Page 10 of Christmas Eve Do-Over
I'm sure this class would be a good distraction to give me time to get my head straight.
* * *
Brinley ran the class like the athlete and leader she was. I was there to demo and help her instruct the kids when they paired off to practice the moves they'd just been taught. All in all, they did quite well and were a respectful bunch, listening intently and not goofing off. I stayed on the far side of the room from Duke the entire time, trying to act natural as I tracked his location from the corner of my eye.
"Okay, we have ten minutes left for today, so I'd like to have my boss, Ms. Shasta, show you all how powerful the practice of Jiu Jitsu is. We'll have your boss, Mr. Reynolds, try to attack her and see what happens, shall we?" The kids all cheered, excited to see their mentor get in a scuffle with a woman, I'm sure.
Duke looked like he may have wrenched his neck with how quickly his gaze landed on me, his questioning look gauging whether getting in a scuffle with me was a good idea. He must have answered his own question because a heated look entered his blue eyes and I felt as if I was the prey in a game of hunt and seek I hadn't signed up for.
As for me, I had hot flashes again, wondering what it would feel like to have Duke's body pressed up against mine. He'd hugged me for all of two seconds and that brief moment had felt like heaven.
"There're kids watching. Kids, Shasta," I mumbled to myself as I moved to the front of the room. Better to get this over with than draw it out and make it even more uncomfortable.
"Okay, so let's have them show us a choke hold. Duke, you stand here and place your hands around Shasta's neck, in an attempt to strangle her. When you're ready, Shasta, show the group how you'd proceed in this situation." Brinley was chirping at me, completely oblivious to my discomfort, which was just as well. I didn't want to explain my feelings if I didn't have to.
Duke's strong hands came up and wrapped around my neck, his thumb stroking the side of my neck where the kids couldn't see. I knew his touch was on my neck, but my body felt it way further south. In a flash of clarity, I understood why women got off on bondage. Too bad I'd have to get rough on him instead.
I looked him in the eye, seeing the intensity of his gaze and knowing he felt everything too. Why couldn't he just accept friends with benefits, huh? Why this whole insistence on a relationship? It was dumb, and I was more than a little pissed that he wouldn't let us scratch the itch.
So I whipped my head down and around, escaping his hold, then came back up to grab his hands, now dangling aimlessly in the air. I pulled hard and planted my leg next to him to trip him now that his momentum was going forward and to the right. Down he flopped onto the mats on his back. He blinked up at me.
I stood straight, hands on hips, and smiled at the kids hooting and hollering. Then a denim-clad leg hit the back of my knees. As I buckled, my eyes wide as saucers, Duke's arm wrapped around my middle and rolled me on the mat until he was on top, straddling me, a triumphant smirk on his face.
The kids went crazy, but the minute I saw that smug smile the noises dimmed and all I could think about was winning. I would best this man and wipe that look off his face. Shasta didn't go down that easy.
So I bucked my hips as hard as I could, thanking every gym workout I'd forced myself to in the last twenty years, which pitched him forward, his hands flying to the ground above my head to steady himself. I used that moment to tilt my hips to the left and slide out from under him.
Since he was now on all fours, I planted my foot on his gorgeous ass and pushed him down, leaning over to grab an arm and twist it behind his back. We stayed like that for a tense moment, his face in the mat, me pressed against his back, both of us breathing heavy. Then the hand I held between us moved, his fingers stroking my breast. I gasped at the sensation, the element of surprise making me loosen my grip. He pulled his arm free and rolled underneath the tent of my legs.
Like a desperate cowboy about to lose his seat, I held on for dear life, although there was now something hard and delicious pressing between my legs. Duke's jaw clenched, a little vein on the side of his forehead pulsing, counting the seconds as each of us scrambled for how to end this.
In typical Shasta style, an idea came at the last second. A flash of brilliance that tickled my senses, my inner wild child cheering me on.
I leaned in, and I gave him the business.
Tongue and everything.
He lay motionless for the first fraction of a second, then his lips were moving beneath mine, no hesitancy to be found. Before I could lose myself in the cacophony of fireworks exploding inside my skull and traveling down to where I lay against growing steel, I pulled away and hopped up. I moved clear across the room, my lips tingling in protest.
The cheers of my inner wild child faded away, replaced by that of the kids wolf whistling, in a total uproar about their leader being kissed and bested by a girl right in front of them.
"And that..." I cleared my throat to make my voice sound steadier. "...is how you disarm someone bigger and stronger than you. Do the unexpected. Do whatever it takes to get away."
I glanced over at Brinley to see her jaw dropped, her wide eyes ping-ponging back and forth between me and a still prone Duke. I absolutely refused to look at the man, afraid my lips would be drawn back to his like a huge magnet, a force too powerful to stop. Magnetic fields were invisible, and so was our attraction to each other, but that kiss was proof the pull was there, alive and well after twenty years of absence.
Brinley hopped up from the mats and stood at the front of the room, helping Duke to his feet. "Okay, that's it for today, kids. I'll see you again tomorrow for some headlocks," she shouted over the continued mayhem.
The kids ran to get their bags and exit through the door. Quite a few even gave me high fives, fist bumps, and head nods of respect. The adults remained frozen to the spot while they filed out, none of us quite knowing what to say, certain that nothing we could possibly think to say could be said in front of the kids.
As the door clanged shut behind the last one, Brinley clapped her hands. "Okay, well, that was interesting. I'll let you two talk. See you later, Foxy. Shasta." She stared me down as she left the studio with a glare. Clearly, we'd be speaking later. I'm sure she'd want the full story.
And then it was just me and Duke, two middle-aged ex-lovers who'd just shared their first kiss since our teen years, standing with ten feet between my tingly lips and his impressive package that seemed much bigger than when we were kids.
Not awkward at all.
"So..." he started.
"About—" I said at the same time.
