“Whose side are you on, anyhow?”
Darcy shook his head. “It’s not about sides. There are no sides to take. This is about choosing to live or choosing to exist. Our mum is being a role model to us all showing us how to move on with grace and courage after losing the most important man in her life. It’s a lesson worth paying attention to.”
Edouardo stewed over that for a few minutes. “Well, that’s easy for you to say,” he said. “You who sits here with the keys to the kingdom, while the rest of us—”
“While the rest of us watch television? I’m afraid the only one I’ve watched crumple into a pile of wrinkled laundry is you, Edouardo. Our mother was the pillar of strength for us all. And the same goes for our sister. And me? Well, I’ve not had time for tears. I’ve had to keep things running here as best I could with little understanding of it all, but for Uncle Alastair’s enormous assistance.”
Edouardo made one of those mocking faces, pretending to repeat what his brother was saying. “Poor Darcy, so busy running the empire that was handed to him on a silver platter he’s not had time to shed a tear.”
“So that’s what this is about? You’re angry at me for having inherited this?” He spread his arms out wide. “Even though you haven’t a clue what that means as far as tying me down for the rest of my life? Even though with this privilege comes enormous responsibility, and I meant I instantly went from being carefree and unencumbered to being saddled with sustaining all of us—you included, you know.”
“Blah, blah, blah,” Edouardo said scissoring his fingers and thumb as if he was operating a hand puppet. “You get the money, the title, the land, the respect. And I get a big fat nothing.”
“Except that under the terms of the will, you don’t have to do a bloody damned thing for the rest of your life and you will be forever cared for. Besides which, you have the ability to choose whatever the hell you want to do with your life and you’re not stuck doing things you don’t want to do: paperwork, bills, payroll, taxes. Even making sure the horses and cattle and sheep stay alive. Father gave you the biggest gift of all: he knew being free of this burden is what you’d love the most. He knew you’d figure out a calling that would allow you to enjoy the outdoors. You loved caring for the land when you worked by his side as a child and he gave you the opportunity to keep doing that type of work while not forcing you to be someone you never were and never wanted to be.”
Edouardo thought about that for a minute. “But—”
“But nothing, Edouardo,” his brother said. “So all this time you have been drowning in your own bath of misery, simply because in your own estimation you didn’t ‘rank’ with your father? Is that what this was all about? The unwashed hair, the inability to dress in anything but your underwear, the moping about like a bratty little boy who was put in a time-out? And here I thought you were just sad over losing him not sad over your perceived losses. Well, my dear brother, it’s time to grow a pair and grow the hell up. It’s a most unattractive quality to moon over your own self when you have nothing but good graces to be thankful for. Now, I have work to do.”
With that, Darcy turned and walked away leaving Edouardo to wonder what exactly had just happened.
Chapter Fifteen
“So I’ve taken the liberty of co-opting mother’s exercise studio out back on your behalf since she hasn’t used it since, oh, ever,” Celeste said over the noise of the blender as she mixed together her breakfast smoothie several days after the party. “And I’ve gone ahead and invited a bunch of people over for your very first class!”
Gabriella looked at her with confusion in her eyes. “My first class?”
“Why yoga, of course,” she said. “I was talking to Clementine the other night and we thought it would be so awesome if you started up a studio. She agreed to round up some ladies to join us.”
“But, but, I mean, I need to prepare myself for this,” Gab said. “I can’t just do it.”
“Why not? You need some music and really not even that. You need a mat. And again, if you don’t have one, you’ll survive. And a studio. But hey, I’ve done yoga on beaches, so it’s not like you have to have a studio even. Hell, you could do your first class in the pastures out back, which would be pretty cool with the mountains as a backdrop and everything but for the cow patties you might have to work around.”
“Bad visual there, down-dogging into cow dung,” Gab said with a laugh. “Well, gosh, I guess you’re right. But I’m so not prepared. And I feel a little weird, since I just moved here and everything. Like what makes me an expert?”
