Page 68 of Catch My Fall
We haven’t even been at this self-defence thing all that long, but I didn’t realise how unfit I am until now. We worked on some stretches to begin with so the strain on my muscles won’t be too severe, but it feels pretty severe right now and we’ve barely even started.
I’m trying my best to concentrate, but somewhere along the way, Alec shed his shirt, so now I’m forced to try to ignore the fact that I don’t notice every ripple of his muscled upper body, every flex of his biceps and every drop of sweat that glistens on his tanned skin that makes my mouth water.
He really is a work of art.
I swear he’s doing this on purpose to test me, and it’s working.
He catches me staring, heat burning in his gaze. “As much as I enjoy your eyes on me, princess, now is not the time for distractions.”
“Then why’d you take your shirt off if not to distract me?” I shoot back.
The bastard actually smirks before leaning in for a quick kiss. “Focus, baby. Now hit me.”
I frown. “What?”
He taps his left cheek with his finger. “Right here. Do your worst, princess.”
“That’s ridiculous, I’m not going to punch you in the face, Alec, are you kidding me?” I fold my arms over my chest.
“You’re not going to learn until you try it for yourself and I need to know you can punch effectively. You’re only little, I can take it. Now hit me.”
He braces himself, setting his feet shoulder-width apart for balance, giving me a nod to tell me he’s ready.
I don’t want to do this, but he did ask for it. I curl my fingers into a fist and swing as hard as I can. My fist collides with the side of his face, and the sound I thought it would make is nothing like I thought it would.
I was expecting the punch to sound like they do in that old Batman TV show from the sixties my dad made me watch when I was little, but now I realise how exaggerated they were.
“It was a good shot, but it could’ve been better. It’s not about just hitting something, it’s about hitting through it. You need the motion to carry long past your target.”
I stare in confusion. “I have no idea what you just said.”
He takes a step back and stretches out his arm so his fist is resting against my cheek. “If I was to hit you from here, standing straight on, there would be now power behind it. But if I do this,” he takes a step closer, turning his body side on with his dominant hand pulled back. He slowly swings his arm around, his fist reaching further than before. “You can throw your body into it. You want to be able to punch through the object in order to have more of an impact.”
He does the same thing again but gets me to do it instead. “Now hit me again, but with some power behind it.”
I stand at a slight angle just as he showed me and draw back my arm. This time when I swing, I feel my whole upper body move with me and my fist smashes into his face.
He stumbles a little, his eyes wide with shock as he touches his cheek.
“Son of a bitch!” I yell, clutching my hand as pain radiates through my knuckles, the shock of the impact ricocheting up my arm.
“Are you alright?” Alec asks, tentatively reaching for my hand to inspect it. The skin is red but thankfully not broken.
“I’ll live. Are you alright? Did I hurt you?” I reach up to stroke his face, the skin warm and red beneath my touch.
“Nothing I can’t handle, princess. That was an amazing punch, you should be as proud as I am.”
His storm cloud eyes hold mine and I melt under his gaze, my chest swelling with pride as I reach up and press my mouth to his.
Just as I’m about to lose myself in the kiss, in a flash, he has his hand around my throat. He’s so fast I didn’t have time to react before he’s pinning me between his hard body and the wall of the house.
He doesn’t add any pressure that would cut off my circulation or starve me of air, but I’m well aware of the strong, thick fingers that curl into my skin.
“Say a guy comes up to you and pins you to the wall by the throat, what do you do?”
On instinct, my hands fly up to the one around my neck, trying to pry his fingers open.
He tuts. “That was your first mistake, princess. That’s everybody’s first move, but it’s the wrong one. There are a number of ways you can subdue your attacker. One, you can dig your thumbs into their eye sockets, that will temporarily disable them long enough for you to knee them in the groin and get away. Two, you can drive your hand as hard as you can into their neck, sort of like a karate chop, ideally here,” he demonstrates by placing the side of his hand at the base of my throat, at the space where it connects with the collarbone, “this is the most effective way because it not only causes a lot of pain, it can temporary cut off their air supply and if done right, it can kill them.”