It was hotter than hell in the room and every second that passed, it felt like it was getting hotter. If I wasn’t worried that it would send Lando running and totally cross the boundaries between personal and professional, I would’ve stripped my lightweight sweats off as well and done the damn yoga in my underwear. It would be way more interesting that way.
I was chuckling to myself at the thought when I heard him making his way back across the room. I lifted my head up from the floor to watch his approach and almost swallowed my tongue. He wasn’t in his underwear? but he might as well have been. All he was wearing was a pair of loose, black basketball shorts and lots of naked skin. Pretty, pale, freckled skin. I liked it. I liked him and I wanted to touch him. The long and lean lines of muscles that flexed as he made his way over to me and took a seat on the mat next to mine were mesmerizing. I was in good shape, cut and defined better than most of the guys I worked with on the force, but this guy was perfect. He looked like the sculptures the ancients used to carve out of marble when they were depicting what the perfect male form should be. It was distracting to say the least, and I missed that he was talking to me because I was gawking at him like a love-struck teenager.
I cleared my throat and pushed myself up into a seated position. “I didn’t hear a word you just said. If you want me to pay attention to you, then I’m telling you right now you need to put a shirt on.” I was dead serious.
It was his turn to let his eyes rove over my torso and I didn’t miss the way the blue burned through the gray the longer he looked at me. That look made me sweat twice as much as the heat swirling around the room.
He muttered something under his breath and climbed to his feet. “Okay so just follow what I do and try and concentrate on breathing. Don’t work against your body, work with it. I don’t think I can give you the entire spiel again either.”
I went to push myself up from the ground and almost collapsed back when my shoulder hollered in protest. Lando immediately reached out a hand to help me up and it was there again when our palms touched, that spark, that flash of intensity that made every nerve ending I had stand to attention and beg to be pressed up against his slick skin.
I hissed out a breath between my teeth and watched as he shook his head a little, like he needed to clear it.
“Okay, so first bend over and put your hands flat on the floor like this.” I watched him bend over with his legs perfectly straight as he put his hands flat in front of his feet. I tried to mimic the pose but barely got halfway there before I had to bend my knees.
He turned his head to the side and looked at me while he was upside down. “Your flexibility could use some work.”
I grunted at him and tried to straighten up. “Thanks for noticing.”
He chuckled and moved into some pose that looked like he was firing an invisible bow and arrow at the capital. I followed suit and was surprised that the pull in my shoulder ached but didn’t bellow in pain. I was also surprised when Lando asked me quietly, “How many sisters do you have?”
It was the first thing he had ever asked that didn’t have to do with my injury or regular routine. “Uh, two. Ari is a freshman in college and Greer just graduated. She wants to be a teacher.”
He shifted poses again, this time lifting his hands up above his head like he was praying and pulling them down slowly while he balanced on one leg. I decided that if I was going to balance on one leg it wouldn’t be the one I shattered and was pleased as hell that I didn’t topple over.
“I have a little sister who’s a senior in high school and a total nightmare for my parents. My dad can’t keep the boys away. My little brother is a year younger than me and lives overseas so he can play professional soccer.”