Straight Flushed (Hot Pursuit #1)(28)

I laughed. “You wish. I did some reading while sitting on my ass. Want me to show you what I learned?” I grunted. I was getting dizzy and was losing my bearings. I ducked my head and bobbed to his left and weaker side, breaking free.

“Hmm.” He growled and now we stood, knees bent, eyes locked, and waiting for the other to move. Vance was impatient. He’d move first, and that was what I was waiting for. “You all right there, Princess. You look dizzy.” He snorted. “Make your move. If I’d wanted to dance, I would have called your mother.”

I faked a lunge, and he came at me, grabbing the underside of my arm and trying to lift me up. He thought his strength would be enough to overpower me. I smiled, because I had him. In a split second, I struck the inside round of his shoulder then with my other arm I hit him under the ribs in his intercostal nerve. He grunted and bent over. Then, my final strike was to his neck to take him down. I struck quickly and with enough force to his vagus nerve to stun him. He stumbled backward and with a quick sweep of my leg, I took him down. I straddled him and pressed my forearm to his throat.

“Got ya.” I smiled and batted my eyelashes. “Didn’t hurt ya too bad, did I?” I felt his defeated air leave his lungs.

He groaned. “What the hell was that?”

“I studied pressure points while I sat on my ass. You can work those muscles of yours and grow them big and strong, but I’m going to stick with being smarter and faster. When you’re around me those muscles mean very little. If you use pressure points correctly, the smallest person can take even the biggest threat. It’s all about using the attacker’s energy.”

“You just read about this?” he asked.

“Yep.” I smiled.

“Have you tried this out with a living person yet?”

“Nope.”

“So you decided to use me as a test subject?”

“Uh huh.”

“That’s not very safe. You could have at least given me a heads up.”

“Right.” I laughed. “It’s safe enough. I know what I’m doing. Besides, I didn’t hit you that hard.”

“You’re going to have to show me how you did that.”

“I will. After I turn on my music of course,” I said with a sly grin.

He grabbed me by my hips and lifted me off, depositing me next to him. I went and got my music loaded up. Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” echoed through the room. I looked over at Vance and watched him release an irritated, open-mouthed breath with his head tilted toward the ceiling.

“Don’t you just love Katy Perry radio?” I giggled.

“Oh my gawd, I totally love her,” he said in his best mocking feminine tone.

“I thought so.” I shrugged. “So you ready to pull your panties out of your ass and go again?”

“Bring it, sister.”

Both of us properly suited up in protective head and body gear. We didn’t like going into the field with black eyes and bruises, it didn’t project the right professional image. We stepped back out onto the mat, and I worked on showing him what I’d learned. We walked through a set of maneuvers and choreographed a routine that could be used in tandem to take down a couple of people.

One of Vance’s greatest qualities, at least when he was around me, was he was never too proud and he didn’t let his ego get in the way. We trusted each other completely, and I wasn’t sure I’d ever find that in another human being. Vance was a quick learner and he had everything down in no time. We wrestled some more and added in some martial arts training, both of us working up a nice sweat.

“So tell me about your trip. Was it everything you’d hoped it would be?” he asked, blocking a series of kicks and punches.

“I guess.” Getting dumped in the middle of the night like I was some kind of coyote ugly still stung a little, even though I’d tried to convince myself otherwise. My ego had definitely been bruised.

“What aren’t you telling me?”

I stopped moving. “What are you talking about?”

“You’re holding something back. You were on a beach, your favorite place in the whole world to be, and you’re acting like you went to Gatlinburg and watched someone make taffy and fudge for a week. Something happened.”

“Huh? No, it didn’t.” Shrugged and wiped a drip of sweat that rolled behind my ear.

He laughed. “You are such a liar. Cough it up or I’ll drag it out of you.”

There was no one else I could tell, and it would probably feel better to get it off my chest. I sighed. “Okay, I met someone while I was there.”

“Well, well, well…what do we have here? You met someone? Color me surprised.” He sat down on the floor and patted the mat then I sat beside him. Both of us held our knees, catching our breaths then I told him the story about stepping on the ants, making out on the beach, dinner, after dinner and the embarrassing next morning.

“What the f—!” he cut himself off. “Now granted I’ve had beer goggle moments and woken up next to a three when I went to bed with a ten, but that’s not case with you. Baby, you’re a ten and any man who does something like that is a dirty dog.” He wiped a drip of sweat rolling down his forehead. “Damn, that’s some salty shit.” He put his arm around me, and I rested my head on his shoulder.