“Time to shower,” Flint announced, though Stygian’s attention never wavered from Liza. “We’ll secure the room on our way out.”
His attention was focused completely on Liza as she rose from the sofa and moved closer to the main mats. He was only distantly aware of the soft pings indicating full security had been activated on the entrance to the gym.
There would be Breed enforcers stationed at the elevator and then farther along the hall as long as he and Liza were in the room.
Stygian anticipated they would be there for a while.
“Spar with me now.” Her demand should have surprised him.
It didn’t.
He already suspected the part she intended to play in the Navajo Breed Underground Network. He should have suspected it long before he had.
She was a mass of contradictions, deceptions and confusion. One could never take anything about her at face value, until he learned the answers to the questions she presented.
Moving once again, Liza toed off the sandals she’d slipped on before leaving the room. Leaving her feet bare, the pretty painted toenails a subtle candy pink, she stepped onto the mat.
Her arousal was no longer mixed with envy. It was now infused with a hint of feminine, sexual aggression and independence.
The intriguing scent had his dick swelling impossibly harder, throbbing with a demand he had no intention of holding back.
A growl sounded in his throat as his lips curled into a slow, dominant snarl.
“A challenge, mate?” he asked as he knelt and removed the baby-soft leather boots worn by enforcers.
Loosening the ties, his gaze holding hers, Stygian removed them without haste, refusing to allow himself to fumble so much as a string while she watched.
Male pride.
He all but grinned at the thought.
Of course, he couldn’t allow himself to appear less than completely dominant and assured in her presence. God forbid this independent, striking young woman should ever have a moment to doubt his ability to love her.
To protect her.
He’d prove to her he was her fitting mate.
Removing his close-fitting black socks, Stygian straightened and stared down at her silently for long moments.
“You’re my mate,” he finally stated, hearing the primal growl that filled his voice. “I am well able to protect not just your safety, Liza, but your secrets. You’ve only to give them to me for safekeeping.”
Reaching back and gathering her hair, she wound the long strands into a loose braid before securing it with the elastic band around her wrist.
“What if I don’t know the secrets I’m keeping?” She surprised him with the answer.
“Then I’d say you’re hiding from them,” he answered, ignoring the flash of disagreement in her gaze, the hint of anger that darkened the soft gray color.
She didn’t argue; instead, she moved.
The small, delicate-looking fist suddenly delivered a blow, not to the muscle-packed abdomen, but instead to the vulnerable area below, between his navel and the band of his jeans, only a breath from the engorged head of his cock.
The blow stole his breath an instant before he moved for her. Swinging away, he nearly had her before she suddenly dropped, rolled and came up behind him.
Before he could assimilate the surprise, her little foot landed in the back of his knee, stealing his balance and nearly taking him to the mat before he caught himself in a crouch.
The crouch and roll she executed before coming up behind him wasn’t a typical response to the threat of being held from behind, even for their female enforcers. For her height and lack of physical strength, it worked perfectly. It also gave her the opening to come at him again before he could respond with a countermove.
Within two breaths, he was placed on the defensive by the very fact that, with nimble grace, she managed to elude his grasp and stay just out of reach.
And he wasn’t playing with her.
Stygian had every intention of getting his hands on her and stripping her, first of that little top she wore. The one that tightened around her br**sts and clearly showed the hard, pointed ni**les beneath what appeared to be the lace of her bra.
The moves she was using weren’t those she would have been trained for by the Coyote females. They were Breed male moves with the addition of a graceful feminine twist, an unexpected arch, kick or jab. And if she absolutely had to, a low, swift crouch and roll that placed her just out of reach.
He was impressed.
He was even more impressed, not to say highly suspicious of the fact that she used them so well. So well that he was beginning to suspect that it wasn’t Ashley and Emma who had been training her. A male Breed had somehow been training her so secretively that he hadn’t heard about it.
And he wouldn’t have thought that were possible.
Remaining alert, keeping his eyes on her, Stygian arched his brow mockingly as she circled him, looking for an opening to bury that pretty little fist in some vulnerable area, no doubt.
When he saw his opening, he moved.
Ducking nearly to a crouch as she moved for him, Stygian managed to twist and come up behind her, both arms wrapping around her, trapping hers and shackling them to her side.
She didn’t attempt to move her arms. Her first, natural reaction would have been to struggle with her upper body. At least, that was what it should have been.
Instead, in another surprising move, she lifted both legs. The heel of one slammed into his knee, taking him to the mat.
Most men, warriors, soldiers, would have lost their hold. Stygian was really rather proud of the fact that he kept hold of her.
Intense satisfaction then filled him as he managed to wrestle her to the mat beneath him, his body holding hers trapped securely between him and the mat.
“Who’s been training you?” he snarled as he gave her ear an erotic little nip. “Tell me, mate, who have you been playing with?”
Not that it really mattered, Stygian thought as he rolled his hips against the gentle curve of her rear and allowed her to feel the hardened erection beneath his jeans. It didn’t matter, because from now on, she would only be playing with him. He would be her only sparring partner. Only he would be training her to do any damned thing.
Liza could feel her juices spilling from her pu**y, dampening the folds beyond as well as her panties as Stygian forced a hard thigh between her legs, forcing them open, then spreading them further to allow his hips to wedge into the cradle he created.
“Answer me, mate,” he rasped as his incisors raked along the nape of her neck. “What Breed male has dared to train you so effectively?”