25. Warrior Pose
Chapter 25
Warrior Pose
Neve sat straight-backed in front of her yoga students, a dozen women and two men. Those two men were grinning at her from the farthest row back, and the way one of them was looking at her made her tummy dance. Make that leering at her, though he would call it admiring her fine attributes.
Why did Reece and Shane insist on being here?
Until a week ago, they hadn’t attended a single yoga class in their entire lives. Would have doubled over in hysterics at the possibility. Ever since Reece—along with his brothers—had crashed one of her earlier classes, he’d become a regular fixture, and she couldn’t get rid of him. Instead of Charlie or Noah this time, he’d brought Shane, who—judging by the way he was ogling the ladies in their yoga togs—planned on becoming a regular too. Not that any of the women minded. No, they’d swallowed the absurd excuse that the boys needed flexibility and stamina for search and rescue … conveniently overlooking the fact that Reece was no longer in search and rescue.
After that first class, when they’d been alone and Reece was helping her stow blocks in the storage closet, he had pinned her against the door and confessed that his real motivation for increasing his endurance had everything to do with their active escapades in the bedroom—oh, and seeing her in tights.
Well, all those warm, fuzzy feelings were about to go up in smoke because today was the day they had a Zoom call scheduled with the lawyer. They were getting ready to undo their mistake. Was it a mistake, though? They had fallen into an easy, comfortable rhythm at home, fitting like two halves of a tea ball, its grooves seamlessly snapping together. And when it came to sex, the blazes they lit together were enough to set the entire town on fire, whether the combustion was happening in the bedroom … the bathroom … the kitchen … hell, any and every surface in her house. Nothing was sacred, everything was fair game. She needed to fan herself every time her mind strayed there, which was way too many minutes out of each hour.
They were a perfect match in every way. What if … No, that was crazy talk going on in her head. There were no what-ifs—only one inevitable conclusion streaking at them faster than a comet. Ending their Vegas blunder loomed. So did Reece’s move to Vermont.
Ten days until Christmas, and they were expected at Reece’s parents tonight. His folks had gone to Arizona to visit friends but were back and ready for the boys to join them in the annual Hunnicutt tradition of trekking into the forest on the family’s centuries-old mining claim, cutting down a pine, and hauling it back to their log mansion for decorating. There would be a spread of finger foods laid out and plenty of hot buttered rum and mulled wine to warm the belly. Neve and her sister, Brigit, had been invited to participate when they’d been younger, and those times had always held a special corner in Neve’s virtual treasure box of cherished memories.
Now if Reece and Neve could escape one more evening without his folks being the wiser …
Neve scanned the class, her gaze landing on every face. It stuttered when it reached Reece, though he wasn’t smiling suggestively or giving her lascivious looks. He wore his placid, unreadable resting face, looking so handsome her breath caught in her throat. Was it possible he was even more gorgeous than he’d been yesterday? Or was it simply that she had fallen so deeply under his spell that her rose-colored glasses were thicker and pinker than before?
Someone cleared their throat, so she wiped the dreamy look from her face, shook off the thought of waking up in Reece’s arms this morning, and got on with teaching the class.
When it was over, people gathered their mats, but Reece was bent over, inspecting whatever the woman beside him was showing him, with Shane looking on. That woman was Germaine, and she was holding something up, all flirty smiles and big boobs straining her stretchy crop tank—boobs she was shoving out so far her back curved into a C shape.
Ugh!
In his usual way, Reece listened quietly, his eyes on hers and not the D-cups she was shoving in his face, punctuating their interaction with a few words so softly spoken Neve couldn’t make them out. The little green monster inside her pushed her to her feet, and she started toward them to find out what the hell Germaine was up to—as if Neve didn’t already know—when Reece pulled an object from his gym shorts and sliced through the item Germaine held up. But that wasn’t what caught Neve’s attention. It was the knife itself, the little red one Christopher, the boy from the car crash, had given Reece. Neve knew for a fact that, like most other men around here, he owned at least two dozen knives, including some very special ones from his childhood, but the fact that he carried that one made her heart liquefy inside her chest. She could have sworn it sloshed as her footsteps carried her nearer. It definitely puddled when he looked up at her and gave her a special smile meant only for her. “Hey.”
“Hey. Everything okay back here?”
“I was helping Germaine get loose from a strap on her towel that got caught on her bracelet.”
