Punished, Tana Stone [top reads .txt] 📗

from my mind before my cock could swell in response. I had no desire to fight with my hands in front of my crotch.

“You ready?” Sienna stood opposite me, her hands on her hips.

“I am a Vandar. I am always ready for a fight.”

This made her smile. “So how do you want to start? Hand-to-hand combat again?”

I crouched into a battle stance. “Come at me, and I will deflect you.”

“You mean, you’ll try to deflect me.”

Even though Sienna was confident to the point of cocky, her confidence did not bother me like Donal’s did. I liked that she knew she was good. She reminded me of myself.

I returned her grin as I beckoned her forward with one hand. “We’ll see, female.”

She didn’t run at me right away. Instead she circled me slowly, getting a bit closer each time and reversing her direction several times. Just as I was about to ask her if she’d forgotten the point of the training, she lunged at me. Ducking low to avoid my grasp, she spun around my back. It was the move she’d used on me when we’d sparred in the amphitheater, so I was ready. I whipped my tail around to grasp her by the waist as I spun to face her, jerking her flush to my body and pinning her arms to her side.

“Hey,” she said as she struggled. “You used your tail!”

“Of course, I used my tail.” I looked down at her. “Your opponents will use everything they have at their disposal as well. This is not a game.” I released her, swatting her ass with my tail as she stumbled back. “Vandar use our tails for many things.”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. “Again.”

I missed the feel of her body against mine, but backed up, clearing my throat and ignoring the twitching of my tail. “If you can avoid turning your back on your opponent, you should. Keep your eyes trained on me, and watch how I telegraph my movements. Most opponents will have a tell. Look for it. Study them as you face off and plan your attack based on how they move, not how you do.”

This information would have gone right over the heads of the fighters I’d been working with earlier in the day, but Sienna absorbed it all, her gaze tracking my feet and hands as I stalked ever closer to her. When I lunged at her, she deftly hit the ground and rolled away from me, jumping up behind me and landing a hard kick to my back.

Even though the impact stung, I turned and kept coming at her, forcing her to defend herself again and again, ducking and weaving around me, skillfully avoiding my tail when it curled too close to her.

“Good,” I said, when she was breathing heavily, and strands of hair had pulled from her topknot and were flopping into her face. “Like I said yesterday, you’re a natural.”

Sienna reached up and pulled the rest of her hair free, and it spilled around her shoulders in a cascade of golden brown. “I’m just getting started, tough guy.”

My mouth went dry, and whatever self-control I’d had started to crumble.

Chapter Twelve

Ch 12

Sienna

I shook out my hair, glad to have it out of the bun. It actually hurt from being pulled up for so long, and I scraped a hand through it. Having my hair away from my face made it easier to fight, but it felt more natural to have it down. Besides, Corvak had long hair, and he managed.

The momentary pause had given me time to catch my breath, but my body tingled for more. “Ready?”

He stood staring at me for another second, then he gave his head a brusque shake. “You’re skilled at keeping yourself from your opponent’s grasp, but what happens when you’re caught?”

“I won’t get caught.”

He huffed out a breath. “Confident, but not realistic. You need to know how to fight off a close-in attacker or get yourself out of a death grip.”

My pulse quickened. “Death grip” didn’t sound great. “You’re sure this isn’t some excuse for you to actually catch me?”

He cocked his head at me. “If I wanted to catch you, female, I would.”

The deep rumble of his voice made me believe him and want to run. But I’d come here to learn, which meant doing things that scared me. And that definitely included being put in a death grip by a Vandar.

I straightened from my fighting stance. “Okay. Show me.”

He closed the distance between us until he was so close to me I could feel the heat pulsing off his body. He took me by the shoulders and spun me around so that I was facing away from him. “You need to know what to do if you’re grabbed from behind.”

I sucked in a quick breath as he wrapped one arm across me from my shoulder to my hip. The iron muscles of his chest were pressed against my back, and I instinctively raised my hands to grip his roped arm.

He dropped his head so that it was beside mine as he held me motionless against his hard body. “Now what do you do?”

I fruitlessly attempted to jerk him over me, but he didn’t budge. Then I tried to slip out from under his arm, but his grasp was too punishing. My heart hammered in my chest as he breathed hot in my ear.

“I’m too big for you to use leverage against me. You need to go for your opponents’ weak spots.”

I jerked my hips back as hard as I could, hoping to land a hit to his balls, but my ass just bumped his thighs.

He chuckled low and deep. “Not bad, but not many of your fellow fighters will be your size. And imperial soldiers wear codpieces to protect them, so your blow would not have done much good against them. Now, if you were facing me, bringing a knee up between my knees would not have been a bad