Free The Female Charm by Amelia Price Page B

thigh
muscles, now that they weren't supporting her weight.
    He stared at her
for a few seconds until she remembered that he'd asked her to close
her eyes, as well. A few seconds later, she was blind to anything
but the bright light of the sun streaming through a side
window.
    “I want you to
tell me when my hand is within an inch of you,” he said.
    “Without opening
my eyes?”
    “Without opening
your eyes.”
    She raised her
eyebrows at the request, but steadied her breathing so she could
focus on the rest of her senses. It wasn't the first time Tom had
done something odd for the second half of their Saturday lesson so
she knew to trust him.
    Before she could
properly focus, she felt Tom's fingers brush past her cheek. She
flinched but it hadn't hurt her, merely taken her by surprise. A
minute later he tapped her ankle.
    She sighed and
doubled her effort to focus, but after the fifth time he gained
contact with her skin before she could sense him, she opened her
eyes.
    “Did I say we were
done?” Tom gave her a serious look.
    “I can't do it,”
she replied and glanced at the clock. Immediately she groaned.
“That wasn't even ten minutes. It felt like ages.”
    Tom laughed.
    “Close your eyes
again. We'll try just a few more times.”
    She huffed out her
breath but obeyed him.
    “The trick with
this isn't just to rely on only your sense of touch to feel me
getting closer. It won't warn you in time. You need to use your
sense of hearing and smell. To some degree you'll even use your
sense of sight. There's enough light in here that some movements
will cast a shadow. You need to detect my movement with every sense
you have.”
    “Okay.” Amelia
calmed her breathing again, and this time she focused on her
hearing. It didn't seem to help. Three more times he tapped her or
brushed past some exposed skin. She switched her focus to trying to
smell a difference.
    The next contact
came as unexpectedly as the rest had, his hand brushing past her
knee cap. She didn't let this deter her and focused on the
background smell of the gym. Then the smell of sweat and cologne
appeared.
    “Now,” she said, a
second before his finger tapped the end of her nose.
    “Good. I hope you
smelt that one?”
    She nodded.
    “Try a different
sense for the next one.”
    A few seconds
later she thought she saw a shadow moving over her eyes.
    “Again,” she said,
snapping the word.
    “Good. How did you
detect that one?”
    “With sight. You
cast a shadow.”
    “All right. It's
the sense I want you using least at the moment, but that's the sort
of thing that helps you when it's almost dark. Let's try one more.
See if you can hear it this time.”
    Amelia didn't
pre-empt any more of Tom's touches; instead, she grew more and more
frustrated as time and time again he surprised her.
    “All right. I
think that's enough. Take a break for a moment, then we can
spar.”
    “What does all
this have to do with martial arts, Tom?” she asked when he handed
her a bottle of water.
    “Directly, it's
not part of the course, but I'm not just teaching you to fight. I'm
training you to cope in dangerous situations. A lot of those
situations will need other skills for you to survive, not just how
to beat up the bad guys. You'll need to know what to do in any
situation if you want to do anything of any importance for Myron.
He's not an easy man to work with.”
    “You sound like
you've worked with him quite a lot,” Amelia replied, fishing for
more information. But Tom only grinned.
    “None of which I
can talk about, as you should never talk to me about anything he
gets you to do. The only thing I know about you is that you're a
damn fast learner and Myron seems to trust you. I may be damn
curious about what he's training you for, but I can never know.
It's safer for both of us that way.”
    “You think I'm in
danger, then?”
    “Myron pretty much is the UK government. Just knowing him puts you in danger.
Dozens of foreigners and spies could see you