Sweet Discipline (3 page)

“No way!”

“You agreed to follow all instructions. Now, for the last time, take off that tunic.”

She clutched the fabric closer to her chest. “No.”

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Sweet Discipline

Out of the darkness, a tanned male hand reached out and yanked. Her tunic tore easily, coming apart at the seams. Stunned, Norris grabbed at the fabric, but too late.

The hand withdrew, leaving only a scrap of material to slither down her back and fall to the floor.

Flinching at the cool air wafting across her spine, Norris crossed her knees and covered her ample breasts with her hands. “What is going on here? Who are you? Get out of here!”

“I am your personal trainer,” he said in a calm, even tone. “You will do everything I tell you to do, and you will do it quickly and to your best ability.”

“But you’re a man!”

“So I am. And you’re a client paying for my expertise. You will begin by following my instructions.”

“I expected a woman coach!”

“Your expectations are no concern to me.”

She couldn’t believe her ears. How dare he talk to her like that? She’d report his rudeness and get another coach. “I want to see the director, right now. I want someone else.”

“No on both counts.”

She heard him move back. He sounded as if he were to her right, but in the deeper darkness, he could be anywhere. She swiveled, looking for him.

“Get off the stool.”

“Not until you get the director in here.”

“She’s occupied.”

“Then you get me another trainer.” Norris spoke slowly, forcefully.

“All the other trainers are with clients.”

“The director assured me there were provisions for changing coaches.”

“Did she?” he murmured, as though it was no concern to him. “You’re stuck with me.”

“Then I’ll leave and make a reservation for another time.”

“Suit yourself.” His voice sounded indifferent. “But you’ll lose your fees and you won’t be accepted again.”

Norris hesitated. She’d cleared her schedule for these six weeks. Her clients had grumbled, but she’d soothed them and given them a small discount on her usual fees.

Fees. She’d paid an exorbitant amount to this spa. She could make it up, she supposed, and find another spa and diet program to lose the weight, but she’d been set on this one. Kendra had warned her the first few days were hard and told her she wouldn’t last.
Oh, yes, she would
. She gritted her teeth. Just moments ago, she’d been wishing she’d listened to Kendra but now she was pissed. If Kenny could do it, she could, too.

Whatever it took. Even if it meant listening to this odious man. For now.

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“Well?” the odious man asked.

She held on for a moment, clinging to her dignity, then slid off the stool. It was hard covering her breasts and her mound at the same time, but she tried.

“Drop your hands.” The voice came from behind her.

“Can’t you stand still?” she complained. “I can’t see you.”

“Drop them.”

From her left. So he was circling her, then. She turned her back and dropped her hands.

“Turn in a circle. Slowly.” From behind, again.

She clenched her hands into fists as she turned. She couldn’t see him, but she could feel his gaze on her. No matter how she moved, she could sense his looking at her, at every private part of her. Heat rushed to her breasts, to her neck and face. Her stomach wobbled as she turned. Oh, she shouldn’t have had that last farewell slice of pastry…

“Stop.” Now he was in front of her. “Stand still.”

She lifted her chin. “You, too.”

She thought she heard a soft chuckle. “In a moment someone will come in and take your measurements. Then we’ll talk.”

The door closed. The lights came on as the door opened and Angela and another woman, also in peach scrubs, entered. The other woman carried a clipboard. Neither one seemed concerned about her nakedness.

“Listen,” Norris said urgently. “I have to speak to whoever’s in charge. I don’t want a man, that man!”

The women exchanged looks. “But he’s the…one of the best trainers.”

“I don’t care. I want a woman coach.”

Another exchange of looks. “Let’s get your measurements and then I’ll talk to the director for you.”

Norris hesitated. She’d need to do this much for any trainer. “Okay.”

Angela led her to a corner and pulled back a curtain. There was a scale, a desk and a number of instruments. “Let’s weigh you first.”

Norris stepped on the scale and closed her eyes. The other woman closed the curtain behind them.

“You have a lot of work to do,” Angela murmured. “But you’ve come to the right place.”

