold back my grin as I replied,
“That’s the spirit.”
It took a little while to coax her out of her kitchen, since she refused to leave before everything was tidy, but eventually I managed to get her down the stairs and into the basement. I noticed the way her eyes flickered from me to the single exit, and I reminded myself that it was only her instinct, that I needed to handle her gently if I wanted her trust.
“Okay, here’s how the game is going to work,” I told her. “You throw these at me, and I dodge them.”
I dropped a large box of tennis balls at her feet. We’d never admit it to humans, but throwing balls for our wolvesto fetch was excellent exercise, and it stimulated their hunting reflexes. As a result, the balls were pretty chewed up, but they’d do well enough.
“That’s it?” Rosie asked, eyeing the balls with more than a little trepidation.
“That’s it, for now. As you throw, I want you to watch what I do,” I instructed. “Study me. Do I favor a specific direction to duck or dodge in? Can you use that to your advantage?”
Rosie nodded.
“Okay. Okay, I can do that.”
“Good. Now let me have it.”
I backed away and sank into a half squat on the balls of my feet, ready to dodge in any direction. Rosie picked up a tennis ball, an adorable little furrow between her eyebrows. She inspected the ball as if it were some kind of alien creature, and when she raised her arm to throw it, that concentrated expression deepened, a little slip of pink tongue darting out between her lips.
Thwack!
The ball hit my left pec, and I startled.Shit.I’d been so distracted that I hadn’t even tried to dodge that throw. I stared at her in embarrassed disbelief, and the faintest hint of a smile curled at the corners of her pretty mouth. Maybe it was worth looking like an idiot, I decided, if it meant seeing her smile.
“Good throw,” I told her, picking up the ball and throwing it back into the container. “This time, we’ll see how you do against a moving target.”
I didn’t think she believed my bluff, but she didn’t call me on it as she reached into the box again. This time, I kept myattention squarely on the ball, darting out of its path as it arced toward me, letting it bounce off the wall behind my head.
“Again,” I said. “Don’t wait for my orders, just grab a new one and go whenever you’re ready. We’ll only stop when the box is done.”
This time, the concentrated look on her face was fierce and determined, but I tried not to let it distract me as another ball came hurtling in my direction. She had decent instincts, adjusting the direction of her throws and not sinking into predictable patterns. She wasn’t the strongest, but that was something we could work on. By the time the box was empty, I was panting from the exertion of dodging her attacks, and I had a few red marks on my bare chest from where she’d gotten the best of me.
“Good work,” I told her as I set to picking up the tennis balls and throwing them back into the box. “You’ve got a decent arm. Ready to pick this up a little?”
“How?”
“You’ve just been throwing and I’ve been dodging so far, but if you were really in danger, someone would be coming at you, right?” She nodded, frowning.
“So you want me to throw these at you while you’re coming toward me?”
“Yep. Go and stand against the back wall, there. If I manage to reach you before you hit me, then I win. If you manage to hit me before I reach you, then you win. Think you can manage that?”
Rosie nodded again, reaching down to drag the box of tennis balls with her toward the back wall as I’d instructed. Shewas a little out of breath when she made it there, but she didn’t pause before she grabbed a ball and turned to face me.
“Let’s go.”
I regretted the exercise almost as soon as it started. Watching me come at her clearly threw Rosie off, and the first round was an easy victory for me as she panicked and messed up her aim. The problem was that I’d been running so fast that I had to throw out my arms to catch myself against the back wall, my hands landing on either side of her head, caging her against my body. I could smell the scent of her hair—that spring meadow aroma that was so out of place in my dank basement and on my barren island—and feel the heat of her body against mine. She was looking up at me with those huge blue eyes, her pupils dilated and her mouth slightly open, her chest heaving with each breath. I felt my cock stir in my pants, and I pulled back before the situation could get any worse.
