Chapter 7 #2
Ariana demonstrated the pose: lying on her back, knees bent, reaching up to grasp the outside of her feet, knees slightly wider than her torso. Essentially, it looked like an unelevated birthing position. Leah mirrored her.
“Is this okay, yoga expert?” Leah teased.
“I’ve seen better.”
“Charming!”
Leah felt a gentle stretch on her inner thighs and hips.
“I did this a lot last year. It’s supposed to help lengthen the spine and ease discomfort in the lower back,” Ariana explained, wincing as she stretched further.
As Leah settled into the pose, a sense of relaxation and release washed over her. It felt childlike, playful even, but it helped ease the tension in her body.
“Just open your legs a little more; they should be outside your hips,” Ariana instructed.
Leah tried, but her groin muscles were about as flexible as a baseball bat.
“You’re not reaching your feet comfortably because your knees aren’t close enough to your chest,” Ariana explained.
“Show me then,” Leah sighed.
Ariana hesitated, then rolled out of her pose and manoeuvred herself across the floor to the bottom of Leah’s mat on her knees.
“This might feel uncomfortable at first, but you’ll feel the benefit,” Ariana said. She pressed on the back of Leah’s thighs, adjusting her alignment and forcing her into a tighter, more compact pose.
Leah immediately felt the strain. She tried to focus on her breathing, but the closer Ariana got, the harder it was. The position was beneficial for sexual intercourse; she’d seen it in numerous porn videos—not that she was a frequent visitor to those sites, but she dabbled from time to time.
The pose was overly familiar: the first time she used a strap-on with Ariana, it was in a very naked, sweaty version of this position.
She remembered it vividly—the one and only time she’d ever orgasmed from a sex toy aside from her trusty pink vibrator, the toothbrush-sized pleasure regularly helping her out when she needed it.
But a strap-on, dildo, whatever the shape, size, or texture, didn’t seem to give her the same pleasure as a female tongue.
Now she was aroused.
Fuck.
Leah felt the pulse in her pants—the all-too-familiar feeling of sexual arousal she found impossible to deter whenever Ariana was this close.
Ariana used to be irresistible to Leah—a cocktail of pheromones she couldn’t stop drinking.
Leah thought she’d found a way to separate the two, to see Ariana as a friend, not a friend with benefits, not a friend who used to pleasure her until her vagina was throbbing, just a friend—the kind that go for coffee, walks, dinner, and do yoga in a bedroom at 8 a.m. with nothing but the rising sun as witness.
Leah gulped.
Ariana was still pressing down on her thighs; the stretch deepened along with Ariana’s touch.
Her thumbs pressed into Leah’s leg muscles, her pelvic bone brushing Leah’s buttocks again, but this time it wasn’t just her buttocks.
The pose exposed everything—Leah could feel her vulva throbbing against her leggings, the outline pressing out against Ariana’s thigh.
If she moved just a fraction to the right, she would be—oh, shit.
Ariana pressed against her and Leah felt an electric jolt surge through her entire body.
Don’t look her in the eye, she told herself.
Leah tried to remain calm. It wasn’t sexual. It wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.
Pull yourself together.
Leah began picturing Grace, Johnathan, even Kathy—anyone else at all. A pigeon, a squirrel, she didn’t care who. She had to stop thinking about Ariana pressing against her in such a way that made her want to—
Nope. Off limits.
“Does that feel better?” Ariana asked, voice barely above a whisper.
Why was she speaking so seductively? Was Leah imagining that?
I’m insane.
“Uh-huh, it’s really . . .erm . . .stretching me out.”
“Good,” Ariana hovered over her now, so close Leah could feel her breath if she leaned forward.
“If you want to get that little bit further, you can begin a gentle rocking motion, like this.”
Don’t rock. Don’t rock.
“Oh,” Leah’s eyes widened.
“Does that hurt?” Ariana asked, concerned.
Leah shook her head. “Nope, it feels . . .good.”
Too good.
Leah was in trouble. She could hear the voice in her head, like a humorous YouTube video: It was at that moment she knew she’d fucked up.
Ariana rocked her body back and forth. She hovered over Leah a moment longer than necessary.
“I should probably,” Ariana paused, looking deep into Leah’s soul, the freckles on her nose so close Leah could connect them with the tip of her finger, “we should probably, erm, do some less intimate poses, perhaps.”
“Yeah, I think that might be a good idea,” Leah muttered, but Ariana didn’t move. She hovered a second longer than necessary and just as her arms began to give way—
In walked Grace.
“Oh, erm, wow, sorry.” Grace put a hand to her eyes.
“This isn’t what it looks like,” Ariana jumped up.
Leah rolled out of the compromising position on her back and sprang to her feet, slyly adjusting the press of her leggings against her vagina.
“It’s absolutely not what it looks like,” Leah echoed.
“So, you’re not doing sexual yoga positions with your ex-girlfriend?” Grace lowered her hand, raising an eyebrow suggestively.
Ariana and Leah exchanged a glance, nodded, then looked back at Grace.
“Okay, so it’s a little bit what it looks like,” Ariana grinned. “Although, that’s not what I initially thought you thought it looked like, which I’m glad you didn’t think because it wasn’t supposed to look like that.”
“I’m confused.” Grace shut the door behind her and sat on the edge of the bed like a disappointed parent.
“We were doing yoga.” Leah shrugged.
“It’s funny, because I’ve been to my fair share of yoga classes. Actually, before Ezra was born, I used to go weekly. And if the instructor leaned over me like that, I’d be questioning whether Ezra was Johnathan’s,” she said disapprovingly.
Ariana burst out laughing. “It’s not that deep, sis. You were invited to the yoga session. It wasn’t a secret.”
“Oh, and you’d do that fucked-up baby pose with your sister, would you?” Grace challenged.
Ariana didn’t respond, which gave Grace the answer she wanted.
“My point exactly.”
“I’d do the fucked-up baby pose with you,” Leah raised her hand.
“I know you would,” Grace rolled her eyes, a hint of a smile softening the crease at the corners of her mouth.
“Is this something I need to be concerned about?”
Grace waved her hand back and forth, channelling her inner school principal.
“Grace, I’m with Hannah. You know I’d never––” Ariana couldn’t finish the sentence.
Never what? Leah tried to comprehend what had just happened, what it looked like, what it felt like, and what Hannah’s opinion might be if she found out.
“Friends do yoga together, Gracey,” Leah said, her tone patronizing. She should’ve known better; that attitude landed her in detention back in high school, and now it was about to land her in a whole dollop of Grace shit.
“That wasn’t yoga. And besides, since when did you two become friends?” Grace questioned.
“Since now,” Ariana smiled.
“Convenient.”
Ariana walked toward the door, flicking her sister on the forehead on the way out. “I’m going to make a cup of coffee.”
“Hey!” Grace slammed the door behind Ariana. “She knows I hate being flicked like that!”
“So,” Leah began rolling the mat back up, hoping Grace would walk away, whatever she’d seen or thought she’d seen erased from memory—never to be a talking point again.
“Whatever that was, you need to quit it. Not just because Ariana is with Hannah, but for your own goddamn sanity.”
“Gracey, I swear, it looked worse than it was. She was just showing me how to get the most out of each position,” Leah’s voice climbed high-pitched as the sentence trailed off, a clear tell-tale sign she was lying.
“Uh-huh,” Grace nodded, folding her arms across her chest. “So, you didn’t feel anything then?”
“Nope.”
“Nothing at all?”
“Nope.”
“Not even a tiny morsel of nostalgic chemistry as you both clambered on top of each other like a pack of dogs?”
“Nope, not one bit.”
“Now, I know you’re lying.”