Work it out! Chapter 3, a janet evanovich fanfic

Title: Work (it) out!
Chapter 3: Be flexible!
Author: Ann
Rating: (G to NC-17): G
Spoilers/Warnings: After TS
Summary: Ranger does a week of working out Stephanie style

Disclaimer: None of these characters are mine. For more information on the workout-programs:

Here is the third chapter of my story. I was working out in the gym this morning again, and was actually wondering how Ranger would perform on this one! So really separate from the books and other stories, here's a little fun for all of us! Hope it gives encouragement to go to the gym if you need it J.

PS: the description of the program is the current program of Les Mills, so anybody participating in these programs: you know what I mean! J

Be flexible!

When I came into the office that morning, I found an email from Ranger in my inbox. It read: looking forward to today's workout. Mmm, did that mean that he knew what today's workout was about? Yesterday, after class we had spent about 30 minutes talking over 2 juices. It had been really nice and relaxed. I had the feeling I was a little more up to date with his life again, even though I knew I probably only knew about 10 of what really was going on, but that didn't matter. He had volunteered some information, and that had made me feel good. He told me about some of the business decisions he had made, and had a funny story about a new client that had come on strong towards him. He actually asked me for advice on how to deflect hands without using violence or making it too obvious… I couldn't help but laugh at that question. Then I told him that I would show him some of my moves in a more private surrounding. His eyes had looked hot and he had answered that he would keep me to that. When we came back into the office, I had received some questioning looks and as soon as Ranger left the room, Lester had started prying. But I had said nothing. For some reason I had no need to enlighten them of our little bet. Probably because I was afraid that they would want to try it too… Lester had more than once said that the only thing he missed in this company were women. Especially in the gym… And the thought of having not 1 but 4 or 5 hot guys joining me might be good for business for the gym, but did nothing to improve my workout! It would simply throw me off balance.

Today was BodyBalance day, and I was curious to see Ranger do this. He seemed to be Zen calm on occasion, but he never mentioned something about how he got that Zen calm. I always assumed that he would have a private place where I could find a little yoga mat, candles, calming music and Ranger with his legs in his neck, but today I would get to see if that was possible or not.

We actually came out of the locker rooms at the same time and walked to the class room together.

"You know today's class?"

"Yes, my ex explained it to me." Huh!

"Your ex?"

"Yeah, I was in Florida last week for business and also went to see my daughter. My ex is fitness trainer and I mentioned your challenge and she gave me a quick education on Les Mills."

"I see." We smiled at each other and took up our positions in the room.

Today's trainer was Zoë. She was a very nice and outgoing woman and very fit. Her body had a perfect shape. I always felt a bit jealous of her. But she was one of my favourite trainers and made a lot of jokes during training. She usually gave BodyPump, and today was filling in for Eve, who was sick. She greeted me and a few regulars and asked if anybody was new today. I looked at Ranger to see if he would raise his hand. He didn't, which made me believe he wasn't new to Yoga and so on. Zoë had seen me looking at Ranger and looked at him with a questioning glance. He just shook his head no.

"You're not new?" Zoe always checked twice.

"No, just new to this gym." Mmmm…

"Pity, I would have given you some extra attention." The fun thing about Zoë was that she didn't even mean it in a flirting way. She simply paid him a compliment and was smiling at the whole class when she continued.

"Well ladies, a nice addition to our gym, don't you think?" Ranger glared at Zoë and she just smiled back.

"I'm Zoë, and I'm the trainer for today. What's your name?"

"Ranger." Ah, street name. Probably trying to scare her off.

"Welcome to the club, Ranger. Let's start." We all took up the starting position and Zoë turned the music on.

