Friends With Way Too Many Benefits (15 page)

"Well, that's good."

"You think Ashley has something going on in her pants, you should see the way our male masseuse, Andre, fills his out— I don’t know if he stuffs it or it's all natural…" He gave her a knowing look. "…but he's booked out six weeks in advance and there's a waiting list."

"Really, can you get me an appointment?" She flashed him a sexy smile.

"Absolutely not. I swear that we must have the only three armed masseuse on the planet and I'm not letting him get any of those arms anywhere near your hot little body."

"That's sweet." She held a smile for a moment then it morphed into a frown. "I'm still thinking about what happened at the hospital and the whole mother thing."

He sighed. "Why?"

"I just am. So, what happens in twenty five years? I'll be applying for social security and you'll probably want to go wind surfing with Ashley."

"I don't wind surf." He scoffed. "Something tells me that you'll be the most active sixty-five year old woman on the planet. You're only as old as you feel."

"That's easy for you to say." She turned away from him and closed her eyes.

"Are you feeling okay tonight? I mean, how's your cold?"

"All better."

He took her hand and looked her in the eye. "Your mother should be dropping Kaylie off any minute now why don’t you go take a long hot bath. I'll make dinner and feed the baby. After we eat, let's play with her for a couple hours then I'll put her to bed."

"Okay."

"And after that… I'll put you to bed with an hour-long full body massage."

"That sounds…" She shrugged. "… kinda nice."

"And…" He widened his eyes. "… and, I won't even try to have sex with you after."

"I was sorta hoping for a three armed one."

"That could be arranged." He gave her a sexy smile. "But it's your choice. I'll do anything and everything that you want okay?"

"Anything?"

"Yep, I'm all yours."

"You sure, because I can come up with some crazy stuff."

He chuckled. "I think I can handle anything you throw my way."

"All right, but don't say I didn't warn you."

"Come here." Holding back a laugh, he wrapped his arm around her shoulder and pulled her to him.

On the opposite coast, failing to contact any of the principals from the movie, Jeremy succeeded only in securing the hot shot director's address and the information that he was still in town. After relaying that information to his ungrateful and somewhat spoiled client, he was rudely hung-up on yet again as Natalie put her plan B into action.

Staked out in front of Paul Ford's gated Malibu house for more than three hours, Natalie sighed. She was dressed in an exquisitely matching yellow running outfit consisting of tiny running shorts, tank top and complete with coordinating headband and water bottle as she sat in her Denim Blue Volkswagen Beetle Convertible.

Spotting his car in the driveway and convinced she saw him walking around inside the house, she was prepared to wait as long as necessary. After drifting off to sleep, she was jarred awake by the sounds of the automatic gate on Paul's house swinging opening. Quickly she climbed from the car and started to loosen her leg muscles preparing to follow him on his daily ten mile run. As the Jaguar F-type convertible pulled out into the street she recognized the famous driver instantly and froze momentarily confused.

Cursing under her breath, she jumped back into her car and sped off after him. With a quarter mile lead on her in light traffic she watched as he turned right on the Pacific Coast Highway. After blowing threw a stop sign to make the light, she stayed back and followed him for a couple miles until he turned into the parking lot for the Malibu Health Club with its spectacular ocean views. He turned left and she headed right in the lot then watched through the rearview mirror as he pulled his ninety thousand dollar car into a space.

After waiting for him to enter the building, she turned her car around and pulled into a parking space three cars from his then headed toward the gym carrying her water bottle. Once inside the sparkling upscale lobby she scanned the room to find him.

"Can I help you?" A young man in a tight T-shirt asked from behind the desk.

"Huh?" Natalie craned her neck to see around a corner then sighed.

"Can I help you?"

"Sorry." She shook her head and stepped up to the desk, preoccupied. "I'm thinking of joining. Can I get a tour?"

"Absolutely. Can I get you to fill out this registration form?"

"Um, yeah." Grabbing the clipboard, she quickly scribbled her name, address and email address then handed it back to him.

"Miss Fox."

"Natalie... and I'm sorta in a hurry, could we, um…"

"I'm Brad."

Nodding dismissively, she walked away from the desk and headed down the aisle past the racks of workout apparel for sale toward the large room of cardio equipment overlooking the grand Pacific Ocean.

Rushing after her, he said, "We have personal TVs on all our elliptical and treadmills. Infrared Sauna, um, Spinning, Yoga, Pilates, Body—"

"Uh-huh." Frowning, she scanned the mirrored room of weight machines and shook her head.

"Is there some piece of equipment you're looking for that we don't—"

"What?" Returning her attention to Brad, she put on a sexy smile. "Sorry, no, I just want to get a quick feel for the place to see if it, you know…"

"Oh, sure."

Turning on her heels, she headed toward the opposite side of the building.

"Over here we have our locker rooms and classrooms."

"Great."

"Our locker rooms have private showers and steam rooms. I can wait here if you'd like to have a look."

Suddenly, Paul Ford, emerged from the men's locker room dressed in charcoal yoga flex pants and a bamboo logo sleeveless shirt.

Reflexively hiding her face, she turned away until Paul walked down the hall. "Um, no, not right now." She followed behind the hot director with Brad in tow.

"What else would you like to see?"

Keeping a safe distance from her target, she replied, "Just… this is great. I really love the vibe here."

