HOOKED: An Erotic Romance by Vivie Rock Page B

six foot five, at least, tall and imposing, with tanned skin and short black hair. He wore black pants, slung loose at the hips, with mysterious Chinese lettering scrawled tantalizingly around his groin, and a black belt tied in a complicated-looking knot, drawing attention to the space between his legs, where it hung down. And his torso - it was magnificent. He wore a tight, black vest, which his thick arms practically ripped their way out of, and his broad neck and shoulders made the fabric pull apart, almost translucent, over his pecs.
    ‘Looks like we’ve got latecomers,’ he said, pulling back his lips to reveal big, white, angry teeth. His voice sounded barely human, it was so low and gruff - almost like a growl. ‘You know what happens now,’ he said. I noticed a twang of a foreign accent. What was it? Spanish? French? It was exotic, and made me think of dark, hot Arabian nights.
    All forty people in the room looked at him obediently for a moment, and then got down on their knees. They shuffled their hands forwards, so that their flat palms were directly under their shoulders, and then lifted themselves onto their toes, with perfectly straight backs.
    ‘Ladies. It’s your fault everyone’s got to do this now. Find a space. Get into the plank position.’
    I looked at Rebecca, and she raised her eyebrows at me and then shrugged.
    Fine , I’ll do what he says , I thought. But how humiliating . I hadn’t been told off for showing up late to class since I was ten years old. Rebecca would pay for dragging me along to this pay money for this bully to humiliate us later.
    I found a tight space at the back of the room and got down onto my knees. As I put my weight onto the palms of my hands, leaning forwards, I noticed that my sports bra really didn’t keep that much of me in place. My breasts almost fell out of my top, dangling beneath me as I got unsteadily onto my feet. I could see Rebecca was struggling too. Her arms were shaking, barely holding her up. Still, at least she was wearing a tracksuit. At least she still had her modesty.
    The instructor marched to the back of the room and observed our positions. ‘ Straight backs, ladies,’ he said, looking at Rebecca first and then me. I tried to pull my stomach in, to concentrate on straightening out my spine, but I felt like the core strength just wasn’t there. Now if I’d been doing yoga…
    Suddenly I felt a large hand pressing down on my back.
    ‘This needs to come down,’ said the gruff voice. Slowly, expertly, he guided my hips down towards the floor. Then, a big hot palm touched my stomach. ‘And this needs to come up.’ He pushed gently on my stomach, sending waves of feeling around my abdomen.
    It was the first time a man had touched me in months. I felt a strange tingle, somewhere deep with me, and tried to steady my breathing. I could smell him, this animal man so near to me, could feel his hands so firm against my stomach and the small of my back, pushing against me, and for a second, I almost felt myself willing his hands to slide down a little further…
    No! Stop it! What was I thinking? This guy was a beast. He stank. And he was obviously a bully.
    I focused on getting my body rigid, and waited for him to walk away. Instead of walking away to examine Rebecca’s posture, though, he lingered by me a little longer. I don’t know how I knew, but I felt his eyes on my cleavage, taking in my tight pink top, my breasts spilling out of it. He was probably thinking how inappropriate my gear was for martial arts. He probably hated my guts.
    His hands still pressed against me, and I could feel their heat, getting warmer and warmer as my body ached under the pressure of holding still. Then, slowly, his hand slid another inch down my back, then another, until it was over my coccyx. He applied a little more pressure, then a little more, until I was fighting not to fall to the floor. My legs trembled under the strain.
    ‘Arses should be lower than