“Why don’t you try those?” I say and point to a set of dumbbells.
She looks at the ten-pound ones and tilts her head, then she steps to the right and grips the fifteen-pounders. I can see two guys watching her and instinctively it makes me jealous. Even though she’s not mine, the guys don’t need to gawk at her. Then she lifts the weights and looks me in the eye. Right away I forget about everything else. “How do those feel?” I ask her.
“Good.”
I take one from her, the tiny bar in my hand looking so small. “Why don’t you place one knee on the bench while you curl the weight for twelve reps?” I demonstrate what I want her to do and she nods her head getting into the position. The entire time my eyes are locked on the weight, making sure that it doesn’t become too heavy for her.
As she begins to pump it up and down, her form is almost perfect. Moving behind her, I straddle the bench and place my hands on her shoulders. “Up a little higher,” I tell her.
She straightens her body and I watch the way her little bicep flexes and how the muscles in her back move. Christ, she’s hot. Looking at her reflection in the mirror, with my body behind hers, my mind drifts. Pulling myself back to reality, we catch eyes and she stops moving. My chest is heavy, my breathing is quick, and I’m not sure what to do next.
“That was twelve,” she says.
“Right. You can do the other arm now.”
She smirks at me, clearly reading that I am flustered. While she does the other arm, I fully realize that asking her to work out with me was a bad idea. My cock is throbbing, and she’s got to recognize what she does to me, and there is nothing I can do. After she’s done, I grab a fifty-pound dumbbell to take out some of my pent up aggression.
“Excuse me,” I tell her, as she sits on the bench I need to kneel on. She smiles and stands back up. I lay down fifteen reps like nothing and pray that this work out will be over quickly. My insides might explode with the tension that is now between us.
“So when are we working out again?” Nate asks me.
My face is bright red. After the back and forth last night, the undercurrent obviously flowing between us, I’m not sure working out together is a good idea. I about gave into him, and for me…I can’t do that. Not after what Alex did to me.
“Oh, there won’t be a next time.”
He smirks and holds the door open for me. I get behind the wheel of my Escalade and check the time. Today we are on schedule, which is good considering I got a call early this morning about this property that I can’t wait to show Nate.
“El, there will be a next time. Don’t kid yourself. So where is this place?” he asks me.
I drop the subject and stick to getting to this next house. “It’s in the same neighborhood as the one you made an offer on. It’s not even on the market yet so we have a good chance at getting it.” I correct myself. “I mean, you have a good chance at getting it.”
“Do you have the printout with the details?” he asks me.
“I’m sorry, I don’t have anything, I literally left the house and headed straight to you.”
“Elania, unprepared…I’m shocked,” he teases me.
“You are such an ass. Remember I’m doing this for you.”
“Just teasing, El.”
His mood today seems different. He is in shorts again, like yesterday, which I take as a sign he’s becoming comfortable with me and I love it. Driving together while we are both dressed so casually around town really does something to me. I just love how relaxed we both are. That professional barrier seems to have slipped, and somehow I don’t mind.
He’s restless in his seat though and I sense that something is bothering him, and not two seconds later, he blurts, “So are you really not gonna ask me about my leg?”
Whoa, that’s way out of left field.
“What’s to ask?” I question him point blank.
“Maybe what happened?”
“Nate, it’s none of my business.”
“True…but aren’t you curious?”
I shake my head, “No, not in the slightest.”
He frowns and shakes his head. Deep down, I do wonder what happened, but I read on the gym’s website where it said he’s a military vet, that that’s how he and Nash met, so I’m assuming that’s how he hurt his leg.
His knee is bouncing, clearly agitated.
“Does it bother you?” I ask him.
He looks at me and for the first time since I’ve met Nate, I see uncertainty on his face.
“No.”
I glance at him, he’s staring out the window.
“What’s that matter? Spill it, Nate,” I demand.
“Nothing. Really, nothing. It was dumb of me to ask you.”