“Just do it.”
I shook my head furiously and started heading in the direction of the rowing machine.
The trainer who was helping those who wished for help had given us a list of things that we needed to accomplish today. Our first day.
One, we had to do a physical fitness test that included how many push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and squats we could do in a measured amount of time.
Let’s just say, what I found out wasn’t all that great.
I was a weak ass.
One who couldn’t do anywhere near as much as I thought I might be able to.
And to realize that in front of a few of the most eligible bachelors in town? Yeah, that was even worse.
After getting our base fitness level, we were told to find our ‘max’ on bench press, squats, and deadlifts. Once we did that, we were to row a thousand meters as our cardio for the day, and then we could go.
I still had bench press, rowing, and squats to go.
Then Desi said the one thing guaranteed to entice me to go anywhere near that man.
“I’ll leave early with you,” she offered.
My legs stilled, and I looked at her over my shoulder.
“Promise?” I asked.
She nodded.
“And you’ll go to lunch with me?” I asked.
She grimaced. “Yes. As long as it’s somewhere that has healthy food that I can eat.”
I stuck out my tongue.
“That leaves us with the deli or the stupid sandwich place. There’s nothing good at either one of those places,” I declared.
Her face was pleading then, and I rolled my eyes. “I was going to go over there once he left.”
She snorted. “He’s not going to leave. And if you go over there now, with me all done, I don’t mind leaving early. You can skip all you want. But I’m going to finish. And I’m going to kick ass at this race.”
“Only because you know your ex, Mal, will be there,” I mumbled. “You do realize you’re probably not going to beat him, right?”
She scrunched up her nose.
“No,” she agreed. “But when I told him I’d like to run this race with him, he laughed in my face saying that I couldn’t do anything this physical. Now I want to prove him wrong and look hot while doing it so he can see what he missed.”
I sighed and gritted my teeth. Then pulled my big girl panties up and started marching like I was on a mission toward the bench presses.
Desi followed me at a much more sedate pace.
I walked to the closest bench press machine that wasn’t in use—the one that was two away from the one Ace was currently using every weight in the entire damn gym at—and looked at the bar.
“How much does the bar weigh?” I asked Desi.
“Umm,” Desi paused. “I think it weighs thirty-five. That’s what the girl who helped me max out said.”
I swallowed. “I think I can do thirty-five.”
“It’s forty-five,” Ace’s strained voice came from two benches over. “Add two fifteens to each side and see if you can do that.”
I thought about his suggestion and decided that it might be a good one.
Turning to look at the weights, I scanned for fifteens and didn’t find any.
“There aren’t any fifteens,” I pointed out.
“Grab two tens and two fives,” Callum suggested.
He was spotting Ace, who was straining to get his bar up.
I stared at all the black weights labeled ‘45’ and shook my head.
“Okay,” I said, grabbing first a ten, then a five. Once I had those in place, I went for the other two.
Once I had those in place, I sat down on the bench and lifted my hands to the bar.
I heard the weights of Ace’s bar hit the rack and Callum say something under his breath to him that made him laugh.
But I closed my eyes and focused, pushing up on the bar and lifting it free of its holder.
I slowly brought the weight down and went to push it back up, only to realize that it was too heavy.
Like so heavy that the weights didn’t budge.
I gritted my teeth, then pushed with all my might.
It still didn’t move.
That’s about when I started to panic.
But before I could so much as get a squeak out, the bar was lifted easily and placed back in the holder, causing me to open my eyes and blink rapidly at the penis head that was inches away from my face.
There was a penis head, followed by a sizeable shaft, behind a pair of sweatpants that were stained lightly with sweat at the top.
I swallowed and trailed my eyes upward even farther to find Ace’s amused face staring down at me.
“I told you to grab a ten and a five, not a forty-five for each side,” he said.
I blinked. “I got a ten and a five just like you said.”
He pointed to the plates that I’d gotten.
“Those are twenty-fives, and those are…”
I kind of stopped listening then because his penis was starting to grow.
My eyes were enraptured as I licked my lips and stared at it.
Sweatpants should be illegal.
What in God’s name was whoever invented them thinking? Did they not have any care at all for the female population?
How was a woman supposed to think with something that damn sexy staring her in the face?
Then the dick moved away, and I heard weights hitting the floor as my new weights were adjusted.
“Now try it,” he said, his dick once again coming back into view.
I did, straining to get it up once again. However, this time I managed it.
“You just did seventy-five,” he said. “Want to try for more?”
No. No, I did not.
“Sure,” I croaked.
He added on two of the tiniest plates I’d ever seen and then came toward me once more.
“Spot?” Ace asked, I nearly moaned in pain as I got another up close and personal look at his dick.
And his thighs. Because those were just as lovely, too.
Wrangler jeans or sweatpants. It didn’t matter.
They were fucking sexy on the man, no matter what.
Jesus Christ, I was burning up on the inside.
“Ready?” he asked, urging me on.
