Between the constant sex, the nymph lessons, and the teamwork training, I was managing to avoid getting too frustrated with the wait.
We had a week to go before the Rare Jewel Gala, and our teamwork was improving significantly. Today it was only Emmett and I in the training ring, the others taking a day off to rest and recover.
Sweat slicked Emmett’s skin, heightening his scent to arousing levels. I tried to keep my arousal to myself, but from the way his nostrils flared, I knew he was perfectly aware of my predicament. We’d spent the first hour doing some two person drills with a dummy, but now we were having one-on-one fights. It helped us to get used to each other’s styles.
“You need to take a break,” Emmett said. “All the bruises on you aren’t going to heal if we keep making new ones.”
He lifted the hem of his shirt to pat his forehead dry, and I stared at his torso. He had hair leading down from his navel into the waistband of his athletic shorts and a slightly squishy tummy that I knew from experience was the best to lay on. I wanted to watch it clench and release as he fucked into me.
“Take a break if you need one,” I said after a long pause.
He’d noticed my perusal, rolling his eyes. “Youneed a break. Not me. This isn’t sustainable.”
“It doesn’t need to be sustainable. There’s only a week left until we kill Kylan.”
“And if you keep this up, you’re going to be weak for the mission. Relax.”
“I don’t know how.”
I hated to admit it, but it was the truth. There hadn’t been a moment where I’d relaxed since Maisie vanished into Zemterra ten years ago.
Emmett’s expression softened, his hands going down to shove into his shorts pockets. “Want to know how I relax?”
He did seem the most relaxed of all my mates. There was underlying worry I could feel through our ever-strengthening bond, but he knew how to keep it to the background. For the rest of us, worry manifested in different, strong emotions. Shan got pissed off, Caspian fretted and got clingy, and Nolan avoided the source of it. Ozzy was the second best for dealing with his emotions, which was probably why it had been these two who had come up with the idea of training my nymph side.
“How do you relax?” I asked, avoiding eye contact and crossing my arms over my chest.
“Let’s do one more practice bout, and then I’ll show you.”
My muscles softened, my gaze snapping to him again as I prepped for another bout. During the conversation I’d tensed up. Em had noticed, and was using another short fight to get me loose for whatever he had planned.
“We go until one of us taps out?” I confirmed.
He nodded. “Same as the last ten practice runs.”
We had an even score so far. I was faster than Em, but sometimes that didn’t matter. Not if he caught me, because without the help of magic it was near impossible for me to escape from his grip.
Circling each other on the mat, we each waited for the other to make the first move. As usual, I struck first. Em could wait forever to start the fight, but I didn’t have his patience. Darting forward I held my dagger in a loose grip, trying to catch along his side with the blade. It missed, and I hated the part of me that was relieved.
This was training and all my mates healed quickly, but I resented having to hurt them. We’d tried wooden blades, but it put me at a disadvantage because he was able to do damage to me with his fists, but I couldn’t truly do any damage with a dull piece of wood.
Emmett’s arms were around me before I could pull myself back from the attempt at wounding him, proving his point about me needing to take a break.
I was never that slow, not at the beginning of a bout. It took ages for him to catch me most times.
He pinned my arms to my sides as I struggled and tried to rework my grip on the dagger. With only my hand able to move, I fumbled it and the steel went tumbling to the ground with a thump. Unwilling to give in so easily during my last practice round of the day, I thrashed in his arms. All attempts to free myself or injure him were in vain, and I slowly wore myself out, panting heavily.
Em was panting too, and I realized it wasn’t entirely because of his attempts to contain me.
Arousal poured through our bond and his cock was hard against the small of my back, the athletic shorts useless to contain it.
I immediately went still, huffing his heightened fresh laundry scent. His arousal triggered mine, despite my attempts to avoid reacting to it. There was no point. I wanted him so desperately, our bond ached. It was strong enough the ache wasn’t painful, just a faint push in the direction of sexual activity, but Em didn’t want that yet. We’d had the conversation. He hadn’t made a move.
So I kept frozen in his arms, ignoring the slick flooding my pussy. I tried to think of non-sexy thoughts like Kylan, which calmed me down somewhat.
Emmett’s arousal was steadily decreasing too, now I wasn’t moving. By the time I’d stopped panting he had stopped sucking in frantic breaths of my scent and was instead breathing as normal. “Do you tap out?” he asked gruffly.
I nodded, knowing I wouldn’t escape his hold. Not without another awkward rubbing situation. He released me and I stumbled forward, turning to watch as he took a big step back. His erection was still prominent.