A strap on her towel? Yeah, right. Neve crossed her arms over her chest and slid Germaine a side-eye. A return glower came back at her. Neve wanted to tell Miss Big Boobs to leave her man alone. And he was her man. Wasn’t he? They were married. Even if it had started out as the world’s biggest oops , they were living like husband and wife, and they had sprinted way past the annulment stage days ago .
“Well, I’m glad you got it all sorted,” Neve said primly. She didn’t miss the way Reece’s lips tipped up in a smirk. He could probably ready every fleck of green that had invaded her otherwise blue orbs.
She left them to tidy up the room and grab her stuff from the instructor’s closet. A gentle shove against her shoulder sent her into the closet, and soon the door was closed and Reece’s hard body pressed against hers. His mouth went straight to that spot at the base of her neck that always turned her knees to jelly. The mild scent of sweat mingled with pines and leather engulfed her. God, she loved how he smelled. Her arms immediately encircled his shoulders, pulling him closer so she could sniff his neck.
“You’re jealous.” Even though he mumbled the words against her skin, she didn’t miss the note of triumph in them.
“Am not.”
“Are too. But you should know better. Germaine is a nonstarter and always has been.” His big hands slid to her ass. He cupped it and drew her closer, lifting her to her tiptoes. As natural as could be, she hooked her legs around his waist and nearly gasped aloud when his hips flexed, leaving no doubt he was as hard as a granite rod. “See? Only one girl in this town does it for me.”
She tilted her head. “Were you thinking about me in my tights out there?”
“Nah,” he teased. “I was picturing you out of your tights, spread eagle on one of those mats, your hair wild and all that skin on display and ready for me to explore with my tongue.”
She stifled a laugh. “So I’m flopped back on a mat without anything on?”
“I said spread, not flopped. There’s a subtle distinction. You might have been tied up, and you weren’t totally naked. You might have been wearing those lace gloves from the wedding.”
She couldn’t hold back her mirth. “Reece Hunnicutt, when did you become such a—”
“Perv?” Dipping his head, he bit at a nipple through the stretchy fabric, then tongued it.
She loved how, in an instant, Reece transformed from the quiet, still-waters guy into the dirty, sexy beast with her now. That he would show her that side of him no one else glimpsed. Well, maybe Chelsea had at one time, but she was an irrelevant footnote in his past. At least that’s what Neve tried to tell herself.
“Oversexed lech was more what I had in mind, but perv fits too.” She gave his shoulders a shove, but they didn’t budge. He moved to her other side. The man was on a mission. “You’re going to leave wet marks, and everyone’s going to know!”
“Hardly anyone’s out there, but we can play it safe by getting your top out of the way. No wet marks, very efficient. Then we’ll stay in here until the last person leaves. Problem solved. And to answer your question, I became an oversexed lech the morning I woke up in Vegas, looked over the side of the bed, and saw your cute tush wiggling at me. You corrupted me.”
Damn the wet spots. The damage was already done anyway. She dropped her head back and let him do what he wanted, let the sensations rock her. “You mean you’re not the type to assault women in storage closets?” A breathlessness came through in her husky voice.
He raised his head and stared at her, his expression earnestly serious. Cold air pricked her wet peaks. “I’m not kidding. ‘Corrupted’ is the wrong word, but the kinds of things we do, I’ve never done with anyone else before. The fantasies I have about you I’ve never had about anyone else.” Then he grinned from ear to ear. “But you, I’m ready to take in any closet anywhere, any day, anytime. You make me nuts.”
Her mind took an unexpected detour to a nagging question: Was Reece her benefactor or not? Between the take-down-on-ice debacle gone terribly wrong and their extended lovemaking sessions going so right , the unsolved mystery had moved into the dusty back rooms of her mind. But she needed a definitive answer. No more evasiveness. And if he was her generous donor, she had some apologizing to do. One should never try to check one’s benefactor during a no-checking game.
She would wheedle an answer about the donations. She had some very creative ideas about pulling the truth from him—every single one involved the two of them naked. Getting him into a compromised position where she held all the power would be easy. He was good about letting her have her way with him, and she wasn’t above playing dirty.
Lifting a hand above her head, she arched her back in a provocative, sex-kitten pose and baited him. “Nuts in a good way?”
His eyes traveled down, landing right where she wanted them. Yes, she was acting like a shameless sleazeball. If anybody walked in on them —
“Depends on your definition of ‘good.’ I’m having a hard time getting anything done these days.”
