Chapter Eleven
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
Oh my God.
Harper couldn’t see exactly what was happening, but she was pretty sure Charlie was crouched over her in what felt like an erotic position.
Especially as her fingers caressed her hips.
Well, okay, maybe not a caress, but with Charlie, any touch would probably feel like a caress.
Harper hadn’t known it was Charlie touching her at first—though she’d suspected—but the way her hands felt on Harper’s hips as she’d pushed down…
she knew then, even before Charlie had spoken.
And, yeah, she was embarrassed when she couldn’t get out a firm, “Yes,” when Charlie had asked if what she was doing was okay.
Her body’s reaction had to be so intense because of their interaction on the balcony that morning.
Harper hadn’t been sure what had gotten into her as she’d told Charlie she could have whatever she wanted.
And the way she’d said it? Not that she’d been any better in their interaction when she was checking into the studio. Jesus.
But Charlie’s hand running up her back and massaging her neck while the other held firm to Harper’s hip?
What the actual fuck? Her body felt like it was humming.
Charlie’s touch was somehow both too long and too short.
Because she enjoyed the feel of her too much but also missed it uncomfortably when she moved on.
But Harper’s hips did feel more open after all the assisted stretching or whatever it was called.
So when she pushed onto her knees, she swayed back and forth, marveling at how different that little stretch made her feel.
During the next pose, Harper couldn’t pull her eyes from Charlie as she helped some of the others.
Even though she was probably going to throw her neck out if she continued to twist it.
But watching Charlie squat and lunge and help other students find their balance was doing something to Harper that terrified her.
She could not look away. No matter how hard she tried.
And Charlie touched her several more times throughout class.
Even something as simple as barely grazing her fingertips near the top of Harper’s spine while she was in a lunge with her arms stretched wide and whispering, “Squeeze your shoulder blades together like you don’t want to let my fingers go,” had heat surging through her.
She swore she could feel her fingers there for the rest of the class. This had all been a mistake. An enjoyable one, yes, but definitely a mistake.
The other teachers in class touched her too, but they didn’t have the same effect, and by the time it was Charlie’s turn to lead, Harper was so worked up that just Charlie’s voice felt like a touch.
So smooth and serene. And then, they made eye contact in the mirror, and Harper lost her breath entirely.
Charlie was talking to the whole class, but it really felt like they were alone.
Class finally wound down, and they curled up into a ball on their backs, squeezed tightly, and released into a heavenly position called savasana. Harper allowed her eyes to slide closed as she flopped her arms and legs onto the mat like a starfish, relieved that class was over.
Until she felt Charlie nearby again. With her eyes closed, she wasn’t sure what to expect, but it certainly wasn’t the feel of Charlie’s fingers slipping into her hair and massaging.
Harper’s eyes flew open and apparently startled Charlie, whose eyes also went wide. “I’m sorry,” she whispered. “Is this okay?”
Harper licked her dry lips as she stared into Charlie’s eyes. She couldn’t string together any letters or words, so she nodded.
Charlie’s fingers worked heavenly magic, somehow knowing just how much pressure to apply to her temples, and Harper suppressed a groan at how good it felt.
Watching Charlie watch her was intense. Too intense, yet Harper was drawn in and couldn’t close her eyes no matter how much she wanted to.
Harper wondered, given their positions, with Charlie kneeling by her head and looking down at her, if kissing her would be like the Spider-Man kiss in the Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst version.
Charlie must have felt the intensity too, as she leaned down slightly and used her thumbs to smooth across Harper’s forehead and said, “Close your eyes.”
Harper listened, and Charlie’s thumbs moved to the space between her eyes at the top of her nose and drew up and out.
It felt amazing. Charlie seemed to be removing all the stress Harper had been carrying with that one move.
She did it a few more times before her hands returned to Harper’s scalp, massaging and stroking and… Harper finally started to drift.
The next thing she knew, she was opening her eyes, and the room was nearly empty. There was a man doing a handstand against the wall, and the woman next to her was rolling up her mat. That must have been what had woken her.
She couldn’t pinpoint exactly how she was feeling. Class had felt so intense in the moment, but right then, Harper just felt…calm. Relaxed. Every muscle in her body felt buzzy but also released. It was the strangest thing.
