“I’m a guest who doesn’t like your teaching strategies,” Lara retorted fiercely as she turned to face him.
“James, she’s a guest. We should go. I didn’t think anyone would be down this early. We don’t belong here when there are guests present,” Chloe said adamantly from the sidelines.
“You’re just afraid of being thrown again,” James mocked Chloe.
Hell yeah, she is afraid. You’re making her that way…asshole.
“She’s hurting. It’s not appropriate for you to continue,” Lara told him sharply. She could also tell him he was a lousy damn teacher and a cruel jerk, but she kept her tongue. Instead, she suggested, “Why don’t you show her how it’s done? Examples might help.” Lara gave him a saccharine sweet smile.
“I’d happily show her with you,” James answered with a vicious smirk.
It was exactly what she was hoping for, and Lara took up her stance. “Show me.” She wiggled her fingers for him to come and get her.
He came at her roughly and grasped her arm so tightly that she winced. But she used her center of gravity and her own strong grip on his arm to flip his body end over end, leaving him stunned and gasping for breath on his back on the mat.
“You bitch,” he growled menacingly. He rose to his feet, his face red with fury.
“What’s the matter, pussy?” she purred. “Don’t like picking on somebody with some skills?” It had been a clean throw, and he had no reason to be pissed. However, he was obviously a man who didn’t like to be shown up by a woman. He was the type who liked to be the victor—always.
“James, no!” Chloe screamed.
Lara was ready as he attacked her from the back, no longer even trying to pretend he was practicing any kind of martial arts. He was coming in to punish, and Lara already had his number. If he wasn’t playing fair anymore, neither was she. As he wrapped an arm around her throat, she let her elbow fly and nailed him in the solar plexus. Just for good measure, she stomped her sneakered foot into his instep and let her fist fly backward to hammer it into his nose.
He let her go and went slowly to the floor with a horrific bellow. “You broke my goddamn nose.”
Panting with fury, Lara reacted instinctively as another restraining, male arm came around her shoulders. She flipped the big body behind her over her head, but unlike James, this newcomer didn’t release his hold. She found herself hurtling over his body. The two of them rolled over each other and grappled for supremacy. Also, unlike James, this man was good, and he had her subdued in seconds in a hold that wasn’t meant to hurt her, but to make her submit. She raised her knee as he held her body beneath his, but he blocked her attempt.
“Sweetheart, before you try to nail a guy in the nuts, you should make sure you can get away,” Tate Colter rasped in her ear, his muscular body on top of hers. “Settle down. I wasn’t trying to hurt you. I was trying to keep you from trying to kill the novice over there.” Tate jerked his head toward James.
Her heart still hammering with adrenaline, Lara nodded. Her eyes locked with Tate’s. “What are you doing here?” she panted heavily, her breath sawing in and out of her lungs frantically.
Out of the corner of her eye, Lara saw Chloe help James up and take him out of the gym. Her fiancé glared at Lara as Chloe led him away.
“I came to work out,” he answered. His gray eyes swirled with emotion, his body tense. “I didn’t think I was going to walk into a brawl this early in the morning. What the hell happened?”
“Can you let me go?” she requested breathlessly.
“Depends. Are you going to try to kick my ass again?” His eyes lit with devilish humor. “You’re good, baby. You even know how to fight dirty. But I’m better.”
He was better, and that annoyed Lara. Tate Colter had been Special Forces, so she supposed she could give herself a break. He was obviously well trained in more than just judo and Krav Maga.
She inhaled, and his masculine scent enveloped her senses. Lara found herself once again falling into and nearly drowning in the depths of Tate Colter’s intense, gray eyes. “I give,” she told him hastily. Her core clenched from the body-to-body contact, and she suddenly craved even more than just his muscular body on top of hers. This man made her feel feminine in a way she hadn’t felt in a long time…or maybe in a way she’d actually never felt before. It was confusing and disconcerting.
She yanked her wrists free of his body and pushed against his chest. “I conceded.”
He winked at her. “I know. I’m savoring that.”
“Smart ass,” she grumbled, relieved when he finally lifted his body from hers and pulled her gently to her feet.
He was dressed simply in a pair of navy sweatpants and a T-shirt that clung to every muscular inch of his chest, arms, abs, and torso. Lara made herself look away and adjusted her own T-shirt distractedly.
“So why did you decide to beat James’s ass?” Tate asked curiously.
“He was being mean to Chloe.” Lara wandered over to a treadmill and started it at a warm-up speed.
Tate took the treadmill next to hers and hopped on, starting at a walk right beside her. “How did you know who she was?”
Lara thought quickly. “I heard him say her name. She’s your sister, right?”
“Yes. My baby sister. What do you mean by saying he was being mean?” His voice grew irritated and menacing.
Lara grabbed the bar in front of her as she walked in place and stared at the painted forest scenes on the wall. “He was inferring she was fat, which she isn’t, and he was tossing her to the ground without teaching her anything. She said her back hurt, and he was twisting her wrist for no reason except to make things painful for her. But he wanted to keep on tossing her around, even after she admitted that she was hurting. He’s a jackass. Why in the world does she want to marry him?”
Tate shrugged as he sped up his treadmill. “He’s a local doctor now, and she’s known him since high school. We haven’t really seen much of her or him since she graduated from high school except when she was home on break from school. She just graduated from veterinary school last year and started up her own practice here. We’re all glad to have her back home. Honestly, I don’t think any of us know James very well. I’ve heard a few rumors about him, but I thought they were just that…rumors. It’s a small town.”