I closed my eyes, trying to close out the large cock and rock-hard thighs, only to curse myself when I even imagined them with my eyes closed.
I once again managed to get the bar down and all the way up, but this time instead of adding more, I stood up and started shaking my head.
“That’s my max,” I decreed.
He grinned. “Eighty pounds. Not too bad.”
I worked out my shoulders.
“You done?” he asked.
I swallowed hard and looked over at Desi, who was now talking to Callum, blushing profusely as she did.
“Yes!” I announced loudly. “Desi said she was taking me to lunch!”
“Where to?” Callum asked curiously.
“The deli!” I chirped, nervous now.
“We were going to go there, too,” Ace said, sounding amused. “Would you like to walk with us?”
No, no I would not.
“Sure.” Desi, the traitor, clapped.
I felt like I deflated.
I turned stiffly and walked over to where I’d drank nearly my entire thirty-three-ounce water bottle—who in the hell drank that much for thirty-five minutes of work?—and snatched it up.
Finishing it off, I tossed it into the trashcan—or at least tried to. It bounced off the rim and rolled across the floor, coming to a stop next to a bag that Ace happened to be leaning over to pick up.
He picked up my water bottle, too, and tossed it from across the room into the trash.
It didn’t hit anything but the bottom of the bucket on its way in.
I glared at the bottle.
/> Then stomped my way out the door.
I honestly considered getting into my car and driving away, but I knew that Desi would skin me alive if I did.
For some reason Desi had turned into a stage-five clinger the moment her ex-husband left her. She needed me to validate every move she made, and she used me as a crutch to help her move on.
Not that I minded.
Well, kind of.
I minded when she invited hot guys to go eat with us.
Then an idea hit me.
Surreptitiously, I pulled another bottle of water out of my gym bag and ‘accidentally’ spilled it down my white t-shirt, making sure to saturate it. Cursing as if it’d really been an accident, I said, “Well dang it!”
Cheerfully turning around as everybody was gathering their belongings to leave, I gestured to my shirt.
“Well, this ain’t gonna work. There’s no way in hell I’m going out in this,” I declared loudly.
Ace’s gaze was the first ones to rise, and the moment he saw my shirt, his eyes widened.
I looked down and grimaced, seeing the reason behind his wide eyes.
My shirt was white, and I was wearing a very thin white bra that made little to no difference nipple-coverage wise.
Crossing my arms across my chest, I said, “Sorry, y’all. I’m going to have to take a rain check.”
Desi narrowed her eyes, but it was Ace who said, “I have a t-shirt you can wear in the truck.”
I grimaced.
“I guess I could go buy a shirt,” I mumbled to Ace.
Desi hefted her bag up over her shoulder and turned to Callum, speaking to him in low tones.
Ace started digging through his gym bag.
He nodded his head and bailed, taking off to the front door, I could see his truck was parked right outside. He was in a hurry and I tried hard to keep the laughter from my face.
It wasn’t possible, though.
The fact that he could see so much of my skin was likely making him uncomfortable, so it was obvious he was more than willing to get me a t-shirt.
When he came back, he had a long-sleeved black t-shirt in his hand and a smile on his face.
He held it out to me and I took it reluctantly.
“This’ll look terrible,” I pointed out.
He shrugged, his eyes once again flicking back to my chest and away. “It’ll work for the time being, though.”
I unfolded it and the shirt unfurled, going down, down, down.
“This’ll be a dress on me,” I told him.
“Probably, but it’ll work for the time being,” he pointed out again.
And he was right. It would work for the time being.
It’d also drive me wild because it smelled all man-like, as if he’d just taken the damn thing off minutes before he’d come in to work out.
Then I got a look at the words.
“Nothing says I love you quite like fisting,” I read. “You’re kidding, right?”
Callum burst out laughing.
“Our brother got it for him,” Callum chuckled. “Darby thought it was the greatest present of all time when he was fifteen. Now that Darby’s older, he doesn’t find it anywhere near as funny. However, Ace still wears it to remind him of how young and punkish Darby used to be.”
I thought about not wearing the shirt for a full five seconds until I looked up to find Ace looking at me in a challenging way.
He didn’t think I’d wear the shirt.
I wouldn’t have… had he not been staring at me with a mocking look on that smart mouth.
As if he was about to laugh at me any second.
“Fine,” I said, gently setting my water bottle down and searching for the bottom hem of the t-shirt.
Once I had it, I shrugged it on over my head, then thrust my arms into the holes.
See, I didn’t necessarily feel small… until I was around Ace. And apparently it extended to Ace’s clothing, too. The arms were about six inches too long and came down well past the ends of my fingers. The rest of the shirt billowed out, hanging to my knees.
“You totally rock that shirt,” Desi teased.
I stuck my tongue out at her and shoved the ends of the sleeves up until they were resting at my elbows. Moments later, I tucked the shirt into the back of my workout pants and looked at the other three people standing there watching me.
