Page 26 of Rebel Hawke

Atlas grabs the closest box and lifts it. Anyone else might miss it, but I catch the slight tightening of his jaw as the weightundoubtedly tugs on his shoulder that’s likely already sore from his training session this morning.

He absolutely should not be fucking doing this, nor should he be in that ring.

It isn’t your place to say anything, Wren.

I suck in a deep breath and release it slowly, fighting the urge to let my medical training override the desire to say something as a friend when it will upset him more.

Why is Gramps letting him fight like this?

It doesn’t make any sense.

He has to see what I do, how much pain Atlas is in.

Is everyone really so afraid of him that they refuse to confront him about it?

I watch him disappear into the gym, then return and grab another box, this time managing to mask his pained response a little better. Three other sweaty guys in gym gear appear and start working their way through the boxes.

The insurmountable piles vanish so quickly that hope starts to warm my chest. Maybe with their help, I can actually get this done in time.

I move out of their way, pressing myself up against the mirrored wall and making myself as small as I can so they can come over and grab the stacks close to where I was sitting.

Within ten minutes, the entire studio is clear of the boxes, save for what I need to assemble the reformers, and I can finally start tobreatheagain without the crush of everything around me.

Atlas returns, brushing off his hands, and spreads his arms wide. “Where do you need me next?”

God, he has to stop talking like that, or I’m never going to be able to focus.

Images of him helping me withotherneeds flood my head so quickly that I don’t stand a chance of keeping them at bay.

Heat rushes through my body, and I swallow thickly, trying to banish the very inappropriate fantasies. I force myself to motion to the reformer frame on the floor next to the pieces that help raise it. “I need help to get these risers underneath the frames so they’re higher off the floor.”

He steps up to me, stopping mere inches from his body touching my own, and another one of those panty-melting grins pulls at his lips. “You show me what to do, and I’ll do it.”

Get out of my fucking head!

That would make all this so much easier.

So will putting a little distance between us.

I bend down to arrange the riser near the side of the reformer, ready to put it in place. “If you can lift the frame, I’ll slide this under.”

He steps up behind me, so close his body heat radiates into my back, and I almost groan at the delicious sensation.

There are a dozen other places he could stand to accomplish this task, but he bends so his chest presses to my shoulder blades. His warm breath flutters against my ear, and his crotch brushes my ass. He wraps his hand around the frame above mine, brushing his warm skin along my own, and lifts it easily, raising it high enough for me to slide the riser under it.

“Like that, Little Bird?”

Christ…

My whole body vibrates, and my brain practically short circuits, trying to form a response.

I gulp. “Yep,justlikethat.”

5

ATLAS

I’m in big fucking trouble…

---