How heavy could they be?
Almost as if he'd heard the thought, he dropped the belt on the ground and a nebulaic plume of grit billowed up from the rattling impact.
Well, that answers that.
“Since you haven’t had lessons in knot-tying yet, I'll secure these to you before we begin to ensure no one injures themselves with an improperly tied belt. Today we’ll be trying for thirty push ups while wearing these. The goal is no injuries, not fifty push ups. I'll be monitoring, so call out if you need help. Form an orderly line and I will attach belts to each of you.”
Slowly, a line formed. I made it a point to be at the end of it, as far away from Zevrial as possible. The idea of him wrapping anything around me had my heartbeat stuttering, and I hated my traitorous body for its reaction to him. I still didn’t know what the Skinscript on my chest did, or meant.
As he knotted a belt around everyone in front of me, I paid attention to where his hands went, and where they didn't.
Pulling in a breath, I steeled myself as the line moved forward.
He had infected me with an unapproved unknown Skinscript. Keeping a professional distance between us wassmart, because he was my Instructor, and dangerous. And I didn't have a reference to gauge how dangerous.
This would be strictly ordinary training. Why was I even entertaining the delusion that anything improper might happen?
My brain helpfully supplied a memory of his low purr of 'Challenge accepted', alongside the image of him tipping my chin up as he leaned toward me.
I'd clearly been in the Reformatory for too long. He was just an attractive man, and I hadn't been alone around one in a while.
Convinced of myself, I stepped up without hesitating when I reached the front of the line.
Zevrial was smiling, and I almost sighed with relief. Then the glint in his devil-may-care eyes returned.
“I have decided to figure it out,” he declared, his voice soft and low as he retrieved another belt.
“Figure what out?”
He tilted his head, scratching at his chest, the exact location both of our glyphs rested. At least that answered the question of whether his Skinscript had faded. “You know what. You'll need to turn around,” he drawled, holding up the last rope-belt.
At that moment all of my rationalizations vanished, and I panicked. I would do anything not to put my back to this man. Anything to maintain some much needed distance as my internal temperature spiked.
“Oh no, that's fine, I can wrap it around myself,” I argued, reaching for it.
His expression went from benign to amused, as he tugged the belt out of my reach. “I insist.”
I clamped down on my rioting hormones. He had done this to almost a hundred other trainees, everything would befine. This was no big deal. Sure, he hadn't said more than ten words to the lot of them, but that didn't mean anything.
Clenching my teeth, I turned my back to him.
Immediately I regretted it, as the warmth of his chest pressed up against my back. It was solid and hard and the way he had fit himself against my backside while his arm came around me with the belt was erotic and all kinds of inappropriate.
He was an Instructor, I reminded myself, even as I tried not to fixate on every inch of him pressed against me. My pulse was a dizzy whir in my ears, faster than it had been during the Mistrun.
“Hold still, jail-bait,” he whispered into the shell of my ear. My attention zeroed in on the warmth of his hand as it lazily slid over my waist. His hand, which was lower than it had been on anyone else.
“I am not jail-bait,” I hissed through gritted teeth. Air rushed in as his other hand brushed up against my hip when he reached around my other side.
The gasp left in a puff when he cinched the rock belt tight at my waist, forcing my back flush to his chest as he did.
This had to be illegal.
“No, you're definitely worse,” he agreed, dexterous fingers tying off the knot against my spine. His handspan was huge. He could reach from one end of my waist to the other with one hand alone if he laid it flat.
“And just how are you planning to figure anything out?” I gritted.
“I have some ideas,” he murmured.
