I moved around her, and every time our eyes met, her gaze would dart away, like a scared little minnow. It was a strange situation to be teaching a class to someone who was doing their best to avoid you as much as possible.
I wanted to ask her if she wanted to stop, but that might make things even weirder, so I just kept teaching. For the standing sequence, I had her do Half Moon, which she was normally very stable in, but her leg wobbled, and I tried to get out of the way before she fell into me, and I didn’t move fast enough.
Piper instinctively reached for me and I reached for her to steady her.
“Sorry,” she said, her chest heaving as if she’d run a marathon.
“It’s okay. We’re all unsteady sometimes,” I said, but I wasn’t letting go of her. Mostly because she wasn’t letting go of me.
Our faces were inches away and I knew I should let her go, step away, let her go back to her yoga, but my hands didn’t want to.
Piper’s gaze was soft, much different than when I first walked in and she wouldn’t look at me. She was looking at me now, and I couldn’t tear my eyes away, even if I’d wanted to.
In another breath, her lips were on mine. Piper pulled my body fully into hers, causing me to stumble onto her mat.
Piper kissed me as if she was desperate. As if we’d been apart for a dozen years, instead of just a day.
I didn’t fight the kiss. How could I? I wanted it as much as she did. Her mouth was insistent and frantic, and I matched her with my own intensity. The kiss wasn’t careful or gentle, and that was fine by me. Piper pushed me backward until I was up against the mirrors, her hips pressing into mine, her tongue plunging into my mouth. The kiss was chaotic and wonderful, and I never wanted it to end.
My fingers fumbled with her hair, which was still up. I yanked on the elastic and let her hair tumble down her shoulders. It was damp with sweat and I didn’t care at all.
Piper’s hands went from my arms to my waist to my face and back down to my waist, gripping my shirt so hard I wondered if she’d rip it. The tank I had on was thin, but I had a sports bra on underneath. The logistics of getting it off me were tricky, so I figured that I’d cross that bridge when we got there, if we did.
Piper bit my lower lip softly and I whimpered. She sucked on it, and the temperature in the room went up even higher.
Nothing was going to stop this kiss.
And then Piper’s phone went off.
“Shit, sorry,” she said, pressing her forehead to mine, her nose to mine. “I was too distracted to turn it off.”
“Should you get it?”
“I’ll get to it later,” she said, continuing to ignore the phone.
She smiled softly, and both of us were trembling as we held each other. I didn’t know it was possible for my heart to beat this fast, or this intensely, but it was happening.
Piper’s phone was still going off and she cursed again.
“I’m sorry.” She frowned down at the message and then reached for me again, but I grabbed onto a moment of clear thought and took one step back.
“What are we doing?” I asked. “Not that it wasn’t…completely mind-blowing, but we both agreed we weren’t going to kiss anymore. And then you kissed me.”
All of my thoughts were completely scrambled, and nothing made sense except for the fact that I wanted to start kissing her again. Immediately.
But not before we talked about what the hell we were doing.
Piper put her phone on silent and started pacing.
“I don’t know what’s happening, McKenna! This is all… I’ve never kissed a woman before. I mean, I guess I’ve wanted to before, but I never acted on it. With you, I just can’t help myself you’re just…” She gestured to me, and I wasn’t sure what that meant.
“You have to know how incredibly sexy you are.”
Me?
The literal goddess standing in front of me thought I was sexy?
I gaped at her in what was probably an unsexy way.
Piper stepped toward me again, pulling me into her arms, her hands at my waist.
“I couldn’t resist you, McKenna. I’ve just been thinking about you for so long.”
She closed her eyes and bit her lip between her teeth.
“I can’t stop myself from wanting you,” she whispered. “Even though you’re younger, and I’m divorced, and you’re my yoga teacher. There are so many things that make this wrong.”
I really needed to find some words, any words, to say to her.
“I want you too,” I said, putting my arms on her shoulders. “I tried not to, but I can’t help it.”
Piper pressed her forehead to mine again. “I even dream about you.”
“You dream about me?” Dreams could be powerful things.
“Mmm, some of those dreams I shouldn’t tell you about.”
I stared into her eyes and her cheeks flushed.
“Was I naked in them?”
She laughed low in her throat. “Very.”
“And you?”
“Well, I was wearing one of those inflatable dinosaur costumes in one, but I don’t think that has anything to do with anything,” she said, and we both laughed. “Preston wants me to wear one so bad, and I ordered it and I’m going to bust it out for his birthday.”
“Right, Preston,” I said.
“Does me being a mom scare you?” she asked.
“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t intimidated by that responsibility. You have a whole human who depends on you for everything and I would never, ever, want to interfere with that.”
Piper’s fingers trailed up my sides to cup my cheeks. I didn’t tell her there were other things that scared me, like the fact that she was fresh off a divorce from an unhappy marriage. Or that I wasn’t staying in Castleton and would be gone soon.
“We don’t have to do anything serious. I still don’t even know what it is that I feel for you. All I know is that I couldn’t deny it anymore.”
She kissed me softly.
“Let’s figure it out together,” I said.
Eventually, I did make her finish the yoga class, but it was almost an impossible task. Neither of us was concentrating. I couldn’t keep my hands off her, and she wouldn’t stop leaning over to kiss me anytime I came close.
During Savasana, I kept catching her peeking at me.
“You’re supposed to be letting go,” I said.
“I’d rather look at your butt,” she said, and I blushed.
Hearing those kinds of comments from her was startling. They seemed to come easy from her lips.
Piper Patrick was a shameless flirt.
At last, we ended the class.
“I don’t think anyone should know, until we figure this out,” I said as she cleaned her mat and rolled it up.
“Of course. We should be professional and discreet in front of anyone else.”
That made sense.
“Now I don’t want to leave this room,” I said, looking at the door that led to the world outside.
Piper smiled. “Me neither.”
I sighed.
“Have dinner with me,” she blurted out. “It doesn’t have to be tonight. Whenever.” Her face got red, and I had the feeling that Piper didn’t ask a lot of people out. She was a woman who got asked.