“I wouldn’t patronize me if I were you,” Ishot back at him.
He was serious now. “You’d better get usedto it, little girl. For the rest of your life, that’s all you’regoing to know.”
“Don’t count on it,” I dejected.
“You see, this is why I chose you,” he said,casually waving his free hand in my direction. “Yes, you’re right,I can have any woman I want, and believe me, I have had many women,but none of the hours I’ve spent with them can compare to a singlemoment spent with you. They can never give me what you can, whatyou will give me. I can’t stand weakness, Jaden, and that'swhat all those other women have been. Weak. I need someone strong,someone worth the fight, someone I can appreciate and respect.After everything I’ve put you through, you’re still able topersevere, and I love that aboutyou.”
He had to be fucking joking. Yes, I was astrong person and I was very aware of that, but he wasn’tpresenting all the facts that were becoming so obvious to me. Hemight love my strength, but only because it made the satisfactionall the more sweeter when he toreit down and replaced it with fear. Fear of him. I found it veryhard to believe I was the only candidate in this entire world tofill that position for him.
“You’re gonna tell me that out of thebillions of women on this godforsaken planet, you couldn’t find asingle one who was in any way like me?”
“Not a single one,” he said, shaking hishead slightly.”
“Maybe you should have stopped shopping downBarbie Boulevard then.”
He chuckled at that one. “Maybe, but thenyou just happened to fall right into my lap. Search over.”
“I didn’t fall anywhere. I was taken, youasshole!”
“And look how fortunate that turned out tobe.”
“God, you are such a self-righteous piece ofshit,” I said and started waving my bo back and forth in figure eights on either side of mybody. I was ready to finish this.
“You’re gonna regret that,” he said, nowmoving his bo back and forth overhis hand.
I increased the speed of my figure eights,brought the bo up over my head,and swung hard at his neck. He blocked and the energy transfer mademy hands throb as they absorbed the shock. Suddenly, his speedincreased, and I found myself working harder to block and dodge hisattacks. My offense was starting to diminish, as I had no time tocounterattack; all I had time for was to block each never-endingblow. Fuck, he really had been holding back.
I pushed my aggression further and tried tothrow more strikes at him, but the strength in his deflection wasenough to practically consider it a strike. I couldn’t believe thespeed he had while wielding a heavy bo. It pissed me off that he was strong enough to managesuch speedy techniques. Stupid fucker.
After a few short minutes, I found myselfgetting tired, and I did everything I could to deflect and stallhis attacks, but he was relentless in his assault. Finally, hisbo smacked hard against myback, then again on my stomach, and finally at my thighs. I criedout at the contact, the pain radiating through my body, but shook it off as he continued to circleme. He came at me again with suchspeed, I almost didn’t block the blow that would have landed at myribs, but then he switched it up and threw a reverse kick into myside, sending me flying to the ground. Before I allowed myself todwell on the pain, I rolled up from the floor and grabbed at my now pulsing ribcage.
“Give up yet?” he said, striding towardme.”
I was hurting, but I wasn't done fighting. I never would be.
“Stupid question,” I groaned aloud.
“Stupid answer,” he growled.
I dodged another strike, ducking under hislatest swing at my head before deflecting again, and it took somuch more strength to muster his blows. My energy was depleting,and I hated that he seemed so in control of himself, even though hewas sweating and breathing heavy.
“Sorry, love, but I think it’s time tofinish this.”
He closed the distance and swung. Iredirected, but as I countered and brought the bo down to his head, he grabbed the tip of mybo and held it in place. Iinstantly pulled, but it remained clutched in his hand while atwisted smile crept across his face. Son of a bitch. I didn't waitanother second before kicking him right in the gut, but he pulledmy bo down and elbowed me right inthe temple.
I stumbled back, and he ripped thebo out of my hands and swung at mylegs hard, tripping me and causing me to fall backward onto my back. My head was spinning from theblow, but I rolled over and crawled away from Darren, determined tostand back up. I was exhausted, and it suddenly occurred that hewas beating me.
No, no, no! This was my chance, and I waslosing!
“I admire your strength, Jaden, but it’stime to surrender,” he said, slowly walking toward me, droppingboth bos to the floor. “You'refinished.”
“No,” I growled, and forced my body tocomplete a perfect kip-up, bringing me back to my feet, my hands atthe ready. “I’m not done.” My body was throbbing in pain, but Iwould never let him see it.
“Yes, you are. Look at you. Did you reallythink you could ever compete with someone like me? You barely evencome up to my shoulder, for fuck’s sake.”
I snarled at him. “You and I both know thatsize doesn’t mean shit in a fight. I think you could stand to giveme a little more credit than that. You are sweating, afterall.”
A cool evil chuckle vibrated up his throatas he watched me and it made the scowl on my face only growwider.
“As much as I would love to give you all thecredit in the world, Jaden, I unfortunately can only give you somuch. You’re impressive, there’s no doubt about that. You’re evenbetter than some of my own men. But none of that matters because inthe end, there’s only one person you have to get through, andthat’s me. So if you think size doesn’t matter here … you’re goingto have to prove