“How about the fact that you’re certified to be a yoga instructor? Which means you’ve probably taken countless thousands of hours of yoga yourself.”
“Geez. Thanks, Celeste! You’re such a smart woman,” Gab said. “It would have taken me all sorts of stalling and wheel spinning to actually get my act together to start this. And here you’ve done it for me with little effort.”
“Well, I did enlist Concetta to be sure the place had been dusted, vacuumed, and aired out. But I think you’ll like what I’ve done,” she said as she ushered her out the back door to walk the several hundred feet to the outbuilding that would be her makeshift yoga studio.
The historical building, constructed from stones gathered long ago around the property, was about four hundred square feet, plenty large enough to accommodate a class. As they entered through the heavy oak front door, Gabriella gasped. “Celeste, you’re amazing,” she said, taking in the transformation of the room. The sisters hadn’t been in this building in many years. The last Gab remembered, it was infested with spiders and smelled of mildew.
But her sneaky sister had been busy and had put on a fresh coat of paint in a serene celery green. Draped around the walls were woven tapestries from India in cheery jewel-tone colors. The wide-planked hardwood floors gleamed, and candles that gave off the most soothing aroma of ginger were scattered about. Celeste had succeeded in creating such a peaceful, lovely retreat it brought tears to Gabriella’s eyes.
“I’m left speechless,” she said, reaching out to give her sister a tight hug. “I mean, I don’t even know how to begin to thank you. This is absolutely extraordinary. Look,” she said, her hands outstretched, “it’s the most perfect yoga studio in the world. I couldn’t have even fantasized one so ideal.”
“I’m so thrilled you like it,” Celeste said. “I was trying to think of a way to make you want to stay at Bellavista. I’ve missed you so much since you’ve been gone.”
“Do you think Mum will forgive you for commandeering her exercise studio?”
Celeste laughed. “Considering she doesn’t exercise? No. Not so much. She probably won’t even notice. Besides, I’m sure she’ll just be happy to have you back home again.”
“And you said you’ve invited people to come to class? When exactly am I teaching this?”
Celeste looked at her watch. “Oh, in about forty minutes. You ready?”
“Thank goodness for muscle memory,” she said. “After so many years of this, I practically do it in my sleep. I can’t wait!”
~*~
Clementine was just grabbing her yoga mat to put in the car when she happened upon Edouardo, back in front of the television, his hand buried in a bag of chips.
“Hey,” she said. “I heard you’d quit your jaded ways. What happened?”
Her brother just glared at her. “Mum happened. Cavorting with Alastair.”
“Yeah, so?” she said. “You didn’t know about this already?”
“You did? And you didn’t tell me?”
“Well it didn’t take a rocket scientist to notice that the two of them have been spending a lot of time together. And then when she got so dressed up to go out with him the other night, well, I could put two and two together.”
“Why didn’t you say something to me? Or better yet stop it altogether?”
She stood in front of him and stared at him. “Seriously? Say something to you? Do you even need to ask such a stupi
d question? What good was going to come of that, pray tell? Far be it from me to be the one to poke the bear. I’m all about trying to make sure the bear is well fed and comfortable and happy.”
“I am not a bear.”
“Euphemistically speaking, you could be accused of that. At least when you go on the attack.”
“Why does everyone think I’m so cranky?”
She laughed. “Because, well, you sort of are.”
“I am not cranky. Unless someone gives me good reason to be.”
“I’ll tell you what,” she said. “I have just the antidote to that. Run upstairs and grab some workout clothes. I know what is going to turn you into a veritable baby bunny.”
Edouardo grumbled. “What if I don’t want to be a bunny, baby or for that matter, any kind of damned rabbit?”
“Trust me, you will.” She pulled him off the sofa and practically pushed him upstairs, waiting by his room to be sure he didn’t sneak out. She then grabbed a spare yoga mat and coaxed him to her car with threats of more shaming if he failed to cooperate. Her work was cut out for her with this one.
Once on the road, Edouardo pressed his sister for details about their destination.
