SWNOVELS Alluring Darkness: Chapter 9
My skin was so tender that I was barely able to sit through the entire class I had after Eli’s attempt to humiliate me in the canteen. But thankfully, that damn bastard had at least allowed me to pull my panties back up on my own. Because if he had been the one to do it, he would have felt how fucking wet I was.
The way his entire body exuded power, the way he held that belt, the way he ground himself against my ass and pulled on my hair afterwards… My heart is pounding just thinking about it. But I didn’t want him to know that, because then he would probably have commented on it loudly enough for the whole canteen to hear, and that would have been more humiliating than the actual spanking.
I roll my shoulders back as I get into position on the padded mat.
At least the discomfort is long gone now. And thank fuck for that because today is my first lesson in hand-to-hand combat, and I suck at that as it is without adding aching ass cheeks into the mix.
I’m paired up with Magda, which is both a blessing and a curse. She’s so damn fast that I can’t even begin to block her moves. But at least she doesn’t have enough brute strength to break my bones when her strikes land. So there is that, I suppose.
Leaping back, I desperately try to avoid the swift kick she throws at my hip. I manage to dodge it by a mere inch. But when I land, I’m so off balance that I can’t block her right hand. It slams into the side of my ribs, making me stumble to the right.
“Keep up,” she snaps.
Massaging my ribs, I straighten again while growling, “I’m trying.”
“You’re screwing me over. If I can’t practice against someone who knows what she’s doing, then I will fall behind.”
“I know. I’m sorry. Look, I—”
The door to the sparring room is yanked open. A ripple goes through the room as Eli Hunter saunters across the threshold. My heart flips in my chest.
Our instructor, Mr. Hansen, turns towards the disturbance and opens his mouth as if to tell the intruder to get the hell out. Then his sharp eyes land on Eli, and all traces of anger disappear from his stern features in a flash. He is in his mid-forties. Tall and muscular, and with a scar across his jaw. I have come to understand that the Hunters hold some kind of sway on this campus, but it is still baffling to see a man like Mr. Hansen check his tone around a student half his age.
“Hunter,” he says in a neutral tone. “I’m in the middle of class.”
“I can see that,” Eli answers.
His golden-brown eyes scan the crowd until they land on me. My heart skips a beat again when a sly smile curls his lips.
“I heard that you have a student who started three weeks after everyone else,” Eli says to Mr. Hansen, but his eyes remain locked on mine.
Clothes rustle as everyone turns to look at me. I keep my chin up and a nonchalant expression on my face, but my pulse is now thrumming in my ears.
“So I thought I might help her catch up by instructing her personally,” Eli continues. At last, he breaks eye contact and shifts his attention back to Mr. Hansen before finishing with, “Since you have so many other students who need your attention, and no patience for people who don’t even know their foot from their elbow.”
The other students chuckle. My cheeks heat, but I’m hoping it’s not visible in the bright light from the fluorescents in the concrete ceiling.
I already have a feeling that Mr. Hansen doesn’t like me very much, and that is confirmed by the contempt on his face as he casts a glance at me.
Then he lifts his broad shoulders in a shrug and flicks his wrist at Eli. “Knock yourself out.” His gaze finds my sparring partner. “Magda, pair up with Jessica instead.”
“Yes, sir,” she says, and quickly hurries away.
“The rest of you, enough dawdling! Get back to work.”
The other students leap to obey his order. Sparring matches start back up, and the sound of punches and kicks striking flesh once more echoes between the gray concrete walls.
From across the room, Eli locks eyes with me again and flashes me a smile tinged with insanity. Then he starts towards me. I have to suppress the primal urge to back away as my pulse hammers and dread washes over me. Shit. This is going to be humiliating.
Eli advances on me until he is standing only two strides away. Amusement glitters in his eyes as he slowly drags his gaze up and down my body. “How’s your ass?”
Instead of answering, I shoot a pointed look at the spot where I pressed a knife a few days ago, and then raise my eyebrows. “How’s your throat?”
Holding my gaze, he smirks and casually adjusts his cock through his pants. “How’s your throat?”
Since I don’t have a comeback for that, I just cross my arms and glare back at him instead. He huffs out a satisfied chuckle.
“You know how to surrender, right?” he says.
“I’m afraid the word is not in my vocabulary.”
He snorts. “Cute.”
I narrowly prevent myself from jerking backwards when he abruptly takes a step towards me. Grabbing my wrist, he easily pulls it away from my chest and instead moves it towards his hip.
