Page 69 of In Her Own Rite

She does as told, and I feel my wolf respond with approval. Even more so as I lay my hands on her back and she sighs happily.

“Thanks for this,” she says, after a minute. “It’s really been helping. I feel like my time in the gym is getting easier.”

“That’s not just the recovery,” I say, gliding my hands down to her lower back, pressing so firmly she lets out a soft little moan.Fuck. God help me. “You’re also getting stronger.”

“Yeah? You can tell?” she asks.

“Yeah, of course.”

“Tell me.”

I swallow, not wanting to admit the ways I notice her. But I can feel the hope and vulnerability in the question, and I don’t know how to say no.

“I can see it here,” I say, sliding my hands up to the backs of her arms. “In the way your muscles are coming in. Here, this one.” I move my thumbs along her triceps, and she lets out a little sigh of relief as I ease the tension.

“I see it here,” I say, bringing my hands to her shoulders and her upper back. “Not in the muscle, but in the way you carry yourself. How you helped Gabe up earlier, and it was so easy for you.”

“I thought you might be jealous,” she says softly. “I see you watching us when we’re together.”

“I’m not watching the two of you together,” I say, pressing gently into her back so that she lets out a sigh. “I’m watchingyou. And if I’m jealous, it’s because you let him be close to you in a way I can’t be right now.”

“Says the man reaching his hands under the back of my bra.”

“What, you don’t like it?” I say softly, teasingly, and I press into her muscles in a way that makes her moan just a little.

“I like it fine,” she says, and I can hear the smile in her voice.

It’s quiet as I move my hands down her lower back, then skip over her ass to get to her legs. The bruises are healing, large yellow-green splotches that I hate to see. Still, they don’t take away from her beauty. I like the new muscle coming in on her, I realize. Not because it’s hot on its own, but because it’s Em—Em’s legs that are growing stronger,Em’s arms that can do more now than they could two weeks ago. I think I’d like her any way she was. Any way her body changed.

“I see it here,” I say, sliding my hands gently up the back of one of her thighs.

“Yeah? How?”

I clear my throat.Things are different now, she’d said a few days ago. They’re not for me, but she’s the one who started sleeping in a room down the hall, who kicked me out of her bed a few nights ago when she had a nightmare. I can’t just comment on her body anymore.

“I can just tell. You’re doing squats. I can see that.”

“I’m notjustdoing squats,” she says. “I’m doing good mornings and kickbacks, and I’m using the Smith machine.”

“Let me guess. Maren is running this part of your training.”

“How did you know?”

I laugh, the sound a low rumble. “Because Maren got you that red dress, and I think she likes making me a little crazy for you.”

“Is that so hard to do?”

“The easiest thing in the world.”

It grows quiet for a minute, and I can feel her thinking.

“Show me where you see it,” she says finally, softly. An invitation. My wolf lowers his head, ready to play.

Man. Am I really doing this?

I bring my hands up slowly to her ass, gently squeezing the outer curve on each side.

“I see it here,” I say, my voice low.

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