Luckily, he’d found half a dozen blackberry corn muffins at Sophie’s. “I’m just going to shower and change so I can head back to work.”
“An all nighter? David, if you’re too swamped with Dad retiring I’m sure he’d agree to stay on longer.”
David winced. Lance hadn’t told her the real reason for his retirement. So be it. He wished he didn’t know. “It’s nothing I can’t handle. Time for a shower.”
“Your pimp called.”
David whipped around. “Excuse me?”
“I guess technically she would be your madam, right?”
“I don’t have a madam. I don’t have to pay for sex.”
“Really? How much does one of those nights cost you?”
What was she talking about? “I’m not following you, Kel.”
“That stewardess. The one who whores out her friends.”
He swallowed hard and met her gaze. He wasn’t discussing this with his baby sister.
“Call it whatever you want, it’s still disgusting. She said to tell you she has some prospects for you.”
“Knock it off, Kelly. You know it’s not like that.” David shrugged. He took two steps toward his bedroom and stopped. He wasn’t going to call. He always called. He should, he really should because he could use the distraction. Sophie wasn’t the only one undergoing a major personality overhaul.
“Please use protection,” Kelly’s voice rang down the hall.
David stomped back into the living room. “Not that it is any business of yours, but I’m not even going to call her. I have way too much going on right now.”
Kelly’s smile stretched across her face. “With Sophie?”
“Sophie is a piece of work,” he said, crossing into the kitchen. If he was going to talk he needed coffee. Thankfully Kelly’s study sessions required a fresh pot every few hours. Pouring a cup, he helped himself to some of the girlie powder she put in it. He downed half the mug before Kelly started in again.
“What is that supposed to mean? Did you two have a fight?”
“We had her snapping at me about telling her what to do for absolutely no reason. So if that’s a fight, yeah.”
“What did you do?”
“I left.”
“No, not that.” Kelly waved her hand. “To make her mad.”
Who knew? “I bought her a car.”
Kelly plopped into a chair at the kitchen table and sucked in a harsh breath. “You what?”
“What is it with women? Why is that a bad thing? She helped me out with some work stuff, things that would have been very expensive if not damn near impossible, and I wanted to say thank you.”
“Did you ever think of flowers?”
David shook his head. “She needs a car.” You never know what she might think of flowers. “I did send her some oranges.” He shrugged. “She liked that. But it was a big favor, huge.”
Kelly narrowed her eyes. “And she didn’t like the car because?”
“Oh, she liked it. She just didn’t like that I couldn’t fit in it.”
“Oh,” Kelly nodded furiously. “I get it.”
“Well I didn’t.” He drained his coffee cup and set it in the sink.
“You’ll learn.” Kelly smiled. “Why were you telling her what to do?”
“I wasn’t, really. She just took it wrong.” He didn’t want to talk about last night with Sophie. There was no way he was going to discuss it with Kelly.
“And now she’s mad, and you stormed out,” Kelly summed up.
“Hey, she left first.” David leaned back against the counter. His counter, his turf. Why was Kelly taking Sophie’s side? He really needed to get to work.
“She left her own apartment? She must have been all kinds of mad.” Kelly shook her head. “You need to figure out what you did and apologize.”
“Why am I wrong? I’m not wrong here, Kelly. Trust me on that one. I did the right thing for once.” David said, crossing his arms across his chest.
“Right for whom?” Kelly asked, looking him straight in the eye.
“For Sophie.” He answered without blinking.
“Aha! But she doesn’t agree, and thinks you’re telling her what to do.”
Was that it? “Or maybe she is just a grouch in the morning,” he said defensively. He did the right thing.
Kelly pulled her head back, “Oh wow, was this the first time you woke up together? I forgot you don’t do the whole stay-the-night thing. I thought you had rules about that. Didn’t you actually write them down when you were in college?”
“Rules don’t apply to Sophie.” He heard someone say using his voice.
“Why?”
David shrugged. Why indeed. Because she broke them, because she didn’t care to abide by them, because she was different. She was rich and textured and completely different from his usual diet of casual women. Women who wanted light and easy as much as he did. It was the difference between hamburger and filet mignon, instant vanilla pudding and crème brûlée. He’d gone gourmet and fast food had suddenly lost its appeal.
“You’re in love with her, aren’t you?”
“What?” His heart quickened at the ridiculous notion. He may not know what he wanted from Sophie, but he wasn’t in love with anyone. “You have the wrong idea about this whole thing. Sophie and I want very different things. And besides, she may not be speaking to me ever again.”
“You need to make it up to her.”
“I need to get to work,” David said pushing himself off the counter. He needed to come up with a plan.
———
“Plan B. We bring the party to you,” Sophie said, settling in beside Daphne for an afternoon of soap operas and girl talk.
“It’s not like I can’t get up. We could do it at Beaches just like we planned. It would only be for a few hours.”
Sophie shook her head. “I’ll sneak you in some of the carrot cake from Beaches, but I am not dealing with Craig if I try and take you out of the house. He is wound way too tight right now. Before he left he actually told me to try and make you nap.”