I wasn't completely new to the yoga/tai chi thing. When I had entered the army, I had had a little bit of a temper. It meant that I had spent quite some time cleaning toilets with teeth brushes so to say. Luckily I was smart and learnt to keep my mouth shut soon enough, but the temper was still there. So when I entered more advanced training, we also got more training on mental aspects of combat. And relaxation techniques had been part of it. Also, I had had a mentor who had soon realised my potential in the army but knew that my biggest weakness would be my temper. So he spent hours and hours training me on keeping my head cool. He had gone to extreme lengths, but at the end I was extremely grateful for it. It had saved my life more than once. Also, good training schemes had stretching in it, and to be honest I sort of hoped it would help me out here. I am not the most flexible person physically speaking, so I hoped I could keep up without overstretching anything.

The introduction was easy to do. Moving side to side while doing little stretching moves. That I could do. Zoe was a nice woman with a stunning body. That woman worked out alright. And she was a good trainer, telling us what to do on time and also explaining what to look out for. She did look at me quite often, but I had the feeling that was more to prevent injury than to check me out. Now there's a first. While the music continued, the moves became more complex and more demanding. Everything we did had a name, so I learned about the cobra, warrior stances and tree pose. So far so good! Stephanie next to me seemed to be in her own world really. Completely focused on herself, she made a very pretty picture. On occasion she would even have a frown across her forehead.

Yesterday we had a nice chat. I told Steph a little bit about myself, to show to her that I did like to talk to her privately, and not just business. And to show her that I was indeed human, and not Batman, I had told her the story of the new client who had tried to get her hands all over me right after the contract had been signed. Then I had asked her how to get away from groping hands, realising that she must had had to deal with her fair share when she did a distraction job for me. She had smiled and her face had lit up. Then she said she would show me when we were somewhere more private. I 100 intended to keep her to that. She had looked at me like she didn't believe me. I wasn't sure if she thought I didn't really mind wandering hands from other women, or whether she thought I didn't really need her help with deflecting the hands. I sincerely hoped the last, since I was a very private person and absolutely did not appreciate somebody getting into my private space without my permission. Today I would ask her to have dinner with me tonight in my apartment, and then I hoped the right opportunity would come by for her to show me how to deflect those hands. I think it would mean I got to put my hands on her in not so decent ways, and I was really looking forward to that!

Zoë moved on to the next section of the lesson, which she explained was for standing strength. This I liked. It required quite some concentration and strength and I possessed both. I could feel some muscles straining, not used to this week of unusual work outs. Maybe Steph was right about getting into better shape by doing different things. After the standing strength we moved on to balances. This was harder. It had been a long time since I did something like that. We started on one leg, slowly lifting it of the ground sideways, then turning it so it was behind us, ending in an aeroplane stance, arms wide and leg straight behind us. Then, without touching the floor we had to move from the aeroplane figure to a tree pose, in which our leg curled around the other and our arms were also curled around each other. Weird names, but a good workout none the less. I glanced at Stephanie who made a perfect tree pose. She looked so beautiful. Today she wore long workout pants, dark blue with a white line at the side. She also wore a same coloured top, which exposed her belly when she moved her arms up. It turned me on big time. It matched her eyes and…

All eyes turned to Ranger when he almost dropped to the floor while still making the tree pose. I couldn't help but my mind flashed this image of a tree falling down. He did of course manage to save himself before dropping to the floor, his reflexes were still fast, but I did wonder what had happened for him to fall like that. Zoë asked if he was alright and he just nodded. I looked at him and he flashed me a quick smile. I felt myself get warm inside and felt that I was turning into a swaying tree myself. Oops. When I was a stable tree again Ranger looked at me and I could read his eyes: now you know what happened. I looked around me to see which woman had given him that reaction, but then he whispered a soft 'Babe' and realised it had been me. I felt myself blushing a little bit, but I could also feel the smile forming on my face. This was great! He could survive 6 bullets but a little yoga with me made him drop to the floor like a bag of potatoes. I got an incredible warm feeling inside and hoped he would have time for a drink in the bar afterwards again.