“What do you have to get done, besides pack for Vermont?”
If one sentence could freeze an entire closet and murder a playful moment, hers just had. He lowered her to her feet and tugged her top back into place, regret shimmering in his eyes.
Cringing inside, she whispered, “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to put a damper on our fun.”
He placed his hands lightly on her hips and rested his forehead against hers. “It’s okay. We should get going anyway. I’d like to get cleaned up before we head to my folks’ house, and we still have the Zoom call with the attorney.” Was that regret darkening his mossy greens?
“Um, I should get cleaned up too.”
He peeked out the door. “Everyone’s gone. Coast is clear.”
“Go on home. I’ll be right behind you.”
She needed a moment to recover herself. The awkward exchange was the first they’d shared in a week, and she shrank a little inside. Not only because the serious tone had smothered playtime, but because she had reminded them both that his leaving grew closer every day. She was having a hard time keeping reality at bay.
She grabbed a hoodie and threw it on. At least the evidence of sexy time was hidden away now.
By the time she exited the rec center, Reece and his truck were gone, and the afternoon sun was midway through its winter sky arc. As she loaded her gear into the Tahoe, motion near one of the outdoor sheds caught her eye. She turned toward it for a better angle, and a dark, upright form darted behind the structure. The sun blinded her, and she wasn’t sure if what she’d seen was a trick of the light. Shading her eyes, she stood stock-still and watched, waited. Nothing moved. Why would someone hang out by the shed? There was nothing back there but old building materials and a thick stand of pines.
Convinced she’d seen an animal—or nothing at all—she headed to Mountain Coffee and pulled into a parking space in back of the store. It was near closing time, so Neve expected to find Amy alone and cleaning up. The back door was unlocked, and Neve slipped inside. Voices made her pull up short. She recognized Amy’s giggles, but the man’s voice was a low rumble that did not belong to Micky .
“Hello!” she sang out in warning. “I’m here for the cake.”
“Oh, Neve! Come in,” Amy answered, a little breathless.
As Neve cleared the corner of the back room and entered the shop, Amy was rushing at her, wringing her hands in her apron. Despite her dark skin, a becoming shade of rose flushed her pretty face. “Sorry! I-I wasn’t expecting you until later.” Over her shoulder stood Shane, looking around the store as if he were seeing it for the first time—as if he didn’t stop in every single day for his cuppa.
Interesting.
“Long time no see, Shane,” Neve called out.
His head whipped toward her, his face the picture of surprise. He was such a terrible actor. “Oh hi, Neve. Great session.”
Amy’s gaze bounced between them.
“Shane came to yoga class today,” Neve whisper-shouted in explanation.
Amy whirled and gawked at him. “You do yoga?”
He shuffled his feet. “Nah. I only went because Reece needed backup.” He exchanged a very puzzling, very goofy grin with Amy, who looked back at Neve.
“I guess Reece needed backup all those other times you showed up too,” Neve needled.
He shuffled some more, looking completely ill at ease in his six-three frame.
Amy’s dark eyes widened with something akin to admiration. “That’s so cool! I love yoga.” Shane’s brown eyes lit up. “I just haven’t had much time lately.”
“I didn’t know you were into yoga. You should come sometime. Neve’s a great teacher. I could even pick you up, if it’s easier,” he offered.
Amy covered her mouth and giggled. “Oh, I definitely need to come just to see how bendy you and Reece are.” Was that a blush painting Shane’s face? “How are you at reverse warrior and tree pose?”
He opened his mouth, only to close it again. Neve took mercy. “He’s getting bendier by the day.”
Shane didn’t acknowledge Neve’s comment. Didn’t acknowledge Neve . She felt like a moviegoer watching the beginning of a rom-com. He leaned his palms on the counter, his gaze hyperfocused on Amy. “You work too hard, you know that? ”
Amy perched her fist on her hip. “Look who’s talking. But them’s the breaks, right?” He gave her a nod of agreement. She turned a beaming smile on Neve. “I’ve got your cake right here.”
Besides coffee, Amy served the best baked goods in the area. Not her creations, but she had excellent sources in town who kept her coffee shop stocked with all kinds of mouthwatering pastries. Occasionally, when a customer asked, one of her bakers would whip up something special, like the cake Neve was bringing to the Hunnicutts’ gathering.
She left Amy and Shane behind, their low whispers buzzing as she stepped outside. At home, she hummed as she walked through the door, balancing the pink bakery box in one hand and her bag in the other.
