Aim For Love (7 page)

Her
soul
?

Wasn’t it enough that her mind and body were zinging with strange, uncontrollable feelings? Now he had to bring her soul into it?

With an exasperated sigh, she dropped her arm to her side.

“Don’t you want me to raise my
injured
arm?” she asked, hoping that changing things up might break the odd spell weaving through her.

“No. The work you’ve just done is sufficient.”

He reached his hand toward her.

“May I touch you?”

It was a simple question, gently asked.

She swallowed her urge to flee and nodded.

“And would you take off your jacket?”

“My jacket?”

He nodded.

She fumbled with the zipper, then removed her hoodie and dropped it to the ground.

The breeze was cool against her skin but as he moved behind her, heat surged in her veins.

“Don’t shoulders and arms have to do with the
front
of the body?” she asked, still trying to derail some of the energy flooding her.

“Women ignore their back bodies.”

He put his hands on her shoulders. She shut her eyes and hoped he didn’t feel the zing of adrenaline that shot through her when his fingers touched her skin. And was grateful that he couldn’t see the blush of embarrassment that flushed her cheeks. Goose bumps lifted along her arms as something more, some feeling she had no word for, rushed into her.

“Are you cold, Sabrina?”

“No,” was all she could utter.

She really was losing her mind. The guy hadn’t had his hands on her for more than thirty seconds and already he’d shocked feelings through her that made no sense. She’d been touched by muscled, athletic stuntmen during film shoots, by lovers over the years, by Derrick—who’d be her lover if she let him—but no man’s touch had created such a deep, immediate and mysterious effect.

He ran his fingertips along her shoulders. She tried to suppress the rising shiver.

“Your back, your spine, your glutes, those are your power sources.” He pressed along her muscles, his fingers streaming unsettling energy as he moved closer to the nape of her neck. “Along with your core. But we’ll address your abdominal muscles when we go back inside.”

The image of him observing her belly sent another shock of heat deep into her core. And lower.
That
sensation she did have words for—desire, hot and insistent. She wondered if he knew.

He pressed under the blade of her injured shoulder, and the pain made her wince, had her tensing, guarding.

“See if you can breathe into this, Sabrina. I promise not to hurt you.”

She inhaled as he pressed his fingers gently into the knotted muscles under her shoulder blade. Then he pressed on both sides of her shoulders at a point where the sensation was nearly unbearable, even though his touch was light. The near-painful feeling kept her mind off the twinge of hot wanting she was trying to ignore.

Maybe it’d just been too long since she’d had a lover. Maybe she should share Derrick’s bed. But something had kept her from crossing that line with him. He might be her co-star, mentor of sorts and friend, but she wasn’t as ready as he was to add lover to the list.

Kaz traced his fingers down her arms, stroked along her forearms to her fingertips. She shivered with a mixture of pleasure and wariness. Mostly wariness.

“Maybe your attacker did you a favor,” Kaz said as he moved his hands up her forearms and back to her shoulders. She felt almost dizzy as he ran his thumbs down either side of her spine. “This problem you’re having—maybe he set it off, but maybe not. It may have been lurking for some time.” He moved his hands back to her shoulders, pressed again along the muscles of her neck, this time closer to her skull. “You were going to have to deal with the heart of this no matter what.”

“But…I have…” His thumbs reached the base of her skull. “I have…stunts to perform…in less than three weeks.” Her voice sounded distant, hollow. She was going to—

Kaz caught her in his arms.

“Good,” he said as he firmed his hands around her ribcage and held her upright. As he steadied her, all she could think of was that his fingertips were only inches from her breasts.

But once she caught her breath, fury sped in.

“
Good
? Making me faint is good?” She spun around.

Bad move.

His hands still circled her ribs and he was close. Too close. Her senses were overwhelmed by the scent of incense and heat and male. Serious male.

He released his hands and stepped back. “That wasn’t a faint. That was a reset, to use a simple word for it. Early and surprising, but a reset.” He frowned. “But this is going to take longer than I had hoped.”

