Page 21 of Fighting Conviction
She pulled back her left fist and struck the mitt with all her strength and frustration.
Synthetic leather immediately smacked her in the face, making her head fly back. The rest of her body went with it, and even on the padded wrestling mats, she landed on her butt with a resounding thud. But the sound was a whisper compared to the deafening roar from the giant towering over her.
“What the fuckwasthat?”
Chapter Eight
“What the fuck was that?”
The exclamation slipped out of him before he could rein it in. Devil hated cursing in front of Ellie, but the damn waif of a girl was laid out on the mat like he’d gone full throttle with the punching mitt. Which he hadn’t. He’d made sure of that, actually.
He kneeled on the ground beside her and tossed the mitts to the side. “You okay, baby? Shi-oot.” He brushed his hands over her face and cradled her cheeks, careful not to move her too much in case she’d hit her head too hard or suffered whiplash.
Ellie groaned and those caramel eyes peeked out between half closed eyelids. “What the heck did you do that for?” She grunted as she sat up on her elbows. “You tryna kill me?”
When she sat up without any sign of injury, Devil released the breath he’d been holding. It wasn’t until he sat back on his heels and relaxed her words finally registered.
“Kill you? I barely touched you! And what was that? You didn’t even try to block my strike!” He pulled his hair at its ends trying to figure out what the fuck she was thinking not protecting herself.
“What do you mean, ‘block your strike?’ You weren’t supposed to hit me. I was the one doing the hitting!”
Devil paused, first to assess her already reddening left cheek—damn the girl had sensitive skin—then to see if she was joking. But no, she was dead serious.
“Hold on… you didn’t expect your attacker to strike back? Do you honestly think they’ll sit there and take getting beat up by a girl?”
She covered her face and groaned. “Ugh, no. Of course not. It’s just… Jason doesn’t ever hit me back. I wasn’t expecting you to do it.”
Devil’s mouth opened and shut a few times before he finally figured out what to say.
“How the hell are you supposed to be prepared for a fight if you don’t practice the other half of it? Fighting isn’t just about offense. Especially not in your case. A girl your size needs to figure out how to outsmart, outmaneuver, and outrun her attacker.”
He held three fingers up for emphasis. “Your priorities are to run, hide, fight. In that order.” Unable to help himself, he reached out and brushed her now bright red cheek. “Not to mention, it’s absolutely vital to know what a hit is gonna feel like so you can react through the pain during the real thing.” He reluctantly brought his hand back and shook his head. “Shi-oot, Jason wasn’t teaching you how to save yourself. He was killing you slowly with misguided confidence.”
Ellie’s otherwise tan cheeks paled, making the mark from his strike more pronounced. “You mean, I can’t defend myself? Even after all this practicing’?”
Devil cursed inwardly at the defeat laced in her words. He didn’t want to scare her, but coddling her could prove deadly in the real world.
“No, I mean… you gave a pretty killer punch. I had to put some resistance behind the mitt. But without knowing defensive moves too, you may as well be fighting with your hands tied behind your back. Literally.” He scrubbed his beard. “Actually, that might be a good exercise…”
A thumping sound brought his attention back to the woman in front of him, now collapsed on the floor and groaning in frustration. “This is hopeless. I can’t even take a hit by a padded pillow without falling to the ground.” She rubbed her cheek with the hand that wasn’t flung over her eyes. “That kinda hurt by the way.”
“Get over it. Physical pain is easy. Mind over matter.” Devil leaned forward and pulled Ellie’s hand away from her face to make sure she was paying attention. “It’s not hopeless. You’ve got a good foundation. We’ll work with what you already know.” He stood up from the mat and held out his hand. She gave an adorable grunt before grabbing his offering.
The touch shouldn’t have been anything but platonic. It always had been whenever he’d assisted his teammates in getting back to their feet after a fight. But Ellie’s hand in his made his fingers ache to feel every inch of her skin. He dropped it and backed away as soon as she’d steadied.
“Let’s try again. Get back into your stance, but this time—wait, what’re you doing?” She was pulling her goddamn long-sleeved T-shirt off. How was he supposed to teach her like a regular trainee if she was half naked? “Ellie…” He gritted out each word through tight lips as she tossed her shirt near his duffel bag. “What are you doing?”
“Hold your horses, okay? If we’re gonna do some serious fighting, I’m taking this thing off. I’m so sweaty the sleeves are sticking to me.”
He massaged his eyes and turned away, praying he wouldn’t get hard just from her stripping a sweaty shirt off. Why he was being so fucking insane, he had no idea. Already, he’d made an ass of himself by flirting with her. She was his buddy’s sister and now he was charged with training her to protect herself. If he didn’t get his shit together he’d be no good to her and if anything happened to her on his watch it’d be just like—
No. It’d be worse. There’d be no coming back from that.
He inhaled a deep, centering breath through his nose before forcing a hard exhale out of his mouth.
“What do you think?”
Devil blinked and realized she’d been talking to him. “‘What do I think’ about what?”
