Page 61 of Revolve
My gaze drops to her lips, and I nearly lose my train of thought. “Are you offering?”
She stares blankly. “It’s yours.”
“Yeah?” A smirk tugs at my lips. I lean in, my gaze fixed on hers as I take a bite of the energy bar still in her grip.
She bristles.
I chew.
Sierra watches my mouth, letting the silence stretch like a thread pulled too tight. With her green eyes on me, she takes a bite, as if accepting some unspoken challenge.
When we’re on the ice again, moving into our second position, I try the simple lift Lidia allows us to do, but Sierra looks irritated.
“Your hold isn’t right. It’s blocking my core extension.”
“If I hold you any lower, I lose my grip,” I say.
Sierra glances at me and then Lidia, who watches us curiously. Just like that, she goes from crackling fire to a snuffed-out flame. She shrinks into herself, and I notice her hands ball into tight fists.
“Right. I shouldn’t have said anything. Sorry.”
My head whips around as she skates back to our starting position.
“You’rewhat?” I ask, incredulous.
“I said I’m sorry,” she mutters, a hint of anger flickering in her gaze.
That’s the frustration I expected, but it’s restrained, caged behind whatever tumultuous thoughts swirl in her intricate mind.
“That’s it? You’re not going to challenge me on it? Shit, Romanova, I expected you to makemesay sorry.” She’s so stuck on pleasing others, she’d choke on it.
“You want me to fight you on this?”
“I want to know what you think. You shouldn’t blindly follow what I say.” She looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. “Come on. Argue with me.”
“You can’t be serious.”
I glide right up to her, invading her space. “Fight me, Sierra.”
She exhales sharply. “You’re ridiculous.”
I tower over her now, a palpable tension simmering between us. Something ignites within her, and then I give her a light push, watching as she glides backward, mouth parting in disbelief. “You did not just push me.”
“Oh, I definitely did. What happened to the girl who told me off without thinking twice?”
She glances at the ice. “Nobody wants to be partners with someone like that.”
“I do,” I declare, my voice resolute. “Iam. Tell me how you need me to hold you.”
Hesitantly, Sierra takes my hands and places them just above her hips.
“Like this?” I ask, feeling the weight of my palms flat against her body.
She nods once before Lidia’s whistle sounds.
“Practice that lift with the new placements and take off into doubles,” she orders.
We’re both breathing hard after coming off the spin. When Sierra glances at me, her gaze snags on my hands in my red gloves, the ones she knit me, and her lips quirk.
