Valerie Rose finds herself struggling to regain her confidence after a recent divorce from a cheating husband. She feels unwanted, unloved, and unattractive. That is, until she meets Max, the new kickboxing instructor at her gym. He teaches her that she can be sexy, powerful, and above all, unstoppable.
And he does it all on his balcony.
“Jesus Christ!” Polly said as we entered the change room after our forty-five-minute cardio kickboxing class. “Did you see his arms?”
“Pol, I’m pretty sure that for the entire class, his arms were the only thing that anyone saw,” I replied, laughing. She was talking about Max, our new instructor. He was, to put it mildly, an incredible specimen.
“Oh, I noticed other things, too,” Polly said with a sly wink, taking a seat on the wooden bench to unlace her Adidas.
“Yes, Pol, but you’re a pervert.” I opened my locker and pulled out my gym bag.
She rolled her eyes at me. “And you’re a prude, but you still noticed. Don’t deny it.”
I sat down to unlace my shoes. She was right. I had noticed every inch of that man’s body, from his sandy-brown shag of hair down to calves that could have been carved from marble. I hadn’t been the only one; more than a few other women in the class had been gaping at him.
“All I’m saying,” Polly continued, “is that I was dripping the whole time, and not just with sweat.”
“Christ, Polly.” I pretended to gag.
“Think he’s single?” She pulled her shirt over her head, her jet-black hair falling down her bare back almost to her waist.
“I know you aren’t,” I said, trying to ignore the jealousy that always surfaced when Polly took off her shirt. At thirty-six she still had the body of a twenty-one-year-old. Her skin was even and unmarked. Even when she was wearing her sports bra, you could tell she was packing some serious heat. It’s not that I considered myself unattractive, but with my twenties and a fresh divorce behind me, I doubted I was turning any heads.
“I didn’t mean for me.” Polly sighed. “How long has it been since you last had sex?”
“Me?” I asked incredulously. “Men like that don’t look at a thirty-eight-year-old divorcée.”
“Sure they do! He totally checked out your ass when you were stretching.”
“Oh, that’s just the yoga pants.” I gestured at my black Lulu Lemon pants. “These things are like magic.”
We both laughed. I stripped down and went to shower, thinking about her question. How long had it been since I was with a man? It had been my ex-husband for sure, whom I had divorced just over a year ago, but for the last few months of our marriage we hadn’t even slept in the same bed. The romance kind of fizzled away when I found text messages from some girl named Vikki on his cell phone, telling him she wanted to feel his hot cum slide down her throat. Her words, not mine.
In the shower I banished those thoughts, letting the warm water run through my hair and down my body. My muscles were already aching from the class. Despite the distracting instructor, it had been a fantastic workout. I could imagine a few better workouts I’d like to have Max take me through... Just thinking about it made me shiver. Those arms around me, that hard body against mine, his lips on my...
“Hey Val!” Polly’s voice startled me from my thoughts. “You almost done?”
“Yeah, yeah,” I muttered, turning off the water. I’d have to continue that particular fantasy at home. At least there I had the massage setting on my shower head.
