A sheen of sweat coats my body as I watch Tyler on top of me, pinning my arms down. I feel my heart in my throat at the sight, wondering how the hell I got here. Though I honestly don’t mind.
It just kind of happened.
Looking up at him, my chest rises and falls fast underneath his. A feline smile spreads across his face with a tilt of his head. He is like the night sky, so tragically beautiful and you don’t even know why.
“See, you were in a vulnerable position, and it was easy for me to reverse the roles,” he says, still pinning my hands with one of his own while the other rests on the floor beside my head.
He’s straddling my waist, and I try to ignore the generous parts of him I feel very close to the hyper aware parts of mine. He may have won this round, but I’ve managed to win the rest. Prior to this loss, I had him pinned to the ground while I straddled his waist.
Apparently that isn’t just a vulnerable vantage point for my dreams at night, but also in a fighting ring. While I sat pridefully on top of him, he managed to flip me on my back. Somehow my mind started wishing we were naked in the process.
I’ve unfortunately grown accustomed to these thoughts that frequent my mind, chalking it up to the fact that he’s devastatingly beautiful, and I haven’t gotten laid in months.
“Get. Off.” I scowl.
He doesn’t move, and his smile grows wider. “Youwould be the first woman to complain about me being on top of them.”
“Do you do this position with all the girls you bring home?” I taunt. He rolls his eyes, but he doesn’t say no, and he doesn’t say yes. All he gives me is that damn crooked smile.
“Okay,” Tyler hauls himself off me, avoiding my question entirely. He grabs my arm and pulls me off the ground, sending me into a dizzy spell.
Chuckling, he places a stabilizing hand on my waist and that shit ignites a fire in my veins. It’s nearly impossible to cool down at this point. Being here, all over one another’s bodies,sweaty—it’s doing something inside me. A brief glimpse of what only my own mind can conjure up.
“Let’s go to the punching bag and teach you how to hit some more.” He places a guiding hand on my sweaty back.
“I think considering my shot with Ryan, I did a pretty good job at hitting.”
“Okay, so you did some damage. Now, I want to teach you proper technique so that you are prepared.” He places his hands on the punching bag. “You want to make sure your feet are planted and firm on the ground and you want to brace your core with each punch.”
There is something fundamentally different about him tonight. I can’t quite figure out what it is. All I know is that the predator is long gone, and dare I say it leaves something vulnerable in him.
“Sunny?”
“Yeah?”
“You know, it would make teaching you a lot easier if you weren’t staring at my lips every time I spoke. I mean, I can make all those curious thoughts go away by one simple action.” He smirks.
There you are.
Leaning in, he braces his hands on the punching bag. The only barrier between us.
“Who says I was staring at your lips?” I ask, crossing my arms.
There’s no escaping this, but I’ll at least play along, like we always do with one another. Flirtatious banter isn’t unfamiliar territory for us, but for some reason, tonight feelsdifferent.
“Your eyes.” He leans an inch closer.
“And you know me so well that you can read my eyes?” I take a step closer, slowly closing the space between us.
We can’t…but god I want to.
“I’ve been trying to navigate you for awhile, Sunny.”
“Why?” I whisper.
He licks his lips. “Because I can’t get you out of my fucking head.” He takes a step closer. My heart beats frantically in anticipation.
“W-We’re friends…we…we can’t.” I say, but the lie is prevalent as soon as it leaves my lips. It’s breathless, needy and desperate.
