Page 14 of Love In The Air

Chance grumbled something under his breath she couldn’t quite make out, then louder, “Sorry. I’m not trying to boss you around. I’m only pointing out that you might want to take it easy on the stretching. I’m…looking out for my partner.”

Fine. He had a point, but he could learn to phrase it better instead of insisting he knew her body better than she did.

“Lower half an inch,” she grumbled, feeling immediate relief when he did. The stretch was still there, but she didn’t feel like her shoulder was about to be ripped from its socket now. “And don’t say anything or I will kick your ass.”

A chuckle sounded from above her.

“My lips are zipped.”

She breathed into the stretch until Meg called out, “Okay, switch it up.”

Chance slowly let her arms back down, swing his leg up and over her so Iz could roll over and rise to her knees.

“My turn,” he grinned, laying face down in the position she’d just abandoned.

She moved to hover over him the same way he did her, but there was a problem. Once Iz had her knees on either side of his hips, she realized the issue. Her legs were a lot shorter than his, and his hips wider. She’d also been cursed with the flattest ass around while Chance had a backside you could bounce a quarter off of. All this led to the horrifying fact that to properly help him with his stretch, Iz had to rest directly on the man.

Crotch to ass.

“I’m ready,” Chance said with utter nonchalance.

At least he didn’t seem disturbed by the fact that she was basically riding him like a pony. Or maybe he just understood that this contact would probably be tame compared to what their routine would require them to do. Aerial duo acts required a lot of strange positions and holds that looked pretty, but meant you had to be comfortable being up close and very personal with your partner. Iz needed to get her hormones in check and her head on straight if she was going to get through this.

“Okay, tell me when you’re good,” she said, reaching up and grabbing his hands. It was tricky considering the height difference, but it amazed her when Chance arched his back, head tilting so she could stare at his upside-down smiling face. “Wow.”

“It’s the yoga,” he said, letting out a long-controlled breath. “Took me years to get this flexible. I can give you some tips if you want.”

Old Iz would have scoffed, told him where he could shove it and spent every waking moment practicing on her own so she could wrap herself in a pretzel just to spite him. But she was trying to be more mature, and he had apologized for his earlier command. He was trying too. They had agreed to be friends, and this show was important to her. So, she swallowed her pride and smiled.

“Yeah, that’d be great.”

He blinked—a much sillier looking expression when one saw it upside-down—as if he hadn’t expected her to agree. She took a small amount of pleasure in that. Maybe surprising Chance would be just as fun as competing with him. Anything that kept him on his toes was a good time in her book.

“Really? Cool.”

“And down,” Meg called out. “Time for conditioning.”

Iz slowly helped lower Chance back to the mat. She released her grip, her fingers slowly stroking the back of his hands of their own accord. She cursed at herself inside and quickly moved off of him. Chance rolled over and pinned her with a stare. She could have sworn she saw a dark flare of heat warming his green eyes, but he blinked, and it disappeared.

“You first again?” he asked, rising, and motioning to their one hoop.

She moved to the hoop and gripped the bottom. “How gentlemanly of you.”

“Naw,” he grinned. “I’m just waiting to see how many straddle ups you do, so I can do twice as many.”

“I thought we weren’t competing anymore?”

He winked, the tiny open and close of his eye doing things to her body it had no right to do. She moved her arm to cover her chest, wishing she’d worn her padded sports bra. Hopefully, the tank top would obscure how hard her nipples were right now. From a damn wink!

“Let’s think of it as a healthy challenge.”

She rolled her eyes, but straddle ups didn’t carry the risk of hurting anything like overstretching did. If he wanted to get his butt kicked, she was game. He might have her on the flexibility, but she was the straddle up champion.

“Be prepared to eat crow,” she said with a grin, gripping the bar and straightening her legs. “You’re about to go down, O’Brien.”

6

Iz pushed her computer away, stretching her neck and wincing as three loud pops filled the air.

---