Conquer (Control) (12 page)

When we approached the ring, Daemon lifted the top rope so I could climb through.  “Oh no!  Uh, uh.  I don’t need your assistance, Daemon.  If we’re going to be fighting as equals, then I should be climbing in there by myself just like any other opponent.  I’m pretty sure you wouldn’t be lifting ropes for a man, so you can go ahead and climb in, and I’ll follow behind you.”

Daemon’s hand released the rope as he turned to look at me.  “Number one, we’re not fighting, Paige…and number two…”   His voice trailed off as a grin spread over his lips.  “Never mind.  I’ll let you do things your way.”

He climbed in the ring and moved to the center to watch as I made my way in.  I balanced myself on the edge of the raised floor and started to pull up on the top rope.  Holy crap!  The rope was not as flexible as Daemon had made it appear.  I looked up to Daemon as I tried to lift it with two hands and I grimaced when I noticed his arrogant smirk had graced his lovely features.  I couldn’t give in now without looking like an idiot so I pulled up on the rope with as much force as I could manage.  It barely budged.  I decided to attempt another approach by climbing the ropes up and over.  The bottom rope was wobbly, but I was able to use it to raise myself enough to climb over the top of the highest rope.  Just as I placed my body weight on the top rope, it lowered down unexpectedly and I went headfirst into the ring.  I rolled, feet over head onto my back and was laid out supine, staring at the ceiling.  I could hear Joe and his crew chuckling from where we’d left them and I laid there embarrassed as hell until Daemon’s smiling face came into my line of sight.

“If that is any indication of the ninja skills you will be using on me today, I have to tell you, Damsel, I’m not that frightened. Can I help you up, or are you still being stubborn?”  He reached his hand down and I grudgingly accepted. 
Sonofabitch.
  Daemon chuckled as my cheeks turned red and pulled me to my feet.

Pulling me to the center of the ring, Daemon stood as his eyes raked over my body.  I felt heated from his gaze and my eyes flicked to ‘Joe and the Gang’ to see if they had taken notice.  All four men stood silently smoking their cigarettes, paying apt attention to what was about to go down in the ring.  I looked back to Daemon and noticed a crooked grin peeking out from the corner of his sculpted lips.  “You ready for this, Damsel?”  I nodded hesitantly in response.  “Good.  Now, I want to see what those ninja skills of yours can do for you.  You stand there, and I’ll attack.  Show me how you would normally defend yourself, okay?”

“Fine, Daemon.  However, I can’t promise I won’t hurt you in the process, so don’t blame me if you leave this place limping.  In fact, you might want to put on a cup or something to protect your manhood, because I would hate….Ahhhhh!”   Before I could finish my sentence, Daemon lunged forward, managing to grip both my wrists.  He tugged me forward, while at the same time placing his foot in front of my feet, tripping me as I tried to steady myself.  I went forward into the mat as Daemon brought my arms to my back and locked them to the middle of my spine with one hand.  His other hand came down between my shoulder blades as he straddled my lower half, using his weight to hold me in place.  Joe and the Gang instantly broke out into hoots of laughter and I turned my head to see them slapping their knees and each other’s backs.  My mouth was forced open into an ‘O’ from the mat pushing up against my cheek. 

Daemon leaned forward, his mouth softly brushing against my ear as he spoke, “Your first mistake, Damsel, is that you talk too much.  While you’re busy distracting yourself with your own voice, your opponent will be watching and waiting for the moment when you let down your guard.”  His voice lowered an octave and seductive tendrils dripped from his words as he said, “If I wanted to, I could take you from behind right here and right now, and there’s not a damn thing you could do about it.”   His teeth nipped at my earlobe causing an involuntary pull within my core and a whimper to escape my lips.  I believe drool may have dribbled a little from the corner of my mouth, causing Daemon to chuckle wickedly.  “Keep that up and I might be asking our audience to give us some time alone.”  My body trembled in response to his statement.  

Releasing my hands, he pushed himself up, before reaching down and helping pull me to my feet.  My balance was unsteady at first and I was still feeling heady from my encounter with Daemon on the mat.  I shook off my hormone-induced stupor before placing my feet in a fighting stance and bracing my posture ready for his attack.  Daemon’s eyes raked over my body again, this time slower, burning with obvious dirty intentions.  I steadied my breath and kept my focus locked to his arms and legs awaiting any movement that would give away his attack.  When he didn’t move, my eyes traveled up to his face.  His eyes were hooded and his bottom lip was pulled between his teeth.  The cocky expression over his face was the final nail on my coffin.  I couldn’t help but react.

