She grinned down at me. Victorious, flushed. Her hair fell around her face in a curtain of dark brown and copper, and her weight settled across my hips in a position that obliterated any remaining blood flow to my brain.
Every ounce of it redirected to the place where her body pressed against mine, and there was no way she couldn’t feel what that position was doing to me.
My hands found her thighs on instinct, fingers pressing into the muscle through her leggings, and I pulled her down harder against me without thinking twice. The friction drew a sound from my chest that I barely swallowed in time.
She was warm and solid and her hips fit against mine, making my wolf claw at the surface, demanding more.
Demanding I flip her onto her back and find out what other sounds that mouth could make.
She’d cheated. Used her body as a weapon, my own desire against me with surgical accuracy, and the realization that she’d read my weakness, targeted it, and exploited it without hesitation made me want her so badly my hands shook.
Mira’s grin faltered. She felt it.
The shift between us, the way my fingers dug into her thighs, the way my breathing had gone rough and deliberate. My cock pressing against her that I couldn’t disguise and had stopped trying to.
I wanted to know how far she’d go.
Whether the bravado would hold if I rolled my hips up into hers. Or if that confident smirk would crack if I sat up and put my mouth on the throat she’d just threatened with her tongue. Find out if she’d run or whether she’d grind down and meet me halfway.
“Can I try next?”
Both our heads turned.
Percy stood in the doorway of the back porch, a bowl of popcorn tucked against his chest, chewing with the unhurried calm of a man watching his favorite show.
I glared at him.
Mira was still on my lap. Her face cycled through three colors in under a second.
“Since when were you there?” I kept my voice flat despite the fact that my body was screaming at the interruption.
Percy shrugged. “Since about an hour? I actually left and came back twice already. You two were in your own world.” His grin stretched, dimples deepening. “Training seems fun. You look like you’re enjoying that position.”
Mira bolted upright so fast she nearly kneed me in the ribs. I grabbed the nearest object, a fallen branch, and hurled it at Percy’s head. He caught it one-handed without spilling a single kernel. Reflexes wasted on a man with the maturity of a toddler.
“Sorry for interrupting.” He didn’t look sorry. He was teasing, delighted. “Solomon sent me to tell you dinner’s ready.” He laughed his way back inside, popcorn bowl bouncing against his chest.
Bastard.
The clearing went quiet. Mira stood three feet away, arms crossed, and glanced at me from beneath her lashes.
Shy. It was the first I’d seen her genuinely shy.
“I can go to the Founder’s Day celebration, right?”
I nodded because I didn’t trust my voice.
She turned and headed for the cabin.
Inside, the scene that greeted me was this: Mira winding up and driving her newly learned punch directly into Percy’s stomach. He doubled over laughing, barely fazed, and caught her fist on the second attempt to hold it against his abs.
“See? I told you I could take a hit. Your form needs work though. Solomon, rate that punch.”
“Four out of ten.” Solomon didn’t look up from the plates he was setting. “Wrist still needs correction.”
Mira yanked her fist back and pointed at them. “You’re all insufferable.”
“And yet you live with us voluntarily.” Percy dropped into his chair and reached for the bread.
