Can't Fight It - Kaylee Ryan Page 0,38

comfortable with me moving in on you so that you can practice?” I ask her.

She swallows hard but nods her agreement. “Okay, so I’m going to go walk around the room. You keep your head pointed forward. I’m not going to hurt you, or grab you, but I want you to be on alert for when I present in front of you.”

“Got it.” She looks at her hand, makes sure the key is still positioned correctly and lowers her hand to her side.

I walk away from her, keeping my steps light as they carry me around the room. Then I’m coming at her. I’m in her face, and she doesn’t hesitate to lift her arm and strike. I barely miss getting stabbed with my own key as I jump out of the way.

“Oh my God.” The keys fall from her hands as they move to cover her mouth. Her eyes are wide and filled with worry.

“It’s fine, Hollis. You did exactly as you were supposed to do.”

“No.” She drops her hands and shakes her head. “I wasn’t supposed to attack you. You could have been hurt.”

“Trust me, I’m perfectly fine. This is all a part of your training. It has to be as real as possible so you can imitate being in that exact situation. You did great,” I praise.

“This was a bad idea.”

“No, it wasn’t.” I step in close to her. Bending my knees so we’re eye to eye, I try to capture her attention, but her gaze is glued to our feet. With a gentle hand, I place my index finger under her chin and gently lift until I have her eyes. “This is what’s supposed to happen. I promise. You did perfectly.” I stand back to my full height and clap my hands together. “Now, you ready for another move?”

“You sure?” She’s hesitant, and her beautiful green eyes are shining with uncertainty.

“Positive. This next move is escaping from a bear hug attack.” I usually go over the easier moves, but this one is the most common for attacks. Women getting assaulted from behind before they even realize what’s going on. My gut tells me I need her to be prepared to be safe. She might have just come into my life, but I know I need that much. I need to know I’ve given her the skills to protect herself. Sure, it’s not going to all happen tonight, but this move, knowing it’s the most common attack, it will help to ease my mind that I’ve taught her this one.

“Okay.” Her agreement is weak, but she stands tall, well as tall as she can at five foot three and gives me all of her focus and attention.

“This one is better if I demonstrate so you know what I’m talking about. In order to do that, I need you to step behind me and wrap your arms around my waist, clasping your hands together. I’ll talk you through the process, we’ll go through the motions, and then switch places.”

“Got it.” She moves to step behind me, and I’m assaulted with her scent, something lavender, as her arms wrap around my waist just as I’ve instructed.

I can’t help but run my hands over hers. I tell myself it’s to make sure her grip is good and tight when the reality is that I just want to touch her. Her skin is so damn soft, and this is just her hands. I can only imagine how it would be if my hands got to roam all over her body. “Good,” I croak. I cough to clear my throat. “Now, when in this situation, you want to shift your weight forward. You do that by bending forward at the waist. This makes it more difficult for your attacker to lift you from the ground, and it gives you a better angle to throw an elbow or two.” I bend over at the waist and turn with my elbow poised to demonstrate. “You want to switch from arm to arm counter-attacking to throw the attacker off. This should lead to you being able to turn fully and getting a good groin shot or heel palm strike, which we haven’t gone over yet. However, from a man’s perspective, always go for the groin. That pain, when delivered precisely, will drop him to his knees.” I turn to face her and then step back. Her arms drop to her sides, and her eyes stay locked with mine. “You ready to try it?”

“What if I