“Daemon, we are fighting, not having sex so you can wipe that seductive fucking grin from your face before I…” 
Shit!

Once again, Daemon came at me quick as a snake.   Before I registered what was happening, he’d taken both my hands into his, swept my feet out from under me using his foot, and had taken me to the ground with a loud thump as we landed.   The ceiling was in my line of sight while Daemon’s body was prone over mine.  He quickly switched my wrists into one of his hands before lifting and pinning them above my head.  That particular move must have impressed our elderly audience, because a low whistle and some lewd murmurs sounded from their direction.

Daemon’s mouth came to my ear.  “Have I ever told you how much I enjoy that sassy mouth of yours?”   His tongue flicked out, pulling my earlobe between his teeth.  I gasped and my hips bucked a bit from the sensation.  My cheeks heated when I suddenly remembered we were being watched.  His mouth released my ear before he said, “I’m reconsidering what I told you on the ride here.  Apparently, things have not changed as much as I thought.  I do believe I’m controlling and owning your sexy little ass at this very minute; and to be completely honest, the only thing keeping me from ripping your clothes off and having my way with you is the peanut gallery standing within fifty feet of us.”   His warm mouth caught mine, leaving me breathless when the kiss was over.  “Now, are we done fighting so that I can actually teach you something, or did you have more
skills
to show me?”

“You’re an arrogant twit, Daemon, you know that right?”

He snickered at my question while pushing himself upright.  “I know, Damsel.  I know.”

Not giving up the good fight, I taunted Daemon into a few more sparring matches.  On my third attempt, he flipped me back to my stomach, kicking my legs apart and bracing himself above me.  Howling laughter erupted from our audience and the embarrassing moments just piled on from there.  I tried to dodge and attack on my fourth attempt, ending up swung and bounced off of one of the corner cushions.  I threw myself back into the fight and was graciously bent over and held still over the perimeter rope of the ring.  I was nervous for Joe and the Gang as their faces turned purple while they clutched at their sides from the uncontrolled laughter.  My hair had escaped the bun on the back of my head, finding its way to becoming plastered to my face.  Air huffed out from between my lips, blowing the hair away momentarily, before replacing itself across my eyes.  Daemon jerked me back, replacing me in the center of the ring.

That’s it.  Ninja time now!

I waited for Daemon’s move and kicked out at him when I saw him suddenly lunge in my direction.  He caught my foot easily and flipped me onto my back.  I grit my teeth from the impact with the ground before pushing myself once again into a standing position.  Attempt number six didn’t go much better.  I lunged at Daemon, only to have him grab my hands and use my forward momentum to slam me against the ropes, bouncing me onto my stomach on the mat.  My frustration intensified as I attempted to right myself, only to have Daemon continuously shove me back down before I was upright.  When I finally gave up and laid there, he lowered himself to the mat, taking my face into his hands.

“We done now?  I’d love to stay here and own your ass all day, but we’re running out of time and will have to give up the ring soon.”  He pushed up into a standing position over me.  “Get up, Paige. Until you learn to protect yourself I’m going to keep introducing you to the mat.  Laying there, doing nothing won’t help you.”  My mind instantly raced back to my childhood with Buddy.   The word he’d just spoken were similar to the ones he’d spoken when we were young in the backyard of The Center.  A smile graced my face as I realized that those days had come full circle.  Once again, he did what he could to teach me to take care of myself.  Despite his aggression as a child, Daemon never let me give up when I was younger, and it appeared that theme carried over into our adult life.  If ever there was a thing as redemption, it was this moment.  He may have hurt me before, but the lessons he tried to teach me then and now more than made up for any pain he would have caused.   Holding strong to those thoughts, I finally pushed myself up and retook my position opposite Daemon.

My chest heaved from the exertion of our fighting.  I noticed Daemon hadn’t even broken a sweat from his efforts, causing me to grow annoyed.  I wanted to continue my attempts to take his ass down, but the time limitations he’s reminded me of made me reconsider.  “Fine.  Don’t get a big head over me conceding
this time
.  If we didn’t have a time limit, I’d wear you down eventually.”

