Bent Out of Shape by Bebe Balocca Page B

him with my experience before we called in more members of the staff. Hope you don’t mind. Mr Paul is a thorough and cautious employer.” He shrugged and Jamie detected the tiniest bit of an eye roll.
    “Sure, no problem. I’d be happy to conduct a one-on-one lesson with you, Peter.” Jamie unfurled her exercise mat a few feet away from his, then turned on her music and stood with her back to the mirror. “Let’s start with some standing stretches and seated stretches, and then we’ll move on to sun salutations, surya namaskar A and surya namaskar B. Just follow me.” She stood with her feet at shoulder distance apart and inhaled deeply. “Ground down through the four corners of your feet,” she instructed. “Now straighten. Reach up through the crown of your head, hollow out your stomach and draw your belly button to your spine.”
    He was eager, limber and so damn sexy that Jamie wanted to pounce on him and gobble him up. When he faced her in the warrior pose, his pectorals flexed, and she had to look away for fear that he could see her lascivious thoughts written right on her face. Completely inappropriate for a yoga teacher, she admonished herself. And when he shifted into the seated angle pose, with legs splayed, she thought she’d pass out before she could complete the class—which was crazy, really, because she wasn’t some kind of sex-crazed yoga bunny like some of her students. Jamie was mature, grounded—and totally in lust with the man spreadeagled in front of her.
    “That’s good,” she encouraged. “You’re getting a good stretch in. Try to enjoy it, take it slow and relish it. It might be hard now, but…um…” A boner the size of a Mack truck tented the front of his shorts. Jamie looked away, her cheeks aflame.
    He cleared his throat and looked down at his lap. “Uh, yeah, sorry about that. We can stop if you want to.” He chuckled. “It’s just, you know, distracting to be this close—”
    “It’s okay. This happens often in group classes and it’s not a big deal. Yoga is all about being comfortable with your body. And, yeah, I know it’s hard.” She chuckled uncomfortably. “I mean difficult.”
    “No, you meant hard,” he said. “And yes, it is.” He copied Jamie’s moves as she stood and lifted her hands overhead. His erection jutted out and pointed straight at her crotch. “But I can put up with it if you can.”
    I wanna do a lot more than just put up with it, Jamie thought, but I’ve got a job to do, dammit. “Let’s move into the cow pose. On your hands and knees, drop your spine towards the floor and try to make your shoulders touch your lower back. Just relax and breathe.”
    “How’s this?” he asked, breathing hard. “Am I doing it right?”
    Jamie looked at him and her heart pounded. Bent in one of the most traditionally embarrassing positions—at least for novice male yoga students—he was the picture of masculine gorgeousness. The tensed muscles of his ass pointed up to the ceiling, his bunched thighs trembled beneath the fabric of his shorts and his rampant erection now stretched towards the floor. “You look great,” Jamie told him, “but don’t push it. You don’t want to injure yourself.”
    “I want to be good at it,” he grunted. “How could I get hurt doing this anyway? We couldn’t be moving any slower.”
    “You can pull a muscle, no matter how slow we’re going,” she told him. The cords in his neck stood out with his effort. “Now arch your back up to the ceiling for the cat pose. You want to stretch the muscles between each vertebra. Move slowly and carefully. No rushing.”
    Peter glanced at her and Jamie caught a glimmer of humour at the corner of his mouth. He exhaled, deepening the stretch, then yelled abruptly. “Aw, fuck! Dammit!” He dropped to his mat and rolled onto his side. “Ow!” His face contorted in pain and he squeezed his eyes shut.
    “Oh, no, I’m so sorry.” Jamie knelt next to him. “Where does