“In a sparring match, when your opponent has you so hopelessly pinned that you can’t save yourself, you submit.” Using his grip on my wrist, he moves my hand so that my palm touches his hip twice. “By tapping out.”
“I knew that,” I mutter.
“Good.” A wicked grin spreads across his lips. “Because you’re going to practice that move a lot this afternoon.”
Before I can retort, he releases my wrist and steps back again. I rub my thumb over the spot where his fingers were locked a few seconds ago.
“Square up,” he commands.
Biting back a snarky reply, I raise my hands into the position that Mr. Hansen showed me about half an hour ago. Or at least, I hope so. Eli frowns at me but doesn’t comment.
Then he strikes.
I don’t even have time to blink in surprise. I expected him to… I don’t know. Say something first? But he doesn’t. He just flashes forward and slams a fist into the side of my ribs.
Pain pulses through my ribcage as it lands, and I suck in a gasp as I stumble sideways. Eli moves again. This time, I at least try to yank my arms into position to block it. But his hit lands anyway.
He backs me across the floor, getting strike after strike in. But the more of his punches that land, the more I realize something incredibly surprising. The hits don’t hurt as much as I expected them to. And given Eli’s impressive physique, there is only one explanation for that. He is pulling his punches.
The realization stuns me so much that I blurt it out without thinking. “You’re pulling your punches.”
“Well… I don’t want you to break too quickly.” A smirk ghosts across his lips. “I like playing with my food.”
He trails to a halt.
My chest heaves from exertion, but he isn’t even breathing heavily. In fact, he looks completely unaffected as he rakes his gaze over my already exhausted body. I flick a glance over his shoulder.
He has backed me so far across the floor that we’ve ended up on the other side of the sparring hall. Mr. Hansen and my classmates are still training, and even if they had been able to hear us from all the way over here, none of them are paying us any mind.
“You clearly suck at using your fists,” Eli says.
I bristle at the comment, but he is right, of course, so I just glare back at him in silence.
“Try kicking me instead,” he says when I don’t take the bait.
Narrowing my eyes in suspicion, I try to figure out what he is planning. But actually landing a kick on him and wiping that smug expression off his features would be so damn satisfying that I can’t resist the temptation to try.
In the hope of catching him off guard, I quickly shift my weight and slam my foot towards his hip.
His hand immediately shoots down towards it.
Shock crackles through me as he locks his fingers around my ankle. Holding my leg trapped up in the air like that, he flashes me a smile that sends ice skittering down my spine. Then he moves.
He walks a few steps to the side, using his grip on my ankle to pull me with him. Since my leg is up in the air, it forces me to hop after him on one foot. He moves again. And again.
Embarrassment sears my cheeks. I can feel the heat radiating from them, so I can only imagine how red they must be.
With a vicious smirk on his lips, Eli pulls on my leg again, forcing me to jump after him while I flail my arms to keep my balance.
For some reason, this is more mortifying than being spanked in the middle of a packed cafeteria. And based on the look in that damn bastard’s eyes, he knows it.
“Want to tap out?” he taunts.
I grit my teeth and try to yank my ankle away from his hand, but his grip only tightens. Then he starts to move faster, forcing me to frantically hop after him.
“Fine,” I snap at last.
But before I can so much as shift my hand towards my thigh, he pulls on my leg. Hard. It makes me lose my balance and sends me toppling backwards.
Air explodes from my lungs as I hit the padded mat back first. I raise a hand towards my chest while I try to suck in a deep breath.
Eli kicks my hand aside. It slams into the mat again while he crouches down over me. I have barely managed to get air back into my lungs when he presses his knee against my chest, pinning me to the floor and restricting my breathing again.
“Go ahead then,” he says, locking smug eyes on me. “Tap out.”
For a few seconds, I just glare back at him. He shifts more of his body weight to the knee on top of my chest. I bare my teeth at him but then move my palm to the padded mat beside me and tap twice.
Eli lets out a satisfied chuckle.
Taking his knee off my chest, he straightens and brushes off his hands. I leap to my feet while his back is halfway turned and aim my fist straight at his side.
He whips around. I’m one inch away from landing a strike when he wraps his fingers around my wrist and stops it.
My stomach lurches as he uses my momentum to somehow flip me over and send me slamming down on the mat again. This time on my stomach. I try to gasp in a breath while Eli settles his weight on my ass and twists my still trapped hand up my back.
