Page 35 of The Yoga Teacher

Daniel just stared at her. “You’re joking.”

Sienna sighed, deeply and patiently, like a guru speaking to a lost soul.

“Your resistance to pleasure is blocking your spiritual alignment.”

Daniel turned and walked out.

The scent of eucalyptus and absolute bullshit burned in his lungs.

CHAPTER NINETEEN

Hannah

THE DUMBBELL FELT heavier than she expected.

It wasn’t even that heavy—just ten pounds—but the moment she curled her fingers around the rough metal handle, her arm tensed, her muscles already bracing for something unfamiliar.

She exhaled slowly, mirroring the instructor’s movement, but her form felt awkward, her stance uncertain. The others in the class—some older, some younger, all seemingly confident—moved through the warm-up with ease.

Hannah swallowed.What the hell am I doing here?

The instructor, a woman in her mid-40s with toned arms and visible muscle definition, moved through the group, adjusting people’s form.

“New?” she asked when she stopped in front of Hannah.

Hannah nodded. “Yeah. First time.”

The instructor gave an approving hum. “Good. Keep your feet planted—shoulder-width apart. Engage your core when you press up. It’s not just your arms doing the work.”

Hannah adjusted, feeling the difference immediately as she lifted the weight again.

“Better,” the instructor said. “You’ll get stronger. Just keep showing up.”

Hannah wanted to believe her.

But by the second circuit, her legs were shaking, her arms burning. The class was only thirty minutes long, but every movement felt like a battle against herself—against her own doubt, against the weakness in her limbs, against the instinct to quit the second it got uncomfortable.

The image crashed into her—Daniel’s hands gripping Sienna’s hips, pulling her back against him.

His fingers fisting in her hair.

The steady, brutal rhythm of his body pounding into hers.

Hannah’s thighs burned, but she kept moving, pushing through it, trying to block it out.

The instructor’s voice cut through the buzzing in her head.

"Push through the burn! Control your movement—own it."

Hannah swallowed hard, gritting her teeth as she forced her body through another rep.

Her breath was ragged, sweat gathering at the base of her neck. But she kept going.

She wasn’t in that yoga studio anymore.

She was here. In this body. In this moment.

And she wasstrongerthan this.

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