For a full second, she couldn’t move as she savored the feel of him there. But somewhere in the back of her mind, warning bells went off.
“Would you like some coffee or juice?” she asked, pushing him away before she headed toward her kitchen. Yowza, but he had a hard body. Just the brief contact of her hand on his chest was enough to let her know he was built of solid muscle.
Disappointment flashed across his face, only to be quickly replaced by a grim determination. “Juice would be great.” He followed after her and took a seat at her breakfast counter while she went to her fridge.
She could feel his gaze on her body. Turning her head, she saw confirmation. He was staring at her butt as if he were caressing her in his mind. Her entire body burned.
Rhea almost dropped the juice. Tightening her grip, she pretended to ignore him and went to get a glass.
“So your brother is named Aramis, huh? Your dad must have been in The Three Musketeers.”
“Yes, and Aramis is grateful every day of his life that Dad didn’t double for Christopher Lee.”
“Why?”
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“He played Rochefort.”
She laughed as she poured the juice. “Yeah, I can see where that might be bad. But had your father doubled for Michael York, Aramis would be D’Artagnan. That could have been cool.” She handed him his juice.
“Maybe,” Ace said before he took a sip. “But no one would ever be able to spell it.”
The doorbell rang.
Grateful for the interruption, Rhea put the juice back in the fridge. “That must be our instructor.”
She headed back to the door, unsure of what to expect. The woman’s name was Beullah Mueller, and for some reason she pictured an extremely rigid German woman who looked like the gym teacher from the movie Porky’s, complete with hair rolled into sausages around her head.
The reality was worse.
“Hi,” the woman said, not in a German-accented voice, but in a normal American one.
“Beullah?”Rhea asked, unsure if this was the right woman.
Surely not.
Around the age of forty-five, the woman in front of her was of average height, slender, and was dressed in pink designer sweats. She had a large, navy blue gym bag slung over her shoulder. Something about her reminded Rhea of Meredith Baxter-Birney from FamilyTies .
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She looked wholesome and sweet.
Beullah smiled warmly. “I know. I look like someone’s middle-aged mother and not a dominatrix instructor. But in my day…I have to tellyou, I have whipped many a man’s ass and enjoyed it thoroughly.”
There was something extremely incongruous about that coming out of the mouth of a woman who looked as if she ought to be in a peanut butter commercial.
“Okay,” Rhea said, stepping back to let the woman in. “I don’t suppose I want to ask how it is Tee knew to call you, doI? ”
“We go to the same spa and health club. I have to tell you that Tee is something else. She bends like a pretzel.”
“Oh, jeez, now there’s an image I want burned out of my memory. I’ll never be able to look Tee in the eye again,” Ace said as he joined them.
Beullah smiled. “You must be Ace. Tee told me to give you an extra hard time.”
“I’m sure she did, just as I’m sure you will.”
Rhea had to admit she didn’t like the way Beullah was looking at Ace, like a starving woman staring at a steak.
Beullah waltzed into the living room and placed her bag on the coffee table. “Tee said she liked the two of you a lot and that you were ready to get more adventurous in your relationship, so here I am.”
“Pardon?”Rhea asked.
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Beullah waved her hand. “Oh, don’t be bashful. I’ve worked with lots of couples who have gotten bored with the missionary position and are looking for new ways to spice up their sex. I had this couple once who started out normal as pie, and the next thing I knew, they had more body piercings than Marilyn Manson and Christina Aguilera combined. He really liked feeling the cat-o’-nine-tails whip across his pe—”
“TMI,” Ace said quickly, cutting her off.“Way too much information for me.”
Rhea agreed completely, but couldn’t resist teasing him. “I don’t know, Ace. That sounds like fun. Sure you don’t want to give it a try?”
“Nothing painful comes near the area,” he said, indicating his entire groin.“Nothing.”
“Now, now,” Beullah said as she unzipped her bag. “You two have to learn to trust each other. That’s rule number one about being a couple. If you’re to have a healthy relationship, you have to learn to express your needs and fears to each other without dread or inhibition.”