Page 78 of The Devil's Saint

In the space of an hour, he teaches me how to cover and defend myself with my hands if someone tries to attack my head or face. Then, we move on to what I would do if someone had a firm grip on my arms and how I could break out of their hold.

We’re both sweating profusely by the time we are finished.

“How’d you find it?” Colton asks.

I turn my back to him to fetch my bottle of water from the side of the mat, but when I do, he tackles me from the side, his big arms wrapping around my waist in a deadly hold. I react without thinking, using the techniques we practiced with a little something extra in.

Catching him off guard, I sweep his leg, sending him crashing on the mat. He groans and then lets out a string of curse words that would have a nun blushing.

“Serves you right,” I laugh, offering him a helping hand to lift him up.

“Gotcha,” he says, his eyes glittering as he takes my hand and pulls me down, landing heavily on top of him, chest to chest.

He spins our bodies around until he is the one on top of me, making sure to not sit anywhere near the fresh scar on my side.

“Now what do you do?”

I grab his arms, pulling them towards me, where he loses the advantage, then buck my hips, rolling onto my side and away from him.

“Shit, Lex,” he laughs. “You’re better than I thought.”

“Mind telling me what the fuck you’re doing with my girl?” The atmosphere shifts abruptly, and tension hangs in the air like a storm cloud.

Saint.

He’s here, and Colton and I are…shit!

“Hey Saint, you’re back already,” Colton says, seemingly unaware that Saint is one second away from losing his shit.

“I asked you a question.”

His blue eyes darken, making my heart lurch and my gut twist.

Slow on the uptake, Colton looks at me and then back to Saint before catching on and jumping to his feet defensively.

“Oh shit, You think…Saint, it’s not what it looks like, I swear. I was only teaching her a few self-defense moves, and that’s it,” he quickly explains.

Saint doesn’t even look at him, keeping his gaze pinned on me.

“You have two seconds to leave before I break every finger you touched her with and put you head first through that fucking wall.”

“C’mon, man, seriously?” Colton’s voice trembles slightly.

Saint’s fist clenches as his brows dip in anger. Colton needs to leave now before this gets out of control.

“Fine, fine. I’ll go, but just for the record, nothing happened. Watch it back if you don’t believe me,” Colton reminds Saint before storming off.

I stay seated with my ass planted firmly against the mat. Watch what back? Are there cameras in here I don’t know about? I don’t dare to check with the way Saint’s staring at me.

“You didn’t need to say that to him. He did nothing wrong.” I fix my high ponytail, pulling the scrunchy a little too tight in frustration.

Saint steps closer toward me, snarling. “He had his fucking hands all over you.”

“No, he didn’t,” I argue, raising my aching, sweaty body to my feet, feeling a pinch at my side. My stitches may have dissolved, but there’s times it still hurts.

“You’re being ridiculous. You’re seriously jealous because Colton was teaching me self-defense moves?” Saint closes the space between us.

“Bullshit,” he spits, looking slightly hurt. “What part of you lying on top of him is self-defense?”

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