Their Hidden Princess Novel

---- Chapter 84 "Right," | mimicked as a sigh. "So now what?" "Your legs and core need work. That's whats keeping you from holding a stance when you take a punch," Maximus said. "How do you know that?" | said, being petulant. Maximus blinked at me. "I was at your fight with Kairos," he replied. "| watched you take every hit as if you'd been run over by a pack of wolves." | blinked at him. He watched me at the fight. Not Kairos. My heart fluttered a bit. Pay attention! | screamed at myself. Or we could ditch this whole thing and do something much more interesting, my wolf mused.

Don't you have paws to clean or something? My wolf snickered in response. | ignored her. | looked back at Max. He had one eyebrow raised as if he'd been waiting a while. "Legs," he repeated. "And core." He took another step back and dropped into a squat. "Start with a squat," he said, He then slowly side stepped, moving ---- horizontally as he held the same stance. "Then move laterally. That'll strengthen your outer glutes and inner thighs." | took the squat stance. Then, | took a sidestep. The resistance band pulled taught across my thighs and dug into the outside of my thighs.

Then | stepped my feet back to hips width and the band loosened. However, the strain in my ass and my thighs was intense. "Fuck," | hissed. "Sucks, yeah?" Maximus commented. "Keep going." | grumbled a bunch of curses under my breath but kept the sidestep up. Max followed me as we did the entire length of the track. Then he made me go back. By the time we got back to the start, my ass was throbbing. | huffed and stood up straight when | got back to Max's bag. Sweat poured down my back. | wrenched the long sleeve off and chucked it to the floor before | turned back to Max.

His pupils had dilated and he was staring at me like | was something to eat. | crossed my arms over my chest as | struggled to catch my breath. "What's next?" | panted. "Lunges," Maximus said. "With the band." "Motherfucker," | said under my breath before starting off ina ---- forward lung away from Maximus. | could've sworn | heard a snort of laughter behind me but when I looked at Max, he was just as emotionless as usual When | turned back, | was dying. | almost keeled over with one step and was heaving grunts of air. | glared at Maximus. "Do | have to?" "Yes," he said plainly.

Then he moved over to me. "And stand up straight. You're going to throw out your back bent over like that." Without even a second thought, one of his hands went to the low of my back as the other one landed near my naval. | was mid lunge as his hands pressed into my skin. The energy was palpable, surging through my skin and up into my brain. | gasped as | felt it. Then, | heard the strange thrummed that tended to come with the electricity around Maximus and I. Lub-dub, lub-dub, lub-dub- | tried to ignore it but every bone in my body was screaming for me to look at Maximus.

I turned my head slowly and met the piercing dark gold gaze of Maximus Wolfham. The noise started thrumming faster and faster and | couldn't help but lean towards him. But then, as quick as it was there, it was gone. | blinked and Maximus was a good ten feet away from me. He ---- looked far calmer than | felt. But in his eyes, there was a dark emotion that made me shiver. Lust. "Just... stand up straight," he finally said, voice low. | pushed my shoulders back and finished my lungs. My legs weren't all that was burning by the end of that round of lunges.