The Heart of the Matter Read Online Free Page A

The Heart of the Matter
Book: The Heart of the Matter Read Online Free
Author: Muriel Jensen
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the curtains onstage. She dropped a stack of tapes and a towel near the tape player, then leapt off the stage and ran at an easy lope toward the back of the hall.
    Jason recognized Laura Price, looking like some very sophisticated and erotic little bumblebee. The body thathad been concealed under a lab coat three days ago at the clinic was now as clearly revealed as though she were naked.
    Full breasts moved under the short-sleeved leotard, the jut of ribs was defined above a very narrow waist. A flat stomach between hipbones led his eye to long, slender thighs, lightly muscled calves and ankle socks in big-soled shoes. Her wild hair was tied back in a high ponytail. When she turned, the yellow stripes rounded over a tight derriere.
    He felt another spell of light-headedness coming on.
    She stopped halfway toward the doors when she spotted him and changed direction. “Mr. Warfield,” she said in obvious surprise. “Are you…joining us?”
    He looked up at the knot of ladies watching him with smiling interest. Then he saw the white-haired lady standing on one foot and bending her other leg behind her until her foot touched the back of her head, and he winced again.
    “If you don’t think I’ll slow you down too much,” he said.
    She followed the line of his gaze and laughed. “Don’t mind Martie. She was a dancer in her youth and comes to classes to stay limber. None of us tries to keep up with her.” She looked around. “Didn’t Barry come with you?”
    He shook his head. “His call night’s been changed and he had a broken hip coming in.”
    “Well, I’m glad you decided to come on your own. I know it’s probably a little uncomfortable for you with no other men in the class, but please don’t feel selfconscious. No one is here to impress anyone, just to get healthy. Start slowly, do what you can, and I always demonstrate the lighter side of our moves, so go with whatworks for you.” She caught his arm and pulled him toward a table set up near the doors. “Come on. Dixie will register you while I get us ready to start.”
    Jason was turned over to a bubbly young woman in gray tights and a black-and-white T-shirt that read Dixie’s Day Care on it. While he filled out a form and checked off whether he had or didn’t have a long list of illnesses, she told him she exercised to relieve stress. “Dealing with ten to fifteen kids every day can turn your mind to broth and your body to sausage,” she said.
    The food references made him salivate.
    When he’d finished the forms and paid the small fee, Dixie introduced him to Philly. She was a plump middle-aged woman in baggy sweat bottoms and a T-shirt. She announced that her claim to fame was that she always occupied the back row.
    “Everyone else moves too fast for me,” she said, indicating the three rows of women ahead of them, “so I stay in the back and do my own thing. The back’s a good place to start. I’ll keep you from getting hurt.”
    Jason nodded a thank-you as a slow, brassy tune began and Laura Price started to warm up her class.
    They did neck rotations, slow, easy stretches of arms and legs, easy bends and twists, then, as the music changed every seven or eight minutes to something just a little faster and a little more intense than the tune before, the warm-up gradually turned into the beginning stages of aerobic exercise.
    Jason was surprised to find himself enjoying it. Philly warned him of what was coming next, helped him when the steps became tricky and saved him from being trampled when a forward march he was just getting into made an abrupt turn and he was suddenly confronted with adozen women just gaining their stride running toward him.
    With Philly pulling on him, he backpedaled dramatically, causing an outburst of smiles and laughter before the cheerful army made another turn and headed back toward the stage.
    When that number was finished, Laura, still running in place, ponytail bobbing, called for everyone to take their
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