She could remember the conflicted feelings coursing through her while Charlie was teaching and touching her, but that felt like a distant memory. Did they pump something into the air in the studio to make them feel like this?
She rolled onto her side and sat up, marveling at how good her body felt. It was so bizarre. She rolled up her mat like the woman next to her and walked back into the reception area.
Charlie greeted her with a huge smile. She was practically glowing. “So? How was it? How do you feel?”
Harper thought about it because at least a hundred sensations and emotions were thrumming through her, and she couldn’t quite figure out how to put words together that would properly explain it. She landed on a lackluster, “Good.”
Charlie’s shoulders dropped. “Just good?”
Guilt pricked at her skin. “No, I just can’t formulate in words how I feel, but everything is positive, which is where I came up with good. Silly. How about, I feel great. But the physical release, and the mental calmness… It’s hard to elucidate clearly because my brain is blissed out.”
“Elucidate is one hell of a word to come up with when you can’t come up with words.” Charlie chuckled, and Harper joined in.
“Fair. But that’s just a vocabulary word burned into my mind due to LSAT prep courses. To actually describe how I feel is a different task entirely.”
A smile grew across Charlie’s face. “So what you’re saying is, I won our little bet, and you owe me something to be defined at a later date and is essentially anything of my choice?”
Harper rubbed the back of her neck as she looked at the ground. “Yeah, I guess so. Though, it wouldn’t be in the spirit of the agreement if you abused it.”
Charlie touched her elbow until she looked up. “I don’t know what you are envisioning when you say abuse it, but I hope you know me well enough by now to know that I wouldn’t abuse your trust.”
Harper made eye contact and nodded. “Yeah, I know. Sorry, I don’t know why I said that.” She hated that she never said what she really wanted to when she was with this woman. Maybe that wasn’t true. It was probably more like, she never said what she should.
“Good. Now, how about that ice cream?”
Harper wasn’t entirely sure how Charlie could pretend like all that eye contact hadn’t happened in the class. Or that her hands on Harper’s body hadn’t felt intense.
Though maybe Charlie hadn’t felt anything she’d been feeling, and that was why she was fine.
The thought of it made Harper feel a little queasy.
Although it would be better if this little crush that she could no longer deny was one-sided, the thought that it might be was a sharp hit in her solar plexus. Even if she wasn’t going to act on it.
“Sure. Did you want to change or anything?”
“No, I’ve gotten comfortable walking around like this. In what is essentially a beach town where everyone is a tourist, I think yoga clothes fit right in.”
Harper chuckled. “Yeah, that’s true. Okay, I won’t change either.
Just let me grab my bag.” She put on more deodorant while she was in the small locker room but otherwise didn’t change.
While she was washing her hands, she made eye contact with herself in the mirror and reminded herself that she needed to do the right thing.
Which was push the desire that was getting stronger and stronger down until she could root Charlie firmly in the friend zone.
She could do this. She was sure she could.
“Oh my God, this might be the best ice cream I’ve ever had,” Charlie said, gushing over her butter pecan in a plain cone.
“And I don’t think it’s because I’m still riding the high from teaching for the first time ever.
” She took another lick around the outside of the cone and tried not to groan at how delicious it was.
They walked side by side along the water, listening to it lap at the seawall.
“It’s the best I’ve ever had too,” Harper agreed. “You had a great idea to walk while we eat. It’s so nice out tonight.”
Charlie smiled as the breeze blew some of Harper’s hair out of her ponytail. “How’d you find this place?”
“I was struggling when I first moved here, and one of the ways I forced myself to keep moving was to try a new dessert somewhere on the island every day. That was my reward for doing all the things when I was having a hard time. And this was one of the last places I tried, but I can confirm that it is the best ice cream on the island.” She shrugged, and Charlie felt a strong need to know what was going on in her life back then.
“How long have you lived here?”
“A little over three years, though sometimes it feels like six months, and sometimes it feels like six years.”
“Time is weird like that.” Charlie took a deep breath and hoped this didn’t overstep. “If you don’t mind me asking, why were you struggling when you first got here?”