Milan Vohra - The Love Asana

‘ Vrikshasana . The tree position. You saw them do it just now.’ Pari held back a smile. ‘Show me.’ This was going to be fun. Pari knew many thought of it as an easy one, but it was only when you actually tried to keep your balance standing with one foot resting on the inner thigh of the other leg that you realized the graceful posture was deceptively tricky to achieve.

Vivan slowly drew his left foot along the length of his right leg to bring the entire sole of the foot firmly to rest on his thigh. Pari stared as, very slowly again, he confidently extended his arms outwards to bring them together over the top of his head. Balanced rock solid on his right leg, his palms together in a ‘namaste’ clasp over his head, he tilted his head up, his hair flopping back as he held the position without swaying even the slightest. A hush had fallen over the class.

All she could focus on were his feet. Pari stole another look, spellbound. Standing next to him, literally a foot shorter, she kept her gaze lowered. Pari had always had a thing about attractive feet. His were clean, almost immaculate with just a hint of fine hair at the toes. As he raised himself to do the stretch her eyes started to move up, her thoughts irascibly racing ahead to his hands and wondering if they were as long and artistic as his feet. Her gaze locked briefly with his eyes, which didn’t seem to have moved away from hers even for an instant. Blushing a deep pink, Pari felt he’d read her thoughts. She could have smacked herself there and then. Pari simply did not do fantasy. Never, never, never. Not since Kunal and the whole bitter experience when she had sworn never to be taken in by any man again. And certainly not an arrogant, very male student who had done nothing but confound her with his overpowering presence from the time he’d walked into her class.

Pari mumbled quickly, ‘Excellent, excellent. You can release the posture now, please.’ With utmost grace, Vivan relaxed his arms to bring them down gently as he lowered his left foot to stand at ease on the mat.

Pari shook herself out of it, mortified again at the effect this very assured man was having over her. Maybe it was nothing but her body reacting in the most primal way to his suave sexy appeal, but this going off into flights of fantasy was getting a bit too much. This was her class, her turf. She needed to take charge of herself and focus on yoga and nothing else.

‘All right everybody, let’s finish with some analom vilom .’ Pari stepped back till she was almost touching the long wall of mirrors on the left of the studio. ‘Just remember—inhale exhale is a one to two ratio, so if you’re breathing in to a count of four, breathe out to eight.’ As she took a few quiet steps around the room again to see that everyone had their fingers poised correctly over their nostrils and eyes closed, she was startled to see Vivan’s eyes wide open. He was sitting on the mat, watching her with a relaxed amused expression. ‘You may want to explain how this works,’ he asked softly, expecting once again to have Pari’s undivided attention to himself.

‘Shh,’ Pari whispered. Leaning down to speak a little closer to his ear so she didn’t disturb the other students, she said, ‘Look, come a little earlier next class and I’ll try to help you catch up. But I can’t disturb the others right now.’ Pari didn’t quite like the slightly on-edge note her voice had to it. It must be the proximity of being so close to his ear that was so distracting. Calm … You’ve got to stay calm. That’s it … Pari. Keep breathing slowly and you’ll be fine .

Vivan was a little surprised at her seemingly cool attitude towards him. He just wasn’t used to it. He couldn’t remember the last time any girl had brushed him off like that. He had to hand it to her, though. She was professional to the core. He appreciated the fact that she wasn’t holding up the entire class just for his benefit and that her small delectable frame wasn’t easily shaken from its purpose either. Well, neither was he and he was here for one reason only.

An hour later she had wrapped up the class, putting her things together while watching the students in the mirror as they neatly rolled up their yoga mats. Casually throwing his linen shirt over his shoulder, Vivan stood up with slow deliberation to ask, ‘So which would you say is your favourite asana of all these?’

‘That would have to be the surya namaskar ,’ she said crisply, albeit with a little gentleness. This was after all a legit subject and one that she could happily talk about any time.

‘Why is that?’ Vivan asked innocuously.

‘Well, it’s complete in itself. It combines so many brilliant muscle movements. It’s almost spiritual … It’s the best way to start your day,’ Pari ended breathlessly.

‘I can think of something better,’ Vivan said, his voice gruff, barely a murmur meant only for Pari to hear. Which she did, but chose not to acknowledge.

She reached unsuccessfully once more to pull down her kit bag from a high shelf. Vivan moved forward. ‘Allow me,’ he said as his arm brushed against hers, reaching the shelf effortlessly. He stood so close she could breathe in the musky all-male fragrance of him mingled with a fresh kind of aqua aftershave … becoming all too conscious of the fine hair on his arm as he lowered the bag gently to hand it to her. His head was agonisingly close to the curve of her neck. Suddenly, her heart began knocking against her chest and all she could think of was how it would feel to have him kiss her. Would he take his time to explore the texture of her lips with excruciating pleasure before slowly igniting the inside of her mouth, or capture it aggressively with his self-assured sexuality, his long legs pressed against the entire length of hers as he pushed her against the mirrored wall … With a jolt Pari saw their reflection in the studio’s mirrored wall. Her lips had parted of their own volition as she realised his finger was trailing the line of her cheek, his head leaning in even closer … to casually tuck a few loose strands of hair behind her ear.

Pari flushed a deep red, embarrassed at her own thoughts. She wondered if Vivan had guessed at them as she turned her back to him, busying herself with rolling up some mats. Then she heard him laugh lightly as he murmured for her benefit only, ‘Act natural. You don’t want everyone to see what I can read in your beautiful face.’

Damn!

It was a good thing he left before she’d turned around.

VIVAN walked thoughtfully down the narrow studio steps, taking his old familiar route past the pavement vendors towards his car, still trying to make sense of the strong impact Pari had on him. Vivan had felt a physical ache within him as he’d stood close to her. The urge to taste her satiny skin had been overwhelming. He only knew that those slightly parted lips that had been a whisper away from him held the promise of sating the desire consuming him. He had wanted to have her there and then. In the studio. On the yoga mat if need be. The urge was so strong, his hand had moved by some magnetic pull to her face and begun to trail the delicate line of her jaw. It had been all he could do to rein in his fire and hope that she hadn’t guessed.

In the ten years since he’d become unimaginably rich and famous, Vivan had been with more women than he could remember. In the beginning it had been a way of forgetting the guilt at leaving Sonia while he went away to the US to study. He’d felt rootless in those early years abroad, with no one to call his own … searching, in every woman he hooked up with, for that one woman who could give him the sense of family and security that he secretly craved. But again and again Vivan found he had imagined an ideal partner out of a merely ambitious woman looking to get rich quick. It became easier to find release in relationship-less sex, and sex was all it ever was. Energising, yet cold sex where the women were only after one thing. Money and the hope of becoming the future Mrs Parasher. Heir to the Parasher fortune. Mistress of homes in New York, Hong Kong, San Francisco, London, Dubai and now even New Delhi.