Chapter.23- Deadly For The Spar.

SharonJames0

Twenty-Three: Deadly For The Spar.

Caleb's definition of a romantic spot was taking me to the Brazilian Jiu-Jutsu Academy.

I followed him whilst looking around. The building from the outside was rather unappealing, but surprisingly the inside was quite adequate. Regardless, the place was empty, except for two middle-aged men at the front desk, who appeared to be familiar with Caleb despite his camouflage because they acknowledged him with a nod and smile.

Likewise, their gaze landed on me, they seemed to be astonished but sent smiles my way and went about their business, not even asking who I was. I was however uncertain as to why he'd brought me here.

Did he expect me to watch him spar with another individual?

The academy had luminous lights that nearly blinded a person, there was a slight stench of sweat, and there were these 1.5 inches of high-quality zebra mats laid out on the floor. The walls were surrounded with pictures, illustrations of fights, lifestyle and training photos and even some local art. My eyes caught a poster of a T-shirt that said 'Jokes & Chokes', which made me chortle.

Gladiator walls and equipment were available for training as well. The familiar environment gave rise to nostalgia for the days I used to train for self-defence lessons.

"Hey, Harper,"

Caught slightly off guard I jumped a little, whirling around, "Whammph—" only to be smacked in the face with a heavy fabric—the remainder of my sentence muffled.

"Catch!"

"Are you mental?

"Not my fault you have poor reflexes!" He shrugged.

"Not my fault if I deck you in the face for disrespecting and creeping up on me like that!" I snapped.

"Sorry, next time I'll yodel." His lips curved up. "Put your Gi on, it's time to cuddle." Bending he picked up the white fabric.

Caleb had materialised out of nowhere, I was surprised to catch a glimpse of him in his Gi uniform. He looked positively fit in it. My gaze naturally wandered to his firm chest that was somewhat unveiled by his uniform because of his crooked belt, it hovered there longer than necessary, and then my eyes followed his outstretched hand, holding out a white Gi uniform towards me.

Understanding dawned on me, he wanted us—me to spar with him. That's how he preferred to get over things.

"Not bloody likely, mate!" I shook my head in incredulity.

He breathed out calmly. "Why? Are you terrified that you might lose to me now?" There was a glint in his eyes that enjoyed infuriating me.

"If you suppose that's going to provoke me, then, you're doing an awful job."

"Right, but you must feel upset that you were stood up tonight. That's a good enough reason to let some steam off." He shrugged his shoulders.

"Something tells me you like to run your mouth without knowing the facts." I took a menacing step forward.

He didn't say a word but stared at me for a good few seconds. "Mhmm, what are the facts?" Slowly he took a step forward, my heart thrummed as he towered over me. "Because the fact is you're here with me and not with Camden."

He wasn't wrong, Cam-Kayden had cancelled on our previous dates at the last minute. Although I wasn't stood up tonight, it felt like I was and I'd endeavoured to be understanding of Kayden, I didn't want to be somebody who'd coerced him to suspend his plans and spend time with me instead, but I had wished for him to at least spend a few hours tonight to make up for the lost time; granted we both were supremely busy.

I had made time for him despite having to study for my exams and that made me even more upset. I was furious with Kayden but much more so with his manager who not only treated me with contempt but left me on my own.

Regardless I didn't want to give Caleb the contentment. "For the thousandth time, I wasn't stood up. He's busy, I'm not upset," I asserted as calmly as possible.

"Mhmm, you're in denial. Yet, I wonder why he still couldn't spend time with you even though he's busy. Maybe he's bored of you already."

I scowled at him. "Why would he be bored of me?"

"I know it's not your—," pausing for a second he allowed his gaze to skim over my entire figure, and resumed, "looks, but your personality."

"What the hell are you playing at?"

"No reason, I was bored." He dismissed it with a wave of his hand.

"You're being a cocky bastard because you've learnt Martial Arts and reckon that you're the next Dragon warrior, aren't you? Don't overlook the fact that I had you grieving with pain when we were children."

"What do you know?" He said bitterly.

"There's nothing to know. It's all about instincts."

