Chapter Twenty Two
A lli watched Bea’s body move into another pose, saw the grace of her legs, the curve of her arms. It might be playing with fire. No, strike that, it definitely was playing with fire. But since when had that ever bothered her?
Okay, she shouldn’t have just pushed herself on Bea like that. But Bea had proven herself equally interested and now… Now there were more important things to explore. Like the fact that apparently, she could feel things.
She’d be lying if she said she wasn’t curious. She was, very much so. It was like suddenly discovering that she spoke a foreign language, or that she could play the piano or something. She wanted to know what this was, what she could do.
She leaned back against the wall and Bea showed the class another move and Alli could imagine what she’d be like in bed, all long muscles and firm grip. There was a hiccup of heat inside her.
“Alli,” Bea said. “Would you care to join us?”
“Alli never joins in,” Marcus said, hands pressed together solemnly under his chin. “She’s not a joiner.”
“Doesn’t play well with others,” teased Izzy.
“Oh, leave her alone,” Julia said. “She’ll come into herself, won’t you, dear? ”
Was this what it was? Her coming into herself? Her suddenly realizing that the world wasn’t as harsh a place as she had first thought?
“Alli is just as much a member of the group as everyone else,” Bea said.
“Then why doesn’t she do yoga with the rest of us?” asked Marcus.
“It’s a fair point,” Izzy said. “I mean, we all want to graduate from the program. We can’t graduate if we don’t participate.”
Alli rolled her eyes. “You use the word graduate like it actually means something.”
“Dunno, you want to keep your job?” Marcus asked. “Because in group it sounded like you kind of did and if spending a few days doing yoga is what it takes, then I don’t think that’s a huge sacrifice.”
Alli treated him to another eye roll.
“It is fun, dear,” Julia said. “You could give it a try.”
“It’s calming,” added Izzy. Even silent Leslie nodded at that.
“And a requirement,” said Bea. “Why don’t we all get into our favorite positions and hold them for ten deep breaths, please.” She let the class move and then came over to the wall where Alli was standing.
“What now?” Alli asked.
“You don’t have a hold over me anymore, remember?” Bea said.
“Do I not?” Alli lifted one eyebrow and Bea gave a satisfactory blush.
“You know what I mean. You need to participate in class. You know that I have to write reports and things, right?”
Alli huffed a sigh. “Yeah, but no. Not going to happen.”
“Oh, come on,” said Izzy, who was standing on one leg. “You might even like it, come on, do what I’m doing.”
Before Alli knew what was happening, Bea’s firm hands were on her waist, pulling her away from the wall and… And as much as she didn’t want to do a stupid yoga class the feeling of Bea touching her was just too much to resist .
“Put your hands like this,” Izzy said encouragingly. “And then one leg like this.”
“Stand firm on your other leg, like you were trying to push it down into the earth,” advised Julia.
“And don’t close your eyes or you’ll fall over,” added Marcus.
Bea’s hands moved her, pushed her in different directions, until Alli felt herself stable on one foot. “Now breathe,” Bea said in her ear, close enough that the little hairs on the back of Alli’s neck stood up. “Breathe deeply.”
It was all Alli could do to take any kind of breath at all, let alone a deep one.
“That’s right,” said Izzy. “Now do what Marcus is doing, his is harder than mine.”
Alli looked over and then attempted to move her arms into the position that Marcus was holding.
“Press your palms into each other,” he said. “Really use some force there.”
“Not too much, though,” Julia said. “You don’t want to fall. You’re doing a lovely job.”
“Very nice,” Bea hummed in her ear. “Very nice indeed.”
A pulse was starting to beat between Alli’s legs. One she hadn’t felt before. Jesus, was this what a stroke felt like?
She put out a hand to steady herself on Bea’s shoulder, but the beat just got harder and faster and now her mouth was getting dry and… And other places weren’t dry at all. She took a shaky breath and then another.
“Is she alright?” Marcus asked.
“She does rather look like she’s going to faint,” said Julia.
“Maybe she should sit down?” asked Izzy.
Alli put her other foot firmly on the floor. “I’m fine,” she said, even though her voice was trembling a little and she didn’t feel fine at all. She felt all hot and sweaty and like parts of her body had swelled up without her permission.