Her tangled and unwanted feelings of desire morphed into anger. He obviously didn’t feel that he had to explain what he was doing. But she wanted answers. And a plan. If she was going to work with him, to let him touch her, to let him…help her heal, he was going to have to pony up some explanations.

She crossed her arms. And didn’t feel the usual horrible twinge of pain. The deeper pain was still there, achy and roosting, but for the first time in a while, she could draw her arm across her chest without a hot, lancing stab of hurt. Whatever had just happened, she was one degree closer to freedom.

“Wow,” she said as wonder threaded through her anger, loosening it. “I haven’t been able to do that without pain for months.”

He raised a brow. Evidently in his mind such minor progress wasn’t cause for celebration.

“That defensive gesture might be one you need to get away from,” he said with an authority that disturbed her. He nodded toward her folded arms and her fingers gripped tight around her elbows. “You need to learn to balance defense with offense. Anger is a very poor offense. And you need to learn about subtle distinctions.”

Offense
?
Defense
?
Subtlety?
They were supposed to be talking about her muscles, not her strategy for life.

“Alex should have warned me that I was going to spend the day with Obi-Wan Kenobi.”

He laughed. The sound of it surprised her and flowed through her anger. The tightness webbed in her body began to dissolve. She dropped her arms to her sides.

“Let’s try the TRX.” He gestured toward the yellow and black webbed ropes hanging from the sturdy oak branch.

A breeze had kicked up and the ropes swayed as she followed Kaz toward them. He took the ropes in his hand, straightened them, tugged and then handed the rubber-covered handles to her.

Her fingers brushed his as she took the handles. Was she imagining things, or did his eyes narrow as he pulled his hands away?

“Take the handles—both of them—in your uninjured hand, Sabrina.”

Her name sounded foreign when he spoke it; she was beginning to like hearing him say it.

He raised his arms in an arcing motion. “Plant your feet, like this.” He showed her a bent-knee stance with his toes turned in. “And pivot from your hips as you lift your arm.”

She tried to copy his movement. It looked easy enough, but she couldn’t do it.

“Don’t worry. We’re going for re-patterning your body. Awkward is good.”

“That’s a relief.” She tried again, with less success.

He stepped to her. “May I?” He motioned to her hands with his.

When she nodded, he closed his hands around hers. His were large, and surprisingly smooth for a farmer. For an
athlete
, she reminded herself. She wondered just how much farming he actually did. And they were warm, his large hands. As he snugged his grip, heat and energy pulsed a spellbinding path straight to her core.

“Sabrina?”

Caught savoring the delicious lure of the warmth and energy, she blushed. What was it about the man that set her mind spinning? That set her body on a course of its own?

“Try to concentrate. Imagine yourself moving like a child. Children feel their movements; their thoughts don’t get in their way.
Feel
the arc. Turn into it like this.”

He moved her hand up, guiding it around and above her head, then back, and opened her palm to the sky. There were no words for the delicious surge of release that flooded her. How was it possible that already she was feeling more flexible and comfortable? She floated in the lush feeling as he moved her arm in the opposite direction, back to the starting position.

And then, too soon, he pulled his hands away. She could’ve sworn she saw lines of energy trailing from his hands to hers.

She really had to get more sleep.

“Try it without my help.” He stepped away, watching.

She gripped the handles and brought the rope taut, parallel with the branch, as he’d shown her. Then she twisted her arm up toward the sky and pivoted her hips. Exhilaration rushed through her and with it a wave of pleasure that sent more goose bumps prickling along her arms.

But that wasn’t all.

“Something shifted,” she said breathlessly as she tried to express the awe flooding her. “Something inside me.” But the dizziness that followed the rush had her wavering on her feet.

He placed a palm on her lower back and stilled her. “Breathe. Just breathe.”

His words steadied her as much as his hand did. But her pulse picked up its pace as he moved his arm to circle her waist. She slowed her movements and found her balance.

He took the handles from her.

“Good.”

