Focus.
She shifted her weight instead of locking it. Dropped her center of gravity like I’d shown her. Her grip changed, tighter and surer, and suddenly I wasn’t leading the movement anymore.
She drove forward.
Hard.
I let it happen.
Her shoulder hit my chest. Her leg swept behind mine, clumsy but committed, and the next thing I knew I was going down.
The mat hit my back with a solid thump.
She followed me down without thinking, momentum carrying her right over me. Her knees planted on either side of my hips, hands braced on my chest, breathing fast and wild and very real.
Her hands were still on my chest. Not bracing. Not pushing away.
Just… there.
She wasn’t panicking.
She wasn’t apologizing.
She was present.
For a second, we just stared at each other.
Her eyes were blown wide. Shocked.
Then something else crept in.
Heat.
“You didn’t freeze,” I said quietly.
Her chest rose and fell hard. “I didn’t.”
A smile broke across her face before she could stop it. Bright. Unrestrained. Proud.
“You took me down,” I added.
Her fingers curled in my shirt like she was just realizing where she was. “You let me.”
“I gave you the opening,” I said. “You took it.”
That did something to her.
I felt it in the way her posture shifted. Straighter. Stronger. Like her body finally trusted itself again.
“So,” she said quietly, still straddling me, breath coming fast, eyes bright. “What do we do now?”
I knew immediately the question wasn’t about training.
I let out a low chuckle, shaking my head once. “You know,” I said, eyes dragging deliberately over her face, her hands braced on my chest, “most people at leastpretendthey didn’t mean to put me on my back.”
Her lips twitched despite herself.
“I didn’t say you couldn’t,” I added lightly. “Just that you skipped a few steps.”