“Don’t be so worried about it,” she said, turning up the music to tune out his objections. “Just roll with it and be my token male. Enjoy the ride. You’ll have fun.”
“Seriously, Clementine,” he said, “where are we going?”
“One of these days you’ll learn, my dear brother, that half the fun is the journey.” She closed her lips and pretended to turn a key to lock them, then “swallowed” the key. The only way to handle him was to keep him in the dark. At least for the time being.
Chapter Sixteen
Gabriella sported a pair of hot pink capri leggings with a sheer black chiffon ballet skirt wrapped around her waist and a clingy hot pink tank with delicate crisscrossed straps in the back. She stood on tiptoes as she counted with her pointer finger the number of people who’d so far shown up for her very first class, which was to start in a few minutes.
Amazingly it wasn’t just a bunch of the ladies, either. Besides Celeste, there was Isabella, who’d brought her brother Luca; Caroline, a woman she learned was Clem’s brother Darcy’s fiancée, who’d persuaded her best friend Emma, Adrian’s wife, to come along; an American woman named Andi, who was engaged to marry Zander; and prince Topher’s wife, Pippa, who’d left the baby back at the palace with Topher. Sebastian had been roped into this as well and was waiting patiently for Clementine to show up. Thank goodness they all brought their own mats.
Just as she dimmed the lights in the studio and turned the music on, the door opened and Clementine walked in with her brother Edouardo in tow. Never in a million years had Gabriella expected to see him here.
She looked up at Edouardo and smiled a bashful smile. He glanced quickly at her, then just as readily averted his gaze, scurrying to the back of the room and rushing to set his mat down. Gab had been to enough yoga classes in her day to know that the back row was the domain of latecomers and those who didn’t want to be seen. In his case, probably both.
“You guys!” she said. “I’m so honored you all showed up for this class, which my sweet sister surprised me with today. As you can see”—she motioned to the décor—“she’s been busy these past few days getting our mother’s studio prepared for this transition to a yoga studio. All without breathing a word of it to me. I’m so excited that maybe we can parlay this into a regular thing. That is, if you all find you’ve enjoyed yourselves. And that’s my job today, to help you refine your practice and do whatever I can to help you find calm and centering in your life.”
Considering how uncentered her life had felt over the past several weeks, it was good for her to get back to basics here. She was excited to have this opportunity. Although it was perhaps a little unusual to teach her first official class with what seemed like half of the Monaforte royal family here, it was all good.
She sounded her Tibetan tingsha chimes to begin the class and everyone sat cross-legged while she recited a short meditation. Then, the group joined in a breathing exercise while everyone lay on their mats. After focusing on a few hip openers, she prepared them for their Sun Salutations by starting them off in Downward Dog.
“Hands should be shoulder distance apart, your feet hip distance, tailbone and sit bones lifted up and back,” she said. “Remember to activate your arms and your hands: press down through your wrists, spread those fingers out, and reach your hands into the earth. And don’t forget to engage your navel.”
Gabrielle demonstrated the Sun Salutation, then walked around the room, helping to correct their positions, which was particularly necessary for some of the men. They clearly hadn’t a clue about yoga poses. When she made her way to the back of the classroom, she found Edouardo struggling in his Downward Dog, so she placed her hands on either side of his hips and gently pulled to encourage him to lift his sit bones upward. He still wasn’t getting it. She placed one hand at the base of his spine, pressing the other upward on his abdomen to help him reposition before she moved to the front of the class for the next pose.
Later, while the class did the extended Triangle Pose, she again found Edouardo in need of a little bit of repositioning. She put one hand on the front of his right hip and the other on the back of it, encouraging him to lift it up. Once she felt he had it right, she moved on.
They took it to the floor for seated poses, beginning with Staff Pose, and worked their way toward Bridge Pose.
~*~
Not for the first time in recent days, Edouardo was ready to kill his sister. The only question at this point was what the murder weapon would be. He was thinking something slow and extraordinarily painful so she could really pay for her crimes.
