Page 50

Elliott

“You want a coffee before you head over to Sir grumpy pants ?” Kameron asks me as we walk into the kitchen the next day.

“No, I think I’ll need some water though.”

“We have some at the gym, in the fridge.” Hunter says from the other side of the island.

“Perfect!” I kiss Kameron on the cheek but he catches my arm before I get too far away. Pulling me back into his chest and slamming his mouth on mine.

“You tell me if he gets too sassy, okay?” he says, breaking the kiss.

“It’s Marcus, Kam. Would you expect anything other than attitude?”

He chuckles, “You got a point.”

“Hey, at least eat this.” Hunter hands me some buttered toast as he walks to the other side of me. “I don’t need you getting nauseous.” He tips my chin to face him and places a kiss on my lips. My stomach flutters as I feel Kameron’s hands on my waist.

“You sure you’re okay to train while you’re still healing?”

“Raf cleared it yesterday before he left. He said they weren’t too deep and to tape them, so I taped them.” I reassure him by pulling up my shirt to show him my crafty work with the medical tape.

“Okay, okay. I just want to make sure.” he holds up his hands in defeat.

“Thank you for that.” Taking the toast from Hunter's hands, I start to walk away.

“Give him hell.” Kameron shouts down the hallway when I’m out of sight.

I scarf down the toast, dusting off my hands when I get to the gym doors. I see from the other side of the glass that Marcus is on the treadmill. Music is blaring through the room again.

I slide the door open, closing once I’m fully in and I walk over to the side of one of the treadmills as Marcus ignores my presence.

“Get on the treadmill. Start running.” He says before I can say anything.

“I thought you were teaching me self-defense?”

“Treadmill,” is all he says to me.

I huff out a breath but I do as I’m told.

I mess with the buttons and start the treadmill, not knowing what all the others do .

Marcus steps on the side and reaches over, setting the treadmill to a certain speed and incline because it starts to rise as if I’m running uphill.

I adjust to the speed and run alongside him, panting while he runs as effortlessly as if he was on a leisurely walk. By the time the treadmill stops, sweat is rolling off of me.

“Don’t run much?”

“I don’t do much of anything in Everton.

” I step off, catching my breath as he walks somewhere else in the room.

“In Everton, women are just there. I wanted to go to college after high school but that wasn’t a woman's way and they were telling me to wait for my Chosen.” I cringe at the thought that they were waiting for me to marry Samuel.

Something cold taps my shoulder and I look up to see Marcus handing me a water bottle.

“Thanks.” He gives me a half assed smile, taking a long sip of his own water.

“We’re going to take this slow, I want you to be comfortable and not too sore tomorrow.”

“Okay.”

“Let’s stretch, then I’ll show you some moves and you’ll practice them on me.”

I nod, following him to the matted floor in the center of the room.

** *

“Lock your elbows, Elliott!” Marcus smacks my elbow for the hundredth time. “You need to lock them together. If you don’t, I still have access to you and can take you down.”

“I’m trying but you’re strong.” I huff out, my face hot from the last two hours of training. He told me we could call it quits half an hour ago but I was determined to get this last move down.

“Yeah I literally fuck people up for a living, Elliott. You need to be able to stop my moves or at least get out of them to be able to get away from danger. Hence ‘self-defense’.”

“I know. Let’s try it again.” I get in position, ready and waiting for him to ‘attack’.

He comes at me from behind like all the other times and I press my elbow down into his gut and flip my stance, bringing my arms up and around his throat.

He kicks my legs from under me so quickly that I fall on my ass.

Again. I grunt in frustration but unlike the other times, he lands on top of me, pulling my arms into a hold that renders me defenseless.

“Elbows. Up.”

“Fuck.” I growl out.

“You’re frustrated, princess. We’ll pick this up tomorrow. It’s just your first day.”

“I want to be able to do it now.”

“No one can be perfect at something the first time they do it. You got the other two moves under your belt. This one is tricky.” I roll my eyes at him, still stuck in his hold. “Why are you being so hard on yourself?”

“Because.”

“Wow, how articulate.”

“I need to be able to stop someone.”

“And you’ll learn.”

“What if I don’t learn fast enough?” My pants become erratic as thoughts of being dragged back to Everton overwhelm me.

“What do you mean, fast enough?”

“I don’t want them to drag me back there.”

“Who?”

“Samuel’s men. Everton. Divine members.” I shrug, panic rising in my chest.

“They won’t find you here.”

“Here, but what happens when I leave?”

His eyes soften as he lets my arms go and I sit up again.

“I get it.” He almost whispers to himself.

“I can’t train you faster, you need time to learn.

But your worries are going to cloud your decisions on the mat.

” He slaps his palms on the surface we’re sitting on.

“If you don’t get them down to a tee here, they won’t be worth shit if someone actually attacks.

You have the time to learn here. You are safe. ”

“One more time?”

He rolls his eyes, “Ugh, one more time then get the fuck out of here to your boy toys. This training took way longer than expected. ”

I stand in the position again and try to clear my mind but to my surprise, it doesn’t help. I land on my ass with Marcus on top of me again.

He gives me an I told you so look.

I can’t help the laugh that makes its way out. I don’t know if it's from the boiling frustration or the fact that I believed that if I relaxed, it would magically make me master this move.

Marcus watches me with a curious look on his face, my body bouncing from the laughter. I close my eyes and laugh even harder at the way he’s looking at me.

He one-hundred percent thinks I'm a fucking weirdo right now. But if I don’t laugh, I’ll spiral.

Tears of laughter start to leak out of the corner of my eye and I can't help but suck in a breath when I feel Marcus’s thumb wipe one away.

I open my eyes, coming down from my giggle attack and see him watching me, a hint of smile on his lips.

It takes my fucking breath away. “You are strange, princess.” My heart skips a beat and his hand lingers on the side of my face.

Just as I let myself acknowledge it, he whips away and hops to his feet.

“Tomorrow, same time.” He rushes the words out as he speed walks out of the gym.

Fuck.