His hand tightened, my skin humming as it did, and I swung my arm around again—harder this time—and when he stumbled forward, I kicked my foot into the back of his already bent knee, and he immediately fell forward.
Casey clapped. “That was awesome.”
With a grin, I gave her a high five. “And I’m not bigger or stronger than him, right?”
She shook her head.
Aiden straightened again, pinning me with a look that almost, almost could’ve looked amused. Something light and bubbling hit my bloodstream, and I desperately wanted to grip his face in my hands and kiss him when he looked like that.
With all the control I was capable of, I pulled my focus away from him.
“It’s not about fighting them off, Casey. Disengage and escape. That’s all you ever need to worry about.”
“Thanks,” I told him.
“I think we’re even now,” he murmured, pointing at the steel beam where Anya had been perched.
I nodded jerkily.
He gave a quick nod to Casey. “Call tomorrow if you want to set up a free training session with either Isabel or Kelly, okay? It’s on me.”
“Thank you,” she said fervently. “You guys are awesome.”
He disappeared off the gym floor and back into his office, and slowly, my heart returned to a normal speed.
Casey set her hand on my arm. “Thank you. Seriously.”
“That’s my job,” I told her.
And it was.
She waved goodbye, and I sat on the edge of the center ring, leaning up against the ropes when I felt him approach.
Neither of us said anything, and I had to close my eyes to fight the urge to escape. The urge to stay. It was a constant battle when it came to him.
“Ward,” he said.
Slowly, I opened my eyes. I wanted to hear him whisper that in my ear.
He was staring at the parking lot, where Casey was pulling her car out of her spot. “Whatever you need to get some classes like that on the schedule, you make it happen.”
My throat was tight as I nodded.
“If you want,” he added quietly.
“I do.”
“Good.” He exhaled, eyes coming to rest on me for just a moment. But I felt like he’d just wrapped his hands around my hair again, like his fingers tightened in the strands and tugged my head back.
For a moment, we were quiet.
“You taught a lot today,” he said.
I glanced up at him. “I don’t normally do that much.”
“How many more do you need?”
He’d seemingly plucked my earlier thought from my head, and after a deep breath, I said, “Two more would make things more comfortable.”
Aiden nodded. “What else?”
“What?”
“What else do you need?” he asked.
I blew out a breath. What a question.
Heavy eye contact. Loaded subtext. Sex vibes, wasn’t that what Emily had called it?
There was no way he was feeling what I was feeling, and even if he was, it had to be switched all the way to max in my stupid, never-been-unlocked virgin head. This was a man who’d had an entire marriage with someone good. And I was the silly girl spinning scenes in her mind.
“Nothing right now,” I answered.
If Aiden felt the need to push me on it, he didn’t. But he did watch me for another moment before nodding.
He walked away, and I had to close my eyes again, allowing the charged feeling to settle and then pass.
Eventually, it had to pass, I told myself. I’d go home that night and think about what had just happened, keep the scenario locked away safely where no one could see it. But before I did, I’d play it back over in my head and imagine it unfolding in another way. One where we were alone, and he was holding me in place to do something very, very different.
In that safe space in my head, I’d pretend he had fingers fisted in my hair and his breath hot on my neck while he came up behind me. My heart raced, sitting there in the middle of the gym, and I had a visceral image of Aiden holding my hip with the other hand. My fingers curled into fists, a helpless gesture I couldn’t control as I let it play out for just a few selfish seconds.
What had I thought only a handful of days earlier? Skin-to-skin contact might cause me to spontaneously orgasm. Well, apparently, I had pent-up sexual fantasies that had been lying dormant with Aiden Hennessy as the proverbial fucking key, ready to unlock them.
That small brush of his fingers along the nape of my neck was the most action I’d gotten in a couple of years, and I should not want to pretend what those fingers would feel like anywhere else on my body. I really, really shouldn’t.
But as I stood and walked back to my office, I think, even then, I knew I was lying to myself.
ISABEL
“Y
ou coming back anytime soon?” Phone wedged between my ear and my shoulder, I waved at the guys leaving as they finished a group training session with Aiden.
Involuntarily, my eyes strayed over to where he was wiping down the equipment they’d just used. Each flex of his arm had my body humming some happy little tune. Gawd, I needed a hobby.
Or a better vibrator.
Or a dog.
Or a new brain.
Kelly sighed, yanking my attention back to our conversation. “Doctor wants me to stay off my ankle for one more week, then I can try teaching. As long as I’m not going crazy.”
“Boo.”
“I know.”
I pulled up the schedule, squinting at the computer screen. “I can probably shift around a couple of people so no one takes on too much to cover you for one more week.”
New Book: Back Home to Marry Off Myself
Loredana’s father left the family for his mistress, leaving them to fend for themselves abroad. When life was at its toughest, her father showed up with “good news” after 8 years of absence: To marry off Loredana to a paralyzed son of the wealthy Mendelsohn family.