"Instincts? It's all about dexterities." He stated, incredulity tainting his characteristics.

"Ah, indeed?" I dropped my purse and took a step forward, raising my fist, Caleb instinctively took a step back and shifted his face away a little. "See, it's all about instincts."

His lips pursed. "No matter how proficient you are, you can never win against someone who's professionally coached."

"You must be bored." We stared at each other, the lights making his eyes seem much more intense enough to feel like they were able to pierce a person's soul.

"Look, Harper, normally I don't do this with anyone—I just want to make you feel special, just for you because I like riling you up. But right now I need to get some steam off, I know you need to as well. Besides, we get to pick up where we left off back at the hotel. So what's it going to be, Becky?" He mocked.

My jaw flexed at the nickname and raised my fist to thump him, he efficiently captured it.

He tutted. "What a violent little thing you are! Conserve that energy for later, now go get changed." He released my hand, I flexed my fingers as soon as he let go.

"Fine!" I shrugged off my coat. His gaze quickly dropped down to my attire but promptly darted to my eyes, his ears turned pink. It made me self-conscious and shy. "I'm going to take you down."

"Just know you'll forfeit."

"Worry about yourself."

********************

The changing rooms and shower were located along the main corridor. I quickly got changed into the white Gi uniform, which typically comprised a heavy cotton jacket, reinforced drawstring trousers, and a belt which communicated rank. I had a white one, whereas Caleb held a brown one. The thought of sparring with Caleb made me tense with each step I took. I dismissed those thoughts like an etch-a-sketch and took a deep breath.

It's going to be a piece of cake, I've done it before, I assured myself. Despite telling myself I'm in control my gut twisted a bit with unease.

"Welcome to your first session of Jiu-Jitsu. Or as I'd like to call it, the art of folding clothes whilst people are still in them." He eased into a stance, ready to fight, a determined look in his eyes. I hadn't realised that the colour blue could be such hot fire until I saw those eyes.

"Ah, I'd like to call it stretching and re-arranging of joints, like involuntary yoga." My mental walls were up like barbed wires, not letting him know I was nervous, my guard was up as well. Bloody hell, I was building up some sweat!

His lips curved up slightly but quickly put on a po-face. People with blue eyes were usually described as calm and peaceful, but the look in Caleb's eyes right now was anything but. We both spent a few seconds sizing each other up, looking for any opening.

"You can come at me or grab me," he beckoned me with his left hand, but quickly added, "not inappropriately of course!"

I rolled my eyes. "Why don't you come at me?"

"Alright!"

Within moments he was standing in front of me and I gripped his lapels without a second thought, he caught onto it.

A cocky grin graced his face as he quickly clutched my lapels with one hand, then slid his other hand under my right arm, I wasn't paying attention to his leg, as he made me lose my posture, in the blink of an eye, he'd lifted me and flipped me onto the mattress. I let out a grunt but was too stunned to even comprehend what had transpired as my body ricocheted and made contact with the mat.

He grinned. "2-0."

I didn't react for a few seconds, concerned, he lowered himself to my level and waved his hands in front of me. "Oi, get yourself together, Harper. If it's going to be like this, it's not going be fun." He tapped my cheek lightly.

That was enough to trigger me. I growled, tackling him to the ground and instantly got him in the Kimura grip.

It was a versatile grip, that involved a figure-four hold on the wrist. One of my hands controlled Caleb's wrist whilst the other arm wrapped around his triceps. I then weaved the triceps arm through to grab my wrist on the opposite hand. This figure-four lock allowed a powerful lever to rotate the shoulder past its safe range of motion. This would force him to either turn his entire body to relieve the pressure or tap out if he couldn't continue turning.

"Fucking hell! How?" His voice was laced with shock.

I let out a breathy laugh as the tiniest bit of pride ran through me. "You were convinced you were the only one who's slick?"

I was still an amateur in the art of BJJ, a white belt, unlike Caleb who was a few ranks above me. I knew quite a few basics but wasn't as proficient in the art of submissions, I did know the basics, Stand-up, Clinch, and Ground just like MMA. Since BJJ was part of MMA, I never truly enjoyed it because of its submissions.

