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But as soon as he moves to place his hands on me, I stop him. “Wait.”
He looks up and I sigh. “You need to lock your elbows, and push here.” I grab his hands and place them on the front of my hips. “By pushing down with locked elbows, you’ll uncross my legs.”
He looks down at his hands on my hips and does exactly what I said. As he pushes down, my legs uncross, and my hips fall to his bent knees below me, and under his control.
The space around us is silent, as Luca keeps his hands on me. Neither one of us moves.
And as I watch him, looking down at his hands on my hips, I almost feel like… I don’t want to move.
His fingers move lightly over my shorts and his eyes slowly move up to meet mine.
“Now you could bring your posture up and one knee in, one knee out to pass the guard,” I say, keeping eye contact with him.
He nods slowly but doesn’t do anything.
Suddenly, I feel an overwhelming urge to move out of this. My mind is screaming at me to get up and leave, but my body remains still. We’re looking into each other’s eyes, and his hands remain on my hips as a feeling settles deep in my stomach. One that is both uncomfortable, yet oddly comfortable at the same time. My eyes drop to his hands as I briefly acknowledge this feeling, and Luca’s grip tightens.
He takes a breath in as he passes my guard. And I don’t fight back.
“Why?” Luca asks.
I sit up and try to avoid eye contact with him, but I fail. He’s looking at me with his brows drawn together in confusion.
“Why what?” I ask with a bite to my tone that I didn’t intend on.
“Why do that? Why help me?”
“Isn’t that what you wanted? Isn’t that what we need to do?” I shoot back at him.
He cocks an eyebrow at me and then shrugs one shoulder. “Yeah, I guess so…”
“By locking your elbows, you gain greater control of my hips to keep me in defense, so you can pass and give yourself more opportunities to attack,” I say, looking away from him again, and getting back on track. “And if you can keep that control, you’ll add more mobility to your hips for easier adjustments, and to defend against submission attempts.”
Luca is silent for a moment, so I reluctantly look at him again.
The way he is observing me once again brings on that unsettled feeling. The uncomfortable comfort… Which makes no sense.
Why does it have to make sense?
He looks like he’s waiting for me to say more, but I don’t know what he wants. I just told him what he needs to do.
He drops his eyes and nods his head slowly, running a hand through his messy, dirty blonde curls. When he raises his head again, his face breaks out in a huge smile. “I have great hip mobility,” he says in a light tone while moving his hips side to side.
Of course.
I sigh and push to my feet. “If you can’t take this seriously, Mitchell, I’m out.”
He laughs and is on his feet and standing in front of me before I can leave. “Nah, man, come on.” He laughs again, but it seems a bit forced. “Really, I promise.” He places a hand over his heart and schools his expression. “Serious.”
I roll my eyes and turn away from him, back to the mats. “Butterfly guard.”
“Oh, fun,” he says. “Or, no, I mean, serious business.” He nods as he moves into position.
We work on passing various guards, and I continue to support Luca in maintaining hip control. I keep my focus on the drills, and Luca manages to put me on my defense more than I’d like to admit. But I also keep reminding myself that I’m not fighting against him. Instead, I’m fighting a feeling I don’t understand, and one I don’t want to admit.
The one that flows through me when we slow down enough to work together and make progress. The one I feel when he takes my advice, and I learn something from him. And when we make eye contact, and I successfully refrain from wiping his smile straight off his face.
And when the gym door opens and Max walks in, I’m shocked to see that almost three hours have gone by.
