Page 53 of Coerced

“What?”

“I can’t pull the bowstring back,” she murmured, the defeat evident in her tone.

I lifted my hand to the outer part of her shoulder and gave her a reassuring squeeze. “Yes, you can. You just need to tug on it a little bit harder than you might think. Do you want my help this first time?”

“You made it look so simple. I always thought this would be something I could easily learn.”

Keeping my hands on her, I shifted my body around hers and insisted, “It’s not that difficult. I promise. Here, let’s get you into the proper stance first.” Withoutthinking about it, I placed my hands lightly on Aria’s hips. A quick vision of Aria’s naked hips being held in my hands flashed in my mind. I swallowed past the mounting tension in my body and explained, “Stand perpendicular to the target, and shift your back foot slightly behind the front one while keeping them shoulder distance apart.”

“Like this?” she asked, glancing down at her feet.

“That’s perfect. Now, you’ve already nocked the arrow, so we just need to get your arms into position. Lift them.”

As Aria did that, I suddenly had a second thought about whether this had been a wise move. Because now my body was wrapped around the back of Aria’s, my hands were guiding her arms into the correct spot, and the scent of her was consuming me. The urge to take that half step closer to her, so her ass would be nestled firmly against me, was strong, and it took superhuman strength to hold myself back. As it was, the current proximity to her was almost too much temptation.

I closed my eyes briefly, drew in a long breath, and willed myself to focus. Opening my eyes again, I said, “Okay, so your hand placement on the bow is perfect. Just tip your front hand a little higher here. You want your arm to be parallel with the ground.”

Aria followed the instructions well, her arms moving into the correct position with gentle guidance from my fingertips. I brought my hand back to rest lightly on hers at the finger tab.

“Now, pull back on the bowstring,” I urged.

Aria gave a light tug. “See? I’m not strong enough.”

“You are,” I assured her. “But there’s tension here. Once you get it moving, it’s easier to pull. See?”

I helped her pull back on the string, and the secondshe realized how simple it was, she gasped. “Oh, this is easy. I thought it was going to require so much strength the entire time.”

“Nope. Now, you need to aim. Use the sight to line up with the target.”

Aria made subtle movements to perfect her aim. “Okay, I think I’ve got it.”

“Good. Now, relax your fingers and release the string.”

The arrow sailed across the driveway and landed in the target. It wasn’t a perfect shot by any means, but Aria had been successful.

“I did it!” she exclaimed, twisting her neck to look back at me with a bright smile on her face.

I returned the smile, gave her hips a squeeze, and said, “I told you that you could do it. That was excellent for your first time. Want to try again?”

She nodded her head furiously. “Yes. Please.”

Releasing my hold on her, I stepped around Aria and moved to get her another arrow. This time, as much as I wanted to put myself right back where I was, I didn’t. I wanted her to gain some confidence in her ability to do it on her own. But I’d have been lying if I said I didn’t enjoy every second of being that close to her with my hands on her.

Aria took her second arrow, followed the steps to prepare for an accurate shot, and sent the arrow flying. The accuracy wasn’t as good as it had been the first time, but she still managed to hit the outermost ring of the target.

When I gave her the third arrow to try again, she said, “As much as I’m enjoying learning, I don’t know how you find this to be relaxing.”

“You don’t?” I questioned her.

She grimaced. “I’m so stressed.”

I chuckled. “This is supposed to be fun, not stressful.”

Tilting her head forward, she insisted, “I don’t want you to get the wrong impression. I’m having a good time. It’s just that I didn’t realize how much skill this takes. I’m not sure I’ll ever hit the target.”

“You just need practice. You’ll get better over time. It took me a while.”

Curiosity washed over her. “When did you start?”