“Ready?” I asked when nobody said anything.
“You look like a child wearing her father’s clothes,” Callum pointed out.
I rolled my eyes and started out the door, knowing that the other three would soon follow.
I kept my pace steady as I walked us in the direction of the deli. Eventually they all caught up with me… until Desi got tired and started falling behind.
Callum fell behind with her, leaving Ace and I walking about thirty paces in front of them.
“Were you actually going to this deli for lunch, or did you just say that so I’d go?” I asked.
I mean, it made sense. The deli was one of the healthiest places there was to eat. There was only the possibility of three places if you were wanting to eat moderately healthy.
“I was going to go to this place for lunch,” he answered immediately. “Though, I’d planned on going to the bank first, as well as hitting up the supermarket.”
“If you’d gone to the supermarket first,” I pointed out, “your groceries would’ve gotten hot.”
He looked up at the sky and nodded.
“Probably,” he agreed. “But I would’ve left the truck running.”
I stayed silent at that announcement.
“Did Poppy do better for you this morning?” he asked.
Apparently, he’d seen me riding the she-devil.
The only reason that I had was because she’d looked at me so sadly when I’d passed her on the way to the horse’s stall that was next to hers.
Once I’d gotten back from my ride on Dandy, I’d taken Poppy on a short one. A short one that’d turned into a longer one when Poppy had actually behaved herself.
“Yes,” I said as I started up the steep incline that would lead to the deli. “But I think it’s only because of her duplicity. She’s trying to lull me into thinking that she’s better. Then, BAM! When I least expect it, she’s going to try to kill me again. This time it’ll probably work because I won’t be expecting it.” I shook my head. “It’s always the quiet ones that fuck you over.”
Ace snorted. “It’s every woman. Not just the quiet ones.”
My brows rose as I turned to him and tried to act like I wasn’t getting out of breath due to the walk.
“I’m sorry, what?” I asked, blinking at him innocently.
He chuckled as he put on the jet packs, making it up the hill and to the front door of the deli in more than enough time to hold it open for me. He made sure to give me his best view—i.e., the rather large penis that was still quite predominant in his sweats—as he waited for me to get there.
When I muttered a ‘thank you’ as I passed him, he followed shortly behind me, not bothering to wait for Callum and Desi.
He gestured to a booth that was in the corner and I moved in that direction.
When I sat, he followed directly behind me.
I tossed a scowl in his direction and said, “Why aren’t you sitting over there? Desi can sit beside me.”
“Do you see the size of the booth?” he asked just as the bells above the deli’s door jingled, indicating that Callum and Desi had arrived. “Do you honestly think that Callum and I can sit side by side in one?”
Just as he finished his question, Desi slid in directly across from me, and Callum followed behind her.
I looked at the space that was between them—barely any—and grimaced.
“Whatever,” I muttered.
The man at my side chuckled and reached for a menu that was beside me, forcing me to shrink backward so his muscled forearm didn’t gra
ze across my boob.
I managed to get out of the way—mostly. He still managed to graze the tip of my nipple.
I barely swallowed back the moan that threatened to spill from my lips.
Jesus Christ.
Was that all it took? A little itty-bitty graze of his arm across the tip of a nipple?
Yes, yes it was.
I was a woman in need of a good fucking.
Or a better, more well-endowed vibrator.
I had a feeling that the one I had wouldn’t be good enough any longer.
“What’s good here?” Callum asked. “I haven’t been in a long time.”
I thought about that question.
“The jalapeño turkey crunch sandwich is to die for,” I admitted. “But the size is kind of small. You’d need at least two to fill you up,” I murmured. “And I order the kid’s nacho basket. It’s a bowl of nacho cheese and Rotel. They serve chips with it. I also get macaroni and cheese with that, as well as half of a spud to go with my sandwich. Oh, and a chocolate chip cookie.”
There was silence at the table.
“That was quite specific,” he admitted.
I thought about that.
It was, indeed, quite specific. However, was it wrong to know what I liked at the stores in town?
No.
At least I didn’t think so.
“I know what I like, and you asked.” I shrugged.
Ace put the menu down and leaned back, his arm going behind my shoulders spanning the entire seat of the booth.
He wasn’t touching me, per se, but he was so close to having his arm around me that we likely looked like a couple.
If, you know, I wasn’t the trash of the county and Ace wasn’t the hometown boy who shined like a shooting star.
Nobody would make the mistake of us being together.
“What’s that look for?” Desi asked curiously.
I blinked, unaware that I’d been so focused inwardly that I hadn’t been paying attention to what was happening right in front of me.
“Nothing.” I recovered quickly. “Do you think we’ll have to go up there and order?”
Ace looked over and grimaced. “Maybe. They look kind of busy today.”
Most days, the orders were placed at the tables, but on the days that they were super busy like they were today, you’d have to go up to the counter and place the order.
I nudged Ace with a shoulder. “Go. I’m starving like Marvin.”
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