After the balancing part we went to the stretching part. We basically twisted our bodies in any way possible. We started with 'hip openers' and later moved on to the rest of the body. I was pleased to see that I could stretch further than Ranger. He had an almost pained look on his face and Zoë more than once reminded us to gently stretch and not go over our boundaries. She looked at Ranger and said: 'it just takes time'. He grunted something back, which translated to me something like: 'yeah right.' Unbelievable: I could do something Ranger couldn't. It didn't matter what else would happen today, I had a good day. It wasn't that I was glad that he couldn't do it, but it made me feel good that there were still things that I could do that other people couldn't. It gave me a sense of achievement. Because I hadn't been exactly miss flexible either when I started this lesson, and now I suddenly realised how much progress I had made. And okay, it was extra nice that Ranger was the person who made me feel that way. Usually I felt slightly incompetent next to him, so this was a nice change. He got his revenge though when we did the exercise for abdominal strength, as it was so nicely called. We had to sit on our mat, put one leg over the other, lift ourselves up by putting our hands next to us and then lift our legs to our chest. It was impossible! Zoë and Ranger were to only two who could do it. After this little torture, we did more stretching, this time stretching all our muscles. This always felt good, because you knew you had survived another training. And this training ended slightly different. It ended with about 10 minutes of soft music in which we could meditate or simply relax ourselves. Most people would put on a sweater and socks so they wouldn't cool down too much. Ranger usually didn't sit still for long doing nothing, especially unarmed, in a gym he didn't know and with his back to the door in stead of the wall. I put my socks on and wrapped my towel around me and took up my usual position. I usually didn't lay down, but sat up with my back against the wall (yes, I wondered too where that came from…) legs pulled up in a comfortable position, just closing my eyes and enjoying the quiet music. I had happy thoughts most of the time, so it was a good way to end the workout. Ranger seemed unsure of what to do and ended up sitting next to me. Not that surprising, no. I smelled his delicious scent of Bulgari, a touch of sweat and unique Ranger. Mmm, nice! And gone where the relaxing happy thoughts, cue the hot, sweaty and sexual thoughts. I opened one eye and saw he was looking at me with hot eyes. He quickly checked that Zoë wasn't looking at us and then mouthed: have dinner with me. My one eye closed itself quickly while I contemplated that offer. It had been very nice yesterday, talking together. And I couldn't deny I still had feelings for him. I was never sure how deep these feelings went, because Ranger only shared a part of himself. But the part I had seen, I had like very much. And I was free to explore a relationship with anybody I wanted. Still, I wasn't sure. But then I felt my body liking that idea very much, feeling all warm and cosy inside, so I opened my one again to see Ranger still looking at me and mouthed back: okay. He smiled, relaxed a bit and his eyes started scanning the room. Habit, I suppose.

Afterwards we walked to the locker rooms together. I actually wanted to know if we were going out for dinner or having dinner at the 7th floor apartment. If he said we would go to Rossini's or something I would have to go home to change before going. I wouldn't feel comfortable sitting there in my working clothes. He sensed my question and turned to me.

"Is it okay to stay in the apartment? I have a meeting until 7.30 pm and an early start tomorrow."

"We can have dinner another day, if that suits you better."

"No, I like to have dinner with you. It's just that I thought it might be nice to have an informal dinner." I did like informal, away from prying eyes, just me and Ranger.

"Sure, no problem."

"I also would like to ask you a favour. Will you wait for me at the exit?" I was curious now.

"Okay, see you in about 15 minutes."

I showered and dressed in record time. I felt really good and slightly apprehensive. I was having dinner with Ranger tonight, but I was suspicious. He first had asked me to have dinner with him and then he had said he wanted to ask me a favour… Mmmmm….

To be continued with tomorrows workout: BodyPump!

Music used in this BodyBalance:

BODYBALANCE™ 33 (June 2006)

Pilgrimage

Conjure One

World On Fire (Junkie XL Remix Edit)

Sarah McLachlan

Beautiful

Moby

Polovtsian Dances (Stranger In Paradise)

Joolz Gianni

Everybody's Changing

Keane

Come Together

Primal Scream

My Man

Santana feat. Mary J Blige and Big Boi

Always On Your Side

Sheryl Crow

Follow Me Home

Sugababes

Silent Wave

Emerald Green

Numero Uno

Mousse T