1
Evelyn
“Get up!”
“I can’t,” I say, my arms trembling as I push myself partially up off the floor.
“You can, and you will,” Dante says as he and Luci watch on from either side of the room.
“It’s almost like shewantsme on top of her,” Seven says with a sneer.
I narrow my eyes at him, rage burning deep within me. I grit my teeth, beads of sweat rolling down my face and neck, my breathing heavy from the strain of the past thirty minutes of aggressive training.
It should be the last of my sessions with Seven for the day, but that does little to encourage me.
“Again,” Dante orders, and Seven lunges at me without hesitation.
I brace myself, barely managing to escape Seven’s attack this time as I force myself to roll out of the way.
Hours of rolling around on the floor in my own sweat is definitelynotwhat I had in mind when I agreed to them training me … at least, not like this.
How is learning how to fight supposed to help me seduce Dante’s father?
Not that I’ve done much fighting the past couple of days. Most of the time I’ve just been trying to avoid getting crushed under Seven’s massive body.
Exhaustion pulls at me, trying to drag me down into its depths.
Turning to look over my shoulder, I have just enough time to let out a small cry of surprise before Seven tackles me to the floor, pinning me against it and quite literally forcing the air from my lungs.
Seven grins down at me, the silver in his teeth flashing in the light.
“All right, that’s enough for today,” Dante calls out, but Seven doesn’t budge as his weight continues to bear down on me. “Seven, I said that’senough.”
Seven’s lip curls over his teeth in defiance, but he pushes up off of me and gets to his feet.
I gasp, letting oxygen fill my lungs again as I roll over onto my side and curl in on myself.
“All work and no play,” Seven growls as he pushes past Dante, “really makes me want to tear your head off, you know that?”
Dante ignores him as he reaches out to offer me his hand.
I hesitate for a second before taking it, but I have no strength left to pull me to my feet. Realizing this, Dante crouches down to pull me up into his arms before carrying me over to my favorite armchair.
“What about her other training?” Luci asks.
“Tomorrow,” Dante says, “she needs rest. Now, go wait in the hall, I’ll join the two of you in a moment.”
Dante waits for the others to leave the room before crouching down beside me.
“Are you all right, love?”
“I think so,” I answer and then frown.
“What’s wrong?”
“When are you going to start training me?”
“What do you mean?” Dante asks, his own brow furrowing. “We are training you.”