Page 11 of Further To Fall

Austin grinned. “Why don’t we start with you telling me what experience youdohave.”

“Like sports experience?”

“Sure. Sports, working out, yoga, whatever.”

I looked down, twisting the ring on my water bottle. “Well, no real sports experience. I mean other than when my parents forced me to play soccer in the fourth grade. Three trips to the ER later—two for me, one for a teammate I took out—and they really regretted that decision. Like I said, I’m not the most coordinated. I belong to a gym, and I make myself go at least twice a week. But mostly for beginner Pilates and the elliptical.” I sucked in a breath.

Austin looked as if he were trying really hard not to laugh, he coughed instead. “We’ll take it slow, then. Start with light stretching, work into some conditioning, and then maybe work on a few basic drills.”

I was unsure about this plan, really freaking unsure. With my luck, I’d end up giving him a concussion or permanently damaging his little swimmers. Shoot, don’t think about his swimmers. I could feel my cheeks getting hot. “Sure, sure, that sounds great.”

Austin walked me through a couple of easy stretches, and I tried to take some deep breaths to calm my rapidly beating heart. Then he grabbed a mat from the pile in the corner and brought it over. “Lay down.”

“What?” I choked.

He smirked. “Lay down on the mat. I have to stretch out your hamstrings, and then we can get started.”

“I don’t think that’s necessary. I feel super limber,” I said, backing away from the mat. I did not need this gorgeous man fondling any part of my body.

Austin’s smirk turned into a grin. “Carter. I don’t want you pulling a muscle or injuring yourself in some other way.” He pointed at the mat.

I felt hot, and sweat pooled between my breasts. I hadn’t even done anything strenuous yet, this was just embarrassing. “Okay, sure.” I laid back on the mat.

Austin knelt by my feet, and I swallowed hard. He gently grabbed my left ankle and slowly lifted it as he worked his way forward until his knees were almost touching my butt. I gulped. “You need to breathe, Firecracker. Just breathe.”

I let out a whoosh of air. It was so much easier to ignore these threads of chemistry when Austin was being a big, fat jerk. I needed to get over it and quick. Austin was not for me, he wasn’t the boyfriend type, and even if he were, it was too complicated. He was best friends with one of my only friends in LA, that could only end messily.

Austin leaned over me as he pushed me deeper into the stretch. All I could think about was dry humping with my high school boyfriend. This was basically the same thing, except totally different. Different because Austin was all broad shoulders and raw masculinity, and my high school boyfriend was all lanky limbs and nerdiness. Think about something else, Carter, literallyanythingelse.

“Are you okay?”

My eyes flew open to find Austin staring down at me. “I’m fine,” I squeaked.

“You’re doing great, just let me get the other leg.”

I sang the alphabet backwards in my head until he was done.

“Okay.” Austin jumped up and then reached down to offer me a hand. I winced as I put my surely sweaty palm in his and got up. “Let’s start with some jumping rope to get your heart rate up.” He handed me a super thin jump rope that looked nothing like the plastic-beaded ones I remembered from elementary school.

I gingerly took the rope from him, like it was a snake that might bite me. “I’ll give it my best try, but if I break my neck, just promise me you’ll make up a cooler story to tell our friends than…she died tripping over her own feet.”

“I promise. Now, stop stalling and start jumping.”

After a few false starts and one almost collision with the mirrored wall, I started to get the hang of it. I also realized I was ridiculously out of shape. I knew I wasn’t sporty, but I went to the gym, I thought I was in average shape. Not so much. “Holy shitake mushrooms, are you trying to kill me?” I wheezed. “I thought you said you wanted to get along. You could have just poisoned the cupcakes, it would have been quicker. And far less painful.”

Austin’s muscular chest shook with laughter. “Holy shitake mushrooms?”

Thankfully, my face was so red I was sure the blush that came to my cheeks couldn’t be seen. “I, um, make up my own versions of cuss words so I won’t accidentally drop an F-bomb in front of my students.”

“Your word choice is making a lot more sense now. Come on, you’ve got one more minute to go. We really need to work on your cardio, maybe get you on a jogging regimen.”

I shot him a dirty look and then stuttered and wheezed my way through the rest of jumping rope, a ridiculous amount of ab exercises, and my pathetic attempt at push-ups. I now lay on the floor while Austin again stretched my hamstrings, too tired to be embarrassed by the sexual-like positions. “But when do I learn how to take down a grown man with my pinky?” I asked.

“Patience, young grasshopper. One thing at a time. We have to build up your muscles, but I’ll start showing you some things next time.”

That brought a big dumb grin to my face. I think I was high from all the activity; my brain wasn’t used to this.

“The biggest thing to remember is to trust your instincts. They don’t call it women’s intuition for nothing. Women have this sixth sense that, if they listen to it, will almost always steer them right. If something is niggling in the back of your brain or a situation doesn’t feel right,alwayslisten to that.” Austin had the most serious look I had ever seen on his face, so I nodded. “Also, scream, act crazy, and no matter what, never let them get you into a car or to a second location. Even if they have a gun or knife.”

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