Cross My Tigress Face the Wrath

When Susanna was with Yvonne, things were tough. If she ever failed to meet one of Yvonne's expectations-no sleeping, no eating. Period. It was strict, borderline brutal. Sometimes Susanna would go the entire day without so much as a sandwich. Yvonne would push her so hard, Susanna had no choice but to get

it right.

But with Hull... well, that was a whole different story.

Half an hour in: "Have some water."

Another half hour: "Here, eat some fruit."

Another half hour: "The sun's too much. Let's move somewhere cooler."

If Susanna so much as rubbed her hand, Hull would say, "Let me see. We should take care of that."

If her legs started aching: "Can't stand? Go sit and have a drink."

The moment she mentioned she was hungry: "Alright, let's eat.”

Every half hour, there was a new reason to stop. Sore hands, sore feet, hungry, thirsty, too sunny, too windy... Training? This felt more like a vacation at a cozy cabin than anything else.

Susanna used to worry that Hull might be even stricter than Yvonne. Now? Not a chance. If anything, she was starting to think she'd lose every bit of hard-earned discipline Yvonne had drilled into her.

One afternoon, in the cabin's dining room, a chilly breeze swept through. "Ah, that feels so good," Susanna sighed, savoring the moment. Days like this were something she'd hardly dared hope for lately. It felt like her whole world, which had been falling apart, was finally being pieced back together.

when she was with Yvonne, Susanna trained with everything she had. Anything Yvonne told her to do, she did with

and asked, "Why do you have to

"Huh?" Susanna blinked.

bare- handed or scale a cliff with nothing but her fingernails back with Yvonne.

"About Black Gate... you know, you could just ask me.

them out," and the

frowning. "You...

in Hull's world, violence was kind of the norm. If he were the gentle type, now that would actually be

stopped worrying about whether Hull was a good guy or a bad guy. At this point, she wasn't even sure

are you confessing to

at

usually guys only go all out like that for women they care about. No one puts

don't love."

Ronald was so

was obvious

those lengths for the ones they

split second, the air

studying her face. The look he gave her made her

Uh-oh.