Page 43 of The Rancher’s One and Only

“Yeah. You are.”

“It’s okay that you’re late.”

He frowned, and looked at his phone. “Oh. Yeah.”

It was clear that he didn’t actually think he was late. Oh well.

“What are you going to teach me?”

“Basics,” he said. “I’m going to teach you how to do a basic punch, a basic kick and some basic blocks. The truth is, as a woman, you need to know moves that are going to inflict maximum damage. I’m also going to show you a palm strike. You can use a palm strike on the nose, the throat and most especially the eyes, especially if you’re holding something.”

“Oh. That’s very brutal.”

“Survival is brutal, Ernestine.”

“That is true. We see that all the time in the natural world. And after all, humans are part of the natural world, even if we tend to forget it sometimes.”

“Yes indeed,” he said. “We are stardust and bones.”

She laughed. “I love that. Stardust and bones. That’s actually a very good summation of me. Because I do love my fantasy, but also bones.”

He smiled, and it warmed her. Oh. Her feelings for him had not settled down any. If anything, after stargazing with him last night they had only gotten more intense. It was something about him. Something about all of him. Yeah, he was handsome. Well-muscled and tall. But it was more than just that. Not that she had met very many men who were handsome on his level. Rowdy and Dakota probably came the closest, but they still couldn’t hold a candle to him. Not in her mind.

But the biggest thing was how he talked to her. How he listened. Let her rattle on about bones and stars and everything she loved like it mattered to him. He gave her time and space no one else ever had. When she was with him, she could almost feel herself taking up more space, stretching parts of herself that she’d tucked away years ago so that she could be smaller. Less… Ernestine.

He was at ease, not just with himself, but with her.

She’d never experienced anything like it.

“All right. Show me what to do.”

She went into the cabin, and he closed the door behind her. He looked around the space. “This really is very nice. We did a good job.”

“You’ve done a great job,” she said. “And I mean it. This cabin is so comfortable. A thirty-day stay here is luxury. Anyone would be lucky to have the experience.”

“Will you write us a review?”

She laughed. “Yes. I will. I will be very detailed and thorough.”

“Somehow, I didn’t expect anything less.”

They moved into the living area, and he pointed toward the rug. “Why don’t you stand there? So I’m going to show you the proper form for a palm strike.”

He demonstrated, moving into a position with his front knee bent, and his back leg bent slightly behind him. “This is a good stance,” he said, “because you can get a lot of power going. You’re stable, and no one can knock you over. One thing you really don’t want if you can help it is get taken down to the ground. Obviously that’s best practices, and in a real-world scenario there’s not much you can do to control that. But still. Just keep that in mind.”

“I love how this is going to help me kill someone in a real survival situation and not just me being able to punch a douchebag that hits on me.”

“I don’t like to do things halfway.”

He cocked his elbow back and then quickly struck it forward, fingers bent, palm out. It was a vicious and quick movement, and then he slowed it down so that she could see the form more than the impact. “Let out a breath when you strike. All your energy goes into it.”

She tried to copy his position, moving her body into the same shape that he was making.

“I’m going to approach you. And I want you to strike at me.”

“What if I hit you?”

“You won’t. But, if it was somebody who wasn’t expecting it, you might. So don’t be discouraged if I get out of your way.”