Free Chosen by Desire by Kate Perry Page A

turns that resulted in the silk wrapped around her waist, her body a straight plank perpendicular to the fabric. Slowly, with utter control, she opened her legs into the splits.
    Awesome.
Carrie wondered if the woman would show her how to do that. She studied the move. It didn’t look too hard.
    Then Francesca dropped, her legs spinning like a windmill as her body rolled down the silk.
    Carrie gasped and stepped forward to help.
    But despite the crazy speed, Francesca was still in total control, her grip secure. Several feet from the bottom, she let her hands go and dropped backward, suspended from the silk by her legs. Her upside-down gaze zipped directly to Carrie.
    Brow furrowing, Francesca twisted until she was free from the fabric and flipped into a cat-crouch on the mat. “Did you need me? Is there a problem with your work?”
    “No, I was going to the kitchen to get a snack and I heard a noise.” Not able to contain herself, she walked to the mat and fingered the silk. “That was so amazing. You were like Catwoman. Where did you learn to do that?”
    “In an aerial dance class.”
    “Maybe I’ll try it sometime.” She ignored the woman’s look of doubt. “You looked like you knew what you were doing with the punching bag, too.”
    “I’ve studied kung fu,” she said briskly as she picked up her Blackberry from the sidelines.
    “I’ve always wanted to study a martial art. Have you trained for a long time?”
    Francesca gave a noncommittal grunt that was reminiscent of her boss.
    “Well.” Carrie rolled her eyes. “I don’t want to get in your way. I’ll just get back to work.”
    Missing the sarcasm in her tone, Francesca nodded. “I’ll join you shortly.”
    Cool—something to look forward to.
Shaking her head, Carrie went in search of her banana.
    In the kitchen, she pushed aside a mangled stool—how odd—and leaned against the counter to eat her snack, her mind whirring with what she just saw.
    Doing something like that would be so cool. How intriguing would a guy find her if she could wrap and unwrap herself with silk at will?
    “Not that I have any guy in mind,” she lied to herself.
    Francesca’s skills sparked a little flame of jealousy in her. She didn’t have any kind of interesting hobbies. She’d always thought she’d be great at martial arts, but even if she could squeeze classes into her already overfull schedule, she couldn’t afford them. And for some reason Gabe wouldn’t teach her.
    Because no one expected little Carrie from Podunk, Iowa, to do anything so awesome. She was only ever supposed to be a housewife with two-point-five kids, have a fluffy dog named Sparky, and drive a station wagon.
    Well, she didn’t want a station wagon. She wanted more from life. She wanted to be a professor, teaching arcane Chinese history at a prestigious university. And she wanted to climb the freaking silk.
    Carrie dropped the banana peel in a garbage can, strode back to the rec room, and peeked in.
    No Francesca.
    Excellent.
Anticipation tingled in her belly as Carrie sneaked in, heading straight to the shimmering and enticing length of silk.
    Raising up on her toes, she gripped the fabric overhead with both hands. She wiggled to get the silk around her leg. Impossible. She let go, wrapped the silk around with her hands, and grabbed the fabric again. Securing it at her ankle with her free leg, she lifted.
    And moved up an inch.
    Determined, she tried again. More successful this time, but still nothing like Francesca.
    She wasn’t sure how long it took her, but she finally got five feet off the floor. She looked down, hoped the mat was as cushy as it looked, and began to work the silk around her waist.
    It was great until something went amiss and she got tangled.
    “Not so bad, really,” she assured herself. She was stuck, but she was secure. If only she could get her leg—
    “What are you doing?” a gruff voice barked.
    She tipped her head back. Max stood in the entrance to the