They were quiet for the first leg of their run, just keeping pace side by side.

Evan heard that the patter of his and Yena’s footsteps had fallen into sync and smiled.

It made for a nice, rhythmic sound. And made him think about how good it was to be back with Yena. How natural and comforting it felt to be near her.

The sun was coming up, lighting up the clouds in shades of pink and orange.

Evan’s heart started racing as they neared the turnaround point at the bottom of the hill, where last time they’d stopped to stretch.

Yena slowed to a stop and started rolling her shoulders.

“Same stretches as last time?” she asked, giving Evan a bold smile. “Or are you gonna teach me something new today?”

Evan smiled back and said, “I can teach you whatever you want.”

It came out sounding much dirtier than he’d meant it to.

Yena noticed. She narrowed her eyes at him and smirked.

“What, uh… what part of the body do you want to stretch?” Evan asked.

“Hmm.”

Yena started moving her hips side to side.

“My hips have been feeling really tight lately,” she said. “Got any good stretches for that?”

Evan took a deep breath while nodding his head, and said, “I can help you with that.”

Yena arched an eyebrow at him. And licked her perfect lips.

Even just talking like this was starting to get Evan turned on. He had to turn around and walk a few feet away from her.

And take a few more breaths.

“Okay,” he said, turning back to Yena but not looking her right in the eye. “Here’s one to start with.”

He gave her instructions for a proper lunge stretch and demonstrated. Yena watched closely and imitated his movement perfectly. They switched sides then kept going.

Each time they were changing positions, Yena sort of kept getting a little closer… and a little closer… and a little closer to Evan.

She was killing him.

Evan’s active imagination was running wild.

He couldn’t believe he was still managing to speak words to Yena and maintain any appearance of being calm and collected. In his mind, he was picturing doing all kinds of unspeakable things to her, here in the dirt in the middle of the woods.

But he inched away from Yena as she got closer to him.

It did seem like she was encouraging him.

But Evan couldn’t bring himself to put his hands on Yena… Not yet.

The truth was that he was wildly intimidated by her.

But it was like she was taunting him. Daring him to make a move.

That confidence threw him off. And made him crazy nervous.

Evan had no clue how Yena would react if he actually did make a move on her.

Maybe she’d be into it. And they’d have passionate, sloppy sex right here in the woods. Just like he’d been fantasizing about.

Or she would laugh at him.

Or even maybe be outraged.

Or one of another million possible scenarios where she’d be rejecting him.

But Evan wasn’t trying to rush things with Yena.

He wanted her forever, and so he could take his time.

YENA

I don’t know why I suddenly felt like messing with Evan.

A wicked little part of me just wanted to tempt him. See what his eyes would look like when I did. Listen to see how fast I could get his heart beating.

And then when I saw what I could do to him… I don’t know, maybe I got a little drunk with power.

“Am I doing this right?” I asked him, doing a stretch wrong on purpose.

I was bent over, reaching both hands toward the ground, and looking up at him seductively.

It was obvious that Evan had been trying to keep his eyes off me as much as possible, while we were stopped here in the turnaround. But when I asked him that, he looked.

I heard his breathing get heavier.

“You just need to straighten out your spine,” he said.

He took one step toward me. And then two steps back.

“Just visualize the top of your head touching the ground,” he continued.

I adjusted my posture and got deeper into the stretch.

“That’s good,” Evan said. “Just like that. Perfect.”

I rolled my spine up slowly to come out of the stretch, and met his eyes when I got all the way upright again.

Evan looked hungry. His eyes seemed darker than usual.

It felt satisfying to know I had control over him like that.

“What do you want me to do next?” I asked.

I almost laughed out loud at myself. I was having a little too much fun with this.

Evan grinned and shook his head.

“Alright, I got one more for you,” he said. “But you’ll get a little dirty.”

I let out one airy chuckle. Suddenly I felt my heart pounding in my throat. I’d been teasing Evan, but he was starting to serve it right back to me.

“Let’s get dirty,” I replied coolly.

Evan smiled and nodded.

“Alright,” he said. “Spread your legs about this wide…”

He stood with his feet out wider than his hips, to demonstrate. I followed along.

“And bend your left knee, while keeping the right leg stretched out… yep, just like that… now plant the palms of your hands on either side of your left foot, right down there in the dirt.”

I got my hands in the dirt and breathed into the stretch. I felt the relief immediately.

Yes, I did pick hip stretches to mess with Evan. But also, what I said was true. My hips and legs had been hurting…

Only reason I could think of to explain that was that I no longer had a Lycan prince stretching them open for me all the time.

Thinking about Nolan and what he used to do to my body, how good he could make me feel, made a little moan escape my lips…

I glanced up at Evan. He was no longer trying to keep his eyes off me. I watched his gaze rove the whole length of my outstretched leg.

Then he met my eyes. This time he didn’t look embarrassed to be caught looking at me like that.

“Other side,” he said quietly, and we both repositioned to stretch the other leg.

The tension between us was getting thick.

“Alright,” he said, standing up. “Enough with this… Let’s get back home and get going with our day, huh?”

He started walking back over to our running path. Then looked back at me and winked.

Alright. I’d had my fun, and Evan was done playing for now.

I jogged over to his side, and he picked up his pace to match mine.

“Alright,” I said, adjusting my breathing. “Now, remind me what flavors they’ve got at the ice cream place?”

Evan laughed. “You’d know better than me. You always had to try every single flavor, before finally just getting chocolate every time.”

“Not every single flavor!” I ran my shoulder into Evan’s, giving him a playful shove. “And sometimes I got something different!”

He let me push him to the side, not resisting at all, and smiled.