Chapter 23
CHAPTER 23
Tisera
I glowed with pleasant warmth, vital, sexy energy thrumming through me. Yet Veora made no comment as we walked back to her house. She seemed distracted, lost in thought, which was good, because if she’d asked, I’d have spilled everything about what had happened with Kel at the palace.
It didn’t feel real that he and I could be back together, even if I still had to talk to him about the being with multiple guys thing.
I’d do that eventually.
I floated back from Veora’s house to mine. All my fatigue and worry from the previous night had vanished. I wanted to talk to Daz and enjoy one of his meals, to complete this wonderous day.
Then, on my way home, I encountered Leo. He was on the road ahead of me, headed toward my place. Right. I had a lesson with him today.
And with him… were five young women. It seemed he had found some women to bring with him.
They walked ahead of me, facing away. I drew close behind them. “Leo?” I said, tentative, I didn’t want to startle him.
He turned and his face lit up.
“Master Tisera! How nice to see you.” And I couldn’t miss how his eyes moved over me. I was dressed for my walks with Veora, which meant fancy and flirty. My bright, orange-gold silk blouse clung to my torso, form-fitting, with buttons down the front and billowing sleeves. The skirt was dark red, loose and long.
He usually saw me in my training clothes. And though he didn’t say anything, I could tell from his surprised smile he didn’t mind the different look.
“Let me introduce you to your new students.” He motioned to the women with him. They too studied me with varying expressions: from skepticism to curiosity.
“Well,” one of them piped up quickly. “We haven’t agreed to do anything yet , just try it.”
“I am a bit curious,” another said. This one seemed bashful, blushing at the drop of a hat.
“Indeed,” Leo said. He motioned to each in turn. “It is my pleasure to introduce Lady Willow Highcastle.” This was the blushing one.
She curtseyed. She seemed young, though perhaps her constant semi-flushed state made her seem younger than she was. She had blond hair, so pale it seemed tinged with blue, and rich cobalt blue eyes. She wore a blue dress which set off her eyes.
“This is Lady Emarra Silvermoon.” This was the first who’d spoken, seeming brash and a bit hot-blooded. She had strawberry blond hair and flashing forest green eyes. Her red dress was near to being scandalous, showing a little too much of her ample bosom, and the hem rose far above the ankle. She didn’t curtsey, just glared at me.
Interesting.
The last three were: “Lady Sinda Rosewood, Lady Molli Merryweather, and Lady Hedra Featherwing.” Of these, the first two were fairly standard nobles with blond hair and blue eyes, and the last, Hedra, had darker — more golden brown — hair and silvery-grey eyes.
I looked them over. The only one with any real mettle in her was Emarra. She might be a decent fighter one day, but then… that wasn’t what I’d be training these women for. Leo had suggested more of a need for self-defense and protection. Certainly, all of them were pretty enough that they’d have no shortage of male attention, whether wanted or not.
So, I asked them.
“What do you want from this?” I held a hand up as Leo was about to answer. “I want to hear it from them.” I turned to Emarra. I had a feeling if she agreed, the others would too. “You said you’d be up for trying it. I’m curious what you think it is?”
She clearly didn’t like being put on the spot. She got defensive.
“All I know is Leo said we had to try training with you, that it would be useful and we’d get a lot out of it. He said you could teach us how to break the hands of any man who touches us the wrong way.”
A very interesting way of putting it. Did they get “touched the wrong way” a lot?
Given their beauty, it wouldn’t surprise me.
“I didn’t used those words exactly,” Leo cut in.
“It doesn’t matter,” I said to him. Then to Emarra. “Is that what you want? You’re certainly quite attractive. You probably get a lot of attention from men. Would you like to know how to break a finger or two of those whose attention you don’t want?”
She gave a grim smile. “That might be nice.”
“I can teach you that right now. Consider it a free lesson, to get a taste for what I do.”
Her eyes went wide. “Really? Now?” We were in the middle of a street, but traffic in this part of town was sporadic at this time of day.
I nodded, stepping in toward her. “Right now, yes.” I put my hand on her chest. Her eyes went a little wider and she backed off.
