Hands. Knees. Hands. Knees.
I had to focus on that and not on the beautiful woman wrapped around me. She might look unaffected to the rest of the world, but being so close to her, I noticed the way her lashes lowered for a heartbeat, then the small swallow that followed it.
We moved in sync, and I knew it was her strength keeping her off the floor, her entire body lifted and engaged, holding herself steady without dragging. I was grateful—because one more accidental graze against my dick and I’d be a fucking disaster.
Then a thought entered my mind.
She was trapped with me. She couldn’t run. And I controlled the pace. We were far enough away from the team now that they couldn’t hear us.
Now would be the perfect time to confront her about Friday.
Bad idea? Absolutely.
But like fuck would it stop me.
“Are we going to talk about Friday?” I asked, breath heaving.
Her thighs tightened like a vise, arms locking harder around my shoulders, not in invitation, but warning. Her whole body went tense, a live current running through her. If I hadn’t been the one carrying her weight, I might’ve missed it.
“Connor,” she hissed against my ear. “Do not start this right now.”
I crawled forward another pace, deliberately slow. “Little late for that, don’t you think?”
“I’m literally underneath you,” she muttered, legs tightening for balance. “This is not the moment for… conversation.”
“It’s the perfect moment.”
She let out a huff. “We’re doing a drill.”
“Exactly. You can’t run away mid-drill.”
“I can slide off you and let gravity take its course,” she warned with venom. “Watching you eat dirt might be the highlight of my day.”
I coughed out a laugh. “You wouldn’t.”
Sparks igniting in her eyes, her arms tightened around me. “Oh, I absolutely would,” she said, voice tight. “Just finish the crawl.”
“So you can escape? No. Unless you don’t want to…”
“I’m trying to hold myself off the damn ground,” she snapped. “That requires focus, not distraction.”
“You kissed me,” I said, my voice rasping.
She pinched the back of my neck with her fingers.
“Ow, fuck.”
“Say it louder, why don’t you?” she snarled.
I bit back a laugh and crawled another few paces, kicking grass up, feeling it soft and cool under my fingers. “Talk to me,” I said.
“No.”
“Later?”
“No.”
“Teddy.”
