The bar hit the floor with a satisfying clang. I stood there, chest heaving, sweat dripping down my neck in rivulets.
I grabbed a towel and wiped my face, flopping down onto the bench with a grunt. My muscles burned in that perfect way that meant I'd pushed them right to the edge. Everything ached. Good.
But my mind wasn't on my deadlifts or my burning quads. It was on Natalia.
She actually did it. Drew a line in the sand. A queen's decree.
No sex until we reached the academy. A reasonable boundary, given our nosy-ass parents. But it wasn't the boundary itself that impressed me—it was how she'd delivered it.
My little tsundere is growing a spine of steel.
I hadn't argued. What would be the point? I wasn't some horny teenager who couldn't keep it in his pants for a few weeks. Well, technically I was in the body of one, but my mind was far older. I'd learned long ago that sometimes stepping back was the smartest play.
