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“Spar with me,” he clarified.
Angela watched him remove his suit jacket, unbutton his crisp white shirt and peel it off his muscled shoulders until he stood in just a black undershirt. He kicked off his black dress shoes before she managed to shake herself out of her stupor. “Roman, I’m not sparring with you.”
He raised his dark eyebrows, yanking his socks off. “Afraid you’ll lose?”
Only my self-control, she thought, staring at his feet. The man even had sexy feet. It should be illegal. “Roman, I’m not fighting you,” she repeated.
He only grinned and lunged at her. Angela darted to the side, dodging him easily. Or so she thought. Roman grabbed onto her blouse and yanked her against his chest. Her back was flush with his front within seconds, and she was breathing hard. She also felt more alive than she had in a long time. “You fight dirty, I see,” she remarked. “I wasn’t ready.”
“Is there such a thing as not fighting dirty?” Roman inquired, running his nose up the back of her neck.
Angela shivered, tilting her head without thought. “I don’t happen to think so,” she replied softly.
“Yet another thing we agree on,” Roman murmured.
She felt his lips press against the top of her spine and decided she had to do something before it was too late. She reached up slowly, feigning acquiescence, wrapping her arm around his head and exposing her breast to his now wandering hands. Then she got a good grip on his hair and pulled with all her might. When he roared and dropped his arms, she jumped free. They stood staring at each other for a moment before they both grinned. The thing she liked the most about Krav Maga was that there were no rules. It was essentially MMA fighting but the honorable part of it didn’t apply.
“I’d say that’s one point each,” Roman admitted with a dip of his head.
Angela agreed. He didn’t say anything further and made no move to grab her again. Now that the element of surprise was gone, he was waiting for her to make the first move. It wasn’t a shock. He was a tactician, a strategist. She recognized it in him the same way she did in herself. She decided to humor him to get the ordeal over with. She rushed him, wrapping her arms around his knees and toppling him to the ground. She straddled his waist while he was still in a state of shock and gouged his eyes with her thumbs. She didn’t do it for real but added enough pressure for him to feel it.
“Ow! Fuck!” Roman yelled.
Angela eased up on his eyes, watching them slowly blink open. They really were such a lovely caramel color, she mused. Roman went lax beneath her, his hands dropping to the mats.
“You win,” he announced. “I yield. Time to have your wicked way with me. My safe word is stegosaurus.”
Angela sputtered out a laugh. “Stegosaurus?”
“It’s always been my favorite dinosaur,” Roman informed her, looking like the cat that ate the cream.
And no wonder, she thought. She was sitting on him. “That’s fascinating. But you won’t be needing a safe word.” She went to get off, but his hands quickly went to her hips to stop her.
“Do you need one?” his voice rumbled in his chest.
Angela stiffened, losing her playfulness. “I’m not into bondage.”
Roman immediately loosened his hold, smoothing his hands over her thighs so she no longer felt trapped or threatened. She tried very hard not to melt. She got up, using a knee to his ribs to boost herself up. It was petty, but his pain-filled groan made her smile once again, so it was worth it.
“Not even if you’re the one doing the binding?” Roman inquired from his place on the mats.
Angela was immediately assaulted by visions of Roman bound in red silk... and nothing else. She shook her head, dislodging such thoughts. She was there to earn money for the resource center. Not to get her rocks off or explore her kinks. “Not even,” she eventually replied.
“Pity,” he said, rolling swiftly to his feet.
She moved away from him, hoping he read the room right and didn’t try to spar with her again.
Roman regarded her for a long moment, his face softening for some inexplicable reason. “Come on,” he urged. “I’ll show you the security hub. Luca’s office is on the same level. He’ll have your passes and security codes organized by now.”
She nodded, telling herself she wasn’t bitterly disappointed when he put his shoes and shirt back on.
CHAPTER TEN
Kicking off her shoes, Angela made her way from her front door to her couch. She bypassed sitting and went straight to face-planting instead.
It had been a long twelve hours, with ten of those having been in surgery on her feet as she tried to repair a heart nicked by a bullet. She wasn’t sure if the teenager would make it through the night. And she knew she wasn’t going to make it much longer if she didn’t get some rest herself. So, she had forced herself from his bedside and his praying parents and made her way home.
She told herself she should get changed, maybe wash her face, and have something to eat. But she just didn’t have the energy. So, she simply closed her eyes, ignoring the few spots of blood on her socks as she tucked her feet up. Thankfully, she fell into a dreamless sleep... until the ringing of her cell phone woke her up.