The other woman took up a tape measure and took her chest, waist and hip measurements. Angela wrote them down as Norris winced and tried to ignore the numbers. Then the woman took calipers and measured parts of her that made her eyebrows rise.

“Is that necessary?” Norris asked through gritted teeth.

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Sweet Discipline

“You’ll want to know how much you’ve changed when you’re through with the program.”

Norris closed her eyes and submitted to more measurements. At last, the woman said, “We’re done.”

Angela whisked back the curtain. “We’re through here.”

“Good,” the man with the baritone voice said. “You can go.”

Norris hid behind the curtain and peeked out.

Angela handed him the clipboard, then whispered something. He looked at her sharply, then nodded. The two women left the room.

He sat one-hipped on the stool. He wore black, from closely cropped black hair down long legs to booted feet. Both hair and boots shone in the overhead light casting shadows on his face. Norris hesitated. He was attractive in an austere, remote sort of way. If she met him at a social event, she might take a second look, but that would be all. Still, there was something about him, something intriguing. Probably all his female clients developed crushes on him. She could see why they would, based on his looks and body alone, but he wasn’t her type. So it couldn’t be his chiseled, starkly handsome face, broad shoulders and lean body that made her breath come faster.

After all, he was an exercise trainer and he obviously spent time practicing what he preached. Broad shoulders and a flat waist went with his job. She’d expect him to be physically fit. It wasn’t his looks, impressive as they were. She didn’t go for tall, dark and handsome guys who loved their mirrors more than anything else. No, something about him, his aura or the stillness about him, warned her. By his presence, he dominated the space around him.

The fine hairs on the back of her neck quivered for attention. She retreated deeper behind the curtain and peered out at him.

He glanced up from her file. “Come here.” He pointed to a spot in front of him.

“I asked Angela to get your supervisor. I want another coach.”

“So she said.”

“I’ll just wait here until someone else comes.”

“Suit yourself,” he said evenly but he didn’t budge.

Norris waited. He continued to leaf through the pages of her file.

Norris fidgeted. She cleared her throat.

He ignored her.

At last the door swung open. The director, with Angela at her heels, entered the room. “What is the problem?”

Norris stuck her head out from behind the curtain. “I want another trainer. A female coach. Not that man.”

The director and the coach exchanged glances. He shrugged. Norris began to feel better.

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The director approached her. “Ms. Brownell. Adrian is our most experienced trainer. You can’t go wrong with him.”

“He’s a man,” Norris hissed.

“So he is. He’s also the one with the longest list of successful, satisfied clients, most of them women.” She eyed Norris’ disheveled hair. “Aren’t you making too much of this?”

“But he made me take off my clothes!”

“How else is he going to evaluate your problem areas?”

“Well—”

“You’re lucky to have him.”

Norris flicked a glance from the cold-eyed woman to Adrian, who seemed to be ignoring their discussion.

“Well—” Norris said again, torn between her modesty and getting the best trainer on hand. Since she was here and she’d paid those outrageous fees, didn’t it make sense to use the best they had? That’s what she’d counsel her clients. Shouldn’t she take her own advice? She blew out a breath. “Okay.”

“Fine.” The director turned to leave. “I trust you two will get along.”

Adrian glanced up then, spearing Norris with a look. She interpreted it to mean that she’d better toe the line.

The moment the door closed behind the director, she had confirmation.

“Come out of there.”

“I’m don’t like being undressed.” She also didn’t like losing any confrontation.

“Get used to it.” He paused a beat. “I’m waiting.”

Let him wait!
She was the client here. She
deserved to be treated with respect and consideration. She couldn’t let him see that she was afraid of him. Wouldn’t give him the upper hand. Instead of letting herself be bullied, she’d treat him like she would any employee at a health spa. Sexless, there to serve her, someone she’d deal with only in an impersonal manner, even as they touched and toned her body. She’d forget his good looks, his deep, sexy voice and think of him as a doctor or nurse, trained to see the body as an instrument, a tool, not as a sexual being.