Reece, his hair damp from a shower, lunged for the box. “Let me get that. Is this for tonight?”
“Yep, and wait’ll you see it.” He tried to lift the box lid. “I didn’t mean right now! Let’s at least get it over there before you drool on it.” She dropped her bag, pulled off her scarf, and patted Pearl’s head. Mr. Whiskers sauntered out of her office, oblivious to the dog, who turned to sniff him. “Wow! This is new.”
“Oh yeah. He’s decided he’d rather brave Pearl than be cooped up at the end of a long, lonely day.”
Neve picked up her bag and brushed past Reece on her way to the kitchen. “Any problems so far?”
He trailed after her. “One bat with his claws to let Pearl know he didn’t appreciate her sticking her nose up his butt. Other than that, they’ve tolerated each other pretty well.”
Jeez, even the animals were fitting in together under the same roof. The four of them could have been mistaken for a family.
She shook off the idea. “Guess who I saw hanging around Mountain Coffee with the owner? And looking all kinds of embarrassed when I busted them?”
“No idea.”
She began unpacking her bag. “Your yoga partner, Shane.”
Reece’s mouth dropped open. “What were they doing?”
“Giggling and looking like they were up to no good.”
“Shane giggled ? How is that even possible?”
“No idea, but I’ll bet you my bottom dollar those two are up to something . Wait. I don’t have a bottom dollar to bet. Which reminds me … an other deposit landed in my account today.” She narrowed her eyes at him.
“Nice.” He smoothed the hair at his nape. “So you don’t think Shane and Amy are … I mean Micky’s a total train wreck who has no business being with her, but no one deserves to be two-timed.”
“I didn’t say she was making time with Shane. They were fully clothed and at least three feet apart, but Shane was flushed, and Amy looked … invigorated.”
“That sounds like they were having sex.” The smirk on his face was … adorable. In bare feet, sporting a white undershirt and jeans, he leaned his tall frame against the counter and folded his arms over his chest. He looked so elegantly at ease—and damn yummy. Suddenly, she wanted to—
“I never thought about those two together, but it could work—as long as Amy does the right thing and ends it with Micky first.” He tapped his finger against his chin.
“Wow, you do have a romantic bone in your body!”
“Do I? I do? Hey, wait a minute. You say that as if … You don’t think I’m romantic?” Was his startled look real or fake?
Neve had never, ever thought of Reece as romantic. But lately? “Reece, you’re a mountain goat who rappels all over the place,” she supplied instead. He put on an offended face, and she rushed to add, “They’re kinda cute and cuddly-looking.”
“They don’t ‘rappel all over the place,’ and neither do I. Oh, and they smell bad. You trying to tell me something?”
“Yes,” she laughed. “I need to get cleaned up so we can go.”
He wiggled his eyebrows. “Need some help? I’ll show you how romantic I can be.”
“Absolutely not. If I let you help me, we won’t be ready for our call, and we’ll never get out of here.” She stuck her head in the fridge, where she found several bottles of chocolate milk that hadn’t been there before. Obviously, Reece had gone out and bought them for her. She placed a hand on his folded arms to balance on her tiptoes while she surged up to plant her lips on his cheek, whispering, “You’re so sweet.”
With a quick turn of his head, he caught the kiss with his mouth. The kiss grew heated, like it usually did, and she broke it and scooted away before she changed her mind and tackled him.
After showering and dressing for their outdoor tree trek, Neve entered the kitchen and found Reece intently staring at his computer screen.
She walked past, trailing her fingertips along his shoulders on her way to the sink. The touch was as much to steady her nerves, and it was because she simply loved touching him. She was dreading the call, and his square shoulders under her hands gave her a solid connection she craved.
“Are you setting up for the call?” Even as she asked, her eyes drifted to the screen, where a man standing in an unfamiliar wooded area, outfitted in rescue gear, was gesturing while talking—as if he were giving instruction.
Reece’s spine snapped straight, and he quickly closed his laptop. “No, just trying to catch up on some work.” He glanced over his shoulder at her. “The lawyer just canceled our phone appointment. Says he came down with something. He’ll be in touch once he’s feeling better, and we’ll reschedule.”
Neve’s spirits rose up, up, and she practically glided to the sink. Though she shouldn’t, she couldn’t help but let sweet relief spread through her limbs. Suddenly, living in limbo with Reece was better than facing down their harsh reality.