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She asked them to be seated, where they began floor stretches.
He wasn’t as flexible as most the other participants. His muscle mass was easily twice the size of anyone else’s, but he forced himself as far as he could. Some wrapped themselves into pretzel-like forms, which were impossible for him to do. It surprised him when Evie came over to him and gently guided his frame into modified positions that enabled him to do the stretch or pose she was instructing. The touch of her fingers against his body gave him the shivers.
It had been a long time since he’d felt a woman’s touch. Was he that starved for attention? Some of his body parts started to respond in spite of the screaming going on inside his head to demand they stop.
Harper would have preferred to run back and forth on the beach like he was used to doing, with fifty or sixty pounds of rocks in his rucksack, wearing ankle-high steel-toed combat boots. That would have been no problem. But holding his breath, leaning, and stretching toward the bright orange sky while keeping his balance was impossible. He fell several times.
Once again, she came over, as she did for others, and adjusted his body so that he was more comfortable, and each time she touched him, he felt his groin lurch. It was damned annoying. This went on for nearly an hour. He was going to leave early after struggling with the poses the entire time, until she announced the last pose before cool down. He was almost there! He’d almost made it through his first yoga class!
The cow-cat movement of dumping and arching his torso while on all fours like a cow or a cat seemed simple enough until she added the quick breath exercises, breathing in during the cow and breathing out during the cat pose. And then they sped up. It was hard not to think about having sex. The sounds of the ocean, the breathing in and out, the little moans people made while doing so threw him into a trance. All at once, he was having sex with Lydia, pumping her hard and working to make her explode.
He started ejaculating uncontrollably so threw himself on the blanket, trying to hide it. He felt like a school kid reacting to a forbidden nude photo. Filled with shame and embarrassment, he felt like he’d cheated on Lydia, which didn’t make any sense at all!
Someone snickered. He would have left, but that would have drawn too much attention to the huge wet patch in his crotch. Were he by himself, he’d immediately dive into the cool surf and then wrap in the blanket, but he didn’t and suffered instead. He diverted his gaze from Evie, who showed him with that sultry stare and half-smile that she knew. Oh yes, she knew.
He was completely mortified. This had been such a mistake.
She continued with the cool down, which helped quell his libido and bring him back to sanity. The slow breathing in and out calmed his nerves as he cleared his head and brought himself back to some sense of peace in his inner sanctum. And then it was all over.
Finally!
Evie invited people to stay who wanted to sit and enjoy the violent orange sunset before returning home. That appealed to Harper, who feigned being too cold and wrapped the blanket around himself, hiding his wet pants from anyone who would dare look his way.
He’d spent many hours at the beach both before and after Lydia, and the sunsets never ceased to amaze him. The power of the cloud-riddled sky hovering over the ocean, blanketing it with a reflection of the warm, dying sun were breathtaking tonight. Stars began to poke out of the deep turquoise blue-turning-navy-heavens. The clouds turned grey and then faded into the dark sky, and soon, even the orange glow at the horizon was lost to the night.
He hadn’t noticed that nearly everyone had left already. He heard engines starting and car doors slamming, which brought his attention to the here and now. He stood, wrapping himself again in the blanket as Evie came over to him.
“Are you a friend of Sally’s?” she asked.
“How did you know?”
“She is great at descriptions. Judging from the size of your shoulders and the full sleeves, I figured you might be.”
“Oh, these?” he said, extending his right arm graced with numerous tribal rings he’d picked up after every deployment. He also bore the frog prints many of the men on SEAL Team 3 had inked onto their forearms and into their souls.
“Quite impressive.” She smiled.
“I’m afraid I’m lousy at this.”
“Be patient. It’s a practice, takes time. You’ll get it, and in the meantime, it will teach you patience. You’ll see. Trust me.”
He wanted to. That’s when he realized he wasn’t good at talking to women, either. In fact, he felt awkward standing in front of her under the stars, having any kind of conversation at all. He didn’t belong here.
When he didn’t respond, she continued. “I commend you for even trying. Yoga teaches you mental strength so that your body doesn’t have to be a vessel of armor. It can become flexible, soft, but still strong. It does teach you to relax.”
Was she coming on to him? It wasn’t what he wanted.
She stepped closer to him so that he could feel her body heat.
“No,” he said as he stepped back, leaving a good two feet between them.
“But Sally said—”
“Well, Sally shouldn’t pretend to know me. This wasn’t why I came.”
“I completely understand your hesitation. I just thought—”
“Hesitation? I have no hesitation! It’s achoice. Come to think of it, not a very good one either.”
