The Love Asana

Pari licked her lower lip nervously. She ran her eyes over the studio again, sensing the spell he seemed to have cast over everyone. Many of her students were again watching him riveted. Granted, he was a fine specimen, but it was obvious from the casual way he dipped his long torso, blithely unaware of the silky fall of his hair, that he was used to being the centre of attention. There was nothing out of line in anything he had said to her but just his presence was unnerving. She could swear she sensed the hint of an amused twitch to his lips. She moved on to Parighasana, the gate pose, which she knew was another great asana to strengthen the back. He seemed to do that too with amazing ease, completing the movements and coming back to the starting position, kneeling on the yoga mat with his hands on the top of his firm thighs.

‘So would you say, then, as a learner I’m not doing too badly?’

‘Let’s not jump the gun. We haven’t got to the tougher asanas yet.’

‘And these were?’ he asked, his voice equally low. As long as the conversation was about yoga, she supposed she couldn’t really ignore his questions.

‘Relatively simpler. More to test what your body can take,’ Pari snapped. She didn’t know why, but everything he said threw her off balance. It was as if she just couldn’t focus. She was barely aware of what he was asking and what she was jabbering in response. Her senses were screaming high alert and there was no real reason for her to feel that way. He seemed to know where her thoughts were going. At the moment they were running wild wondering how it would feel to run her fingers down his toned tanned cheek and feel the depression that those dimples made.

‘Ideally you should have warmed up properly before even starting any asana. But now I must get back to every one. Maybe you should wait the next one out. It can be a bit tricky.

‘All of you,’ Pari directed the rest of the class. ‘You know the vrikshasana. It’s the tree posture, remember?’

The class hmmed in unison. ‘Hold the position as long as you comfortably can, OK? I don’t want anyone to keep repeating it either. Just do it once, hold it and then relax. Then balance it out by repeating it with the other leg. Clear?’ Pari swung into automatic teaching mode, walking around the studio, checking that each one was able to follow, and even the slowest learners had stretched themselves beyond their normal comfort zones. Yet all the while she was unbearably aware of Vivan as he stood leaning a little against the wall at the back of the room, his gaze wandering appreciatively over her body.

Turning to Vivan again a short while later, Pari said briefly, ‘What you could also try to do is an adhu mokha svanasana.’ Indicating he first watch while she demonstrated, Pari gracefully went down on all fours on her yoga mat.

She raised herself off the mat until she was supported by her hands and legs equally off the ground. ‘Svan, if you remember your Sanskrit from school, means a dog.’ Pari smiled just a little; if his Sanskrit was anything like hers it was unlikely. ‘And adhu mokha means facing down.’ She turned to see if Vivan was following the sequence. This was what was so good about teaching yoga. The way you could help people so constructively.

‘This posture will really help you strengthen your back. And it actually also helps calm the heart rate and BP and brings down breathlessness.’

‘Hmm …’ Vivan said thoughtfully, looking at his animated and petite teacher with the sliver of silky skin showing on her back where the tee shirt had risen a little.

‘Hmm … as in yes, you get it and are ready to try it now?’

‘Actually, hmm as in I have a question.’

Pari raised an eyebrow.

‘This adhumokha … or downward dog asana, if I may,’ he began.

‘Go on …’

‘Isn’t it a lot more likely to increase breathlessness than lower it?’ His lips curved the slightest bit and this time Pari knew she hadn’t imagined it.

She turned her back to him so he couldn’t see her suppressed smile as she said, ‘You know what? Why don’t you try it at home and let me know?’

He’d baited her twice too many. ‘But since you are such an enthusiastic learner, let me see how well you’ve absorbed what I’ve been teaching so far,’ Pari said. She was so going to enjoy this. From the way he had done the other asanas without any discomfort with the catch on his back, Pari was confident she could put him to the test. His supreme self-confidence needed to come down a notch or two.

‘Vrikshasana. The tree position. You saw them do it just now.’ Pari held back a smile. ‘Show me.’ This was going to be fun. Pari knew many thought of it as an easy one, but it was only when you actually tried to keep your balance standing with one foot resting on the inner thigh of the other leg that you realized the graceful posture was deceptively tricky to achieve.

Vivan slowly drew his left foot along the length of his right leg to bring the entire sole of the foot firmly to rest on his thigh. Pari stared as, very slowly again, he confidently extended his arms outwards to bring them together over the top of his head. Balanced rock solid on his right leg, his palms together in a ‘namaste’ clasp over his head, he tilted his head up, his hair flopping back as he held the position without swaying even the slightest. A hush had fallen over the class.

