Vorn didn’t even try to stop her or guard against her rush. He just stood there, booted feet slightly apart and arms spread as though he was expecting a hug instead of a shoulder to the gut.
Jodi hit him as hard as she could, ramming her right shoulder directly into his rock-hard abs. But her expectation that he would fold and pitch backwards was sadly mistaken.
It was like hitting a brick wall. The big Kindred gave a soft grunt at the impact, but he didn’t even move an inch. He just looked down at her, one dark eyebrow raised mockingly as if to say, “Is that all you’ve got?”
For a moment Jodi was nonplussed. She’d never practiced with anyone his size during the one self-defense lesson she had taken. In fact, she and Melli had been partners and her little sister was even smaller than she was. But she remembered some of the techniques the instructor had taught for taking on bigger opponents and decided to try one now.
Reaching up to grip Vorn’s right bicep with her left hand, she put her own right arm around his trim waist and then turned so that her hip was flush with his thigh. Pulling him with her, she attempted to lift his body and flip him over with the strength of her back and legs.
It was called a hip-roll and once upon a time, Jodi had been pretty good at it. But again, she’d never practiced with an opponent this big. Vorn felt like he weighed a ton—it was like trying to flip a huge, heavy mattress.
The big Kindred allowed himself to be pulled by the move but when Jodi attempted to lift and flip him, he set his legs and simply wouldn’t let her.
“Okay, now if I let you do this move you’re going to hurt yourself, sweetheart,” he said, sounding maddeningly reasonable. “Kindred aren’t just bigger than humans—we’re heavier too. Our bones are more solid so our skeletal structure weighs more. Not gonna let you hurt your back just to prove a point.”
“You bastard!” In pure frustration, Jodi turned to beat against his broad chest. “You asshole!” she shouted.
In a flash, Vorn had grabbed both her hands in one of his and twisted her around so that her back was to his front. Wrapping one muscular arm around her waist, he held her in place effortlessly, pinned against his big body.
“Let me go—let me go!” Jodi snarled, doing her best to kick back and catch him in the balls.
But Vorn didn’t allow that either. Instead, he dragged her over to the loveseat and sat down on it, still holding her trapped in his lap. One long leg came around and captured hers and then Jodi found herself tied neatly in a knot with the Kindred’s muscular arm pinning her arms to her body and her legs immobilized too.
“Stop it! Let…me…go!” But no matter how much she squirmed and wiggled, she couldn’t get free—couldn’t even move an inch. She was fighting like crazy to no effect and it didn’t even seem like Vorn was exerting that much effort to hold her.
At last she ceased her efforts and slumped, panting, against his broad chest.
“Finished now?” Vorn rumbled in her ear. “Good, now listen to me, little girl,” he went on, not waiting for her to answer. “Because we’re gonna have a little talk.”
“Let me go or I’ll scream!” Jodi threatened breathlessly. But honestly, she didn’t know if she would be able to. There was something about this position—about being held immobile and pinned against his big, hard body while he murmured in her ear that set her heart racing and her pulse spiking. Still, she couldn’t let him get away with this! “I…I swear I’ll scream,” she told him again, though her voice came out in an unsteady whisper.
“You don’t want to do that.” His other big hand—the one that wasn’t currently pinning her against him and holding her arms down—came up and loosely encircled her throat. He didn’t press—not a bit—but Jodi could feel his long, warm fingers caressing the pulse-points of her neck. “It only takes six seconds of air loss to make someone unconscious,” he told her softly. “I don’t want to do that to you—I don’t want to hurt you in any way, Jodi—but I can’t have you calling the Earth peacekeepers and telling them I’m the bad guy just because I happened to find your little fuck-toy by accident.”
“You…how dare you?” Her breath was tearing in her throat now in a strange mixture of fear, anger…and some other emotion she couldn’t name, even to herself. This position, this situation, it reminded her of an old fantasy—one she hadn’t entertained since she’d gotten together with James and he had made it clear he had n interest in such things.