Page 7 of Allure

Toward me.

We're stretching with our legs spread as much as we can, trying to reach as far ahead of us as we can. You would think that, with my attempting yoga, I would be more flexible than I am, but I think I mixed up yoga and meditation, and neither really did anything for me.

“Spread your legs wider,” he tells me.

I try, but they don’t really move.

“You can pick up a leg and move it,” he says with a snort.

I glower at him and make a point of picking up my left leg.

Oh, I can move it wider. Damn him. Arrogance and cockiness have always been a turnoff for me.

“Other leg too,” he says, sounding bored.

I comply.

“Now stretch down the middle. Keep reaching. More. More. To here.” He moves his foot to a spot.

Like I want to touch his feet. Maybe this isn't the activity for me. I hate feet. Always have and always will. Doesn't matter if they're well-groomed or not. Feet just weird me out. His are well-groomed, I can't help but notice, but I still won't try that.

He squats down. "Newbie not even willing to try hard with warm-ups. You aren't gonna make it."

“You have no idea what I’m capable of.”

Declan snorts and rolls his eyes. “Oh, yeah? Prove it to yourself. No one else cares if you sink or swim.”

He strolls off, moving us through a different exercise, but damn him, I try to reach a little farther, a little farther… my back appreciates the stretch even though I’ve never had my chest come this close to the floor before, and I smirk to myself as I realize my fingertips almost reached where his foot had been.

“Come on, Newbie! Keep up!” he calls.

Ugh, I hate him. When is Sensei going to get onto the mat?

CHAPTER3

Sensei comes in after we finish warm-ups, and he has us do a series of punches and kicks. Well, just front punches for the white belts and me. There are two other white belts, both guys. One looks to be in his sixties, and the other is maybe around Jackie's age.

Yellow through blue, Sensei has them practice hook punches, and the rest of the belts he has do a combination of hooks and uppercuts.

After that, we practice kicks. A simple front leg front kick for the lowest belts and others for the upper ones, but I just kick and kick and kick and then switch my stance. We have to stand with one leg forward, the other back at all times. Something about balance.

Man, am I a weakling. I feel tired already. My armsandlegs are sore, but I just continue until Sensei has us form a half-circle, again, lining up in order of ranking. Declan is across from me, but I pointedly keep my gaze on Sensei, who starts to talk about grappling and uses Declan to demonstrate different moves. Basically, grappling is fighting on the ground.

For the lower belts, we're just supposed to go into guard and then mount before letting our partner do the same. The guard position is when you're on your back with your legs wrapped around your opponent. You can move your opponent away from you by moving your legs back or pulling your opponent closer so you can hit them with your fists and elbows. The one in control in the guard position is the one on the bottom, but in the mount position, you're in control if you're on top. The other person is beneath you, and you're supposed to have your arms up and under their armpits, chest to chest, your butt down low.

Both positions are a bit awkward-looking to me, but I don’t dare mention that. To my horror, Sensei partners up the two white belts.

“You’ll stay over here,” he points, shifting me over to the side, away from everyone, and he has the white belts go back and forth with the positions over and over as he gives harder grappling moves to the upper belts.

I try to watch what he's showing, but from this angle, I can't quite see what's going on, and he doesn't seem to be describing the moves in as many details, so maybe the students have done these particular moves before. When he asks if there are any questions, there aren't any, which makes me think I'm right.

My heart starts to pound as Sensei heads back toward me. He corrects the younger of the two white belts on how to have his underhooks in, his arms under the other man’s armpits. I couldn’t tell what he had wrong, but he’s definitely lower down on the guy now, which is the goal. The lower you are, the more control you have.

At least, that’s what Sensei says.

Finally, Sensei comes over to me. “Declan King.”

Fuck.

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