He guided me through another rep, slower this time. His hands moved from my hips to my waist, then back, correcting the tiniest shift like he needed an excuse to keep touching me and was too disciplined to take anything he hadn’t made legitimate first.
“Again,” he said.
I lowered, and his chest came closer behind me, not quite touching.
“Back straight,” he murmured. “Knees out. Good girl.”
The words hit me like a match dropped into gasoline, and my breath broke.
Cade went still behind me.
He had felt it.
Of course he had felt it.
The tiny shiver through my body. The way my ribs expanded too fast beneath my next inhale. The way my thighs locked for half a second before I forced myself upright.
His hands flexed against my waist. “Interesting,” he said quietly.
I glared at him in the mirror because if I turned around, I might combust. “Do not.”
“Do not what?”
“Vibe me.”
His eyes stayed on mine. “Too late.”
“This is a workout.”
“Is it?”
“It was supposed to be.”
His smile barely moved, but the heat in it was obscene. “Then focus.”
I tried. I truly did, but Cade shifted even closer on the next rep, one hand sliding to the front of my hip while the other braced lightly against my lower stomach, correcting my posture. His forearm crossed just beneath my ribs, his knuckles warm against my skin, and when I lowered again, my back brushed his chest.
Barely, but it was enough.
A soft sound slipped out of me before I could kill it.
Cade’s fingers tightened.
For a second, his control cracked so sharply I felt it in his whole body. His breath left him rough against my neck, and then I felt him.
Hard against me. Obvious and unmistakable.
Pressed close enough through the thin barrier of clothes and restraint that every thought in my head dissolved into heat.
My entire body went still.
Cade did too.
The silence that followed felt like impact.
He did not move away immediately. He did not grind into me. Did not use my reaction against me. He stayed frozen behind me, one hand at my hip, one against my waist, breathing carefully like he was counting every second before making the next choice.
“Bliss,” he said, and his voice was wrecked, making my name sound like a warning this time. For me or him, I didn’t know, but I knew this was incendiary.
