“Can’t catch me that way.” I circled him, my knees bent and my hands up.
He darted toward me. I ducked and shot my foot out, tripping him. He hit the grass and rolled from his momentum.
“Damn.” He laughed and got to his feet, slivers of grass hanging from his otherwise neat button-down shirt and jeans. “Slippery. You come get me instead.”
“Okay.” I advanced.
He backed away a step and barreled into me, tackling me to the ground. I landed on my back, him on top. He sat on my hips and put a hand on each side of my head, smiling and proud of himself. I held my arms out and he fell into them for a friendly embrace.
“A hug for the victor.”
“Don’t feel bad. I’m pretty strong.” He returned my squeeze.
I slung my right arm over his shoulder, linked my hands, and shoved up from the ground with my left leg. He cried out in surprise as I flipped him and wrapped both hands around his throat.
“Yes! Krasivaya, yes!” Dmitri walked to us and towered overhead. “Now, Teddy. You must get free. Knock her off.”
“Well.” Teddy grabbed my wrists. “I wouldn’t want to hurt her.”
“Pussy.” I grinned down at him.
He wrenched my hands from his throat and wrapped an arm around my neck, pulling me down into a submission move so my head was trapped between his torso, his arm, and the ground.
“Oh. No, Teddy.” Dmitri laughed.
“What? I got her.”
“Look down, comrade.”
My hand was snugged in his crotch ready to squeeze as hard as I could to get out of the hold.
Teddy let me go. “Oh, fuck no.”
“That’s why you got a warning.” I kissed the tip of his nose and got up, offering him my hand.
Teddy pulled himself to his feet. “You weren’t kidding about the training.”
“No. She fighter now.”
“Let’s test that theory, shall we?” Sin’s voice whipped around my heart like a lasso, constricting and pulling at the same time. No longer dressed in a suit, he wore jeans and a dark t-shirt.
He studied me as if he were ticking off a list against his memory of how I looked the last time he’d seen me.
I balled my fists. He thought he could parade Sophia Oakman in front of me and treat me like the dirt under his shoe. And now he was taunting me?
“You game?” His eyes challenged me as much as his tone.
I was more than ready to hurt him any way I could. I met his dark gaze.
“Let’s do this.”
CHAPTER SIX
STELLA
“YOU SURE YOU WANT to fight me?” I re-tightened my hair in the bun, taking my time as I tried to figure out how to best him.
“I want to take you down.” He gave a predatory smile as his gaze raked my body again.
“You no hurt her.” Dmitri stabbed a finger at Sin.
“But she likes it when I hurt her.” Sin smiled.
Dmitri glowered and stepped toward him.
I put my palm to Dmitri’s chest. “I can handle him. Go on inside. This won’t take long.”
Dmitri mumbled some curses in Russian. “Come, Teddy. Let’s eat more cake.”
“Go easy on him. He’s not as tough as I am.” Teddy swiped the rest of the grass off his shirt.
“Come. Come.” Dmitri led him away as Sin circled me, sizing me up.
Teddy threw a worried glance over his shoulder as Dmitri herded him into the house.
“Why was Sophia here?” Of so many questions that bounced around my mind, the pettiest one came out first.
“Because she was my date for Teddy’s party.” He dashed toward me.
I backed up, trying to time what his moves would be.
“Nice decorations, by the way.” He smirked and circled me slowly, like a bird of prey.
I wouldn’t wait for him to come to me. I rushed him and gripped his shoulders, throwing my weight forward and swinging my legs up. It would have been the perfect take down if he hadn’t seen the move coming and twisted so I couldn’t maneuver my legs around his neck.
He held me for a moment before taking me to the ground, his heavy wait crushing me as he knocked the wind from my lungs. The sun was high overhead, and I remembered this. I remembered the first day when I’d run for freedom but found only him.
Not this time. I wrapped him in my arms and did the same move on him as Teddy. Though Sin was bigger, he flipped just the same until I was straddling him, my hands at his throat. I pressed hard, far harder than I’d done with Teddy.
Sin didn’t fight back, only slid his hands up my thighs.
“Where have you been?”
“Wooing Ms. Sophia Oakman.” His voice was terse, the words barely passing my palms.
“Do you love her?”
His hands roved higher until they were at my waist. He pulled me down onto him, rubbing me back and forth against the hardening length in his pants. “No. Just courting an alliance, something like a business arrangement.”