Afterlife Read Online Free PDF Page A

already felt the
    flames licking over her
    body, and the fact they felt good
    wasn’t reassuring.
    As he stopped in front of her, she stil
    hadn’t said a word.
    She couldn’t. Particularly when he
    slid a knuckle along her
    cheek, catching a loose curl of her
    blonde hair and tucking
    it back into one of her hair clips.
    They al laughed about her
    wayward hair that she French-
    braided along her nape for
    class. More than one student had
    done the same thing he’d
    just done. Only it meant so much
    more when a male hand
    did it, a hand attached to a body like
    that and intense eyes
    like those.
    Snap out of it, Rachel. You’re
    making a damn fool of
    yourself.
    The words came straight out of her
    dead marriage, in the
    same abrupt, impatient tone. They
    propel ed her back a
    step, the startled jump of her heart
    making her clear her
    throat with a rasping cough. “Good
    morning,” she said,
    though “Good” broke into two syl
    ables because of the
    catch in her voice. She shrugged her
    shoulders, a mental
    shake that might look odd, but it
    helped get her mind back
    in the right place. Or at least turned
    in that direction. “Do
    you have anything in particular you
    want to practice today,
    or should I fol ow our usual class
    format?”
    She should have indulged in more
    inane conversation.
    How was traffic, how was your
    week, the weather? Did you
    have a Danish for breakfast?
    Because your breath has a
    sweet iced sugar scent that makes
    me want to devour your
    mouth.
    However, since the rest of her class
    wasn’t here, she
    needed to get this progressing
    forward, before she real y
    did do something foolish.
    “You already know what I want,
    Rachel.” As her stomach
    lurched, he gave a half smile. “I
    prefer the more advanced
    sessions. Are you up for it today?”
    Her advanced class met on Friday
    mornings. He often
    couldn’t make that one because of the
    executive staff
    meetings he’d told her were held on
    that day. When he
    attended her basic and intermediate
    classes, he chose the
    more intense modifications of the
    asanas , but he rarely had
    the opportunity to do some of the
    truly advanced positions.
    “Yes, that wil be fine.” She nodded
    like her head was
    jerked by a string. “Let’s get started.”
    Since he was studying her curiously
    as they moved to
    their mats, she tried to relax her
    shoulders, loosen up
    some. Then his next question coiled
    her up like a spring
    again.
    “What are you doing on the last
    Saturday of this month?”
    She blinked. Was he about to ask her
    out on a date? The
    very idea could make her legs buckle
    beneath her, even as
    her mind scrambled for a way to deal
    with it. Saying she
    was knitting boots for an expected
    grandchild might be
    sufficiently off-putting, except of
    course she didn’t have one
    of those. And she didn’t know how to
    knit. “I’m not sure.
    Why?”
    “There’s a Tantric yoga workshop
    for couples at
    Independence Park that weekend. If
    the weather’s nice,
    they’l have it in the botanical
    gardens. It’s going to be
    taught by a visiting guru from
    Bangkok.” At her nonplused
    look, he lifted a shoulder. “You
    mentioned that some of your
    married students have been asking
    you to teach that form,
    but you needed to brush up on it. The
    setting is beautiful, of
    course, and we could go have a
    coffee at a café afterward,
    maybe somewhere on the riverfront.”
    She didn’t know what to say to that,
    but Jon shrugged
    casual y at her silence, offered her
    that sleepy smile again.
    “Just give it some thought. You can
    tel me your answer at
    the end of class. Though I’m not
    taking no for an answer, so
    you might as wel say yes now.”
    She didn’t know how to respond to
    that either. However,
    his easy manner about it helped make
    her noncommittal
    nod feel not so awkward. Stil , to
    discourage further
    conversation, she folded herself into
    a sitting position on
    her mat and initiated pranayama , the
    breath