Page 34 of Darkened Wings
How did he think I was going to learn anything while he was making my legs jelly and my heart try to go nuts inside my chest.
Callum was menacing in the sexiest way possible.
“Okay,” I murmured. He chuckled in response but grabbed my hand, pulling us over away from the others but in sight of the teacher. He could tow me all the way into the woods and have his way with me if he wanted. I wouldn’t protest—not a single word.
“What do you know about defending yourself? I mean, you said you took care of yourself for a long time. Let’s see it.”
I weaseled in place, not looking him in the eyes. I almost laughed at the fact that he took his sunglasses off outside but kept them on inside.
He seemed to take them off just for me, or maybe that was just my imagination.
“I spent my time in the shadows, hiding, cowering from anything dangerous. If they knew about my raven…never mind. I stayed clear of danger for the most part, let’s put it that way.”
Callum cocked his head while I spoke, and something inside told me he wouldn’t let the raven comment go. It was my most secret, secret. Only Astra knew about my feathers and my eyes, but she wouldn’t tell. I also knew about her shifter.
“You’re not going to hide anymore, Gwen. No one should spend their life hiding. Now, come at me.”
I busted out a laugh and shook my head. “You want me to attack you?”
He squinted. “You want someone else to attack you and not be prepared?”
I rolled my eyes and removed my sweater vest. Fall hadn’t gotten the memo about turning down the sun yet. Either that, or I was hot because the guy in front of me was beyond blazing.
Not knowing what in the hell to do, I ran after him and tried to punch him in the face. He grabbed my fist and put his fingers on my neck, right at the collarbone. In seconds, I was on my knees and begging him to stop before I passed out.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to hurt you. I meant to just show you…shit!” He got on his knees in front of me, cupping my face and asking over and over if I was okay. He cursed when he saw that his fingers had caused red marks on my neck.
He clearly didn’t know how strong he was.
The small amount of pain completely subsided when he touched me. I had dreamed of him. Fantasized about him, but the actual thing was so much better.
I put my hands over his. “It’s okay. It’s not that bad. But show me how to do that.”
We both stood, and he showed me some moves. One was the fingers-on-the-neck thing, but he said I needed to give way more pressure in order to stop someone.
“Of course, you know right where to punch a guy in order to stop everything, right?”
I laughed as my face heated up. “Right in the damned nuts.” Maybe out of nervousness or giddiness about being around this male, I didn’t know, but the sentence came out with a very thick, very John Wayne accent.
Not sexy at all.
I’d never seen Callum express laughter with more than a low chuckle, but for some reason my comment made him crack up. His laugh was all warm and dizzying, like a drug and a heated blanket in the winter. “I’m glad we established that. Now, let me show you where else.”
I soaked in his accent, loving how his English was perfect, but he’d retained his accent of origin. I wanted to ask more about him, where he came from, about why he remained in R classes when clearly he was super smart, but we weren’t there yet.
Hopefully one day, I would know him in all kinds of ways.
Callum, still laughing, showed me more punches sure to stop someone in their tracks. Punching someone in a certain way right in the nose and in their Adam’s apple could cause great damage.
By the time we were done, he had demonstrated all the basics but wanted to show me how to throw someone over my shoulder, straight on their back.
That sounded fun. He showed me all the positions and went through the motions but didn’t actually throw me over his shoulder, thank goodness.
I moved into position to try it on him, but my toe caught on a branch. In seconds, I went from defense protege to flat on my back. As I was falling, I grabbed onto Callum’s shirt and took him with me.
I was on the grass, the wind knocked out of me and my pride successfully cracked in half.
But that wasn’t the best part.