That was the key. Polite, but impersonal, interested in her only as a client. She could do that. He’d already seen all there was to see, much more than she’d ever allowed a man to see without the forgiving, concealing glow of candles and mood lights. If her trainer could help her trim down, make her body seductive and sexy, make her proud of her body, he could look all he wanted.

She stepped out from behind the curtain.

He pointed to his feet. “Here.”

Like a faithful dog? She straightened her shoulders and strode forward. “Now, see here—”

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Sweet Discipline

“Look at me.”

She glanced up, a long way it seemed in her bare feet. She saw a narrow nose and thin lips above a strong chin. His face was expressionless, his eyes dark and deep in the shadows. He looked powerful, in command and totally heartless. He was in absolute control of himself. Still, contained, only his chest moving with each breath he took.

Norris shivered.

“I am Adrian. While you are here, you will be mine to train. You are the client, but I am in charge. Is that understood?”

She clamped her mouth shut. So he was the best. So she was lucky to work with him. All right. She was paying for his expertise. She nodded.

“Understand this. We have a variety of methods to choose from, depending on the client’s needs and personality. The trainer customizes the method that will get the client involved. All our methods work,” he stressed, “but the client has to work, too.”

“It’s no different than buying into and owning a project.”

“Good.” His grin was unexpected, quick and gone before she had a chance to enjoy it. “Then you’ll have no trouble adapting to the program I’ve chosen for you.”

A sudden shiver down her back warned her. “What kind of program?”

“Based on the number of diets and exercise programs you’ve started and never finished, you lack motivation in your personal life. I’ve developed a program to address that.”

Okay, so they’d deduced from the multi-page questionnaire she’d filled out that she had little or no willpower when it came to rewarding herself with something yummy and gooey after a long day at work. That’s why she was here. “That’s good.”

He flicked a glance at her. It was gone so quickly, she couldn’t swear to it, but she was sure she saw amusement, a tiny sense of connection. That was good, too. It would make working together more pleasant.

“You will accept my instructions, follow them explicitly and treat me with courtesy.” His gaze moved slowly over her body. “In return,” he continued with a cool, implacable voice, “I will teach you respect for your body, discipline over your impulses.

You will learn to control your thoughts and actions. You will achieve your weight loss goals.”

Norris nodded. “That’s what the contract says.”

He lifted one finger to point it at her. Norris found herself distracted by it. His hands were tanned, as she’d noted before, but now she saw they looked strong, with a broad palm, yet with long, tapered fingers. Nails cut short, very clean. He wore no rings. “You need to improve both your physical and verbal self-control. Training will be as vigorous as needed.”

That got her attention. Okay. She’d expected a lot of exercise. She’d never liked it, although she’d bought memberships in various gyms. Truth was, she hated the whole 19

Bonnie Hamre

workout scene and never attended. She didn’t get off on the no pain, no gain school of thought, but she could tough it out, even with a wannabe drill sergeant like him.

“You will be rewarded when you succeed, disciplined when you fail.”

There was that
word
again, leaving a bad taste in her mouth. Discipline was punishment, and she’d never responded to deprivation. She ran her tongue over her teeth. “Disciplined how?”

He looked her over. “How do you define discipline?”

Norris tried to remember the dictionary’s definition. “Um, keeping at something until you’ve got it right. Practice. Self-denial. Punishment.” She licked her lips again.

Ugh.

“You’re on the right track.
Sweet Discipline
removes bad habits and helps a client substitute good ones, especially those of order, regularity, and obedience.”

He sounded like he’d quoted those words many times before. Was this pet training or a damned expensive spa? “Obedience?”

He nodded. “To the goals you set yourself. To your inner self. To the program. To me.” He paused while she thought about that. He must have interpreted the look on her face as resistance, which it was, for he added, “If you require help in creating or maintaining self-control, you will get it through discipline.”

She swallowed hard. She searched his face, looking for another hint that he wasn’t some robotron hired to spout the company line. That he was actually a human being under those intimidating black clothes. He was handsome, a beautifully formed male, and she couldn’t find an ounce of humanity in him.