But Arianna was going to kick her ass, so she would not be needed as a mentor.

She watched her competition from under heavily lidded eyes. The studio was cleaned up and the students had been counseled.

She respected Grant’s decision to keep their relationship a secret, and she didn’t want Missy to discover the truth. Suspecting was a whole different ball game from confirming, and Grant didn’t need any conflict right now.

The willowy blonde plastered herself to Grant’s side as she listened to him speak. She wore a skimpy halter top that emphasized her heavy breasts, and her lycra pants left nothing to the imagination. She had pulled the clip out of her hair, and Arianna spotted heavy makeup on her face, not appropriate for a workout.

Arianna shook her head. Grant was the only man to ever see her both vulnerable and unpolished. Stringy hair, wet from sweat. Make-up run off her face. Arms shaking with exertion and a trucker’s mouth when she couldn’t hold a pose. Sometimes tears when she held a posture long enough to break through some emotional barriers. Not to mention her trouble keeping up her pedicures, which were always exposed with everyone’s feet bare in class. Yet, Missy, seemed polished and manicured and perfumed and. . . ready for action.

Arianna smothered a laugh at the thought, then decided to break up the party.

She reached the couple and enjoyed the spark of warmth that lit Grant’s eyes when he spotted her. “Are you almost ready to go?” she asked casually.

“Absolutely,” he said. “Missy, I would dedicate more time to your meditation. You seem like you’re ready for a breakthrough.”

“I am. I was hoping we could discuss a few things.” Missy raised an eyebrow in her direction. “Would you mind if I stole Grant for a bit longer?” Grant opened his mouth but Arianna interrupted. “I’m sorry, Missy, we were going to catch a bite.” She smiled in apology. “I’m starving from that workout. Can you catch up with him later?”

Missy took a small side step until she was flush against Grant. “Oh, that’s so nice you’re getting something to eat. Can I join you? Would love to discuss the practices more, and maybe Arianna can learn a few more things. I know she’s new.” Silence descended.

Arianna waited for Grant to make a decision. A Mexican stand off had officially been called. If Missy joined them, it would solidify their relationship as friends, and there would be no romantic dinner. But if he did say something, Missy would know the truth and expose their secret.

Missy looked up at Grant with expectation. Arianna waited patiently for her lover to choose.

Grant smiled warmly at Missy. A mentor, a teacher, a friend. Then spoke. “I’m sorry, Missy, I’m taking Arianna out to dinner to celebrate something very special. I made reservations so we won’t be able to have you join us tonight.” He squeezed her hand in reassurance. “But I’ll see you tomorrow during morning class and we’ll have plenty of time to discuss it.” Without hesitation, Grant took Missy’s elbow and led her to the door. “Have a great night.” The blonde literally gaped at the obvious dismissal, and then Arianna spotted a disturbing mix of envy and resolve. She tossed her hair, said something else to Grant, and disappeared.

“Ready?” he asked.”Do you want to use the bathroom to change first or shall I?” She stared at him and realized he had chosen her.

“You told her.”

He waved his hand in dismissal and raked his hair back from his forehead. “Yeah, I thought it was time. She suspected anyway.”

“What if she tells the other students?” Arianna pressed. “I don’t think she was too happy knowing you were dating me.”

Grant nodded. “I know. I guess she’s going to have to get over it and so will the other students. I’m done hiding you.”

Her heart bloomed in full expansion and made a mockery out of the Grinch. Her skin felt suddenly too tight for her body. He pretended to be casual. She knew differently. She knew it took everything Grant had to trust her and their relationship, to let the truth out. Then Arianna realized she had to tell him her own truth. Tonight. She had to tell him she was leaving.

But not now.

Arianna closed the distance between them with a leap, and then she was in his arms. He murmured low and caught her hard as she launched herself through the air. She stabbed all ten fingers into his long hair and pulled his mouth down on hers. His arms snagged around her waist and held her tight as her tongue thrust between his lips and she took him on a wild ride, her fingers pushing up his shirt to caress all those carved muscles in his chest, his arms, his back.

She squeezed his buttocks and with one hard tug, his pants came down with his underwear, exposing his arousal to her hungry hands and travelling fingers.

