Chapter Forty-Five

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Someone pounded on my bedroom door waking me up from my deep slumber. I groaned and stuffed my face back into the pillow to block out the sound coming from the door. The knocking intensified, whoever it was, didn't really have much patience.

I sat up and glanced at the wall clock. It was only six o'clock in the morning. I rubbed my eyes to rid of the grogginess, tossed the duvet aside, got to my feet, and headed for the door. I opened it and was met with an unknown face. She was wearing the uniform the household help used to wear.

"What?" I asked.

"Don Niko had requested you to freshen up and wear this before you come downstairs."

Frowning, I took the clothes from her and noticed that they were gym clothes. I heaved a sigh, I liked it better when I could say no to him but I dug my own grave when I promised him that I'd listen to him and follow his rules but that's all there was to it.

I'm not the same girl who had a massive crush on him.

I closed the bedroom door and glanced at my bed with longing before going to the bathroom. I brushed my teeth, showered, dried my hair, and changed into the clothes Nikolai had sent for me. It was a sports bra and tights. The clothes clung to my body like a second skin, I had never worn any gym clothes or done any kind of exercise. I have no idea what Nikolai wanted from me, or why suddenly he wanted me to work out at six in the morning.

I hadn't fully healed yet, the dull ache in my stomach was still there. My jaw and nose had healed quite remarkably but sometimes I still get very bad headaches.

I headed downstairs and followed the delicious smell of breakfast that filled the room. I stopped in the doorway and I saw Nikolai making breakfast. He was only wearing black track pants with a gun tucked in the back. His naked strong, muscular back was exposed while his chest was covered with an apron as he flipped some pancakes onto the plates.

"Had enough sleep?" he asked, he still hadn't turned to look at me but somehow knew I was standing in the doorway.

Does he also have eyes on the back of his head?

"Nope," I said and settled on the kitchen island seat.

"Well, get used to it," he drawled.

A crinkle appeared between my brows. "Why?"

He placed a plate before me and sat in the seat next to mine after he had taken the apron off. I may have learned to control my stupid hormones around him but his bare chest is very distracting. He put some blueberries on top and then poured maple syrup over my pancakes. I stabbed a fork into the soft pancakes and almost moaned at how delicious they were.

"I'm going to train you."

I choked and started to cough violently. He let out an amused breath and gave his head a gentle shake. He filled a glass of water and handed it to me. I gulped down the whole glass in one go, my eyes watered and I cleared my throat to get rid of the scratchiness that was left behind.

"Train me? For what?"

"So that you can defend yourself. For some reason, if I'm not around to protect you—if I'll train you—I will know that you'd put up a good fight."

The color drained from my face. "You mean if I ever get kidnapped again?"

"No, I did not say that."

I continued eating while he did the same. I was still not done when he picked up both of our plates and threw the rest of the food into the garbage can.

"I wasn't done eating," I snapped.

"You were taking too long."

I rolled my eyes and got off the chair. As I was about to walk out of the kitchen, I was pulled back by my hair. I winced as Nikolai fisted my hair from the back of my head before he made a makeshift ponytail and wrapped a band around it.

From where did he get a band to tie my hair?

"Tomorrow, I want your hair to be tightly combed back, understood?" I nodded as his grip still hadn't loosened from my hair. "Words, Evangeline?"

I swallowed. "Yes..."

He slapped my butt and pushed me ahead as he walked behind me. I scowled at him from over my shoulder. "Don't touch me!"

"Come on, let's go to my gym."

I furrowed my eyebrows. "You also have a gym? Why haven't I seen it before?"

"Glad to know that there are still some rooms in this house that you haven't messed with."

I frowned. What was he insinuating? My mind instantly went back to that day when he—a sharp stinging slap against my ass made me jump again. I placed a hand over my butt and slightly rubbed it, looking at my butt from over my shoulder. I noticed how big my ass looked in those tights.

"Don't think about anything stupid "

"I wasn't," I replied, with a deep frown.

"Yeah? Tell me that your mind didn't go back to that night when I said a bunch of shit to you while I was drunk?"

God, now he could read minds too?

Was he psychic?

Did he have superpowers that I was unaware of?

I rolled my eyes and repeated his words. "My mind didn't go back to that night when you said a bunch of shit to me while you were drunk, and stop freaking touching me!"

His heated gaze lit up with dark amusement, and the corner of his lips turned upwards. He walked past me making sure to shove me to the side while doing so. I huffed and followed behind him.

"You realize this is the first time you ever said a curse word?"

"Did I?"

"You said shit," he pointed out.

I didn't even notice that I did. I didn't even notice that it was the first time I ever said a curse word out loud.

"I don't like it," he added.

"What?" I pointed at myself. "Me saying a curse word?"

"Yes," he simply said as he pushed open the gym door.

"I only repeated your words," I said to him as we entered the spacious gym. "Also, go worry about your fiancée's cursing habits, not mine!"

It's the first time I have ever been to a gym. I gawked around at different kinds of fitness equipments. I wouldn't even know where to start. Nikolai walked to the other corner and I ran behind him. I can't believe I am intimidated by fitness equipment.

"Have you ever worked out before?" he asked.

I looked around with wide eyes. "Does running around in the gardens count?"

"No,"

"Then no, I have not"

"Come on, let's do a little warm-up first then I'll teach you how to box."