She turned to him. “Thank you,” she said, trying again to ignore the energy throbbing in her. “I don’t know why I have such a hard time doing such a simple thing.”

“This is no simple thing, Sabrina.”

His gaze met hers and held, probing deeply into places she’d never offered permission to be explored. And she saw into him too. Mystery and power lived in Kaz Tokugawa. But something else lived there as well, something raw, something she couldn’t name, something painful, haunting, controlling. And then, as quickly as the impression had appeared, it flicked off, as if he knew she’d seen it, as if he could control such things.

“We’ll try this again tomorrow.” He began to untie the ropes from the tree. “That’s enough for today.”

Jolted, she dragged her attention back to the task at hand. “But I only did one movement.” She was accustomed to repeating, practicing, getting it right. Alex’s training practices had rubbed off on her. “I’d like to try again.”

“You are so like your brother,” he said. There was no judgment in his voice. “I suspected as much. You will be a good student. But force is not the answer. You need to ease into these movements.”

“I’m
not
your student,” she said, flustered.

His eyes flashed with an emotion she couldn’t read. “We’re all students, Sabrina. The wisdom wants to enter, but we get in our own way.”

She couldn’t argue with that.

He pulled the ropes free of the branch and then bent to retrieve the sling she’d forgotten she’d been wearing. He held it out. Relief swept her when she saw that he wasn’t going to help her don it. If he touched her one more time, she just might scream with the tension of it all.

She snugged the sling into place.

“Lead the way,” he said, gesturing to the path.

She felt his eyes on her all the way back to the drawbridge. Finally she could stand it no longer. For pity’s sake, she’d walked a few hundred yards to a tree, moved her arms a couple of times, and yet she was
exhausted
. But at least she could have him go up the steps to the drawbridge first. She wasn’t sure she could bear having him behind her again.

“After you,” she said with a mock bow.

A smile played into his face. It wasn’t taunting, but it told her that he knew the effect he had on her.

She suddenly wasn’t sure she wanted more lessons.

Chapter Six

After dinner, Kaz joined Alex in the game room. A staccato clatter shot out as Alex expertly broke and scattered the balls across the billiard table.

“How’d it go with Sabrina today?”

Kaz liked Alex, but he didn’t know him well enough to tell him that Sabrina had raised a challenge Kaz hadn’t expected. There was no one he could tell about the conflicted feelings that working with Sabrina had stirred.

Having sexual thoughts about someone he was supposed to be helping felt wrong.

All wrong.

He could almost hear his grandfather’s voice reminding him that
makoto
, one edict of the samurai code, required honesty, even if the truth caused discomfort, perhaps especially when the truth caused discomfort. He might not be able to deny his reaction, but he could shove such thoughts down. If he kept himself in check, he could help Sabrina. He knew her problem well, perhaps too well.

“Like you, she has a strong body,” Kaz said in a non-committal tone.

Alex looked up from his shot. “And like me she has a stubborn streak?”

“Stubborn is a strong word. She forces her body to bend to her mind instead of unifying the power from each. You don’t do that, Alex.”

“Yeah, well, she hasn’t had to face fastballs for fifteen years. Survival is a great motivator.”

Kaz laughed.

“Think you can get her into shape?”

“That depends on her,” Kaz said. “She needs sleep first. There’s a tiredness in her I rarely see in young people. And she needs to get in touch with what’s blocking her.”

Alex missed his shot. “Her new film has her riled. She thinks the character she’s playing is haunting her.”

Kaz raised a brow.

“Well, she didn’t say that exactly, but I know she’s having nightmares.”

Kaz nodded, took his shot and landed balls in the side and corner pockets. He tapped another into the opposite side pocket.

“I
will
beat you, Kaz. One day. I may have to tie one of your hands behind your back, though.” Alex crossed the room to where the samurai sword hung on the wall. “What do you know about these?”

“How long have you got?” Kaz bent over the table. “Eight ball, side pocket.”

“Maybe the medium-length version. I promised Jackie I’d walk with her when she gets back.”