Chapter 19
“Hey,” June greeted Rob Tuesday evening for their session.
They hadn’t spoken much since the cookout.
Jack had made sure to let him know—several times—that he had been texting June.
Rob ignored him—as much as Jack would allow him to—and instead focused on work stuff.
Which had been a task easier said than done.
Rob found himself curious about what they were texting about. More than once, Jack had laughed out loud when a text came through. She sent him videos Jack shared with the office. They had a whole different relationship than he and June had.
They texted, of course, but it was just to see what the other wanted for dinner or if someone was running late. It was very mundane and boring. But it wasn’t like he texted his friends all the time.
He didn’t do idle chit-chat. He texted people only when he had a reason to.
“Hey, how are you?”
“Good and you?”
Keep it casual. Don’t bring up Jack. “Good, keeping busy with work.” He stepped back to let June enter.
“Me too. It’s been a crazy week already. One of the therapists is out on vacation, so we other PTs have had to split up her clients.”
“How many do you normally see?” They headed toward the studio, as was their habit.
“Around twelve.”
“Wow, that’s a lot.”
“That’s about normal with thirty-minute sessions. Some need longer, but it varies. For the next two weeks, it will be sixteen. So, a much tighter schedule.”
“I’m surprised the appointments didn’t just get rescheduled.”
“She’s out for three weeks. Some rescheduled for when she comes back, but others need PT sooner, so they agreed to meet us.”
“That’s a long time to be out.”
“She hasn’t had a vacation in three years, so she used up the rest of her PTO so they could spend time together. Great for them, not so great for us.” June shrugged.
“If you need to cancel our sessions for a while, we can.” June was pretty efficient; he just wanted to cover knife training, but there was no rush on it.
“No,” she denied quickly, waving her hands in the air. “I enjoy this time here; please, I don’t want to stop. I’m sorry if it sounded like I was complaining. I wasn’t, I promise.”
“You weren’t, I just didn’t want to overtire you.”
“Our sessions are an hour. I’ll be fine.”
“If you’re sure.” June nodded. “Alright, ready to get started?”
“Yeah.”
Rob watched her as she set her things down.
He had seen her do it several times, and yet, this time felt different.
He had never really noticed how shapely her body was.
She had an athletic frame. Her arms were toned but not muscular or masculine-looking.
Probably from her line of work. She had a trim waist she didn’t flaunt, but he could see through the outline of her shirt.
June turned around and looked at him. “You okay?”
“What?” He blinked at the question and then realized he had been caught staring. “Oh yeah, I’m good.”
Rob mentally shook himself. He needed to stay focused on the task and not think about June in that way. Yet after the way she had interacted with his friends and the way Jack flirted with her, he was starting to see her in a different light.
He was starting to think of her at the most random times. If he were being honest with himself, he had noticed her before and their connection the first moment they met, but he had ignored the connection.
Now it was making itself known. Rob grunted and stumbled back in pain. “Damn, you’re on fire.” He smiled proudly even as he was grimacing on the inside from June’s blow to his ribs. She had struck like lightning. He never saw it coming; his mind had been elsewhere.
“Or you’re just getting old and feeble, old man,” she teased, wagging her eyebrows at him before swinging a right upper cut at him. Rob stumbled back, her fist narrowly missing his chin. “Can’t keep up with us youngins.” She laughed.
June had a beautiful laugh. She laughed with her whole body. Another thing he hadn’t really noticed until now.
He was hardly old, nor did he feel old. Rob didn’t want her to think of him as an old man.
“I’ll show you what this old man can do.” Instead of standing there waiting for her to hit him, he went on the offense and punched out. He gave her plenty of time to avoid the punch. He didn’t want to hurt her.
June dodged it and came back at him with a punch to the ribs. “Sure, you can keep up?” She swayed back and forth, almost hypnotizing him with her hips. He was almost distracted again, but her words kept him focused.
Oh, it was on now.
Rob faked coming at her from the right, then dove down and tossed her over her shoulder. “Rob,” she squealed, pushing on his back to try and push herself up. He had a hand on the back of her legs keeping her pinned. Nor did he want to take a metal leg to the face. That would hurt.
“Do you concede?”
“Yes.”
That was too easy, but he eased her down to her feet anyway. His body stayed coiled in case she had only said that as a ploy and was hoping to strike when he wasn’t expecting it.
June held onto his shoulders as he set her down. Her body slid along his. He could feel the swells of her breasts brush against his chest. His hands stayed banded around her waist; she was still laughing until she looked into his eyes.
The room grew heated, and a tension built between them. He could literally feel it sizzling between them. He could feel June’s breasts that the sports bra couldn’t conceal pressed against his chest.
Her face was just inches from his. He could lean down and kiss her. Rob wanted to know if her lips were as soft as they looked. What sounds she made when he found her pleasure spots.
But Jack. She wanted Jack, he had to remind himself.
Rob set her away from him and took another step away for good measure. “Did you bring your knife?” Maybe that would help him focus.
