“What do you mean?” I asked distractedly, feeling how his thumb swiped along a muscle that had been bunched up with tension.
I sensed him step closer. “Team bonding,” he explained, the words reaching me in a murmur. “You set me up, Adalyn. After you forced my hand.” A pause. “You even recruited Josephine.”
“I didn’t recruit her,” I let out in a shaky breath. “This is all Josie’s doing.”
His thumb swiped again, as if trying to loosen me up, and a rush of electricity raced down my spine. “So you’re saying you didn’t plan to volunteer me for this?” he asked, my whole body growing warm. Warmer. As if a furnace had been flipped on beneath my skin. “You just happened to take me down with you?”
I steadied myself. He was distracting me, baiting me, and I was not allowing that. I was not being knocked over by Cameron Caldani. Leaving this town without my success story of the Green Warriors wasn’t an option. Mostly because I didn’t think I’d ever be able to return to the Flames without it.
“Can we just… get through this?” I closed my eyes, focused on the pressure of his palm, and not his words. On his fingers, as they slid down one of my arms in what felt like an unnecessarily slow pace. They ended at my wrist, curling around it in a gentle but swift motion.
“Arm up and in a straight line,” Cameron indicated, his voice now falling right against the shell of my ear. A shiver crawled down my spine, and I had to make a serious effort to follow his command. “That’ll do,” he said. And before I could complain about the backhanded compliment, his fingers were curling around my other wrist. Sidetracking my words. This time, it was him who lifted my limp limb.
I released a strange exhale.
“Keep them up for me.” Cameron’s voice came again, his tone focused, deliberate, not a trace of reluctance there. I swallowed. “Hold right there.” I held. “Beautiful.”
Beautiful.
“I…” Didn’t like this. Or how that word had made me feel just now. How he was making me feel. “On second thought, I think I can do all of this on my own.”
Cameron sighed forcefully, and the puff of air leaving his lips hit my skin. A shiver crawled down my spine. “You need me.”
Outrage blossomed in my stomach. And I was glad for the change. This I could process. This—
His hands landed on my waist.
And if I’d thought his palms had engulfed my shoulders before, if I’d thought his touch had been overwhelming when it had been on my wrists, that’s because I hadn’t felt his hands where they were right now. Those fingers that had endured more blows and cracks than most reached the bottom part of my rib cage, the warmth of his skin making my top feel suddenly too thin.
Cameron maneuvered me, rotating my torso. And I felt myself go stiff. Tense. The fabric separating his hands from my skin sticking to me, as if melting under his touch. Or perhaps it was my own sweat. God, why was I sweating so much?
“I…” I blurted out. “I’m a little warm, sorry.”
“You think a little sweat will scare me?” he drawled, making my stomach drop for some unfathomable reason. “Posture is wrong,” he continued. “It’s your hips.” One palm moved along my hip bone. “Your torso needs to come down slightly.”
“How?” I croaked. I didn’t think I knew how to function on my own.
You need me.
Cameron’s hands readjusted around my body, one climbing up my side and the other clasping firmly around my waist. He pushed down.
But I was so caught up in the way I could feel the tips of his fingers creating ten pressure points on my skin, making it tingle, flush, buzz.
“You’re as stiff as a stick, darling,” he grumbled. “Relax for me.”
Stiff as a stick.
My throat worked, the memory of very similar words being said about me throwing me off. Unaware of my inner struggle, Cameron’s body shifted behind me, allowing me to feel the entire length of his front on my back. Chest, torso, thighs. He was right there. Rock solid. Warm. Close.
“Spread your legs,” he said.
And without a single coherent thought left in my head, I spread my legs.
I sensed his head coming down, and then I heard, against my ear, “Take a step to the side and plant your foot firmly on the mat.” Something switched in me, releasing the control to him, and I moved. His palm fell on the back of my thigh and when he said, “Flex,” I flexed.
His long fingers stretched, wrapping around the inside of my leg. I puffed out a breath.