Page 28 of New Girl in the City
“Ah, I don’t know if—”
He squeezed my wrist and then, before I could move, stepped closer and dropped his head until his lips were grazing the top of my ear, “You’re not scared, are you? Do it, Mel.”
I felt that whisper and brush of his lip straight to my clit and I reacted without thinking. I did the move. I turned my hand into his thumb and stepped away, taking my arm with me.
“I did it!” I exclaimed, a rush of adrenaline hitting me full in the face. It was better than focusing on what had just been happening between my thighs, though the smile Liam gave me had a similar effect and my knees went weak.
“You did it. Now come here,” he said, reaching for me again. I froze. What did he mean come here? Did he know that I was turned on from a simple lip graze?
Shit, what if he did?
“Pardon?” I choked out even as my traitorous feet started to move towards him.
He held out his hand to me. “We’re going to do it again. I want you to break my hold again. Then we’re going to practice another one.”
“Oh, right,” I said, and ducked my head. Of course that had been what he wanted. Not...you know, whatever it was the sudden rush of blood to my clit had been trying to convince me of.
When Liam had his hand on me again he gave me a nod. “Let’s see it, Princess.”
I blew out a breath and went through the movements in my head again before I repeated the process. Relax my hand, turn into his thumb and pull. Step away victoriously. Boom! I had it.
“Holy shit. I did it again!” I exclaimed excitedly. I had never been in a fight or tried to learn self-defense. I had always avoided being out at certain times of the day, certain areas, or kept a watchful eye. It had led to a lot of luck and paranoia when I got a bad feeling, but this felt….it felt...good. It felt empowering, and I loved it. I held out my hand to him and practically bounced on my toes.
“Again.”
He raised an eyebrow but took hold of my wrist without comment. I took that as a win and proceeded to break his hold not once more, but three more times, each time with growing confidence.
I was feeling pretty damn good when he said, “Now, I’m going to show you how to break a knee.”
“A what?” I squeaked, feeling the blood drain from my face. He laughed and motioned for me to come to his side.
“A knee. It’s easy, and you’ll be able to do it quickly before you’re off and running away from whatever asshole puts his hands on you. Always run away. You got me?”
“Yeah, but…” I bit my bottom lip and gave his knee a look of concern, “why do I have to break it.”
“So they can’t chase you, Princess.”
“Oh, yeah, that makes sense.”
He took hold of my wrist and pulled me close so that I was to the side of him, both of us facing the opposite way to each other. “This shit will happen when you’re going to leave, maybe some asshole at a bar. Maybe some fucker at an art opening.”
I looked at him in surprise. I had a date that week. With the sometimes artist, at an art opening. I had gotten a few messages from Wren confirming our date and come to think of it, those had happened when my purse had done a swan dive into the floor of the town car. Shit. Liam had seen them. He knew about my date.
I flushed and cleared my throat. “An art opening?” I asked because I wasn’t sure what else to ask. Did it matter that he knew?
Logically, I knew the answer to that was no. He was my driver. Maybe my friend now? Sort of my self-defense teacher. None of those roles meant he should be concerned about who I was dating.
“Yeah,” he bit out, but said nothing else. I swallowed hard and decided the best course of action was ignoring and moving on.
“Okay, now what?”
“Now,” he said, tightening his grip on me. “You’re going to want to get away, right?” I nodded and he continued on, “so, you kick him right here,” he bent down and touched his hand to the side of his knee. “Right on the fucking kneecap. When I say kick, I mean it, Mel. I want you to put the heel of your foot right here, drive it straight through, and break the knee.”
“You sound like that guy from Cobra Kai,” I informed him.
“Good. Sweep the knee. By sweep I mean break the shit out of it.”
I grinned and raised my foot, putting my heel gently against his knee. “Like this?” I asked.
