Page 19 of The Obedient Lie
Her back arched into a bridge, tank top riding up over her ribs. One leg bent, the other extended, toes perfectly pointed. Her golden ponytail was tied high and messy, strands clinging to her flushed cheeks.
I froze in the doorway.
It felt like walking into a trap.
Except the trap wassmiling.
She hadn’t seen me yet.
Her arms trembled slightly as she shifted, pulling one knee to her chest, hips rolling open, exhaling slow and focused.
Not a single care in the world.
Not a single thought about who might be watching.
I leaned against the doorframe, jaw tight.
This wasn’t the gym.
This was our lounge. Our war room. The place where strategy got built and grudges got sharpened. Where the boys drank and smoked and cleaned guns. Where our cousins played poker and talked deals.
And there she was.
Sprawled across the rug in spandex shorts, stretching like it was Sunday morning in suburbia.
I didn’t know if I wanted to throw a towel over her… or drop to my knees anddrag my hands up her thighs.
She bent forward, forehead to the floor, hips flexing deep into a split.
My pulse kicked.
She was flexible.
Tooflexible.
And she didn’t care who saw it.
I made a sound — low in my throat — and she looked up.
Her face lit up like I wasn’t the very thing she should’ve been afraid of.
“Oh hey,” she said, bright, breathless from the workout. “Didn’t think anyone was around. Just needed to stretch my hips before they locked up.”
I didn’t speak.
Icouldn’t.
She sat back on her heels, flushed and glowing. Her top clung to her chest. The waistband of her shorts dipped low on her hips, exposing a sliver of skin above the hem.
“You want me to move?” she asked casually. Like I wasn’t two seconds away fromburning the whole building down.
“This isn’t the gym,” I said flatly.
“I know. But the gym’s crowded. And the carpet’s better on my knees.”
Fuck.
She blinked, like she didn’t hear what that sounded like. Or maybe shedid.
