The Clever Fox: Part Three (The Pleasure Hound Series) by Ines Johnson Read Free Book Online Page A

room. Marching back to his command console no doubt.
    Chen followed his brother out of the rooms and into the common area. All around him he spied the devastation the war had on his people. Hsing had a point. He had to do what he must for their survival.

Chapter Two: ASHRAM

    “Ommm.”
    The vibration of the chant tickled the back of Shanti’s throat, and she coughed. The hacking sound broke the flow of the aural vibration. A few eyes of her fellow chanters opened and glared at her.
    Shanti winced in apology. Few acceptances were forthcoming in the room full of zen-seekers. She wished the sky would open up and she could float away.
    That is until the yoga instructor’s gaze found hers. Yogi Wizdom’s hazel eyes locked with Shanti’s. His easy smile spoke of encouragement, patience, and peace. None of the things Shanti felt. Instead, Shanti felt warm, hot, and wet.  
    "Focus on a single point," Wizdom encouraged the room of meditators. "And in that point, you will find enlightenment."
    Everything in Shanti was focused to one point all right. It all all arrowed straight to her core. Shanti shifted on her yoga mat as she imagined those hazel eyes gazing down at her while she lay prone instead of folded into a lotus flower. Wizdom’s brown skin made Shanti think of chocolate sauce, spiced chai tea, curried lentils.  
    Wow, when had her fantasies become Indian in flavor? Wizdom wasn’t Indian. He was American, just like her. She’d found that out her second night at the ashram when she’d spent a good twenty minutes chatting him up, sharing stories of their unconventional youths.
    They’d both grown up with alternative parents who believed in healthy eating, yogic exercise, and mindfulness. The difference, she learned, was that Wizdom’s parents were music moguls who’d adopted the lifestyle late in their lives and passed the knowledge, along with their millions, down to their only child. Shanti had been born on a commune to the sound of drumming and her mother yowling at the moon during her water birth -not in a tub, in the actual ocean. When Shanti’s parents passed, they did so without a dollar to their name.
    Shanti had been hoping to get to know Wizdom even better the other night. Hoping that the knowing would come while they were between the sheets. Hoping that he would focus on a single point of her anatomy, and that she’d be the one finding enlightenment. But they’d been interrupted.
    Bow, short for Rainbow, Montgomery had sashayed her size zero Lululemons into the midst of Shanti and Wizdom’s conversation. Bow sent friendly smiles in Shanti’s direction. Even though Shanti never attended a formal high school, mean-girl was a universal language. Bow continued to send Shanti false smiles while cockblocking Shanti’s efforts to get Wiz alone for the rest of the night.
    But now, as Wiz led the class in the final breathing exercise of the yoga class, he smiled at her. Shanti wondered if he was thinking what she was? Was he thinking of bending her body over on the meditation pillows? Was he thinking of slowing down her breaths and teasing her until she was left panting and gasping? Was he thinking of opening her body as well as her third eye?
    Wizdom’s mouth opened wide. Shanti leaned forward as though she were going to kiss him. He closed his eyes. His lips rounded into an O and…
    “Ommm,” he chanted.
    Shanti sighed in frustration as her libido crashed back down on this plane of existence. She shut her eyes and tried to pick up on the tail end of the intonation, but she was completely out of tune. She sat on a cold marbled floor -the yoga mat gave little cushion. Her long legs were folded into the unappetizing pretzel of the lotus position. She tried to concentrate on the words of the chant but her big toe was going numb. She tried wiggling it, but then her ankle lost its footing on her knee. Her body tilted to the right. She tried to correct her self, but over-corrected and crashed down to the