She imagined curling up in his lap while they did exactly this.
Breathing exercises were her kink now? Okay.
She didn’t know how long they stood there, but Jas was the one who finally spoke. “That’s good.”
She staggered back a step when she opened her eyes, the mild vertigo from keeping them closed hitting her. His hand hovered over her arm, but she caught her balance and he didn’t touch her.
Touch me.
“So no hitting you?” she joked.
He shook his head. “Fighting basics: run before fighting, but if you have to fight, fighting and landing an injury, any injury, is better than no injury.”
“Where’d you learn this? The Army?”
“Yeah, but before that, getting into fights as a kid.”
She glanced upward. “You got into fights here?” Granted, she hadn’t seen the rest of the town, but this little corner seemed so peaceful.
“My grandpa’s fairly well-known in the community, my mom was an unmarried teen when she had me, my dad was some outsider, and it’s a small town where all the locals know each other. Yeah, I got into some fights,” he said dryly. She wanted to hear more about all that, but he changed the subject. “Let’s talk about sensitive areas on a person.”
“I’ve watched enough TV. I know the weak spots.”
“Some of those weak spots are overrated. The groin kick? I’ve seen a man get up and still keep going after a hit like that.”
She would not be titillated. He was talking dispassionately about groins, almost scientifically. Besides, groin wasn’t even a sexy word.
Groin.
Groin.
Groin.
See?
“If you can hit the groin, of course go for it.”
Okay, so maybe he was saying it differently than she was, it sounded sexy coming from him. Katrina shook her head. “Got it. Groin if possible.”
“Show me how you make a fist.”
She fisted her hand and he reached out and adjusted her thumb. “Like this. So you don’t break a finger. Now hit me as hard as you can.” He pointed to his stomach.
“Finally,” she joked. Then she hesitated.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don’t actually want to hit you,” she confessed.
Jas’s lips twitched. “I promise, you won’t hurt me.”
“Ugh.”
“Try it.”
It was a halfhearted punch at best, like rapping her knuckles against a brick wall.
“Punching can hurt someone, but not if they’re braced for it.” He tapped her fist until she opened it, and arranged her fingers into a claw. “You know what really hurts? These puppies.” He touched her nails. “Scratch, claw. Go for the eyes for maximum impact.” He took a step closer. “Think of the other sharp parts of your body. You want to use them on the vulnerable parts of the attacker’s body.”
“Nothing on me is that sharp.”
He took a second to reply. “Your knee. Your elbow.” He placed his hand on her elbow.
Zings. Zings aplenty. Enough zings to power a nuclear plant.
Oh no, oh no, oh no.
It’s your elbow. The unsexiest part of any body.
And yet.
His hand was warm and callused, the snags on his skin catching her softer flesh. She had a brief fantasy of those hands rubbing their way down the rest of her body. Her naked body.
“Katrina?”
His voice came from far away, like it was being filtered through Vaseline. “Got it. Eyes. Sharp parts of my body. Softer parts of theirs. Claws first.”
“Or weapons. You have your pepper spray, right?”
After her kidnapping, when she’d been especially jumpy, Jas had given her a few pepper spray containers to keep around, and then refreshed them with new ones every couple of years.
The spray was the only kind of weapon she felt equipped to carry. Guns and knives scared her. When she’d asked Jas to move to California and be her main security, he’d quietly explained he wasn’t capable of handling firearms, and only carried a Taser.
She hadn’t needed him to elaborate. She wasn’t na?ve, and it didn’t take a huge leap of imagination to understand why a wounded vet might shy away from guns. It hadn’t been a deal breaker for her. She trusted him to protect her with every resource at his disposal. “The last ones you gave me just expired.”
Jas frowned. “Why didn’t you say something? I’ll get you new ones.”
She rubbed her nose, mildly embarrassed by imparting new evidence of her nerdiness. “I actually made a batch a couple weeks ago.”
“You made it?”
“Yes. I read—”
“An article,” he finished.
Katrina lifted a shoulder. “I was curious. I still planned on ordering new commercial ones, but it was a fun science experiment. I stuck one in my purse.”
Jas narrowed his eyes. “Can you show me?”
“Um. Sure.”
He followed