Page 41 of Allure

“Oh, I’m not worried.”

We try a few more moves until finally, I come up with one I like where I slam an elbow into his face—not really making contact, of course—yanking on the arm, pulling at it downward until it comes off me, stepping to his outside with my right leg so that my back is to him, which isn’t all that great granted, but I immediately snake an arm around his waist and kind of toss him over my hip.

"Execution needs work," he says. "You need to squat more to be able to have your center of gravity overpower mine and get me off balance before you can throw me. I can tell you don't really do many squats, do you?"

“It takes time to grow an ass,” I mumble as we get back into position again.

“Oh yeah? You trying? My words get under your skin?”

He’s right behind me, right up against me. If we were in a club, I would be grinding against him so hard right now. I would want to feel his hardness pressed up against me until he would shove me against the wall and take me right then and there from behind.

No, that’s never happened to me in real life, not the being fucked in public at least, but it’s one fantasy of mine that I’ve been dreaming about lately.

Fuck, maybe I need a new sex toy or something.

“I want to be strong enough to kick your ass,” I tell him, “so it’s not just squats and lunges I’ve been doing. When I’m done, my thighs will be able to crush your skull like a walnut.”

“You just wish you could have my face between your legs.”

Shit. Between thinking about my fantasy and then hearing this, I am a little turned on.

More like a lot turned on.

I don’t get it. I hate him, but I also want to not feel so alone. That mugger shattered me more than I care to admit to him or anyone else.

"I just want to be able to get through this move," I say, trying to sound composed. Why the hell am I breathing so heavily?

“We can revisit,” he says. “How about if I grab you from the front again? Do you want to come up with another counter?”

“Sure.”

We face each other, and now that there’s a little more space between us, I can breathe easily.

“I saw… in class, not on a video… I don’t know if I can do it.”

“Try.”

I wrap my arm around his neck, which means he has to bend over since he’s so much taller than I am, so already this move probably isn’t the best, but I go to sit down.

“Wait, you want to monkey roll me?”

“Is that what it’s called?”

“Depends on what you’re trying.”

I keep going to sit and try to get my legs up, but Declan just ends up landing on top of me and getting up as quickly as possible as if he really can’t stand the thought of touching me.

Trying not to be unnerved by that, I scramble to my feet. “I know I have to have my legs inside yours—”

"You have to have your feet up here." He pats near his groin, at the top of the upside-down "V" of his legs. "And you can't hesitate. You have to do it fast, all one fluid motion, or else it won't work."

“So not something to teach the women, then, huh?”

“No,” he says flatly.

Without warning, he comes at me, wrapping his arm around me, and then he’s sitting and throwing me up over him and landing on top of me in two seconds flat.

“That’s how you do it,” he says, breathless.

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