My mouth hung open. "Box? As in boxing?"

He heaved a sigh. "I want you to learn how to defend yourself, Evangeline."

I thought for a while before I nodded. Turns out, I don't even know what warm-up is, he had to tell me everything. The thing that annoyed me the most was his tone, he was speaking to me like I was a child and repeating his words so, that I'd understand clearly. Another thing that annoyed me was his toned muscles, and his stupid sculpted chest.

When it was time to step into the boxing ring, Nikolai handed me a pair of boxing gloves. I was about to put them on but he came to me and put them on me himself as if I don't know how to put the stupid gloves on.

I rolled my eyes and out of nowhere Nikolai gently smacked the back of my head. "Roll your eyes at me one more time, Evangeline," it was a warning and I knew better than to push him.

He stood behind me and gripped my waist. "The first thing you need to learn is what boxing stance is for you."

He adjusted my body, he made me stand with my left foot forward and my right foot backward. Something then about an Orthodox stance. He then put on some boxing focus pads in his hands and instructed me on how I am supposed to hit it. Right to right and left to left and then a kick. I did it only to get a harsh scolding for him.

"Come on, Evangeline is that the best you got?!"
"Hit it hard!"
"That's all you got?"

"HARDER!"
"That's just fucking pathetic!"
"Are you fucking kidding me?!"
"Put some fucking power in your kicks!" 

By now I was extremely furious at him nothing I did was good enough. How am I supposed to hit it? I put my everything into the hits and it still wasn't enough for him. How am I supposed to be perfect at it when I just started to learn?

Putting everything in the last blow, I gave up. "I'm done," I breathed out, staggering back.

He raised an eyebrow, sarcasm, and aggression leaking through his body language. "No, you're not."

I breathed heavily. "I'm tired, Nikolai..."

His eyes turned a shade darker. "No wonder they took advantage of you," he mumbled under his breath but I heard it.

The hair from the back of my neck rose and shock washed over me. "What did you say?"

He let out a sarcastic half-laugh. "I said, it's not surprising that someone took advantage of you, look at yourself..."

I winced at the harsh edge of his words. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"When Sergio forced his hands down your pants, did you fight back?"

My stomach sank at his words, I took a step back. "I couldn't..."

He scoffed like he couldn't believe me. "Why the fuck not?"

"Because I had no choice!" I shrieked at him.

He hit me with the box pad that was in his hand, smacking it against the side of my head. "You always have a choice."

I hit him back. "I didn't! It was always two or three against one!"

He hit me again making me stagger back. "Please, tell me that you at least tried to fight back."

I hit him twice but he easily blocked all of my attacks, I wanted to let my aggression out. His words stung, I wanted to hurt him like he was hurting me. "I'm not stupid. If I had fought back they would have hurt me more!"

He laughed, hitting me on the shoulder. "So, you didn't fight back because you were afraid they'd hit you more? You're a fucking coward, Evangeline."

I went ballistic as I started throwing punch after punch. I didn't look where or how I was hitting him, I just put my whole strength into it and continuously tried to hit him. He was good, he knew how to block all of my attacks and what aggravated me more was his laugh.

He was laughing at me.

"I'm not a coward!" I yelled out.

"Tell that to Sergio, he told me how he almost fucked you that one time while you were passed out."

I started throwing punches like a mad woman, and a rush of satisfaction filled my chest as I got a good hit in his face. He couldn't block that one out. I punched and kicked, and did almost everything I could to get rid of the burn from his words.

"I hate you!" I landed a good blow to his stomach.

"No, you don't."

"I do! I really, really hate you, Nikolai."

"Tell me what did you do when Ignacio cracked your head open? Did you fight him?"

"Yes, I did!"

He laughed and smacked the side of my head once more. "What did you do? Hugged him to death?"

"No!" I kicked at the pad in his hand.

He was mocking me with a fake sad face. "Cried so loud that he got scared of you?!"

"No!"

"Then what could you have possibly done?"

All is saw was red as I kicked and punched him over and over again. "I slammed the camera into his head, THE SAME CAMERA HE SET UP BECAUSE HE WANTED TO FILM ME GETTING RAPED AND SEND IT TO YOU AS A WEDDING PRESENT!"

In a fast and slick motion, Nikolai turned me around, bent me over the rope of the boxing ring, and pressed his hot, sweating body against my back. I struggled to get out of his hold, and the urge to punch him in the face increased tenfold.

He breathed next to my ear. "And this is how you fight like a good girl."

"A key..." I whispered.

All of Nikolai's words reminded me of everything that had happened when I was kidnapped.

"What?"

"They kept asking for a key, they thought I had it..."

He let go of me and stepped back. I straightened up and turned to face him. My back was leaning against the rope now. He had a deep frown on his forehead as if he was thinking about something.

I took off the boxing gloves and dropped them onto the ground. "I'm tired, Nikolai..."

Surprisingly, this time he didn't say anything. He just nodded. "Go take a shower and relax. We'll continue our session tomorrow"

I gave him an annoyed look, I know now he was only trying to aggravate me, he was pushing me to fight back with all of me. He didn't want me to hold back.

I jumped out of the ring and when I was about to walk out of the gym's door, I turned and said. "I hate you."

He gave his head a gentle shake, his expressions were still dark and serious. "No, you don't," I heard him say behind me.

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