Read Online Criminal Minds (Fox Meridian Book 4) by Niall Teasdale - Free Book Online

chest. ‘Promise.’ Then she spoiled it by adding, ‘Well, maybe just a little bit.’
    ~~~
    Yoga was not something Marie had ever tried before, but she was doing okay and even considering trying to keep it up after her week was done. She was naturally flexible so the bending was pretty easy: so far the instructor had not asked her to do anything which stressed her too much. The hard bit was the balancing. Standing forward bends, all the pigeon poses, even the one where she was bent over with her chest on the floor in box splits… no problem. Tree stance with one leg tucked up against her hip had her wobbling. She could get herself into position, but maintaining it was not so easy.
    Her mind was not helping. She kept flicking back to the morning class with Sam. Maybe because it had been Sam she was working with, she had found it easy to shut out everyone else in the room and focus on what she was being told and getting on with performing. She had been seeing Sam for weeks, but that hour in class had been one of the most erotic experiences she could recall having with him. The comment about not being able to stop had been a joke, but it had been close to the truth. She thought Sam had felt the same and it worried her a little.
    The truth was that she had not been putting the effort into their relationship Sam deserved. He was good in bed. He was incredible in bed. And outside of it he was smooth, sophisticated, a gentleman with a wild, roguish quality when there was the need for it. He did not push and he seemed quite happy with how things were, but Marie was sure she could do better. And that class had really shown her that she could and should be putting more effort in. If nothing else, she was sure that if she did, the result would be incredible for both of them.
    The thought had occurred to her that she had been more active with Fox. That had worried her more for a little while, but she had concluded that it was a combination of novelty, since Fox had been her first female partner, and Sam’s training. There was a great temptation with Sam to just let him work your body like the virtuoso he was. He was just so good at it. But that time was done. It was time, Marie thought, to show her man what she could do.
    ‘Breathing, Marie,’ the instructor said in a patient tone. ‘Focus on your breathing.’
    ‘Yes, Sister,’ Marie replied and, because her mind was settled with the decision, she did.
    ~~~
    Fox’s shower was a walk-in design: open doorways on either side of the large hot tub bath let you into a space where you could be deluged with water and then dried with air blowers. There were frosted-glass screens which let you look out onto the room, but Fox felt secure in the house and rarely looked out. When she stepped out of the shower and found Jason leaning against the wall, one of her eyebrows went up.
    ‘You didn’t think to mention he was here?’ Fox asked silently.
    ‘He asked me to let him surprise you and he is not carrying a sidearm, according to Belle.’
    ‘You’re not armed?’ Fox asked aloud.
    ‘I need a gun to visit here?’
    ‘No, I just… I guess I’m used to cops and you’re more of… a special cop.’ She glanced back at the screens. ‘Good view?’
    ‘It was somewhat obscured, but you know that hints are often sexier than the full view.’
    Fox smiled and walked past him to the door. ‘Yeah, I’d heard that. How’s the full view?’
    ‘Sometimes the hints do not do it justice.’ He followed behind her as she walked and so was right at her back when she stopped, hands on the doorframe. He rested his hands on her hips and she felt her breathing quicken. She heard him chuckle. ‘Here or the bedroom?’ he said.
    Fox felt her heart drop into her guts. Ice filled her veins and a thousand tiny claws pricked her scalp. Her throat dried up and she knew she stiffened because he said, ‘Fox?’ and there was concern in his voice. She pulled away from him, backed up against the far