Bad enough she dragged him to this class—freaking yoga, of all things—but now he was being put in compromising position after compromising position—and by compromising he meant that each time he saw Gabriella in that slinky little outfit of hers demonstrating yet another pose with her tight butt sticking up in the air, all he wanted to do was sink what had suddenly become his perma-hard cock into her and lose himself in her body. Not such a good option with a room full of people, he knew.
And then, Christ on a stick, every time she showed back up in his private little corner where he’d hoped to be invisible for the duration of this damned class, she kept fondling him. She might as well have grabbed his balls and been done with it, because the effect was the same. Hell, she could have touched his nose and it would have turned him on just as much as when her hand was mere inches from his dick.
As he saw her venturing toward him yet again, he muttered, Please, dear lord, tell me she’s not going to manhandle me again. If she does, I’m going to be giving new meaning to the word “Staff Pose,” because my staff is going to choose a pose all its own.
He hoped to God his boner had calmed down enough to not be obtrusive for the Bridge Pose. He knew enough to realize that otherwise, he’d be sprouting a new appendage there for the whole class to see. And by class he meant practically everyone he knew in this damned town, all of whom would be happy to abuse the ever-loving crap out of him for having a hard-on in Gabriella’s yoga class as big as a sunflower stalk shooting skyward.
~*~
“Our last pose before we settle in for Savasana is what I prefer to call Happy Baby, though you may also know it as Dead Bug. I find this to be super relaxing and it just helps loosen things up in your lower back and hips,” Gabriella said. “You might feel a little silly in this pose but trust me, it’s worth it because it feels so good. As you lie on your back, you’re going to lift your legs, your bent knees near your ears, and spread those legs wide. The soles of your feet should be facing the ceiling. Next you’ll hook your pointer finger around your big toe to help you to hold the pose and keep your legs spread wide. Once you’re in position, try to gently roll side-to-side and you’ll see what I mean about it being super comfortable.”
~*~
The words last pose sounded promising enough to Edouardo. Too bad the last pose was the one in which a) all the women’s crotches were front and center for all to see, particularly the one belonging to a yoga instructor who clearly had Edouardo by the balls already; and b) his package, over which he’d lost complete control some forty minutes earlier, was also exposed to his friends, and it looked like he was pitching a damned tent in his shorts. Shit. How any man with the ability to get it up didn’t end up with the boner of all boners after watching a bunch of women with their feet up in the air, legs spread wide apart, well, it was beyond him.
But once Edouardo started rolling around and relaxing into the pose, feeling all the tension that had built up from earlier in his lower back dissolve away, he had to admit while it looked downright ridiculous, it actually felt pretty damned good. Dead Bug was followed by a good ten-minute-long nap session—which she called something like Savasana, during which Edouardo’s dick finally settled down so that his only fear of embarrassment was that he snored in front of everyone. He noticed drool had trickled from his mouth down toward his ear while he was passed out. By the time his yoga class had concluded, he’d decided that apart from the obvious problems with this sport, he could almost get used to it. Though he wasn’t about to admit that to Clementine.
Chapter Seventeen
Everyone lingered after class had finished to thank Gabriella for such a relaxing experience. One by one, they drifted off to conversations among themselves, until finally Edouardo was left standing near Gabriella, acting a bit like a twelve-year-old boy at a school dance afraid to talk to his crush.
“So,” Gabriella said, breaking the ice, “what did you think?”
Edouardo grinned. “I had a few bumps along the way, but by the time it ended, I was feeling pretty darned good.”
Gabriella decided not to comment on some of those bumps she couldn’t help but notice. No sense in letting him know it was that obvious. She wondered if it was specifically she who’d caused his reaction, or was it just something about yoga poses that did it. Who knew—maybe yoga was an aphrodisiac? Although she hoped not, if only because it excited her to think that maybe she’d played some small role in it, even though she’d deliberately cooled off with him after her attack-dog stance at the party the previous weekend. She didn’t want him to think she was on the prowl for him. That was a one-off and she’d learned her lesson. If a fling was to ensue, it was going to happen organically, not because she’d forced herself on the man.
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