Just breathe, Ryan. You can get through this.
I got through the hour but didn’t make it into all the positions. Ruby was concentrating, so I hoped she didn’t see what I was doing. I was sure Herlinda noticed, but she was too nice to say anything.
Ruby rolled up her mat at the end of class. “Ready to hit the showers?”
“I… I was thinking more along the lines of a hot tub?”
She smiled at me. “Anything you want to tell me, Ryan?”
“Nope.”
“Come on…” she teased.
Oh, what the hell. “My body feels like it’s been run over by a Mack truck.”
Ruby burst into laughter. As much as I want to be irritated with her, it was such a joyful sound I couldn’t help smiling.
“I had a feeling you’d be sore today, but you’re just too much of a man to admit it. I can’t believe you got through the entire yoga class.”
“Barely.”
She laughed again. “You’re a good sport. I like that. All right, the hot tub it is.”
I grinned. “Since we didn’t bring our suits, we’ll have to go over to the nude pool and hot tub.”
She dropped her mouth open.
I moved forward and pushed her chin up. “Careful. Lots of mosquitoes around here.” Then I took her arm and led her toward the nude pool and hot tub.
Because it was so early, the hot tub was vacant. We stripped our clothing, and she seemed a lot less inhibited now as we stepped into the warm water.
Heaven.
Ruby opened the cooler. “We’ll have to save the protein shakes for later. Right now, we need hydration in this hot water.” She removed two bottles of water and handed me one.
I opened it and took a deep drink. Cool, fresh water. Nectar of the gods.
I closed my eyes for a few moments and inhaled the rising steam. Then I opened them. Ruby was sitting across from me, her lovely breasts floating near the surface of the water. I chuckled.
“What’s so funny?” she asked.
“Here I am, in a hot tub on a nude beach, with the most beautiful woman in the world sitting across from me, and I’m too fucking sore to do anything about it.”
“You’ll be fine. We’ll have lots of time to do something later.”
Did that mean she was up for doing “something?” H
ell, yeah. But would we truly have the time? We had decided to leave the resort early, tomorrow, after the wedding today.
I didn’t want to leave yet. I wasn’t ready to leave paradise.
But the arrangements had already been made. Still, we had today. Ten minutes in the hot tub and then a megadose of ibuprofen, and maybe I’d feel a little better. Hell, I had to take part in the wedding today. I’d better do something about the sore body.
We didn’t speak much, just relaxed and inhaled the steam, until Ruby said it was time to get out.
“Oh, come on. It feels so good.”
“Yes, but too much of a good thing is bad for you. Especially when it’s 104-degree water. It’s time to get out, get more hydration, go get breakfast, and then we have to go speak to the security and the police.”