The Rose

Chapter 14

We ended up watching comedies the rest of the day until I fell asleep on his chest again. The last thing I remember is listening to his heart beating and I could hear a comfortable, content rumble as he laughed that lulled me to sleep. What I don’t remember though is heading to bed.

“Wake up sleepyhead” someone says poking my cheek. I open one eye and see Kai crouching in front of me. “It’s time to start your training."

“How did I get here?” I ask sitting up and rubbing my eyes. I glance to the right side and it’s not slept in. “And where did you sleep?”

“I carried you to bed. Erin gave me some blankets and a pillow to sleep on the couch. Come on! I’ll meet you downstairs in a few minutes” he says getting up and walks out of the room.

I get up, begrudgingly and walk to the bathroom. I look at myself in the mirror and wow I look terrible. I sigh and get into the shower and I make sure to wash everywhere especially under my armpits.

After showering I go downstairs and Kai is sitting on the couch focusing on his phone. He has a small frown on his face and his lips are parted. To be honest he looks incredibly alluring.

I clear my throat and he looks up at me, his frown deepening. ”That’s what you’re wearing to train?” he asks and I suddenly feel very self conscious. “What’s wrong with it?” I fidget with my sleeve and I can feel my cheeks turning red.

“Nothing’s wrong. I just think you’re going to get really hot wearing long sleeves” he says walking over to me and taking my hands in his.

“I will be fine” I assure. I don’t feel comfortable telling him about my scars.

“Okay let’s go. I set up a training mat in the living room, I hope you don’t mind” he says pointing at the mat that’s between the couch and the fireplace and the coffee table is moved into the kitchen. We walk towards the mat and he gestures to the right side.

“Alright what you’re going to want to do is crouch a bit that your knees are level with your shoulders and when you’re in a defence position keep your arms in front of you with your hands in fists but always remember to keep your thumb at the bottom of your fist or else you’re going to break it. You got it?”

“Wait, you have a training mat in your car?” I ask frowning and he just chuckles and shakes his head.

“No, I went to the station’s gym to get the mat and that dummy over there."

“What dummy?” I ask looking around.

“You” he says smirking.

“Ha ha ha , very funny.”

“I’m kidding. It’s still outside, I’ll go get it.

I stand and wait a few minutes before he emerges with a training dummy and sets it down in the middle of the mat. “I am going to show you a few moves and then you can try and do it” he says crouching down a bit, has his fists in front of him and he starts punching the dummy. His punches are quick, swift and lethal. Right after punching it he delivers a kick straight to the dummy’s ribs, if he had any. It looks like its going to fall over but it doesn’t.

I glance at him, sweat trickling down his face and his training clothes gives me the perfect opportunity to admire his sculpted body and his muscles twitching and bulging from every kick or punch he lands on the dummy. After a few more punches he stops and looks at me, “Okay, your turn. Remember this is not a movie, take cheap shots.”

I gape at him. “You’ve got to be kidding me. I can’t possibly do what you just did.” To be honest I’m sure I could have done it if  I was paying more attention to what he was doing and not ogling his perfect body.