Page 36 of Method Acting

I wasn’t even offended by that. “Both. My dad’s a big guy. And my mom’s brothers are all over six feet. But I do work out and swim. You should come along one time.”

“And swim? Are you insane?”

He sounded like I’d asked him to give me one of his kidneys. “Swimming’s good for you.” I took his hand and brought it up to my pec, giving myself a squeeze. “See?”

He pulled his hand away and gave me a shove. “Ew. You have moobs.”

“I do fucking not.” I half turned around, leaning against his bent knee, and pulled up my shirt to show him my pec. I poked it. “This is a pectoral muscle. It’s not soft. It is not a moob, thank you very much.”

“Christ, put it away,” he mumbled, but not before he’d copped a good eyeful, his cheeks pink. “Do you have to get naked every chance you get?”

“I’m not naked.” I pulled my shirt back down, then eyed his chest and stomach. “You’re so skinny, I bet you got abs under there.”

Then I made the mistake of trying to lift his shirt, and he did some lightning-fast maneuver with his legs that half turned me inside out, and before I knew it, I was on my stomach, one leg bent up in some kung fu lock-hold and my hand pinned to the floor above my head.

He pinned me to the floor, his lips at my ear. “You do not have permission to do that.”

Then a bunch of feet came through the door and stopped. Well, I could assume there were bodies attached to the feet, but from how I was being pinned down, I couldn’t really see...

“Well, I see you two are getting along just fine,” Deirdre’s voice said.

“Need some more private time?” Max asked.

“We were just discussing consent,” Amos said.

“I can see it’s going well,” Deirdre said. “Chase, are you okay?”

“Oh, I’m great,” I squeaked out. “This is kinda hot, actually. Not gonna lie.”

Amos gave me a shove before he got off me, but when I got up and caught a glance at him, he was smiling.

I sat up and swung my leg around him, grabbing him and giving him a back-hug with my chin on his shoulder. “That was fun. You’ve got some kung fu moves.”

He sighed. “You’re lucky I’m allowing this.”

I chuckled. “I am lucky you’re allowing this.” Then I sighed. “But this is nice.” I gave him a bit of a shake. “Relax. I’m not going to do anything to you.”

He exhaled and some of the tension left his shoulders. “Only because you know you’d lose.”

“Letting you win isn’t technically losing.”

“You didn’t let me win.”

“No. But I will from now on. I had no idea how much fun wrestling was. I’m forlorn to think about all the hot body rubbing I’ve missed all these years by not being on the wrestling team.”

He snorted. “Forlorn.”

“It means pitiful and forsaken.”

He growled. “I know what it means.”

“Ooh, do that again. That was hot.”

“Deirdre? I’d like to request a partner change.”

I laughed and tried to do the leg maneuver he did to me, but it failed spectacularly and he ended up pinning me to the floor again, this time on my back with my hands on either side of my head. Our faces just two inches apart. He was actually smiling. “You lose again.”

“I’m letting you win on purpose.”

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