No matter how strong my grip was, I'd always hold onto the cloth using too much strength, eventually, my forearms fatigued and my grip weakened.

Caleb was quick to catch onto this as he instantly disentangled himself and got me in a Side Mount position. This was a very strong control position for the person on top and was one of the most difficult positions to escape from when on the bottom since the person on top was controlling both arms of their opponent, as well as isolating their hips and legs.

Here, I was the opponent!

I was tiny and had a heavy footie on top of me, but I was going to free myself. My pulse skittered, when I realised we were chest to chest and I was certain I had turned scarlet from my face to my neck. There was this brief moment where it gave me a minor thrill, but having Caleb this close to me whilst performing these submissions had me scandalised that I'd stopped breathing and my body went rigid.

I squirmed a little but willed myself to relax after a few seconds, to try and escape from his guard. Luckily, my left hand was underneath his chin, holding

his trap.

Good, I had a bit of leverage! The tighter he squeezed me the more he was going to choke himself, so now my fundamental getaway was to bridge myself, I bridged and that made him lift his elbow off the ground. Shrimping, I shot my left leg over his hip and my right leg was tucked under, he was quick and pushed my right leg in again with his left hand and tried to finish what he'd started.

"You're an animal," I grunted.

"I get that from you." I twitched a bit when I felt his breath on the side of my neck.

Now that it was beginning to get worse, I had to think of another way. But it's hard to think when he's on top of me.

That thought came out wrong. Focus, Rebecca!

I couldn't even dish my knee underneath to replace my guard, as he'd dropped his hip to the side, he'd even isolated my arm, and even if I tried to force my arm I couldn't trap him. Since his hip was sprawled out on the floor, I knew his leg was out, so I got up on my side again, and fished for his leg, which sort of felt naughty the way I felt for his leg.

Ah, I digress!

I threw my left leg to the right across his leg and scraped his leg up trapping his ankle, my right hand was monitoring his hip, then raised my left-hand way over and reached close to his armpit grabbing his Gi, and began to scoot, dishing myself underneath, now his left knee was off the ground and available as leverage, so I held it moving swiftly and came up, keeping his knee away so he couldn't replace the guard and I was on top now, establishing my top control.

He was underneath me.

Never the one to give up, he felt my leg and tried to fish for it but I moved it away from him, it was an awkward position for me with my lower body twisted like a flag, which allowed him to get up and bring his arms inside blocking my arm with his palms, chased my elbow away with a tight grip and got on the top position. He was very quick with his movements.

"You suck!"

"You swallow!" I snorted, tapping on the floor.

"You're quite nasty aren't you?" He arose, and I didn't miss how his ears turned pink. Which seemed cute to me.

"Well, that entirely depends on what happens in the next fifteen minutes." I knew I couldn't win this with BJJ, as my submission techniques sucked donkey's arse, so I decided to play dirty.

The only way to win this was to use my fighting techniques.

"Are you promising me a good time, Harper?"

I shrugged. "Do you want this the hard way or the easy way?"

He tutted. "Mhmm, that's a bloody tough decision to make."

"No, it's not!"

"Mhmm, I think I've made up my mind."

"You are a smart boy."

"I know. I choose the hard way."

"Your funeral." My adrenaline picked up when I saw the look in his eyes, he surged forward, but I swung my right arm around in a giant roundhouse strike.

He sidestepped his body and ducked under my arm and bounced up again and spun around. Undeterred, I crashed an elbow into his side and heard him grunt. But he bounced straight off and came right back at me. I dodged away and felt the breeze as his hand passed an inch above my head.

Phew! That was close.

My right arm swung once again. He sidestepped and ducked and we were back where we started. But he was breathing a little heavier than I was. I was warming up nicely. I was beginning to feel I had some kind of a chance.

"See, it's all about instincts," I grinned.

He swarmed through the air at me. I dodged left and put an elbow in his face, but he was quick as he caught the sleeve of my Gi going on his back pulling me down towards him and had me in a DLR position.

"Shit!" I swore.

