Page 20 of Alluring Darkness
“Well… I don’t want you to break too quickly.” A smirk ghosts across his lips. “I like playing with my food.”
He trails to a halt.
My chest heaves from exertion, but he isn’t even breathing heavily. In fact, he looks completely unaffected as he rakes his gaze over my already exhausted body. I flick a glance over his shoulder.
He has backed me so far across the floor that we’ve ended up on the other side of the sparring hall. Mr. Hansen and my classmates are still training, and even if they had been able to hear us from all the way over here, none of them are paying us any mind.
“You clearly suck at using your fists,” Eli says.
I bristle at the comment, but he is right, of course, so I just glare back at him in silence.
“Try kicking me instead,” he says when I don’t take the bait.
Narrowing my eyes in suspicion, I try to figure out what he is planning. But actually landing a kick on him and wiping that smug expression off his features would be so damn satisfying that I can’t resist the temptation to try.
In the hope of catching him off guard, I quickly shift my weight and slam my foot towards his hip.
His hand immediately shoots down towards it.
Shock crackles through me as he locks his fingers around my ankle. Holding my leg trapped up in the air like that, he flashes me a smile that sends ice skittering down my spine. Then he moves.
He walks a few steps to the side, using his grip on my ankle to pull me with him. Since my leg is up in the air, it forces me to hop after him on one foot. He moves again. And again.
Embarrassment sears my cheeks. I canfeelthe heat radiating from them, so I can only imagine how red they must be.
With a vicious smirk on his lips, Eli pulls on my leg again, forcing me to jump after him while I flail my arms to keep my balance.
For some reason, this is more mortifying than being spanked in the middle of a packed cafeteria. And based on the look in that damn bastard’s eyes, he knows it.
“Want to tap out?” he taunts.
I grit my teeth and try to yank my ankle away from his hand, but his grip only tightens. Then he starts to move faster, forcing me to frantically hop after him.
“Fine,” I snap at last.
But before I can so much as shift my hand towards my thigh, he pulls on my leg. Hard. It makes me lose my balance and sends me toppling backwards.
Air explodes from my lungs as I hit the padded mat back first. I raise a hand towards my chest while I try to suck in a deep breath.
Eli kicks my hand aside. It slams into the mat again while he crouches down over me. I have barely managed to get air back into my lungs when he presses his knee against my chest, pinning me to the floor and restricting my breathing again.
“Go ahead then,” he says, locking smug eyes on me. “Tap out.”
For a few seconds, I just glare back at him. He shifts more of his body weight to the knee on top of my chest. I bare my teeth at him but then move my palm to the padded mat beside me and tap twice.
Eli lets out a satisfied chuckle.
Taking his knee off my chest, he straightens and brushes off his hands. I leap to my feet while his back is halfway turned and aim my fist straight at his side.
He whips around. I’m one inch away from landing a strike when he wraps his fingers around my wrist and stops it.
My stomach lurches as he uses my momentum to somehow flip me over and send me slamming down on the mat again. This time on my stomach. I try to gasp in a breath while Eli settles his weight on my ass and twists my still trapped hand up my back.
“Trying to strike when your opponent’s back is turned?” he says from above me. “Sneaky. But not very honorable.”
“What the fuck do you know about honor?” I growl.
He pushes my hand higher up. Pain ripples through my arm at the unnatural angle, and I have to grit my teeth to bite back a whimper.