Page 26 of Campus Heat

I had enough. It was too torturous to continue like that, but I also didn’t want to push her boundaries. I had done enough damage already. Elizabeth stopped the treadmill and walked over to the leg press. It was a chance. A gift from the universe. I put the weight down and grabbed my shirt, throwing it over my shoulder as I walked up to her.

She saw my approach and took a sip of water. The tension grew sharper with each step I took toward her.

“Good morning,” I said, feeling like I was back in high school for some reason.

Her eyes flickered over my body once more before settling on my face. “Couldn’t sleep?”

I let out a quiet laugh. “Something like that. Are you going to do your legs?”

She tilted her head slightly. “Maybe.”

I stifled a groan. This wasn’t her usual attitude, but there was something about the way she was carrying herself that fueled my desire.

“You were loading the leg press wrong the other day,” I said, because I needed an excuse to be close to her.

She raised her eyebrows. “Oh?”

“Yes,” I gestured toward the machine. “Come.”

She didn’t argue, which made matters even worse. I adjusted the weight for her, deliberately focusing on the mechanics so I wouldn’t have to pay attention to the way her presence was crowding my senses.

“Feet higher,” I whispered as she sat back. “You don’t want to stress your knees.”

I stepped closer, too close by normal standards. Then I lightly placed my hands on her calves to help her with the placement. The contact was brief and controlled, but it sent a jolt through me either way. Her breathing shifted. It wasn’t a dramatic change, but it was noticeable.

“Like this?” She asked softly.

“Yeah,” I said, but my voice wasn’t as steady as I wanted it to be.

She pressed the platform up in a slow, controlled manner. I spotted without needing to. My hands lingered near the sled, mostly because I didn’t have the strength to pull them away. And I could feel the heat radiating from her body, filling the space between us.

On her second rep, her gaze lifted and locked onto mine. The intensity was no longer playful. It was charged. I swallowed back the urge to do something inappropriate. This was too much to bear, yet not enough to fulfill my aching desire.

“I was out of line,” I blurted out suddenly.

She blinked once, not breaking eye contact.

“Yesterday.” I forced myself to hold her gaze. “I’ve been… caught up in my head. Everything that’s going wrong is weighing on me, and I accidentally took it out on you. It wasn’t your fault.”

The machine lowered again, and she pushed it up.

“You shut me out,” she said, and her voice was calm but not soft.

“I know,” I said on an exhale. “And I’m sorry.”

The words were powerful. They cost me something. It wasn’t pride, but something more like vulnerability.

Her expression softened. It wasn’t quite melting, and she wasn’t forgiving me outright, but she was softening up around the edges.

“You don’t just get to disappear when things get tough,” she said, and suddenly I felt like a child being scolded by his mother.

“I know,” I mumbled. “And I won’t do it again.”

The words sounded hollow, but I actually meant them. The sled locked into place, and she sat up. We were close again, closer than before. There was no mirror this time. No buffer to absorb the desire that was coming my way. Hot breaths filled the air, along with all the unspoken thoughts between us.

Her eyes briefly dropped to my parted lips before coming back up, and my chest tightened in a way that lifting could never achieve. For a second, I thought she might move back, but she didn’t. She didn’t close the space between us either.

“Good,” she finally said, catching me completely off guard.