June blinked as if confused by the sudden change in topic but then shook free of it. “Yep, got it right here.” She went over to her duffel bag and grabbed it before bringing it back.
“Are you sure you’re up for this? You seem to be the one that needs tonight off.”
“No, I’m good. Totally focused.” Maybe if he kept reminding himself, he would be.
“Good, because I’d hate to cut that pretty face of yours on accident.” She smiled, holding up her knife near her head, the handle balled in her fist looking like a serial killer about to stab him.
“Let’s go over some basics before you start trying to turn me into Swiss cheese.”
“Alright.” June lowered her weapon and flipped it closed. He felt more comfortable with it closed now before she was properly trained with it.
“Start in this position.” He didn’t have a knife with him, so he just held up his fist in front of his chest.
June’s eyes watched his hands as she got into position. Her face focused, her body ready to learn.
“Now thrust forward in a straight line, grip firm but not too tight. No white-knuckling it.” June adjusted her grip and followed his motions.
“I’m surprised Jack didn’t offer to teach you.
” Rob scolded himself for bringing up Jack.
It wasn’t his place. Both Jack and June were his friends.
If they wanted to hang out more or do lessons together, it wasn’t his business.
“He did, but I declined.”
“You did?” He shouldn’t be surprised, but he was. They had seemed like they were getting along so well. Better than he and June did. “Why?” He found himself curious to know the reason.
“Because you were already teaching me. I didn’t see the reason to stop seeing you to start seeing him.”
So, it was out of some sense of duty instead of enjoying their time together.
He didn’t like that at all. “We’ll work on some blocks.
Most people who attack on the streets are looking for a quick score.
Money, jewelry, that sort of thing. They are not out to intentionally hurt you.
Some aren’t skilled with knives and just use them as scare tactics.
But should you ever be in that position again, I want you to be prepared to protect yourself.
The hand-to-hand you’re well adept at. We just need to work on knife skills a little.
I’m not expecting you to be in a full-blown knife fight, but I want you able to defend yourself if they come at you or know where to strike so you can get away unharmed. ”
“Okay, I’m ready.” Rob didn’t know if she was saying that more to him or to herself.
“Alright.” Rob came at her slowly and slid his hand around her neck.
He didn’t apply any pressure but just held his hand in place.
Her skin was velvety soft. He barely resisted the urge to stroke his thumb against her pulse point he could feel fluttering under his hand.
He felt June swallow under his palm. He was making her nervous.
Whether it was their close proximity, or he was bringing up painful memories, he didn’t know.
“You okay?” he asked her. If she was too uncomfortable, he would back off, and they could try something else.
“Yeah,” she said, sounding a little breathless.
“If this is too much—”
“No, I’m good,” she rushed out to assure him.
“Okay, now from here, there are a couple of different things you can do. You always want to go for the vulnerable spot.”
“But I can’t knee someone between the legs.” She argued, looking frantic for a moment.
“No, but you can kick them in the shin. Titanium will hurt anywhere.” Metal against bone always hurts. It didn’t matter where she struck. “But that wasn’t where I was talking about. What I was referring to was their face. Eyes and throat to be more exact.”
“Eyes and throat,” she repeated. His eyes lowered to her throat. Her pulse was still erratically beating against his hand.
“Poke the eyes, punch or jab the throat.”
“What about the knife?”
“They’ll be momentarily blinded or incapacitated, which gives you the chance to push them back and get away.”
“But they could come after me or catch me before I get too far away.”
“That’s where the second part of the attack comes in.
You can apply these moves in one go instead of waiting for them to chase you.
Incapacitate, they lower their head or stumble back, that’s when you grab their wrist and twist out as you duck under their arm and bring their arm behind their back.
If you apply any pressure to their wrist, it will cause them pain, and they’ll drop the knife; you win. ”
“You make it sound so simple.” She chuckled.
“It is with practice. Now let’s try.” Once she got the hang of it, she would see.
June punched him in the throat, not using her full strength like she had with his ribs earlier. She always started gently when learning as she practiced the moves and got more comfortable with them before using more strength.
Rob stumbled back for effect. June grabbed his wrist twirled under him and twisted his arm behind his back. Rob felt the pull on his shoulder and her thumb pressed against a pressure point. “Good.”
June released him and came back around in front of him with a giant grin on her face as if she had just defeated him for real.
She should be proud. June was learning rather quickly.
Soon, there wouldn’t be a reason for lessons.
What would they do then? Hang out like he did with his teammates on the rare weekend they did a cookout?
“What about my knife?” she asked, eager to learn as most students. “When do I learn to use that?”
“So bloodthirsty.” He chuckled, loving her enthusiasm.
“Hardly, I just want to be able to protect myself.” She looked away shyly. “I know you won’t always be there to protect me, or someone to hear my cry for help.” She stood up taller as she looked back at him. “The more I can do for myself, the better.”
“I get it. I was only teasing. We’ll cover a few different scenarios for frontal and rear attacks.”
“Will they have a knife or just me?”
“We’ll cover both.”