Daphne fell back against the pillows. “I’ve only gotten up to pee, I swear.” A slow smile crossed her lips. “Although being this pregnant, that’s pretty often.” Daphne wrapped her hands lovingly across her stretched abdomen. “We’re going to be okay. I wish he could relax.”
Craig’s anxiety was getting out of control. “Me too.” Sophie replied looking down at the notebook in her hands. “We’ll do it in the living room and you can sit on the couch. We’ll keep it short. I made out a guest list. All the women from your prenatal yoga will come. You’re all we talk about in class.”
“It probably makes them nervous that I’m having trouble.” Daphne said rubbing her stomach.
Being here was just the reminder Sophie needed. Family is what really matters. David kept telling her he wasn’t cut out for what she wanted from life. It was her own fault for not believing him.
“Nothing you can’t handle,” Sophie said, resting her hand on top of her sister’s.
Daphne turned to face her. “I’m sorry you have to work so much right now. All my classes plus your own and babysitting me so Craig can go in to work. It doesn’t leave much room for anything else.”
Sophie smiled and wished she could confide in Daphne. But Daphne had her own stresses right now; she didn’t need to be burdened with her baby sister’s dating disasters. Plus she would assume the worst about David, and as confused as Sophie felt she didn’t want any more negativity.
“You’ve always put your needs aside to take care of people, Sophie. You need to find someone who’ll put you first. Someone who’ll show you the world, and how to have fun.”
“Work can be fun,” she smiled cheerfully. Twisting into compromising positions with David was the highlight of her week. Or had been, until they spent the night together. And after her hormone attack the next morning who knew if he would ever bother showing up for class again.
“Do you m
ean Sensational Sex with David Strong?” Daphne’s eyes darkened.
Sophie had to acknowledge she liked the sound of that, but it was never going to happen. “You must admit, it is a fun class. But I was actually thinking about the prenatal yoga. Hannah brought her baby today. He was so small he didn’t even have eyelashes yet.”
She watched Daphne’s frustration melt before her eyes. Daphne didn’t want to talk about David any more than she did. “They named him Sawyer. Do you like that?”
Daphne nodded. “I’ve been thinking about Lennon or Kinsey.”
Sophie grinned. “Kinsey, like the sex researcher?”
Chapter Ten
Two long days. And even longer nights. David hadn’t called. Not that Sophie expected him to, exactly. It was just with as often as she was thinking of him, it would have been nice to know he gave her a second thought. Obviously not.
David tended to arrive early for class, ostensibly to review the positions, but Sophie hoped it was to see her, too. Two minutes until class started and he’d yet to cross the threshold. Sophie loaded the slides depicting the positions just in case.
She should focus more on stretching and strengthening anyway. It would be a better take away for the students. Much more practical than watching her grope David for an hour. Twisting her mouth into a smile Sophie took one last look at the room, and the raised platform that always made her feel so small. She let out the breath choking her lungs. When David was here he seemed to fill all the extra space around her.
Scratching her nails through her hair, Sophie shook her head. She’d decided she wasn’t going to do this. There was absolutely no balance of power in their relationship. Just her throwing herself at him, him saying no and her not taking no for an answer. But now she would. He was right. Daphne was right. The stranger in the steam room was right. She could not handle a casual relationship with David.
She didn’t have it in her to do casual. She’d confused her fantasy of him with the reality, twisting everything until it turned out exactly as she wanted. She’d even deluded herself into thinking she knew what would make him happy.
Sophie took a deep breath all the way to her belly. She could teach the class alone. That would be easy. It was answering the student’s questions about David that would sting.
———
Twenty minutes late and David still had no idea what he was going to say to her. Hell, he wasn’t even dressed for class. He was still in the same jeans he’d put on this morning. The same clothes he’d planned on wearing until after lunch when he’d head into the office. But nothing about this day turned out the way he planned.
David was a master at planning. He could organize real estate transactions, monitor financial markets on four continents and manage a billion dollar fitness empire. But for the life of him he couldn’t figure out exactly what he wanted from Sophie. Or what he was going to do about it for that matter.
She infuriated him to no end. What really bothered him was that she seemed to understand him in ways even he didn’t get. She expected him to be a better man than he usually was. He had a reputation, a history around town. No one ever expected him to be interested in anything but sex. No one except Sophie.
David had an innate distrust of people, brought on by all the transient figures in his life. Nannies, tutors, stepmothers, friends. They all promised to stay, but never did.
Never give someone more than you’re willing to lose, he’d learned that over and over. Yet he trusted Sophie in an almost instinctive way. It still struck him as odd that he’d let her sit in his chair and play with the SGI financials like they were a video game. She understood them better than he did. She could’ve done a little creative accounting of her own. And it hadn’t even crossed his mind she would.
Then there was Craig. Craig was family. Not by blood but by time and friendship. And Craig trusted him with Daphne’s sister. Trusted him not to take advantage of her. Which he was finding harder and harder to do.
Finally arriving at Working It Out, he had to circle the block searching for a parking spot. Of course, even this would take longer today. After his third trip around he finally slid in next to the curb. Jumping out he remembered to beep the alarm on as he bounded up the sidewalk and into the club.
