Diary of a Teenage Jewel Thief(33)
“I was just giving my niece some self-defense lessons. Would you like to join us?” He motions wide around the room as if inviting Will into a much fancier sparring space than my living room with all the furniture pushed out of the way.
“Sure, I took a few years of jiujitsu when I was younger. Maybe I can teach her a few things.” Will takes it all in stride, as if it’s not totally weird to be holding impromptu martial arts matches in the middle of the living room on a Saturday afternoon. He pulls out of his dark sweatshirt and slips his feet out of his sneakers.
“Yes, yes. You probably can. This old man will get out of your way and let you kids get to work.” Uncle Samuel practically skips from the room, and I’m not sure if it’s because he’s glad for the reprieve for his bruised ego or if he’s trying to play matchmaker. Probably a little of both.
“So, what has he taught you so far?” Will asks once we’re alone.
I bite back a laugh. “Actually, he wasn’t teaching me anything, so much as he was losing to me. My mom put me in Krav Maga when I was younger. It’s just been a while since I’ve practiced or whatever.” I close with a shrug and try to shut out the memory of my first class. My mom forced me into it the week following my dad’s death. I know she was trying to protect me, knew it even then, but I was still just trying to mourn and heal.
“Ah, gotcha. So do you want to do it with me?” he asks. And then is quick to add, “Practice, I mean.”
“Sure.” I follow him onto the ersatz sparring mat.
Will is a much tougher opponent than my uncle, I find out almost immediately. He comes at me, and when I move to block him, he grabs my wrist and spins me around, pulls me back hard against him. His arms are wrapped tight around me, pinning mine to my sides, and even though I struggle, I can’t get loose. Maybe I could if I really wanted to, but I don’t want to hurt him. And there’s something really nice about being wrapped in Will’s arms.
Eventually, he releases me and moves into an attack stance once again. I try to prepare better this time, and now, when he spins me and pulls me to him, I manage to get my leg behind his and buckle his knee. He falls to the ground, but his hold on me takes me down with him, and he uses his strength to leverage himself on top of me on the way down. When we land, he’s stretched over me, pressed against me from neck to chest to thigh.
He doesn’t make any effort to get up, and I don’t make any effort to move out from under him.
“Are you letting me win?” he whispers against my lips.
“And why would I do that?” The thought did occur to me.
“I can think of at least one good reason.” As soon as the words leave him, he presses his lips against mine. This kiss is nothing like our first. Where that one was tentative and exploring, this one is hard and fast and smoldering. He slips his tongue past my lips, and the feel of him becomes permanently seared into my brain. I lose track of everything around us; nothing exists except us, his warmth enveloping me, his lips on my lips.
Maybe I moan; maybe I shiver. I’m barely aware of my own reactions to him, but I definitely wrap my arms around him and pull him closer to me. And he leans into it, matching my movement by resting his weight on his elbows and tangling his hands in my hair.
My mother’s key clicking in the lock echoes like gunfire in my brain, startling me out of the fantasy world our kiss has created, and I scramble out from under Will, even as he pushes to a kneeling position. By the time she comes in the front door, arms full of grocery bags, we’re a safe distance away from each other, and I only have to worry about hiding how out of breath I still am.
“Hola, Mari. Your friend is here?” Her look is pure surprise, and she glances from me to Will and back again like she’s trying to figure us out. Will’s hair is a little mussed, and his cheeks are flushed, but I don’t think there’s anything that would make us look guilty of making out on the living room floor.
“Yeah, he came by to drop something off that I forgot after school yesterday, and Uncle Samuel invited him to stay to spar.” It’s the truth, but she doesn’t look convinced.
“I should probably go.” Will stands and grabs his sweatshirt, then slips his feet back into his shoes. “I’ll see you Monday, flower.” He winks at me, and even though he has his back to her, I feel like my mom is perfectly aware of what he’s trying to convey by it.
Heat rises in my face, and I fight back the goofy grin threatening to escape. “Okay, see ya.”
Will leaves, shutting the door behind him, and my mother heads for the kitchen, but not before giving me her best I-know-something-happened look.
And boy did it.
Chapter Fifteen
Monday can’t come soon enough. I’m excited to meet up with Will, have been thinking about the next time I would see him since he left my apartment Saturday evening. I wake early without the use of my alarm, and I’m out the door a full ten minutes before I normally would be.
The elevator door slides open with a soft ding, and I’m about to step on when I realize I forgot my chem homework. I slip back inside the front door and head for my bedroom to grab it, with homework tucked neatly between the pages of chapter twelve, from my desk. I’m almost to my room when one of my dresser drawers slams shut.
Uncle Samuel?
I pick up the pace and speed around the doorway, stopping just across the threshold. Uncle Samuel has moved on from my dresser and is now going through the top drawer of my nightstand.