“That I fell on my ass?”
“No.” He picked her towel off the floor and looped it around her neck, not touching her exactly, but getting in her space enough to call her body to attention. “That you’re pissed about it.” He released the towel and stepped back, his eyes meeting hers. “It means you’ll keep trying. It means you have fight.”
She held his gaze for a moment, absorbed the words. “Right. You say that like you didn’t think I would.”
He considered her. “Honestly, I didn’t know. It takes fight to start this kind of workout right after the scare you had on Sunday. But the night I met you…”
She rolled her eyes. “I ran off the stage like a big chicken.”
“It wasn’t the running off the stage I was thinking about but more the fact that you said you’d never been onstage at all. You have a great voice. You play guitar. But you’ve never performed?”
“No,” she said. “That’s not about fight. That’s about practicality. Music was something I enjoyed, but I had more important things to do with my life than writing a few songs or performing. The dive bars don’t need another name in their lineup. My time is better spent on my research.”
Lucas frowned at her.
She sighed. “What?”
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “Maybe sometimes it’s okay to do something just for fun. Just because it feels good, you know?”
“Yeah? What would you do just because it feels good?” The words were out before she could evaluate how they could be construed.
His eyes drifted over her, his expression darkening and making her all too aware of each part of her body. Her skin tingled as if his hand had just caressed her instead of his gaze. His jaw flexed and he looked away. “Never mind. We’re wasting time you paid for. Let’s work on some balance stuff for the last few minutes.”
He turned to walk toward the other end of the obstacle course, and she hurried to keep up. Only exercise. She was only here for exercise.
And stress relief.
Ha.
When Lucas had looked at her the way he had, she wasn’t sure she’d ever felt quite so keyed up. If she was here for stress relief, this professor was earning a big, fat F.
Chapter
Nine
Lucas directed her up one of the ladders on the far side of the main obstacle course and then joined her on the platform. Ahead of them was a thick cylinder that crossed over a wide foam pit like a bridge. Lightning flashed above through the skylights, illuminating the brightly colored foam blocks below. The pit looked very far down, and Taryn’s nerves ratcheted up. “Um, this seems kind of advanced, Lucas.”
“It can be, but there are some adjustments for beginners. Balance is a big part of this course, and it’s important for building core strength.” He squatted down and turned a few knobs and flipped a switch. A whirring noise filled the air, and two trapeze bars descended from a contraption above, revealing a narrow track that the trapeze could move along while you walked the cylinder, He dragged one trapeze bar toward her and then toed off his shoes. “We’re both going to go out there on the cylinder and hold on to these. There’s a button on the right side of the bar to control tension. Hold it down and it will lock into the track above, keeping the wire taut, and you’ll get more support. If you release it, it’ll give you more slack, and you can practice your balance. The goal right now is to get you used to the feel of standing on the cylinder and being this high in the air. Take off your shoes and socks. Try to use these muscles.” He put a gentle palm over her abdomen, and she sucked in a breath at the heat of his touch. “Keep your focus there.”
Oh, her focus was there. Very, very there. “Got it.”
He moved his hand away, and she took the trapeze bar in her hand. He grabbed his own bar and stepped out in front of her onto the cylinder, walking backward and facing her. Looking entirely too comfortable with being so high up.
He stopped close to the middle of the cylinder bridge and then demonstrated how to lock it in place. He took one hand off the bar to beckon her to him. “Come on, songbird. You’ve got this.”
She took a deep breath. “Is now the time to admit I may have a teeny, tiny fear of heights?”
“Just keep your eyes on me,” he said calmly. “Don’t look down. You’re safe.”
Taryn wasn’t sure she’d be able to resist looking down, but she took off her shoes and socks and grabbed the horizontal bar above her head again. After one more deep breath, she took the first step onto the cylinder. She immediately pressed the button to lock the tension, testing the feel. The foam was firm beneath her feet but rough enough to give her a sense of grip. She kept her gaze on Lucas, and then she released the button, her hands tightly gripping the bar as she managed a few more steps out. The air-conditioning blew over her, chilling her skin even as her heart picked up speed.
“Good,” Lucas said in a soothing voice. “Now I want you to get your footing without locking the bar. Try to find your balance without its help. It’s just there for backup.”
Taryn swallowed hard, the urge to look down tugging at her, but she adjusted her feet and did as she was told. She could feel every leg and stomach muscle working hard as she lifted her arms higher and released more tension in the bar. After a few wobbles, she felt when her body took over and was doing most of the balancing work. She lifted her face to Lucas, who was a few feet farther down the cylinder, and smiled. “Hey, I’m doing it.”
He grinned. “You are. Before you know it, you’ll be ready for it to roll.”
“Roll?”