Red Princess

67. Step over to my side

Ariel

Despite the cold wind of February morning, my body was perspiring and igniting heat every second. A drop of my sweat trickled down my forehead onto my cheeks and then travelled down my neck into my sleeveless top. I was panting, letting the air out through my mouth and watched it turn into a white smoke as it hit the cool temperature of the atmosphere.

Both my wrists were locked behind me in his powerful grip, so I bucked my leg behind me, pushing him with all my strength. He took a few steps back, and I turned around on my heel, my hands fisted before my chest.

I stared at my opponent, Kaidon Cross, who stood before me in all his might, not needing an armour to protect himself. The cold winter morning could hold nothing against the hard muscles on his shirtless body. It had been weeks for me watching him like that every morning, sparring against me, in nothing but his black sweatpants, and yet I hadn't gotten used to his beefy physique. I still couldn't keep my eyes off that chest, the corded vein that stretched across his forearm as he fisted his knuckles against me, the tight grooves between the muscles on his abdomen; this man was lucky he had no taste for food because a body like that could not be maintained without a strict diet.

I shook my head, a surge of guilt flooding inside my heart for appreciating a guy other than Sey. I respected Sey. I liked him a lot. He had always been there in my times of grief. When I was going crazy, having lost my memory, when my blank mind was torturing me, he showed me a way to let out my rage. He taught me how to protect myself and how to stand up for myself. No matter how strict he was, his confidence in me never faltered. It gave me the strength to look past my flaws and focus on my future.

I can't do this to him. I can't betray him.

I charged toward him again, pounding my punches at him. He effortlessly caught them in his palms, fingers big enough to wrap around my entire fist. I growled and tried to kick him, only for him to duck and dodge that, and then he pushed his fist under my chin. He stopped, barely an inch away from my skin, choosing not to bruise my face.

He had made it clear that I should attack him with the intent to kill, but he never returned the gesture. He made it a point never to hit me.

I pushed aside his arm with my hand and then jabbed my elbow at him, but he glided to the side and then caught hold of my shoulder and knocked me to the ground.

His body caged mine, his face several inches above me. He sat there with one knee on the ground while I lay below him with my back to the soft grass of our backyard, my fingers circling the wrist of his arm that had me pinned to the ground. I could feel his pulse; it was beating much faster than it should have, considering he showed no signs of exhaustion on his face, in contrast to my sweaty forehead and panting lungs.

I looked into his emerald green eyes, the colour that gave a tinge of softness to his hard masculine face. I had been studying his features every single morning, each day looking forward to these few seconds at the end of our daily workout when he would defeat me and pin me to the ground, ending our sparring session. I always tried to ignore the desire and consciously scolded myself for looking at him, but the moment his face would appear in my line of sight, I would start staring again.

We lay there in silence for a few more seconds. His lips parted slightly as if to shoot a nasty comment to me about my amateur skills like he always did, but then he abruptly pulled himself up and rounded the backyard to go back inside the house.

I sighed. Something was different. The silence was suffocating. I had barely spoken to him in over a week now. It was as if he had been intentionally avoiding me, ignoring me since Sey returned.