Page 42 of Catch Me
“You can make things look better than they do in real life. That one you drew of me made me look a lot prettier than I actually am.”
I’d been joking, but he turned and met my eyes. “It looks exactly like you.”
Then, he looked ahead. He didn’t open his mouth again, and when we got to the house, he went directly to his room.
Had my words been an insult to his art, or did he just call me attractive in a roundabout way?
Cooking sounded like a chore, so I gave Tessa her dinner, then escaped to my room so that I could soak in my tub. If all else failed, a bath was always a good way to relax the mind.
Chapter 14
Travis
“Jesus,” I exclaimed, putting my hand over my dick. “Why are you jumping on me?”
Tessa barked and wagged her tail as if she hadn’t just pounced on my junk first thing in the morning. It was always when I was sleeping really well that she wanted to wake me up.
“Fine. I know that you know how to open the door, but sure, I’ll do it for you.”
I pulled on a pair of sweats and padded into the hall, already yawning. To my surprise, there was a pot of coffee made. It was too early to question it, so I made a cup before I headed toward the back.
Through the sliding door, I saw Roman standing on the deck. Well, he wasn’t really standing. It looked like he was doing yoga. Poorly.
His phone was leaning against his mug and there was a video playing on it—a yoga routine. That was interesting.
I opened the door, and Tessa darted through, which made him stop suddenly. As I stepped out, I gave him an apologetic look.
“She must’ve known you were up. She woke me earlier than usual. Violently.”
“Sorry,” he muttered.
He wouldn’t meet my eyes as he rushed to turn off the video. I sipped my coffee, unabashedly watching him.
“What?” he snapped.
“Wanna do yoga together?”
“No.”
“I can give you better lessons than her. I already saw you doing it, so what’s the harm?”
His lips were set so tightly that I worried the skin would crack. I went back inside, grabbed two mats, then set them on the deck. He was glaring now, and it made me laugh.
“Relax, Roman. You didn’t receive a hundred pounds to the dick this morning.”
He blinked slowly enough that I worried there was a glitch in the matrix. Finally, he stepped onto the mat and stared at me expectantly.
“You’re already warmed up, so that’s good. We’re gonna do Vinyasa. You’re fit, so it shouldn’t be too hard, but the flow of your breathing and the way you move your body are important.”
Starting slowly, I gave him time to mimic my movements. He was big and he didn’t move gracefully, but I hadn’t either when I first started. We shifted from downward dog into plank, and I heard his breath shudder out of him.
“Breathe,” I instructed. “You’re not used to this type of control in your movements. Think of when you lift weights and you time your breaths.”
He nodded, then continued to follow me. After a few sequences, I stopped to give him a break.
“I think this makes me angrier,” he grumbled.
Grabbing my coffee cup, I smiled. “Eventually, it won’t. You learn to let things go with every exhale. Release it back into the universe.”