My arms crossed over my chest as Daemon’s roaring laugh vibrated the mat.  “Okay, Damsel.  However, if the fact that you can barely breathe is any indication, I’d say you are damn near close to wearing yourself out before I even become winded.”  My eyes narrowed at him, causing his dimples to pop out from his grin.  “Now, stop your stubbornness and let me show you some things.”  He took his offensive stance once again before saying, “We’ll go over the basics today and then, tomorrow, we’ll start working on your endurance and strength.  If that was enough to cause your breathing to become so erratic, you’ll need to get used to extended physical activity before you ever think of protecting yourself against someone like Chris.”

I rolled my eyes before responding, “Zip it and let’s get this over with.”

“Okay, Damsel…first thing you need to realize is that, more likely than not, you’re not going to be able to beat or escape a man of my size in a hand to hand fight.  Whereas the chest and arms of a man are his strongest feature, a woman’s strongest feature is in her legs.”  Daemon’s eyes slid down the skin of my exposed legs, before he brought his gaze back to mine.  “Although, those stems of yours are hot as hell, we’re going to need to work on strengthening them.  I’m going to lunge at you.  I want you to try kicking up at me, catching me in a knee.”

“I don’t want to hurt you, Daemon.”

He smiled.  “No worries, Paige.  You won’t hurt me.”  His shoulders bobbed from silent laughter, causing me to glare in his direction.  Huffing out another breath, I waited for him to lunge forward.  As he instructed, I kicked out, aiming for his left knee.  He easily grabbed my foot and held it as I bounced and balanced on the foot I had on the ground.  Daemon chuckled and released my foot.   He took his attack position in front of me and nodded.  “Again.”  As instructed, I kicked out when he lunged forward, only to be caught and knocked off balance.  Daemon caught me before I hit the mat and he righted me only to demand that we try again.  We worked through that motion another ten times before I gave up.

“This is ridiculous, Daemon!”  I was embarrassed and humbled by the fact that I couldn’t get in a single strike against him.  Daemon’s face was overtaken by a smug grin, which pissed me off. 

“Paige, the more we practice, the faster you will become.  We also need to work on your leg strength and I have something fun in mind for that.”  His eyebrow arched wickedly on his face.  “Let’s work on some escape moves before calling it quits for the day.”

He reached out, taking my arms before spinning me and holding me to his chest.  After crossing and pinning my arms across my chest, he leaned down to speak in my ear.  “Lucky for you, Damsel, you are a tall girl, so nine times out of ten, you will be close to the same height as most men.  That puts you at an advantage if taken from behind and held.  Let’s pretend I’m your attacker and this is the manner in which I’ve caught you.  How are you going to break free?”

I pondered Daemon’s question and considered the times in which I’d been grabbed from behind, or really, any time that I’ve been forced to fight.  Although the precise memories were blurry, I remembered that I acted on instinct, rather than thinking out my actions.  I decided to employ that technique against Daemon, using my body to buck back at him as I forced my weight against his arms.  My efforts were about as useless as pushing against concrete.  He didn’t budge.

“Remember what I told you, Paige.  You’re most likely NOT going to be able to overpower a man who’s using his arms and chest to hold you.  You need to think and figure out what his weakest point is in every position in which you are held.  In this instance, my weakest point is my nose and face.  Your advantage in this position is the back of that hard head of yours.  Due to your height, if you were to throw your head back suddenly, there’s a good chance you would catch your opponent in the nose.   If you hit hard enough, you will gain a few seconds where he is stunned enough to release his grip.  Let’s try it.”

Daemon stilled while holding me to him.  I threw my head back, but he moved his head to lessen the blow.  He simulated having been caught off guard and loosened his grip giving me seconds to wriggle down out of his grasp and turn around to face him.  “Good.  Obviously, Paige, I knew what was coming and was able to move out of the way, but in the instance of an actual attack, your opponent may not anticipate that move.   If he does, then you need to follow it with another advantage you have…your legs and feet.”   Daemon took me back into the hold.  “If your opponent is able to protect himself from the initial attempt you make with your head, follow with your foot.  You’ll need to step back with your heel and attempt to catch the top or arch of his foot with yours.  Once you make contact with your foot, instantly bring your head back up and try to catch him off guard.”