He came forward slowly, his gaze hard but surprisingly kind. “How’d it happen?” At her frown, he went on. “I can’t show you how to react if I don’t know exactly how he grabbed you.”
Right.“I woke up, and he was on top of me.” Funny enough,thatwasn’t the part that upset her. It hadn’t ever been that man who had caused her that sort of anxiety. He’d beennothingcompared to Jerry.
Without Olin having to say anything, Kat lowered herself to the hard dirt. She wasn’t the sort of girl to worry about getting some dust on her.
Olin cursed, the word low but frustrated. “This is a horrible idea.”
“If you can’t even show me how I could have fought back, you’re just admitting that all this self-defense stuff is bullshit.”
He crouched beside her but didn’t touch her. “Because you don’t need me on top of you, not so soon after…”
“Please?” She met his gaze, forcing herself to speak. “I need to know what I could have done. I can’t stop flinching at every sound, but maybe if I do this, I’ll feel differently.”
His whiskey-colored eyes darted away before he dragged his fingers through his hair. “Fine,” he snapped, sounding miserable about agreeing. Even so, he shifted down to his knees and straddled her, careful at first to not actually touch her. His body stretched out over hers, warm despite the slight chill in the air from the breeze. “How did he…”
She dragged her tongue over her lips. “He tried to pin my hands, but I scratched his face. I tried to throw him off, but he was too heavy. He wrapped a hand around my throat.”
Olin nodded, then wrapped a hand around her wrist, his touch gentle.Is he trembling?He pinned that one beside her, then set his other on her throat, grip loose.
It made her heart speed, but amazingly, not from fear. Was it because that guy hadn’t been her big-bad-monster, or was it because it was Olin above her?
She wasn’t sure, but the things he woke in her sure weren’t fear…
“Try to throw me off. Don’t worry, you won’t hurt me, so give it your all.”
Kat nodded and shifted as she had with the other man, trying to unbalance him. She got no farther than she had before. “You’re too strong,” she whispered.
“It’s not all about size or strength. Why did you scratch him?”
“Because it’s all I could think of.”
“You have blunt little nails, Kat. Despite your name, you don’t have claws. You want to know one reason women don’t do better in fights? Because they hold back. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because they’re raised to be humble and meek or maybe it’s something else, but I’ve seen it during every self-defense class I’ve taken or taught. A woman pulls her hits—she slaps instead of punches or scratches a cheek instead of jamming into an eye. I’m not judging you—just explaining the problem. If you’re going to fight, you need to do it like it matters, like your life depends on it, because it just might.”
Kat fought the shiver that wanted to run through her, trying to listen to Olin’s words despite the way his body pressed more against hers with each second. “So what should I have done?”
“What is your instinct when I do this?” He tightened his hand a fraction, not enough to cut off her air but enough to make her react.
Kat responded without thinking, her hand wrapping around his wrist to pull.
Olin instantly loosened again. “That’s right—instinct says to get that hand off your throat. The problem? It’s damn hard to get someone to release a grip if you go for their wrist. Instead, you’ve got to think it through. Sensitive places on a body—eyes, nose, stomach, groin. Solar plexus is good, but you have to know what you’re doing there, so it’s better to wait for that one.”
“But the hand is the issue.”
“Yeah, but unless someone is trained extremely well, trust me, you break a nose and they’re not going to keep their grip. The nose and eyes are great because they’ll both blind a person. Someone in pain who can’t see stops being much of a threat.”
Kat nodded, then jerked her head forward.
Olin yanked backward enough to miss the strike, which made Kat’s cheeks flush. She hadn’t even thought about it, but if he hadn’t moved, she’d have definitely hurt him.
His laugh said he wasn’t angry. “That a girl. If I wasn’t expecting that, you’d have just broken my nose. Between the bleeding and my eyes watering, you would have just given yourself a hell of an advantage. Now, women have most of their strength in their legs, so make sure you use that to your advantage.”
“You’re pinning my legs.”
“Yep, I am. So your goals are to distract me—forehead to the nose works for that—then, when I pull back to regroup, your goal is to get your legs into the fight. Remember, no pulling punches here. Let’s try again.”
When Kat nodded, Olin reset, grabbing her wrist more roughly than the last time before setting his hand on her throat again. Kat swung her head up, and even though Olin dodged, he responded as if she’d landed the hit.
He yanked backward, releasing her to clutch his nose as he sat up. Kat twisted, but with his weight, she couldn’t squirm enough to knock him off. His body straddled her just over her stomach.