Chapter 161
1341words
"Well now," I said and struggled against his hold.
"you're going to have to do better than that if you want to be free of me, Baby girl."
"No fair, you had not even announced the beginning of the lesson." I wailed,
"The same way that bear isn't always going to announce its attack. I'm sure of this one because bears don't speak the language we understand, now do they?"
"pfft," I said and tried once again to be free of him, but he held me even tighter.
"do better, sugar."
I gritted my teeth stepped on his legs, and made him scoff.
"I'm not going easy on you, so you don't have to go easy on me, Ember. You didn't ask me to drag you out of bed this morning to simply step on my feet."
"Technically, I didn’t ask you to drag me out of bed at all," I said, I kicked him in the groin and smiled when his grip loosened, but quickly regretted my choice when I saw the pained expression on his face.
"Nice job," he said quietly, and I slapped my hand over my mouth.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry." I cried, truly troubled I had hurt him so much.
"It's okay. Survival, that's what I expect from you in situations like this. You can't afford to not give me anything less at this point, Em." he said and slowly let out a breath, "that one hurt. What did it for you? Remembering I dragged you out of sleep?" he asked and I chuckled but shook my head.
"I don't hate the fact you dragged me out of sleep so much. You asked me to give my best shot, and I suppose that was the first move that came to mind."
He nodded once at my words before taking a step back, "All alright then, now that I'm sure lesson number two has gotten through, I believe we can begin lesson three."
"What is lesson three?"
"survival, Ember. Come at me with everything you've got."
I did. Did go after him with everything I had. I kicked, I punched, I tried to bite, but he blocked them all, until at last, I landed on the ground with my arse, and I looked up at him with a pained expression,
"How did you do that?" I asked, feeling very sore already, while he looked like he was just getting started,
"Do what?" he asked, walking toward me and stretching out his hand toward me. I hesitated before taking it, and he only smirked, "Learning fast."
"You aren't giving me a choice. How did you block every move I threw at you like it was the easiest thing in the world?"
"Ember, you are a little bit too predictable, to be honest. There isn’t any element of surprise," he said easily and had me feeling like a wimpy fighter. But to be fair, I wasn't exactly big on fighting,
"no element of surprise?" I asked with a raised brow, and he nodded,
"I can see what move you intend on making even before you get it done. Everything is in your eyes. It's in your movement. If you're going to take me unawares, then you're going to have to surprise me."
"do you believe a bear is going to be watching my every move this way?" I asked skeptically, but I truly doubted a bear would be so knowledgeable.
"you can never really tell what else you would find on the way. What if, to make things somewhat hard for you there are guards set on the way to make things harder for you? What do you do then?"
I heaved out a breath, and nodded in understanding, "Fine then. Fine. Let's keep going." I said and frowned in sudden determination. I wasn't sure if they would go as far as stuffing my trails with their guards who were going to attack me as well, but I suppose that was why I needed to train hard, right?
"good. Now come at me again, and this time around, use the element of surprise. I suppose we can make this lesson four."
By noon, my body was different kinds of sore, and achy, and this time around, when Jean stretched out his hand toward me to help me up, I refused to take it, lest he make us go another round.
"you don't want to get up?"
I sighed and shook my head, "it isn't that I don't want to get up. But I'm hurting all over, Jean. I don't want to keep training."
He looked up at the sky, and I knew he was trying to tell the time. He had once spoken to me about how when he was at war, some of the older soldiers had taught him to tell time using the heavens,
"It's noon now, so I suppose you can take a break. Or perhaps we could call it a day, seeing as I have some things in the pack to tend to in the evening," he said and stretched out his hand again. This time I took it and smiled up at him,
"I'm sorry I'm being a bit of a wimp." he drew me to him, sweaty and bruised as I was, and having his arms wrapped around me that way was somewhat soothing,
"you're no whimp, Ember. You did well today. Tomorrow is bound to be better."
"thank you." I said when he let me go, and he patted my shoulder, "Let's go in, I suppose it should be lunchtime by now." I said when my tummy growled,
"A good bath would be nice as well." he said, "I'm sweaty all over."
"You can use the shower in my room. Do you have a change of clothes?"
"yeah. Grabbed some just in case."
"great. You can take a shower before we have lunch. Come on then, let me take you to my room."
"It's exactly how I expected it to be," Jean commented, looking around my room, and I smiled up at him,
"How?"
"floral wallpaper, white and pink soft things. Cute teddies. All of it screams, 'Ember.' " he said and made me chuckle,
"then perhaps you must be anticipating the lavender scented body wash," I said and he tilted his head in a smile,
"I was thinking cherry blossoms, but lavender does it too," he said and I chuckled once again. He only smiled as he began to take off his t-shirt as though it was the easiest thing in the world, and my laughter got caught in my throat.
"Why did you stop laughing?" he asked, holding his shirt in his hand, but I didn't respond, I was too busy staring at his body. He was ripped all over, and I mean, all over. I mean, I think it was safe to say that the man had zero fat, and I…
"Ember?" he questioned, dragging me out of my not-so-cute thoughts and I looked up at him with widened eyes,
"it's just… I didn't think your body looked like that underneath your shirt." I blurted out without a filter and slapped a hand over my mouth when I realized what I had said and he only smiled at me, before hanging his shirt over a shoulder,
"I suppose I should take the rest of this into the bathroom," he said, and began to turn around,
"yeah." I heard myself say when what I really meant to say was 'come back'
But this was better. This was for the best. I didn't need to add a messed-up mind to the list of my problems.
Although, I couldn't exactly classify the sight of Jean's body as any other than aesthetic. The man was incredibly beautiful and I wanted to look at him again. But I heard the bathroom door close and sighed, before walking to one of my chairs and sitting.
"Ahh, Ember." I sighed, "seems like you have more than just bears to worry about from here on."