“Trying to strike when your opponent’s back is turned?” he says from above me. “Sneaky. But not very honorable.”
“What the fuck do you know about honor?” I growl.
He pushes my hand higher up. Pain ripples through my arm at the unnatural angle, and I have to grit my teeth to bite back a whimper.
“I never said that I care about honor,” he muses. “But I do love having yet another excuse to punish you.” I can hear the fucking smirk in his voice as he commands, “Submit.”
I just clench my jaw harder. He shifts his weight on my ass, making his cock grind against it. If it’s by accident or by design is unclear, but it sends a flash of electricity through my body that is distracting enough that I momentarily forget that he is trying to hurt me, not fuck me.
He forces my hand farther up. A whimper rips from my throat. It feels like my arm is going to snap in half.
“Submit,” he orders again in a voice pulsing with command.
If he actually decides to break my arm, I will be in real trouble, so I yank my hand up and frantically tap it against the mat next to me.
He stops pushing my hand upwards but doesn’t release me. Instead, he leans down closer to my ear and whispers, “Good girl.”
A shudder courses through my body.
Given the victorious laugh that spills from his lips, he probably thinks it was a shudder of fear. Oh, if he only knew…
At last releasing my hand, he stands up again, leaving me lying on the ground. I slowly push to my knees and roll my aching shoulder. Then I get to my feet as well.
Eli is standing there, two steps away, watching me like a predator. I flick a quick glance towards Mr. Hansen and the others. They’re still sparring, and no one is even bothering to look in our direction.
“Oh, they can’t save you, princess.” Raising a hand, he twitches two fingers at me. “Come on then. Try again.”
And since I can’t let him think that he has won, I do exactly that.
Again and again, I come at him and try to get at least one kick or punch through.
But every time, I end up on the floor with no other choice but to tap out. He reads my moves every single time, and reacts so quickly that I can barely see the attack coming before I’m on my back again. Anger flickers through me as he yet again demonstrates just how outclassed I am against him. There has to be something I can do to throw him off his game.
Air explodes from my lungs once more as I slam into the mat yet again. Before I can so much as lift my head, Eli is there.
Straddling my hips, he grabs both of my wrists and moves them so that he can pin my hands underneath his knees. I kick my legs and buck my hips, trying to get him off me. But it’s no use. I try to yank my hands away, but he just puts more of his body weight onto my palms, keeping them firmly pinned to the ground.
“It must be so frustrating,” he says, a taunting note to his voice. “Being this weak and helpless.”
“I’m not helpless,” I growl while still trying to somehow get my hands out from underneath his knees.
“Oh really? Would you like me to demonstrate just how helpless you are against someone like me?”
Before I can reply, he leans forward and wraps his hand around my throat. While bracing the other against the ground next to my head, he tightens his fingers around my neck until he’s cutting off all of my air.
I struggle to get him off me, but it only makes me grind my pussy against his cock where he straddles me. That, combined with the feeling of his powerful body pinning me to the ground and the sheer dominance pulsing from him as he chokes me, sends lightning crackling through me.
He must have misread the shudder that racks my frame, because he just smirks and says, “Yeah, I know. With your hands pinned like this, you can’t even tap out.”
His eyes stay locked on mine as he tightens his grip just a little more. My lungs scream for oxygen.
“Do you know what you do when you can’t tap out?” He raises his other hand and brushes my bangs aside, his fingers sending sparkles dancing over my skin. “You beg.”
Since there is nothing I can do to break his grip, I just lie there, looking up at him while he holds my life in the palm of his hand.
“I will allow you to breathe again in a few seconds. I suggest you use the opportunity to beg me for mercy.”
Air rushes back into my lungs as he relaxes his grip on my throat. I cough and drag in desperate breaths until my starved lungs are full again. But I have to admit that the bastard at least knows how to choke someone properly, because my neck doesn’t even hurt from his grip.
For about half a minute, I just lie there underneath him, sucking in deep breaths. He keeps his hand resting over my throat. He’s not squeezing, but it’s a solid weight meant to remind me that he is still in control here.
Once my breathing has evened out, Eli arches his eyebrow expectantly. “Well then, princess. What do you say?”
“Choke me harder, Daddy.”
Utter shock pulses across his features, and he jerks back in stunned surprise. It’s enough to take his knee off my right hand for a second. I use that second well.
Yanking my hand up, I slam my fist into his jaw.