THIRTY-ONE

Not everyone's mate takes them to the sparing ground and arms them with knives but mine had to be special.

"If I came at you with a knife, is this how you'd defend yourself?" I kept my mouth shut to keep myself from drooling.

If anyone came at me with a knife, they wouldn't have such a magnificent chest on full display to distract me.

"What was that?" His brow raised.

"What?"

"What is it you said about my chest?" My eyes darted to his face in time to catch a flash of a smirk which made my heart sink. I took a step back, burying my face in my palms when I realized I'd said the words out loud. Mortification made me burn from the inside out.

"Am I distracting you?" His voice was thicker; perhaps from holding laughter or something else.

"Oh no, it's just –" I took another step backwards and tripped on thin air. I flayed about for a second before strong arms caught me and pulled me to a magnificent, sweaty chest.

"Fuuucck," He exclaimed and let me go almost immediately. I steadied a