Natalie was Eden's height with soft blonde hair and huge, gorgeous, chocolaty eyes. She also looked about twenty five, twenty six, and was exactly the type of woman he would have fooled around with before he met Eden. “Natalie.” He nodded politely.
The Neith beamed, clearly ecstatic that he had remembered her. “Nice to see you again. This is James.” She jerked a thumb in the direction of her sparring partner who looked a little disgruntled by her obvious interest in Noah. “We were just finishing up so you can have the mat.” Noah smiled. “Thank you, we appreciate it.”
Grinning suggestively, Natalie stepped a little closer to him and asked quietly, “You know I can stick around if you need someone to spar with?”
At the sound of Eden's grunt, Noah flicked a look at her out of the corner of his eye. He caught her throwing the Neith a disbelieving and disgusted look. A rush of feeling shot through Noah's veins. Was Eden jealous of the flirty Neith? He raised an eyebrow at the implications. Hmm. Maybe I should play on this, he mused. He could flirt with the Neith, try to make Eden jealous in order to force her to acknowledge that there was so much more between them.
Wait, what the eff?!
Irritated at his crazy thoughts, Noah shot an incredulous look at Eden. The girl was turning him into an idiot. Noah was not a game player. He was direct, honest and straight to the point. There was no way this- whatever this was - was going to change who he was.
He shot Natalie a cool look. “I've got a sparring partner, but thanks.” He took a gentle hold of Eden's elbow and led her to the mat.
*
Eden couldn't help it. She was majorly relieved that Noah hadn't started flirting back with Natalie the Neith with the bedroom eyes. Her relief made her uncomfortable. Uncomfortable with how possessive she still felt towards Noah. The night of Doug Brown's party pushed its way to the forefront of her thoughts. That sophomore had riled Eden back then and she'd felt so smug that Noah hadn't been interested, that he'd chosen to find Eden and leave with her. With everything that had happened between them, she was so sure those feelings for him would at least be muted if not gone.
Why she'd thought that she wasn't sure, considering every time she thought of Stellan, she thought of Romany, and then thought of Noah and all the negativity she felt towards him threatened to rear its ugly head again. And it wasn't just because his ex-girlfriend killed Stellan – although that was a huge part of it – but also because all the time she'd had fluffy feelings for him, he'd actually been seeing someone behind her back.
“OK, ready to start?” Noah asked, shrugging out of his jacket and throwing it to the floor offside the mat. His pale violet eyes were full of patience and familiarity.
It was only yesterday that Eden had promised Cyrus that she would forgive Noah. And she had. I have, she reminded herself. She got the importance of their duty now and Noah had just been following orders. She forgave him. She did. She really, really did. She forgave them all. Except Romany. Stellan's murderer could never be forgiven.
“Sure.” Eden shrugged, pulling off her sweater so she could train in her tank top. She grinned cheekily at Noah as she threw it aside. “So, does being Ankh mean we always get our own way?” He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
She bobbed her head towards the entrance where the two Neith had disappeared. “Those guys handing that mat over as soon as we walked in?”
“Ah.” He nodded with a knowing, somewhat arrogant smile that tugged at something in her lower belly. “Yeah pretty much.”
Chuckling at his unabashed superiority Eden shook her head. “It's a miracle you haven't been beaten up more.”
“Hey.” Noah shrugged. “Look, it's just the way that it is. We're old, we're more powerful and we're the only ones that can take down the seriously strong soul eaters. We have to believe in ourselves if we're going to face the kind of danger that we face. The Neith get that.” Eden thought of Natalie. “Some of them certainly do treat you like rock stars.” He gave her a look that told her he caught her meaning but didn't respond. Instead he rubbed his hands together. “OK, I'm going to come at you with a punch and I want you to use what you learned yesterday to incapacitate me.”
Now that he was getting down to business Eden tried to shrug off her wariness. Yesterday had been fun but training with Noah made her nervous. She'd seen him in action, felt how strong he was.
This… wasn't going to be easy. Exhaling, Eden took a defensive stance and waited for Noah.
His arm shot out, a blur of movement Eden hadn't ever encountered before. Despite his speed, Noah's training kicked in and she stepped into the punch. Eden grabbed his wrist, rolling it as she twisted his arm. Noah winced as she pushed him to his knees, putting pressure on his upper arm as she pulled the arm upwards, poised to break it. She did it in seconds, as much of a blur as his attack had been.
Noah grinned up at her. “Good.”
“Thanks.”
“Uh you can let go now.”
“Oh, sorry,” she mumbled, releasing him and watching with a little smidge of sadistic satisfaction as he rubbed his arm.
“You've gotten stronger with the change.”
At the comment Eden flexed her hands, staring at them. She didn't feel any stronger but she guessed Noah would know. “That's good though right?”
“That's excellent. Now, come on, let's see if you can get me into a neck crank.” For the next half hour or so Noah attacked and Eden defended. Smacking Noah to the mat time after time was hugely satisfying and in a way was really helping along the whole forgiving him thing.
She thought maybe he knew that because he kept giving her these wry, knowing looks every time she attacked him with more force than was necessary. He didn't say anything, just rolled his eyes at her and went on to try something new.
“OK.” Noah sprung to his feet, barely winded by her last smackdown. The guy was like the freakin' Energiser bunny. “This time when you defend, I'm going to keep attacking.” Her heart was already pumping pretty fast. Now it spluttered.
Shake it off, Eden, she told herself. You can take him.