Chapter - 7

"Again!"

Sofia groaned in protest, every muscle in her body aching. When Vincenzo had told her that she would be learning self defense, she'd thought it would be like the self defense classes she had taken when she was younger, where they taught you how to ward off an attacker. But this, what Pablo had been teaching her for the past five days, was nothing like that. He wasn't teaching her just self defense, oh no, the man was teaching her how to attack, how to practically pummel your opponent within an inch of their life.

And to be fairly honest, he had trained her well. Though, she had given it her all, too, progressively getting better each day. So much so that she had actually managed to get this beast of a man to his knees. Once. That sure was saying something given his size. He looked like the kind of person who could crush you with a single punch if he wanted to. And right then, he was looking at Sofia like he wanted to do exactly that to her.

"I said, again, Sofia," he ordered, his voice stern.

Over the course of the past couple of days, she had gotten used to his stern looks so she wasn't as intimidated by him as she had been on their very first day of training. Pablo was actually a big softy at heart, one who had a sweet tooth and she wasn't ashamed of using that against him to bribe her way out of training when she was exhausted as hell.

So instead of shrinking back from his intimidating gaze, she stared right back at him. Giving him the sweetest smile she could muster, she said, "Can't we end practice a little early today? I do believe I have some chocolate cake left over in the fridge from earlier this morning."

Pablo raised a brow at her words. When he didn't reply, she leaned towards him a little bit and said, "With choco chips. I'm ready to throw in a few chocolate covered strawberries too if you want. What do you say, hmm?"

Pablo looked a little conflicted so she leaned in some more, batting her eyelashes at him with her best puppy dog look in place.

He was just about to say something when his gaze travelled to something behind her and he froze, fear engulfing his features at once. "Don Vincenzo..."

Sofia frowned, looking over her shoulder and sure enough, there he was, Don Vincenzo Moretti, dressed in black sweatpants and a grey v-neck, glaring straight at Pablo.

He began walking towards them. "I'll take it from here," he said to Pablo and the man high tailed it out of there as if his ass was on fire. Sofia would've laughed at his hasty exit if she hadn't been so shocked at Vincenzo's sudden presence.

"When did—"

"Show me what you've learned, Sofia," he said, cutting her off.

Her brows raised at his sternly spoken words. He seemed to be in a prissy mood. It looked like his trip hadn't gone as well as he had hoped. He was back a day early, too. Before she could ask him about it, he came to a stop a few feet away from her and began taking his shirt off in slow motion, almost as if inviting her to look. And look, she did.

Any words she had, died down in her throat as she took in his defined abs tapering to a perfect V which disappeared into the sweatpants that hung dangerously low on his hips. The man was ripped, alright, not an ounce of fat on his sculpted physique.

"I want your hands on me, gattina," he said, making her eyes snap up to his.

What?

"Hit me. Show me what you've got."

Oh.

Like that.

Sofia shook her head, focusing on the task at hand instead. It wouldn't do her any good if she kept getting distracted like that.

Judging by the slight smirk on his face, he knew where her mind was at, but he didn't comment on it, taunting her with a come hither motion instead.

"I don't want to hurt you, though," Sofia said lightly to break the sudden tension in the room even as she got into form, pointing her thumb towards the floor like Pablo had taught her to so she wouldn't break it.

Vincenzo's smirk deepened, eyes glinting with amusement. "I'm not an easy man to hurt, gattina. You're good to go."

Judging by the several faded cuts and scars scattered across his tattoed chest and arms, Sofia begged to differ. It reminded her yet again, that the man was only human, just like the rest of them.

Instead of commenting on that, she shrugged. "Alright. Don't say I didn't warn you."

And then, she was charging at him, throwing punches left and right.

He blocked every single one of them, his hand coming out to stop her fist inches short of hitting him each time with ease. Somehow he knew which direction she was going to punch from every time. It was almost embarrassing, to be honest. 

"Good form," he praised when Sofia stopped to take a break. A few minutes in and she was already panting while he looked like he hadn't even broken a sweat. It was quite frustrating. "But try harder. Hit me," he added, clearly taunting her.

Sofia grunted in reply, pushing away the baby hair sticking to her forehead with her hand. She felt like a hot mess already and she was sure she looked the part too.

Taking a deep breath in and letting it out slowly, she decided to try a different tactic. She pointed her right foot inward, along with her hip and swung her right hand outwards as if she was going to punch with it but instead of doing that, she spun around at the last moment and hit him with her left fist instead, catching him in the shoulder.

He staggered back a step, clearly surprised. Sofia couldn't help but grin.

"Clever," he said, his tone dry but the amusement in his eyes was still there. "Keep going," he said, righting himself.

And that's exactly what she did. Except, she wasn't able to land another punch. She had surprised him once already, so doing that again was out of the question. With no other tricks up her sleeve, all she could do was throw punch after punch, hoping that at least one of them would land. Only, they never did. Even her arms were starting to ache now with how much force she was packing behind each punch.

When she stopped to breathe, Vincenzo nodded at her. "You pack a good punch, but you'll have to be faster than you are right now. That is something that will come with practice."

Sofia nodded, a small smile pulling at her lips at his words. He hadn't exactly praised her, but he hadn't told her she was a complete disaster either. That was probably as good a compliment as she was going to get from him.

Suddenly, he grinned, it was one full of devilish intent. "My turn, now," he said, and before Sofia knew what was happening, he held her by her arms and spun her around so her back was pressed up against his front and she was trapped between his arms.

"Free yourself," he whispered into her ear, making goosebumps prickle all over her body. Fucking hell. Did he have to sound so goddamm sexy with that italian accent of his?

The fact that his bare torso was pressed up against her back in the most delicious way possible wasn't helping either. The only thing separating the two of them was the fabric of her sports bra which clearly wasn't enough or too much, depending on which part of her brain was talking. The part of her brain that hadn't had sex in too long said it was the latter.

Get your head out of the gutter, Sofia, she mentally chastised herself. She had to have more self control than that if she was going to be spending more time with the man.

Mustering up all her self control, she began to wriggle against him, struggling to get free. She could feel his dick that was pressed up against her butt begin to harden. He grunted softly as his arms tightened around her and she smirked inwardly. So she wasn't the only one affected. Good.

She purposely wriggled some more against him, just to tease him and also because she was shamelessly enjoying herself. She heard him let out a hiss through his teeth as she rubbed her body against his in the most delicious way possible.

Then, deciding that she shouldn't poke the dragon if she wasn't ready to take things further yet, she used a release tactic Pablo had taught her and spun her body around with all the force she could muster, effectively freeing herself.

"I'm a hard one to catch, Mr Moretti," she said, turning to him with a sultry wink.

"Not if I'm the one trying to catch you," he smirked.

She hoped that wasn't right.