The Day La Riva was a very active guard position in which the person on the bottom used pushing and pulling energy on the top person to keep them off balance. The key points of DLR were that the person on the bottom grabbed an opponent's ankle and hooked their foot around that leg. The other leg is pushed against the knee, thigh, or hip of the opponent to affect their balance. The person on the bottom would typically control the sleeve or lapel of the top person to keep them from having good posture and balance.

I tried to escape his guard by keeping my posture vertical so that he had trouble off-balancing me and was unable to grab my collar because if he did then he'd have four different options for taking me down.

Caleb went for the deep hook, moving my legs slightly apart which had me bending forward and giving him easy access to garb my collar, pushing his leg up my hip. He tried to off-balance my hips so that I'd fall, I, of course, resisted it and backstepped a bit exposing my back, allowing him to hook his foot in the back of my knee, grab my belt from behind and pulled me down as my butt landed on the floor and got me in a back take.

Now if I were sharp enough I'd have escaped his seatbelt hold around my neck, but I wasn't and it was kind of difficult because I was aware he wanted to pull me to one side or the other.

I quickly concentrated on how I could escape this guard, I was ready and prepared if he pulled me to the other side. If he pulled me to the right I knew that the choke was ready to go, but if he pulled me to the left he had a bit of work to do.

Now that he had established his seatbelt around me, I focused on the under hook arm, I placed my right hand on the top arm of Caleb's choking arm then with my left I clamped down heavily on his left elbow, dived over to the side pushing myself towards the floor.

Currently, both our hips were lined up, but he still had a strong bottom hook and that was the most important for him rather than the top. So I made sure both of his hands attached to me were pulled down with my chin tucked in and then I retracted my foot a little bit so that I could start stepping out and getting my hips over, so I rotated my hips out thereby diminishing the bottom hook he had by releasing my left leg.

I focused mostly on sitting on the bottom hook until finally, I could scrape my hips over. The bottom half was free, now I had to pull his arms apart which was the most difficult thing to do. But I did know if he tried to choke me from here it was going to be a chore for him so I pulled his wrist to create a bit of tension and released it. Then I put my hand inside his hold and worked myself out and finally faced him.

I didn't try and be too ambitious about scrambling up to the top because that might get me swept and re-mounted, so I avoided the remount, but he did try to get back on top of me so I immediately got my top leg and hooked it underneath his and that made it pretty difficult for him to get into any kind of clean position when he came up the top.

There was a look of surprise etched on his face. He promptly recovered from it and I hastily got up as his hand shot out immediately to grab my Gi but I caught his hand and twisted it behind his back.

Transmitting most of my energy towards my leg, I drove it forward to swipe his legs. My foot caught his easily sweeping it from under him and sending Caleb to the ground.

Pinning him down I asked, "Do you want to stop?"

"Nope. But you are going easy on me." He turned his face to the side.

"Only for the moment. I'm getting started," I promised.

"But let me catch my breath first." He remained on the floor for a while.

We sparred for a few more minutes, it was a tie, and both of us weren't keen on admitting defeat. I let him attack first as he barrelled towards me with a force that I avoided easily choosing to duck underneath his arm and landing a hit on the side of his abdomen.

He made an effort to thwart the punch by blocking his body and I used that as an opportunity to propel my other fist towards his face striking him towards his cheek, he reeled back instantly from the pain, hand flying to the place where I'd just decked him.

"Shit!" We both swore. Our eyes met each other in surprise.

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When I wrote this chapter my intention wasn't to portray any sort of sexual tension in a cliche way. Hopefully, when you read it, it isn't like that. :)

So I've been busy and uni starts on 15 😭, I don't want to go!! And I'm so happy Angie Tribeca is back!! Lol.

I watched Reborn Rich, but what even was that ending?? 😭 Utterly disappointed!!

AOS is so good!! The CGI is absolutely insane!!  And why are we getting a season 2 for Vincenzo? It had such a beautiful ending. Instead, we ought to have season 2 for Hwayugi and Scarlet Heart ASAP, please!!

I hope you guys like this chappie. Please comment and vote, I love hearing from you guys!! xx