“Quit,” he said, his eyes closed as he rotated his hips, arm stretched above his body, twisting himself into an angle that made me hurt just looking at him.
“I am lying here, trying to figure out how my body is supposed to start functioning again becausesomeonedecided yoga on top of everything else was something I needed to do,” I told him, finally remembering why I was irritated. “I will not quit glaring at you.”
“Mmm, that’s not what you were doing though,” he said, twisting so he could bend the other way. “I’m not stupid.”
Before I could ask what he could know when his eyes were closed, Clay walked over and eyed Luka, cocking his head. “Alright, yeah, you’ve got good form, quit showing off.”
“Is it my form you’re complimenting?” Luka asked wryly, eyes still closed. “Or something else?”
Clay made what I was sure he thought was an indignant noise, but it sounded horribly staged. “Come on now, I would never do anything as crass as check out your ass while you’re enjoying a few last minutes of yoga.”
“You absolutely would,” I said, closing my eyes so I didn’t get noticed checking Luka out. Over the past couple of weeks, we had managed not to be too obvious, or so I hoped. I knew what we were doing didn’t cross any moral or ethical lines, but that didn’t mean other people would be so understanding. Honestly, the fact that he was my Guide probably crossed a professional line, but what he didn’t know was that I was probably crossing one of my own. I wasn’t sure if sleeping with him went against the instruction to ‘act like someone going through the program’ or not, but I was sure it wasn’t encouraged.
I snorted at the sudden thought of what Hannah would say if she heard what I had been doing while I was supposed to be doing my job. She might chide me in private, but she would be delighted I was doing something reckless for once in my life.
It was worth it. The time Luka and I spent together was more and more frequent, and it was...nice. He was less nervous and skittish around me now, and I had been wrong about his abilityto be quiet for long periods of time. When we weren’t in the main parts of the resort doing things together like we were expected to, we were in my room. We were happy spending time getting to know each other sexually, but we often sat and did our own thing in silence.
Sometimes we were on the bed, legs tangled as we read. Other times, he sprawled on my bed while I sat in the chair, sipping a cup of tea or coffee as the soft sounds of the room filled the air. We hadn’t done much more than that, though the temptation to ask him to stay the night had always been there, and I wondered if it existed in his thoughts. If we weren’t in the resort in the positions we held, I would have already had him stay the night more than once.
“Okay, I would,” Clay admitted, and I didn’t have to open my eyes to know he was grinning. “And I definitely was appreciating your...assets.”
“That is one of the oldest and cheesiest sexual innuendos,” I told him.
“Aw, there must be older and cheesier ones.”
“Not in modern-day circulation.”
“What is this, a library? Circulation, c’mon.”
I opened one eye to stare at him in disbelief. “You know what a library is?”
He snorted. “I even know how to read.”
“Amazing,” I said. “Just when you think you know someone, they surprise you with a whole new facet of their personality you never expected.”
“You’re both completely ruining the mood,” Luka complained, but when I looked at him, I could tell he was trying not to laugh. One thing he had learned about me was that my humor was not absent or even minimal; it was just drier than the surface of Mercury. At some point, he understood I wasn’t beingjudgmental, but I was quick to make a sarcastic comment or say something meant to bite a little.
Clay cocked his head as Luka took another suggestive pose, bowing his shoulders forward. It wasn’t quite an arched back, but it was close enough that I could sense what was going on in his mind. Mostly because it was going on in mine, and I could feel my pulse pick up as I wondered how long he could hold that pose later. I was glad I was lying face down on the floor because the pants I’d been instructed to wear weren’t hiding anything. I couldn’t help the urge to glance at Clay and see he was wearing loose shorts, and if his underwear was tight enough, any evidence of arousalcouldbe hidden...or, maybe there was a lot more ‘show’ to his constant flirtation and innuendo than he let on.
I, however, was not going to be rolling over anytime soon, not so long as there were people in the room. Luka might like to comment on my size, and while it was true, I didn’t want to make that common knowledge. So I stayed there, rising enough so I didn’t have to speak into the floor to talk to them. “The session is over, Luka, we’re allowed to ruin the mood now.”
“Unless you want us to make another mood,” Clay asked, and though he was grinning, I didn’t think his heart...or other parts of him, were in it. “Think you can strike a pose that would let Rowan and me get a?—”
“Do not finish that sentence,” Luka said calmly. “Or I’ll abuse my Guide privileges to figure out where you are at any time and tell your Guide.”
Clay scowled. “Even he doesn’t do that!”
“Nope, but I will,” Luka said, the corners of his lips curling up, clearly pleased that he had found something that got under Clay’s skin. “And then what will you do?”
“Well, if I can’t seduce him, I’m fucked...or not fucked.”
“Pretty sure Reggie made sure everyone who’s your Guide is strictly into women, so you’re going to be barking up the wrong tree in the wrong forest.”
“Damn, I knew it! Reggie said he wouldn’t do that for legal reasons, but I knew he was full of shit!” Clay huffed, crossing his arms. “I’m going to find that little twink and tell him I’m onto him.”
“You do that,” Luka said casually as Clay marched off. “Never mind that Reggie stopped being a twink years ago and now he’s just cute.”
I smirked, rolling over to sit up now we had the room to ourselves. “Reggie isn’t actually polling for people’s sexualities, is he?”
