“Are you okay?” Hudson whispered, his head still turned away.

“Yes. Will you stop asking me that?” Annika hissed back.

“You’re trembling.”

He was right. She was trembling a little, like she was a tuning fork he’d hit. Her hand on his inner knee was shaking, too. A moment later, Annika felt his free hand over hers, stilling it.

Hudson turned his head so they were staring at each other over their shoulders. Annika couldn’t help it; her gaze traveled to his lips.

“Okay, now lift your arms again, and turn to the opposite side this time.”

Annika jumped as if Seetha had fired a Nerf gun at her. She wrenched her hand out from under Hudson’s. She could feel his back shaking as he laughed quietly to himself. Annika narrowed her eyes and brought her other hand down hard on his opposite knee.

“Ow.”

“You deserved that.”

“What for? It’s not my fault you still fantasize about me every time you fall asleep.”

Annika’s mouth fell open in outrage, even though she knew Hudson couldn’t see her. “I do not.”

“No?” His hand on her inner knee, feather-light, moved just a fraction. “I seem to remember you had a thing for my hands—and all the many ways I used them.”

Annika’s breaths came faster as she felt the pressure of his thumb on the back of her leg, his other fingers whispering along skin that felt like it was awaking from a deep sleep, fire dancing in her veins. Her own hand tightened, and she felt his muscled back stiffen against hers, like he was holding back some intense emotion. “Hudson—”

He turned his head, his mouth at her ear, his breath moving her hair when he spoke. “Why?”

Annika could barely breathe, let alone make sense of what he was saying. “Wh-what?”

“And that brings us to the end of class,” Seetha said. “You are welcome to go into shavasana if you’d like to rest for five minutes. If you must leave, please leave quietly.”

Annika scrambled to her feet like they, the entire studio, and the world at large were on fire. She grabbed her yoga mat without looking at Hudson and practically ran out of the room, waving quickly to Seetha.

Why had she let him get to her like that? Incorrigible, awful tease. It didn’t help that she hadn’t slept with anyone since their night in Vegas. She pushed open the glass doors, rounded the corner, and leaned against the brick wall in the alley, panting lightly as she tried to collect her thoughts.