“You ready?” Alessia prompts, unsheathing her sword.
“I’m ready,” I reply, doing the same.
We cast our sheathes aside, then face one another, taking on fighting stances as we wait for the trainers to count down. Alessia’s eyes glitter beautifully—I mean, menacingly—as she stares me down. Her thighs tighten as she lowers her center of gravity, her balance picture-perfect, and her figure perfectly still as she poises herself to pounce.
How am I supposed to focus when she looks this hot?! I scream silently in my head.
“Fight!” the trainer shouts.
Alessia pounces, and my fate is sealed.
Chapter five
Alessia
I’ve beaten him.
But I don’t feel victorious.
I was sloppy. I slipped up at every turn. I even dropped my sword at one point.
And it’s all because this sweaty, disgusting, soon-to-be-bruised mess beneath me is so perfectly sculpted that he’s a menace to society.
The moment I saw his shirtless figure enter the courtyard, my body responded with a harsh demand to touch it, and it only got worse the more I stared at his flexing biceps throughout the battle.
And now that I’ve pinned him down, I can feel the heat from his body, and my body is demanding far too much of it for my comfort. We’re way too close.
He looks up at me, eyes half-clouded with pain, but still shining with that same look as before, the one that had me blushing like a schoolgirl in the secret garden. I can feel the shape of his six-pack beneath my thighs as I lean over him, our faces only inches apart. Intrusive thoughts of leaning down and kissing him invade my mind until I feel as though I’ll lose my sanity. My heart rate spikes to an unsafe level. The tension that grows between us is palpable.
I don’t like him! He’s not attractive!
But no matter how many times I scream those words in my head, I can’t bring myself to get up. I’m compelled to stay down here, like there’s a magnet pulling me closer to his chest. I trace the shape of his jawline with my eyes, seeing the slight dark stubble growing there. The brown of his eyes grows deeper when my gaze lands on them, and they dilate as they stare at me. He’s struggling with the same thoughts, like an outside entity is trying to force us both into this very passionate—I mean, awkward—moment.
Then, he says something so wild, it breaks the spell in a millisecond.
“Will you go on a date with me?”
“What?” I splutter.
“Alessia is the winner!” the trainer shouts.
Panicking, I shoot to my feet, making a beeline for Mina. I don’t dare turn around and look at Aurelio now.
“Whoa, girl, slow down!” Mina laughs. “What’s got you in a big hurry? You just proved to your husband who’s boss!”
“It’s nothing,” I say hurriedly.
Mina raises a brow. She glances over my shoulder, then back at me. It takes her a moment, but at long last, her lips form an “O” shape, and she hurries behind a copse of trees with me.
“I didn’t realize your love story was blossoming so quickly!” Mina chirps.
I scoff. “Don’t give me that much credit, Mina. I don’t like him at all.”
Mina frowns. “Then what’s that look on your face for?”
“He asked me out on a date,” I growl.
For a moment, Mina stares at me with a blank expression. Then she bursts out laughing, drawing the attention of everyone around us, including Aurelio. My heart seizing in my chest, I wave my arms at Mina to get her attention, shushing her.