All she could focus on were his feet. Pari stole another look, spellbound. Standing next to him, literally a foot shorter, she kept her gaze lowered. Pari had always had a thing about attractive feet. His were clean, almost immaculate with just a hint of fine hair at the toes. As he raised himself to do the stretch her eyes started to move up, her thoughts irascibly racing ahead to his hands and wondering if they were as long and artistic as his feet. Her gaze locked briefly with his eyes, which didn’t seem to have moved away from hers even for an instant. Blushing a deep pink, Pari felt he’d read her thoughts. She could have smacked herself there and then. Pari simply did not do fantasy. Never, never, never. Not since Kunal and the whole bitter experience when she had sworn never to be taken in by any man again. And certainly not an arrogant, very male student who had done nothing but confound her with his overpowering presence from the time he’d walked into her class.

Pari mumbled quickly, ‘Excellent, excellent. You can release the posture now, please.’ With utmost grace, Vivan relaxed his arms to bring them down gently as he lowered his left foot to stand at ease on the mat.

Pari shook herself out of it, mortified again at the effect this very assured man was having over her. Maybe it was nothing but her body reacting in the most primal way to his suave sexy appeal, but this going off into flights of fantasy was getting a bit too much. This was her class, her turf. She needed to take charge of herself and focus on yoga and nothing else.

‘All right everybody, let’s finish with some analom vilom.’ Pari stepped back till she was almost touching the long wall of mirrors on the left of the studio. ‘Just remember—inhale exhale is a one to two ratio, so if you’re breathing in to a count of four, breathe out to eight.’ As she took a few quiet steps around the room again to see that everyone had their fingers poised correctly over their nostrils and eyes closed, she was startled to see Vivan’s eyes wide open. He was sitting on the mat, watching her with a relaxed amused expression. ‘You may want to explain how this works,’ he asked softly, expecting once again to have Pari’s undivided attention to himself.

‘Shh,’ Pari whispered. Leaning down to speak a little closer to his ear so she didn’t disturb the other students, she said, ‘Look, come a little earlier next class and I’ll try to help you catch up. But I can’t disturb the others right now.’ Pari didn’t quite like the slightly on-edge note her voice had to it. It must be the proximity of being so close to his ear that was so distracting. Calm … You’ve got to stay calm. That’s it … Pari. Keep breathing slowly and you’ll be fine.

Vivan was a little surprised at her seemingly cool attitude towards him. He just wasn’t used to it. He couldn’t remember the last time any girl had brushed him off like that. He had to hand it to her, though. She was professional to the core. He appreciated the fact that she wasn’t holding up the entire class just for his benefit and that her small delectable frame wasn’t easily shaken from its purpose either. Well, neither was he and he was here for one reason only.

An hour later she had wrapped up the class, putting her things together while watching the students in the mirror as they neatly rolled up their yoga mats. Casually throwing his linen shirt over his shoulder, Vivan stood up with slow deliberation to ask, ‘So which would you say is your favourite asana of all these?’

‘That would have to be the surya namaskar,’ she said crisply, albeit with a little gentleness. This was after all a legit subject and one that she could happily talk about any time.

‘Why is that?’ Vivan asked innocuously.

‘Well, it’s complete in itself. It combines so many brilliant muscle movements. It’s almost spiritual … It’s the best way to start your day,’ Pari ended breathlessly.

‘I can think of something better,’ Vivan said, his voice gruff, barely a murmur meant only for Pari to hear. Which she did, but chose not to acknowledge.

She reached unsuccessfully once more to pull down her kit bag from a high shelf. Vivan moved forward. ‘Allow me,’ he said as his arm brushed against hers, reaching the shelf effortlessly. He stood so close she could breathe in the musky all-male fragrance of him mingled with a fresh kind of aqua aftershave … becoming all too conscious of the fine hair on his arm as he lowered the bag gently to hand it to her. His head was agonisingly close to the curve of her neck. Suddenly, her heart began knocking against her chest and all she could think of was how it would feel to have him kiss her. Would he take his time to explore the texture of her lips with excruciating pleasure before slowly igniting the inside of her mouth, or capture it aggressively with his self-assured sexuality, his long legs pressed against the entire length of hers as he pushed her against the mirrored wall … With a jolt Pari saw their reflection in the studio’s mirrored wall. Her lips had parted of their own volition as she realised his finger was trailing the line of her cheek, his head leaning in even closer … to casually tuck a few loose strands of hair behind her ear.