“You don’t look fine,” Izzy pressed.
“I’m fine. And I thought yoga was supposed to be relaxing, which isn’t the case when you’re all staring at me like an animal in the zoo.” Now this was better. This was the familiar burning in her stomach, the beginning of anger, an old friend that she absolutely knew how to deal with.
“We weren’t staring,” said Marcus.
“Bullshit,” spat Alli.
And she was feeling it now, feeling it growing inside her, so when the door opened and Luke came in, she was all primed and ready for what came next.
???
Bea jumped just about as far away from Alli as she could get in one leap and then cursed herself. Luke must have noticed something.
“Bea, a word, please?”
She was trying to come up with excuses in her head, reasons why she should have been so close to Alli, justifications for why she’d jumped away like she was guilty. But in the end, it was all unnecessary.
“I’m going to talk to the group in a minute,” Luke said, pulling her to one side. “But before I do, do you have any information on a telephone call that Charles might have received?”
“No,” Bea said. “But—”
Luke was already moving away from her. That was apparently all he’d needed. He was clapping his hands so that everyone turned to him, so that everyone was paying attention to him.
“I do want to apologize for the chaos this morning,” he said with a wry smile. “I assure you, it’s not at all what we expect from this program. As I’m sure you’ve heard already, one of our staff has left. Daria has had a family emergency and will no longer be participating in this session of the program.”
There was some mumbling at this, and Bea didn’t dare turn to catch Alli’s eye. A made up family emergency wasn’t going to fool anyone.
“And then there’s Charles. I’m aware that a few of you saw his… outburst this morning. Let me once again assure you that this is not normal for the program. Though, as I’m sure you can imagine, some of our programmers do respond better to treatment than others do.”
“Where is he?”
Bea did turn now because the voice was Alli’s.
“I’m sorry?” Luke said.
“Where’s Charles?” Her eyes were flinty, her tone cold as ice.
“I’m afraid that Charles will be leaving us. Has, in fact, already left us,” Luke said.
“In that case, I want out as well,” said Alli firmly.
“I’m afraid that won’t be possible, not if you want to complete the program.”
“Did Charles get a little graduation certificate?” demanded Alli.
And it was clear from the rising flush on Luke’s face that Charles had, in fact, been given the precious certificate.
“That’s bullshit, it’s all bullshit,” spat Alli.
She was drawing herself up now, Bea could see it. Could see the fire in her eyes, could see how truly angry she was, could see it flowing over her skin, could feel it crackling in the air. She found that she was clutching her hands together, that she was afraid of what Alli was going to do next.
“Unfortunately,” Luke began.
But Alli was having none of it.
“Unfortunately, my arse,” she said, dripping with venom. “Unfortunately, you, Mr. Smarmy, are nothing more than a shill artist, a con man, a liar, and a cheat.”
Luke blanched. “Whatever would make you say such a thing?”
“Your staff are liars and cheats. And you… how much exactly did Charles have to pay you to get out of here? Huh?”
“N-n-nothing.” Luke cowered back as Alli stalked toward him.
“Nothing? Really? Then he had something over you, did he?” Alli said, threateningly quiet. “What did he hear then? What was he told that meant he was allowed out of here?”
“Nothing,” Luke said again .
Alli rolled her eyes. “Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit. You’re an odious little man with hateful little eyes and I’m going to uncover whatever little secret it is that you have, and when I do, you’ll wish that you were dead. You’ll wish that you were anywhere other than on the same damn planet as me. Because I will make sure you suffer and you will pay for whatever—”
Josh charged through the door. “Come on, then.”
“What?” Alli said, shocked.
“You can come with me or I can carry you, your choice,” Josh said. “No inappropriate behavior in the classroom. That’s the rule.”
“But… but,” Alli began.
But Josh was already wrapping his arms around her and physically carrying her out of the room. All the anger left with her. The other programmers slumped in relief. Luke looked like he was catching his breath.
And Bea.
Bea had just seen what Alli could really be like. Had seen that temper, had seen how tenuous Alli’s control on it really was.
And as much as she might want the woman, as much as her body might cry out for her touch, it had scared her.
She wasn’t at all sure that she wanted to deal with something, someone as uncontrollable as that. Wasn’t at all sure that she could.