“Come on, try it. I’d like to spend the day with you.”
He props himself up on his elbows. “You do?”
“Yeah, Em. I do. But only if you want to. I don’t want you to regret this.”
He rolls his lips between his teeth and then mutters, “I could never regret you, but I may regret the yoga. But I’ll go because those pretty puppy-dog eyes of yours are persuasive. Give me like fifteen minutes. I need to mentally prepare.”
* * *
“I knew I’d hate this,” Emery grunts next to me, his ass right up in the air, his arms shaking slightly as he tries to steady himself. “This is some Guantanamo Bay shit. Waterboarding? Child’s play. Just make those prisoners do this shit all day.”
Magnus snickers next to me, his body seamlessly folded in half. “It gets easier with practice.”
Emery scoffs and says, “God, I feel like I’m at a support group for masochists. There’s no other logical reason why you would do this to yourselves on a regular basis. Even getting tattooed hurts less than this. If your ‘calming hobby’ hurts more than literal needles being stabbed into your flesh, you have issues.”
Sem snorts in the background––he’s standing behind us, checking out his husband’s ass. I’m not surprised. He never strays far. He’s always prowling and watching Mag, and Mag loves every second of it. I try not to judge their weirdness; I’m just glad to see my friend sincerely happy.
“You get used to it,” I quietly reply to Emery as people shoot us looks.
He’s in a semi-Downward Dog pose and I hold back a laugh at how red his face is.
“Oh, do not look at me like that,” Emery grumbles and blows the hair away from his eye. It only falls right back against his face. “This is fucking awful. I cannot believe that you tricked me into this. It’s those hypnotizing eyes of yours….”
“Shhh,” someone says from the front of the room, and I bite down on my lip as we move into Warrior II pose.
Sem mutters something under his breath and Magnus shakes his head at him.
“I think they want us to be quiet,” Magnus says after a moment. “We shouldn’t be talking. This is supposed to be restful and soothing.”
“No shit, but I need to process this in the moment, or Dr. K will not be pleased. And sorry if the sound of my bones snapping is disrupting your tranquility,” Emery grumbles and another shush reverberates around the room.
Emery collapses flat onto the mat dramatically and swipes at his sweaty face, just staring at the ceiling and breathing like he’s run a mile.
“I give the fuck up. Carry on without me,” he mutters and then he pulls a lollipop from his pocket and unwraps it.
“I don’t think you can eat in here,” Magnus whispers. But Emery just rolls his eyes, popping the candy between his teeth.
“Fuck the rules,” Emery mumbles.
Sem reaches over and the two of them fist bump and then Emery hands Sem a lollipop. Like it’s totally normal. I just watch as those large fingers unwrap it and Sem pops it into his mouth.
“Always the rule breaker. That’s my man,” Mag says, and another person shushes us and Sem stands up tall, narrowing his gaze around the room. Probably trying to figure out who the shusher is so he can murder them.
This guy is certifiable.
It’s probably why Emery and him got along instantaneously. They just looked at each other and knew. Kismet.
I glance down at Emery who has his eyes closed, his lips moving over the candy and I can’t help but picture what I want to do with that mouth.
Last night was…I shift my gaze away, not wanting to spring a boner right in the middle of class. Poor Barbara behind me would be traumatized. Although I suspect that she always rolls her mat out right behind me to stare at my ass. Maybe a boner wouldn’t be the end of the world.
“You’re bendy,” Emery says, his eyes meeting mine. “That’s the silver lining of coming here today. Seeing your ass in the air and biceps flexing. You’re lucky I’m not drooling on the mat.”
I eye him and bite my bottom lip.
Emery waggles his eyebrows and thrusts the bulb of his red lollipop through his lips seductively and I have to bend down quickly before it gets embarrassing.
“You’re awful,” I whisper and Emery smirks at me.