He managed to do the same to her in a few second and then they were both naked. “No dinner?” he gasped, lifting her up so his cock pressed against her wet opening.

“Screw dinner.”

His mouth came down and laved her breasts, pulled her nipple between his teeth and sucked. She groaned and urged him to go faster, wanting him to lose the fragile thread of his control when he loved her, wanting him to stop holding back. Arianna grasped him between her fingers and worked him up and down, sliding her thumb over his sensitive tip, guiding his length between her thighs.

“Yes, yes, yes,” she chanted, thrusting her hips upward, ready to claim him and both explode over the edge.

“You want this?” he asked, his cock moving into her, sliding inch by precious inch.

Arianna punished him with her fingernails and her teeth. She bit his earlobe, raked the skin over his back, and urged him to come inside her. She wanted, no, needed, him to surrender to her tonight.

“If you want it, tell me. Tell me everything.” His voice was a low growl as he massaged her breasts and teased her clit with the hot flesh of his arousal, getting her so close yet not close enough.

“Put your cock inside me!” she demanded, opening her legs wider, her back pressed against the hard wall, willing him to do it, just do it.

“Not until you come for me. Come. Now. Now!” He grasped her hips, positioned her, and slammed his cock into her wet opening.

Arianna came hard in a rush of wetness, her voice tearing on a scream that cut through the studio. But he wasn’t done, he thrust in and out of her, again and again, lifting her up and up until the second orgasm ripped through her and then she collapsed against the wall, falling against his hot, damp skin, his erection still pulsing inside of her with hot demand. She groaned and admitted defeat again. He didn’t come inside of her. Not until it was on his terms.

The thought worried at her like a mouse with a piece of string, but then he was easing back and forth over her sensitive, clit, slowly, so slowly she didn’t even realize he was moving until the tension built again in delicious intervals, the friction of his cock against the swollen nub so outrageously pleasurable, tears burned her eyes. She fought the fall, not wanting to have another orgasm, and she cursed him, but he just laughed and held her still, working himself inside of her again and again until she came, her flesh pulsing almost painfully from the release.

This time he let her slide down to the floor, still inside of her. Only then did the full emotions hit like a hurtling freight train, and tears leaked from her lids as she surrendered to the final collapse of all of her clever ideas of love and distance and realized Grant Madison had changed her life and she would never be the same.

Grant held her close, stroking back silky strands of her hair from her face as she cried.

The tears dropped slowly on his bare chest and a piece of him broke loose inside of him. Her vulnerability and openness tore him apart. He tried to release his sudden tension as he realized she needed to tell him something, something he wasn’t going to want to hear. Grant calmed his mind by breathing slowly and waited for her to speak.

“The promotion.” She paused. “I have to leave. I have to move to Chicago by the end of the month.”

The breath whooshed back out of his chest and he sought to find a grip as he sorted through the complications. “OK. For how long?”

“If I succeed? Probably permanently. If I fail? They’ll give me two years to make a go of it.”

He battled his sudden weakness to beg her to stay. Grant reached down deep and vowed he’d never ask her to give up the promotion for him. This was her dream, as the creation of his school was his. He understood the passion of loving what he did, the pull of the work as a constant tease to his consciousness, the pleasure of completing a day with students. He fell into bed at night and felt full in a way that had nothing to do with food. Arianna was a talented woman who was going to make partner. She’d run the Chicago office and make a name for herself, far away from her Iowa origins. He loved her even more for it, understood her like he had no other woman. In that moment, he decided to let her go.

And never tell her about his true feelings.

His tone contradicted his slowly crumbling heart. “Then we have a month together and we won’t lose a moment.”

Arianna stiffened. Her words were hesitant. “Do you want to do the long distance thing?

Grant, I can’t imagine walking away from you. I—“

He stopped her by smothering his mouth over hers. If she said the words he wanted to hear, he’d fall apart. She would stay, and they’d never know what she could have been. Her lips softened, became pliant beneath his until she quieted.

“I don’t want to lose you, either. But you’re moving because this promotion is what you’ve been waiting for. I’m so damn proud of you, Arianna. You go to Chicago and kick some ass. But I think we need a clean break. You don’t need the distractions of a long distance relationship, and I don’t know if I can handle it.”