“If a man wants to grope you, here’s what you do. First, and this is the part that will surprise him and catch him off guard, capture his hand in both of yours — left hand over right hand — pressing his hand tight to you, as hard as you can.” I stepped in again, placing my hand on her chest and nodded toward it.
Reluctantly, she captured my hand in both of hers, pressing hard. “This feels like I’d be encouraging him,” she said.
“Don’t worry, once you know how to do this, this part won’t last too long,” I said.
“Now… step back. With his hand captured and him wondering what you’re doing he should be easy to pull off balance. It helps if you can crouch a little, get him to bend over.”
She did so, and with my hand captured as it was, I had to follow her, stumbling forward. I caught myself, knowing that had been coming.
“Now, with your right hand, reach around my hand, get your fingers under it and twist it as you remove it from your chest, sandwich it in both hands, keep it tight.”
She did so and saw how I was forced further in and down.
“Keep a firm hold with your right hand and release the left, press on my elbow, down.”
She did and I was forced to the ground, kneeling.
“And now any man is at your mercy. You can break his fingers later, but for now, you’ve gotten his hand off you and with his hand locked up like this, you have control.”
“Do I?” She forced me down a little further. She had a mean streak this one.
I grunted. “Trust me, you do. Now if you could please release me…”
She held a moment longer then released. I rose quickly shaking out my hand.
“What happened to your hand?” Emarra asked. I still had my knuckles bandaged from punching walls last night.
I gave a breathy laugh.
“If you really want to learn to fight, you have to accept the consequences, like some bloody knuckles now and then. It’s not pretty, but trust me, it’s worth the pain to be able to protect yourself.” That wasn’t the entire story, but I hoped it sounded good.
“Now. I want you to feel what I just did, so you know what it’s like, how little strength you have once your hand is locked like that. Don’t worry, I’ll be gentle, but you need to be able to trust your own skills, know you can truly overpower nearly any man, so you have no hesitation.”
Emarra was a tough one and wouldn’t show ‘weakness’ in front of her little band of friends. “As you say.” She drew herself up. “Shall I… touch you?” she asked.
I nodded.
She reached out. I was far quicker and more skilled, I grabbed her hand even before it hit my chest and gave it just a bit of a turn. She yelped, but after that, I slowed considerably and slowly forced her down, just a little. “Feel it?”
“Yes,” she said, strained.
I released her instantly. “With practice, you’ll learn to do it as quickly and easily as I just did.
She shook out her hand. “That was… amazing,” she admitted reluctantly. “You moved so quickly!” Drawing herself up, she asked, “How much for a lesson?”
I looked at Leo. All of these women were probably stupidly wealthy, but they may not have access to funds quite as readily as a man might. I smiled when I said: “For men, I charge more, one strip of silver, but for women it’s only a slip of silver per lesson.”
Leo laughed. “That’s a discount indeed.” I couldn’t tell if he was playfully upset or just trying to make it sound like a good deal.
Emarra nodded. “Seems fair. Shall we accompany Leo to his lesson now?”
I wanted a bit of time to prepare a lesson specifically for these women. “No, come again tomorrow, if that works?”
Emarra nodded curtly. “It does. I’ll be there.”
The other four all chimed in with some variation of “As will I.”
“Do you want me back tomorrow, as well?” Leo asked.
I shrugged. I could teach him and these ladies at the same time. “Yeah, if you’re feeling up to it.”
“I’m sure I will be.” He grinned.
We all walked just a bit farther down the road so I could show the ladies where I lived. Then the five young women left, whispering and giggling. One of them asked Emarra: “Can you teach me that?”
And that was that.
“I told you women would be interested,” Leo whispered once the others were gone.
He had, and I was just a bit stunned.
“Will you teach me that move?” he asked.
“No, it’s just for women. Unless you have a lot of people trying to fondle your chest?”
“Ah… no… but…” He flushed a little. Was he trying to be coy? If so, he was failing horribly, and it was adorable.
I wasn’t sure what prompted me, perhaps the high of my super-hot encounter with Kel or the thrill of having more students, but I found words coming out of my mouth: “I wouldn’t mind if you wanted to fondle my chest, though.”