note out of his bag, read through it, and raised an eyebrow in my direction. This one was the most over-the-top one that I’d given him, and I’d purposely saved it for last. It was my last-ditch effort.
Give me a kiss, and to that kiss a score;
Then to that twenty, add a hundred more:
A thousand to that hundred: so kiss on,
To make that thousand up a million.
Treble that million, and when that is done,
Let’s kiss afresh, as when we first begun.
—Robert Herrick
Ren didn’t say anything, but he looked at me with smoldering, intense eyes. I boldly returned his gaze and felt a hot, sizzling link spark up between us. It connected us and burned a hole through my middle even though we were on opposite sides of the room. I couldn’t tear my eyes away from him, and he appeared to be suffering with the same affliction.
Suddenly, Li announced that we were going to be doing take-downs again, which he had avoided since his first session with Ren. This time, Li and Ren were going to demonstrate the moves to the rest of us. Li instructed us to all sit back against the wall. Ren reluctantly broke eye contact with me and moved up to face his opponent.
The two men circled each other. Li made the first move, a backward roundhouse to show off and move in closer, but Ren gracefully blocked it. Li shifted his weight to one leg and swept behind Ren’s knee then threw a punch at Ren’s chest. Ren shifted to the right so Li’s sweep missed and used his palm to block the punch. Li used an elaborate corkscrew maneuver next, placed one hand on the floor, and attacked with a scissor kick. Ren grabbed Li’s foot and twisted, bringing Li down hard on his stomach. Li rolled away angrily and returned a series of punches. Ren blocked him high, low, and even backward, effectively neutralizing Li’s attacks.
Li realized he was getting nowhere. He faked a punch to grab Ren’s arm and yanked hard so he could do a backward kick to the face, but Ren pulled him off balance, and Li fell to the mat again. He did a kick-up and turned to face Ren, and they circled again.
“Do you really want to continue this?” Ren said. “You’ve proved you’re a good fighter.”
“I’m not trying to prove anything.” He grinned. “I just wanted to stop you from ogling my girl.” He shot off a quick double punch to Ren’s chest. Ren simply grabbed Li’s wrists and twisted them outward. Li howled and stepped away. He came back with a front kick to Ren’s face.
Ren grabbed his heel. “She hasn’t decided yet whose girl she is.” He lifted his arms and threw Li, flipping him upside down. “But, if I were a betting man, I wouldn’t be giving you very good odds.”
I gasped in outrage and embarrassment. Ren turned to look at me. Seeing he was distracted, Li grabbed Ren’s arms from behind and pushed up, a move that immobilized most people. Without missing a beat, Ren ran up a wall with Li still holding his arms and flipped over him in the air.
When he landed, he flicked his wrists, effectively reversing their positions. Li’s elbows were now pointed in the air while Ren pushed down slightly. When Li gasped in pain, Ren quickly let him go. Li spun out and tried sweeping Ren’s legs again, but Ren leapt over them, twisted, and pinned Li easily.
Jennifer looked at me nervously and grabbed my hand. Li was enraged. He wiped his mouth and spat out, “You let me worry about my odds.” He spun and kicked, making contact with Ren’s chest. The impact caused both of them to take a few steps back. Li taunted, “At least I didn’t give her up and walk away.”
The moves were too fast for me to discern now. I saw punches, arm-blocks, step-back twists, side kicks, foot play, and kick blocks.
At one point, Ren ran at Li and did a complicated aerial somersault in tucked position, double twisted, and flipped over Li entirely in the air. As he was coming down, he placed his hand on Li’s back and used his momentum to push Li flat on his face on the mat. The class started clapping and cheering.
Ren pressed his hand against Li’s back, holding him immobile, and growled quietly, “No. But you will. She’s mine.”
Ren let him up, and Li became a raging bull after that, going after Ren