"Yes, we're a non-judgment zone here. We may be in the most beautiful part of the country surrounded by the most beautiful people in the world, but you don't have to be… to be a member here. We take all—"

"Wait." Stopping in her tracks, she turned and looked at him, pointedly. "Are you saying I'm not beautiful?"

"Oh, no. I, just meant—"

"Good." Resuming the pursuit, she quickened her pace and watched as Paul entered a yoga classroom.

Brad cleared his throat. "We offer free yoga classes. Our instructors are—"

After peering into the room, she turned back to Brad. "I'll join."

"Okay, great. I just have some forms for you—"

"I want to take this class," she shot back like she was fired out of a cannon.

"Well, they, um, start every hour on the hour from—"

"No, this class, right now." She gave him a tired look.

"It starts in five minutes and I'm not sure—"

"Where are these forms?"

"At the desk."

"Great." Rushing past him, she headed toward the lobby with him scurrying after her.

As Brad walked behind the desk, she browsed through a rack of yoga apparel making faces and groaning. "Is this all you have?"

"What?"

"Yoga stuff." She rolled her eyes.

"No, there's another rack over there." Brad pointed the way.

She headed toward the back of the room and smiled, locating a tiny pink bra top with matching boogie shorts. Yanking them off the rack, she marched to the desk. "And, I'll take these."

"We have a number of membership options that—"

"I just need one that lets you take a yoga class."

He smiled. "Well, actually there are three that—"

"Brad." After taking a deep breath, she placed her hand gently on his forearm and said in a sexy tone that surely put a strain on Brad's shorts. "How about I sign your form, hand you my credit card and whatever else you need and make this class. After the class I'll finish the form. Do you think that would be okay?"

"Um, sure." Flipping through to the back page, he handed her a pen.

She placed her license and credit card on the counter then scrawled her signature on the form. After ripping the tags off the clothes she placed them on the counter and rushed away saying, "You're the best, Brad."

"Thank you."

Inside the locker room, Natalie ripped off her clothes and changed into the sexy pink yoga outfit. After stuffing her things into a locker, she ran to the yoga classroom with her water bottle.

Slipping inside the room, she located three unoccupied mats in the far corner and Paul in the second row far away from them doing warm up stretches. She frowned then set her sights on the mat directly in front of her target and walked around the room with purpose. When Natalie reached the petite blonde currently camped out there, she smiled. "Hi."

"Uh, hello." The woman gave her a hesitant look.

"You see I have bad eyesight and I really need a spot in the front of the room, so do you think I could—"

"No, I don’t think—"

"People…" The instructor loaded a CD into the music system. "Let's get started."

"Please, I really am—"

"Hey, this is my spot. Get away from me."

"Okay, everyone." The instructor slipped down to her mat in the front of the room. "Let's begin with some basic movements."

Looking down to her water bottle, Natalie let a slight grin slip from her lips before squeezing her hands together and shooting a stream all over miss perfect petite's white cotton outfit, drenching her.

"You!" The woman's eyes flew wide open. "I can't believe you…"

"Sorry." Natalie shrugged.

Covering her chest, the woman rushed to the back of the room and out the door.

Glancing around nervously, Natalie took her position and smiled. "She left her lights on."

After giving her an odd look, the instructor sighed. "Now we can start." Standing tall she began, "Hands under your chin. Stretch your elbows up… everyone together… exhale."

The class of twenty students followed her lead with Paul working directly behind Natalie. She stole glances at him looking through her spread legs as they moved into some basic warm-up yoga poses.

About fifty minutes into the class during a King Pigeon Pose, Natalie knew she had her target's full attention as Paul's eyes were glued to her cleavage and his once roomy yoga pants were now boasting an unmistakable bulge.

As she moved into the Upward Bow Pose they shared a smile. The class went on with Natalie striking every pose with precision even though her previous yoga experience was nothing to brag about. What she lacked in practice she more than made up for in her complete command of her body, gravity and unparalleled flexibility.

As the class moved into their final pose with the expert students going with an Upward Facing Two-Foot Staff while the less experienced were asked to strike the King Pigeon variety, Natalie pulled it off without a hitch as she stared into Paul's eyes. As one of her nipples escaped partially from its pink confines, he gasped then lost his balance tumbling to the floor. She giggled quietly then gave him a smile as he returned to his mat covering his mouth and shaking his head, embarrassed.

"That's it everyone. Great work." The instructor called out as she turned off the music and most students collected their things.

Natalie held her difficult pose, her head hanging just a few inches from the floor as she supported her weight on her elbows and forearms with her body bent back completely in a "U" shape and her feet flat on the floor. Grabbing his water bottle, Paul scooted a little closer to her as the rest of the class headed out of the room. "I don't think I've ever seen you here before."

Without moving a muscle, she said, "I'm sure you haven't."

His body was only three feet from hers as he stretched his leg out and lay his body down flat on it stretching. "Why's that?"

"I just joined today."

"Well, that makes sense. You're incredible. How long have you been doing yoga?"

"What time is it?"

Glancing to the clock on the wall, he narrowed his eyes. "Three thirty."

"Oh, about an hour."

The instructor shot the show-off a dirty look. "We've got another class coming in a few minutes so maybe you could wrap it up, Gumby."

Craning her neck toward the voice, Natalie smiled. "Oh, sorry. Almost done."

Scoffing, the instructor sulked from the room.

"Gee, she's a bitch," Paul whispered.

"I know, right."

"I'm Paul, by the way."

"Natalie." She replied, still perfectly content holding her position.