Stasia starts by demonstrating how she climbs up the panels, pinching the fabric between her feet, lifting with her arms, and pushing up with her legs, before she releases, sliding down effortlessly until she touches the floor.
“I’m going to walk around the room while everyonetries, and I’ll help as needed.” She claps, and everyone hesitantly starts to attempt their climb.
Extending my arms into the silk, I grab hold, pulling myself up so I can wrap the fabric around my foot and use the tangled material as an anchor to slowly pull myself up. I’ve made it several feet in the air, and my arms are burning slightly from the ascent but I mostly feel stable from my foothold in the silk. I cast a glance around the room and everyone seems to be struggling at varying degrees, with one particularly burly man slipping time and again.
Beneath me, Stasia shouts, “Amazing job! You’re a natural.”
I smile to myself from fifteen feet in the air. See, I don’t need Tieran to be here to enjoy myself, and I won’t let him ghosting affect my experience.
“Christ alive, that’s an incredible view,” a deeply familiar voice rumbles from below me.
The sound shocks my system, surprising me enough that my grip loosens, making me forget I’m supposed to be holding on to something, and before I can course correct, I plummet to imminent death. I’m free-falling, arms pinwheeling through the air, body locked tight and bracing for impact, only moments from becoming a human pancake. But then strong arms catch me, caging me in their steady grip, just like I knew they would.
I hate how good it feels—howright. I hate how relieved I am that he’s here, how it’s making my heart patter like raindrops on a tin roof, erratic and loud. I hate that I feel lighter now, and not just because when he’s touching me—holding me—I feel weightless, but because being around him eases something in my head while also settling something in my heart.
It’s terrifying—thrilling.
There’s a wicked gleam in his eyes when I look up at him. “Knew I’d get you to fall for me eventually.” The cheeky fucker winks at me, making parts of me ache that have no business being sentient right now.
“I’d have rather hit the ground,” I volley.
He leans in, lips grazing my ear, and my heart starts to thud so heavily, he has to hear it. “You’resopretty when you lie.” Tieran’s grip tightens on my waist and the space behind my knees, his thumb brushing a lazy stroke along my leg.
My breath hitches, and his smile widens, dimples popping.
“Put me down.” I gently shove at his shoulder.
“Do I have to?” He sulks, even as humor coats his tongue.
The giggle that bubbles out of my mouth is girly and downright embarrassing. I want to stuff it back inside my mouth and throw myself in-front of a double decker bus, but Tieran’s eyes soften as he gazes at me and murmurscute. It’s barely audible, but the open affection that’s plastered across his handsome face tells me enough.
I’m about to ask him to let me go when Stasia rushes over. “Well, I didn’t think it had to be said, but you’re not supposed to let go of the silks. Are you daft?” Her tone reads moderately annoyed, and I’m about to apologize for my carelessness, but she steamrolls over me, directing her ire at Tieran now. “You’re late, and I don’t tolerate tardi?—”
Before she can continue, Billie interrupts. “Stasia, stop. Don’t you know who that is?” They nod in my direction, and my face flames. “That’s Jade McKallen,” they whisper. “She has millions of followers.” My stomach sinks. Yet again, I’ve been relegated again to a statistic. I am a number of followers, not a person, and they only see me as a tool to make or break their business.
And Dad wonders why I don’t get out.
“Oh, I’m?—”
Tieran interrupts me before I can apologize, charm oozing from every pore. “I’m so sorry. I was having issues with my dog this morning, and it took me longer to get out of the house than usual.
Billie interjects this time, fearing Stasia will put her footin her mouth again. “It’s not a problem. Just go ahead and get into position.” At that moment, one of the other students in the class calls out for assistance, and they let us know they’ll be back to help us after getting them sorted.
Facing Tieran, I raise my brow. “Does your charm usually get you out of things?”
“So you admit I’m charming?” He grabs the silks dangling next to us, forearms flexing as he uses it as an anchor to lean forward into my personal space.
Meeting his challenge, I take a step forward, getting even closer, hovering my mouth an inch away from his. His smirk remains, but his breathing stops, his eyes flitting back and forth between mine. He’s waiting on bated breath as his hold on the fabric becomes shaky.
What did he say to me that first night?
I like your brand of bold.
I don’t stop. Instead, I bring my finger to the chain dangling off his neck, playing with the metal before I place the tip of my finger to his chest and trail it down his body, over the ridged muscle of his abdomen.
A low groan exits his mouth, and he squeezes his eyes shut, but doesn’t pull away, doesn’t ask me to stop.
The burning path of my finger halts just before the waistband of his athletic shorts, shorts that show off all his tattoos—tattoos I find far too sexy and can’t stop staring at during matches, inked onto thighs I imagine fucking into me with powerful force as I come undone, finally getting what I’ve been aching for since that first night we met.