David inched open the door to the classroom. Slipping inside, he made his way to the back of the room as slowly and as quietly as possible. He didn’t want to interrupt, but he didn’t want to wait outside either. He didn’t want her thinking he had blown off the class for a minute more.
Sophie had the students up in pushup positions, raising one leg up at a time. As he walked past Ramon and Cindy, a couple who always stayed in the back of the room, he watched Ramon’s body shake in fatigue.
Ramon collapsed on the floor and rolled to his back. “Thank God you’re here. Whatever you did to piss her off, I beg you, apologize now, before she kills us all.”
———
Sophie wanted to kill him. Making her think he wasn’t coming and then showing up dressed like that when class was half over. Even from across the room she could tell his jeans were old, so worn they would feel thin and soft. His black sweater stretched teasingly across his chest, the sleeves hugging his biceps. He looked sexier now than he ever had, and was providing quite the distraction to her and the other women in the class.
You’re not going to do this anymore, she reminded herself as the class rallied around him for support. The positions tonight were challenging. Sophie had been running the students through some basic Pilates moves to make them aware of the muscles they would be using. They’d be thanking her later, though now they were begging him to make her stop.
Sophie quieted them down, assuring them and herself that David had done nothing to influence the course of the class. Taking advantage of the break, she had the students join their partners on a mat to begin the positions. David’s long confident stride had him joining her on the platform in seconds.
“What did you have them doing?”
“Ab work. Sitting postures can be very challenging on the lower back muscles. You should do it to warm up.”
“I’m sure my abs are as strong as yours.”
“I doubt that.” She taught two Pilates classes a day, six days a week. Plus, he was twice her size. “We could find out though. Would you rather try sit-ups or see who can hold the plank position the longest?”
He shook his head with a smile. “Sophie, I hold more on my chest than you weigh when I do sit ups. It’s not a fair match. Let’s just get to the demonstration.”
One of the men taunted, “No way buddy. You don’t put in the work you don’t get the fun. No foreplay, no play.”
Sophie tried to ignore both the comment and David’s smile.
“Aren’t you going to defend me?” he asked loud enough for the entire room to hear. Sophie knew they all assumed she and David were together. She’d never done anything to make them think otherwise.
Sophie shrugged and addressed the class. “David has no problem—” she paused for effect, “—with foreplay.” She grinned from ear to ear as the class snickered. It was petty, but it was fun.
“Sophie,” David hissed at her. His jaw was set so tight she wondered if his teeth might break. Sophie shrugged again, cued up the projector and dimmed the lights. As the explicit photo illuminated the wall behind her she watched David’s brows knit together. Let him see she could handle things on her own without him trying to rush in and fix everything.
Sophie stood in the center of the platform, crossing her arms across her body and hugging her elbows. “The positions tonight can be more challenging than those we’ve tried before. I think you’ll all understand why we focused on abdominal strength and flexibility tonight.
“This first position is Kama’s Wheel. It’s one of the more meditative positions, so I want you all to focus on your breathing and sense of balance while in the position. Men, you’ll want to sit comfortably with your legs stretched out in front of you.”
&n
bsp; Sophie heard David moving behind her and knew he was getting in to position. She wanted to prove a point, but like the fool she was, she also wanted to touch him. Her insides knotted as she tried to decide, knowing where touching him might lead. She’d want more, she always did. But she also didn’t want to reject him, leave him exposed in front of the class.
“Ladies, you’ll need to lower yourself down, stretching your legs out behind him. As your partner gets into position, men, you’ll need to place your hands on her back for support. Ladies, hold onto your partner’s arms for leverage and support.”
Sophie watched as the class struggled with the position. They could look at a picture from a book at home. What they were here to learn was how to get into the position. She felt a tug on her finger as David whispered her name.
She turned, looking down on him for a change. His soft brown eyes looked up at her, unraveling the knots in her stomach as she moved and joined him. She heard the class quiet as they watched her lower herself down to him, achieving the position as easily as if they’d practiced it a hundred times.
Swallowing hard to keep her voice steady, she reminded the class to take a moment to focus on their breathing, to try to mirror their partners. Closing her eyes Sophie realized she and David had already done that. Their bodies ever so slightly rising and falling in time.
She felt David’s heavy stare, but found it far easier to move ahead with the class than with David Strong. Reaching for the remote, she clicked the slide ahead, finding the next position.
“This next posture is called The Position of Equals. Men’s position remains the same, and ladies you lean back further moving your hands from resting on his arms to his feet. Once your partner is in position, men, you can relax your arms, using your hands in whatever way is comfortable.” Sophie leaned back into the position, thankful that with her head back she wouldn’t have to look at David.
She listened to the students giggle as they realized just how a man might use his hands in this position. David realized it too, as the thumb of the hand away from the class began to stroke the side of her breast.
Sophie snapped her head up and gave him a warning look. He didn’t stop. Increasing the pressure, he stared at her with a cocksure grin. Unsure just what he meant by his little display, Sophie reached for the remote again, changing the position on the screen.
Compromising Positions Page 12