Pari flushed a deep red, embarrassed at her own thoughts. She wondered if Vivan had guessed at them as she turned her back to him, busying herself with rolling up some mats. Then she heard him laugh lightly as he murmured for her benefit only, ‘Act natural. You don’t want everyone to see what I can read in your beautiful face.’

Damn!

It was a good thing he left before she’d turned around.

CHAPTER TWO

VIVAN walked thoughtfully down the narrow studio steps, taking his old familiar route past the pavement vendors towards his car, still trying to make sense of the strong impact Pari had on him. Vivan had felt a physical ache within him as he’d stood close to her. The urge to taste her satiny skin had been overwhelming. He only knew that those slightly parted lips that had been a whisper away from him held the promise of sating the desire consuming him. He had wanted to have her there and then. In the studio. On the yoga mat if need be. The urge was so strong, his hand had moved by some magnetic pull to her face and begun to trail the delicate line of her jaw. It had been all he could do to rein in his fire and hope that she hadn’t guessed.

In the ten years since he’d become unimaginably rich and famous, Vivan had been with more women than he could remember. In the beginning it had been a way of forgetting the guilt at leaving Sonia while he went away to the US to study. He’d felt rootless in those early years abroad, with no one to call his own … searching, in every woman he hooked up with, for that one woman who could give him the sense of family and security that he secretly craved. But again and again Vivan found he had imagined an ideal partner out of a merely ambitious woman looking to get rich quick. It became easier to find release in relationship-less sex, and sex was all it ever was. Energising, yet cold sex where the women were only after one thing. Money and the hope of becoming the future Mrs Parasher. Heir to the Parasher fortune. Mistress of homes in New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco, London, Dubai and now even New Delhi.

He had been surprised to find himself drawn into a vortex towards Pari. It made him grow aroused just wondering how it would feel to have her legs wrapped around his. The only sense he could make of it was the cool way she had behaved with him. Pari had treated Vivan with none of the open adoration he was used to getting from women. It irked him no end and was probably why she had got under his skin the way she had.

Even though he had no facts to confirm it as yet, Vivan felt convinced Pari was Deepak’s sister. The background check on Deepak had shown that he had lived in Delhi after leaving his home at sixteen. Then there was the marriage that happened two years ago, by all reports a happy one. In Vivan’s opinion most men ran true to type. Sonia had an outward resemblance to the recent pictures he had seen of Deepak’s wife: tall, strikingly sharp features, a fair complexion. Pari looked nothing like that, he realised with certainty. She was small; her skin was a delicious dusky tone, her nose a pert little button. No. She had to be Deepak’s sister for sure. Blood was thicker than water and no wonder Deepak was so concerned about pushing his own sister forward. The bastard—it was time he realised how it felt for his own sister to be used and discarded.

Pari pushed the image firmly to the back of her mind—her face wide-eyed, her lips parted in anticipation of being very thoroughly kissed. She walked straight to the car, legs still a little wobbly. The rather run-down hatchback she had bought at a throwaway price from Deepak in days when he was doing better had been a huge blessing and the only indulgence she had allowed herself in Delhi. Earlier today she’d been lucky to get parking in the always crowded lot. Now there was a sensational top-end silver sedan parked very close to her car where a bike had been when she’d parked. She’d have to squeeze into the gap to get to her driving seat. Worse, as Pari fumbled around in the outer section of her bag, she realised the keys didn’t seem to be there. Come to think of it, she couldn’t remember putting them in there as she normally did. Pari turned her mobile to torch mode, zigzagging the light from it on the ground, hoping to find she’d dropped the key somewhere close.

Vivan reached his car, stopping short at the sight of Pari’s distinct curvaceous little bottom sticking out from under the car next to his.

‘We meet again,’ he said, amazed at the extraordinary coincidence.

She didn’t reply.

‘A little sooner than I thought.’

Silence again. Although, really, Pari thought, the last person she wanted to see was the one towering behind her as she continued to search on her knees for the damned keys.

Does this kind of thing have to happen only to me? A response would only encourage the devil into believing he had got away with his outrageous behaviour in the class.

‘Yoga again? Out on the road?’ Vivan was enjoying seeing her discomfort as she straightened up from under the car.