Page 57 of Pinkie Promise

He can tell, and it makes him narrow his eyes further.

“Fallon,” he says, his tone deep and even.

I decide to fight dirty. I spin under his palms, his thick fingers skimming my waist, and I lean up onto my toes so that I can reach his mouth and kiss him. He grunts in surprise but then quickly recovers, lowering one hand to caress my behind and lifting the other to cup my face. I run my palms up over his pecs and he makes a low satisfied sound.

“Hi,” he murmurs, before kissing me from a different angle.

I try not to smile against his mouth, amazed that my decoy worked.

“Hi,” I whisper back, pressing my chest against his for good measure.

“Jesus,” he murmurs, flattening his palms against my shoulder blades and pushing me up against him as he rubs his pecs over me. “You sure you wanna practice right now?”

“Would you rather just watch me train solo?”

He swallows hard, flushing crimson. “I, uh… I mean, if you’d let me…”

I lower myself to the soles of my feet and press my smile into his warm neck. “We’ll try the lifts. If you can’t do it, we’ll stop. If you can–”

“Then you’ll let me take you out again?” he asks, gently tugging at my hair so that I lean back and look up at him.

“You’ve got to be one of the only guys at Carter U who actually asks girls out on dates,” I tell him, laughing.

He shakes his head and says, “Not ‘girls’, Fallon. One girl, singular. You’re the only chick that I’ve asked to date me, ever. So yeah, maybe, I guess I’m pretty old fashioned.”

“How old fashioned?” I ask, smiling as I prod the juicy swell of his bicep.

He hunches down so that he can look right into my eyes before saying, “Fallon, trust me. I’mveryold fashioned.”

I’m not exactly sure what that means but if he said it to pique my interest while simultaneously turning me the hell on, he has definitely succeeded with getting his desired effect.

Unable to maintain his sharp eye contact for a second longer I spin around, my ponytail whipping audibly against his chest, and I say, “I’m gonna jump in three. Grab my waist, throw me up, and then ease me back down – we’re not gonna do the higher jumps just yet. Okay, one, two–”

Hunter’s fingers grip around my waist, his thumbs digging securely into the small of my back, and then he thrusts me up at the same time as I coil and spring into the air. His propulsion is so strong that my posture stays vertical and I watch in the mirror as his hands hover just underneath my poised feet until I’m falling back down. Then he snatches at my waist again, immediately slowing my plummet and gently lowering me to my feet on the mat.

I turn to look up at him from over my shoulder and his body is locked rigid, his jaw ticking like crazy.

His fingers are one-hundred percent refusing to budge from my middle.

“Holy fuck,” he pants, pulling me hard against his abdomen. He presses a rough kiss to the top of my head, his expression tortured as he searches my eyes. “This is… so dangerous, Fallon. You used to do this competitively?”

I flip a curl over my shoulder.

“Yeah,” I say casually. “And I won all of my competitions, too.”

He grunts and clutches me tighter. “Don’t like the idea of other people throwing you around like this,” he admits.

I shake my head. “It’s fine as long as they catch me. Do it again.”

“Again?” he rasps.

“Yes, and I want you to do it higher.”

I take stock of the horrified look on his face and against my better judgement I decide to lower my guard. I turn around and wrap my arms around his neck. The thick bulk in his joggers drags roughly over my belly.

“You did that throw really amazingly. You’re so strong that it comes naturally to you, and having you do this with me is going to put me back at the level that I really want to be at. Even if I’m not able to compete at American Elite this year, I’d really like the option to go out with a bang by doing a performance with the events squad. So please,” I say, moving one hand to brush the stubble on his jaw, “do it again.”

He looks down at me for one long moment, his chest rising and falling heavily as if he’s contemplating a lot of different things. Then he presses a stubble-coated kiss against my cheek and grabs my waist again, spinning me around so that my back is up against his front. He nods at me in the mirror, and jerks his chin, giving me the go-ahead.

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