I started to head for the office upstairs but stopped when I got to the second-floor landing. Why was I running away? Mara had seemed really into our kiss. I'd been so into it I had to walk bowlegged when I hustled away from her. Maybe I could still catch her.
Sure, I might be a loser in some ways, but I had total confidence in two of my skills. First, my computer creds. Second...
I vaulted down the stairs two at a time, sprinted for the exercise room, and froze in the open doorway, breathing so hard I had to slap my hands on my thighs for support.
Mara wasn't there.
Damn. Where did she go?
I waited a few seconds, until I caught my breath, then I took off down the hall and out the main door. Mara was just going into the little house, so I kicked it into high gear and barreled across the gravel driveway. Thankfully, I was still wearing shoes---and clothes, but I didn't thank anybody for the fact I was trapped in polyester---because if I'd run barefoot across the gravel, I'd have blisters the size of Texas later on.
"What's the rush, Ollie?" somebody shouted.
"Yeah," another somebody hollered, "where's the fire?"
"It's in Ollie's pants, that's where," the first voice shouted. "Guess Val's rubbing off on him."
I didn't bother to glance back or respond. Didn't give a shit who was razzing me or why. My mind focused exclusively on the vision of Mara naked and what I planned to do once I caught up to her.
At the door to Eve and Val's house, I had to stop. Bent over at the waist, hands on my thighs, I gasped for air like a ninety-year-old chain smoker. I exercised. I was in great shape these days, but now I could barely breathe. Well, I hadn't practiced barreling down a flight of stairs, through the guest house, and across the driveway. Never in my life had I literally chased after a girl.
What was up with me? This was not at all my style.
The one thing that had been up was now down. Way down.
I growled at my dick. "Wake the hell up, little buddy. We've got work to do."
Oh great. Now I was talking to my dick. Out loud. In public.
Shoving the door open, I hurried inside and stopped short of slamming the door shut. That might freak Mara out. So I eased the door closed and walked through the kitchen into the hallway that led to the bathroom, bedrooms, and Eve's photo studio. I should've announced myself. Really, I should have. It would've been the polite, not-a-creepy-stalker way to behave. My mouth still wouldn't work, though, what with my lungs insisting I wheeze.
In front of the bathroom door, I stopped to wait out the wheezing. Slow, steady breaths. Mara would scream again if I stumbled into her room sounding like a heavy breather on a sleazy phone call and looking like I might drop dead any second.
Soothing new age music came from her room.
Listening to the music, I closed my eyes and took those slow, steady breaths until I calmed down. Then I walked to Mara's door, which hung open---and my little buddy woke up fast.
She was doing yoga. Wheel pose. She lay on her back with her feet flat on the floor, knees bent, and her palms on the floor just above her shoulders. While I watched, paralyzed and speechless, she lifted her hips off the floor and held that position for a couple breaths. Slowly, she raised the rest of her body until only her palms and feet touched the floor. Her head hung down, her ponytail dangling. With her spine arched upward like that, her breasts jutted out, her stiff nipples obvious under her thin tank top.
Yeah, she'd changed clothes. No more capris or short-sleeve shirt. Now she wore snug yoga pants and a snug tank top.
She looked good enough to fuck. Right here. Right now.
My little buddy loved that idea, twitching like he was telling me to go get her.
Jeez, I really needed to stop calling it my "little buddy," even in my head.
I cleared my throat to let her know I was here.
Mara yelped and tumbled out of wheel pose into a heap on the floor.
"Are you okay?" I asked, rushing over to help her.
She was already helping herself, scrambling into a sitting position on her yoga mat. She laid a hand on her chest and blew out a breath. "Ollie, you scared me half to death."
"I know, I'm sorry." Why had I thought throat-clearing was a good way to announce my presence? Yeah, social skills weren't one of the two things I rocked at. I knelt beside her. "I hope you didn't sprain anything."
"No, I'm fine." She smiled at me in her shy way, which made me want to kiss her. "But you're so sweet for worrying."
Just once I wanted a girl to say, "Damn, Ollie, that was so freaking hot the way you scared the shit out of me." Okay, maybe I didn't want to hear that after all. It had sounded good when I thought it, but now I realized how stupid it was.
"Twice today I've surprised you," I said. "Swear I'm not stalking you or anything."
"I know that." She got up and stretched her entire body, making her tits jut out again. "I decided to do yoga to relax, but it wasn't really working anyway."
Somehow, I managed to get up without looking like a clumsy dweeb. "Are you still anxious about being around all the naturists?"
"No, it's not that. I mean, I still feel a little weird about it, but everybody's so nice here." She sat on the edge of the bed. "They're like a big, extended family."
"Yeah, we get the same people coming back every
