by Lucy Rains
He didn’t answer.
The open garage showed the guys own personal workout area. Punching bag, weight machines, treadmill, free weights, anything one could need to build ample muscle. Alex pulled me under the cover of the garage and pushed me against the wall, grabbing my other hand. I gasped but didn’t complain. He was frustrated with jealous desire and I knew he needed to be close to me.
I pulled his hand to my chest, placing it between my breasts to let him feel the vibrating hum that I knew would comfort him. He took a step closer and his eyes closed slowly.
“Why are you upset?” I asked softly.
Alex’s warm blue eyes opened, his face coming closer to mine. “I’m fine,” he answered softly. Water dripped down his nose, his full lips parted.
“I feel your jealousy,” I pointed out. “I might not be a human lie detector, but what you’re saying versus what you’re feeling isn’t matching up.”
His head dropped down for a minute, letting out a weak chuckle. “I’m not jealous that you're being intimate with the other guys.” He paused, looking back up at me. “I just hate that it hasn’t been me.”
His words turned in my head, and I tried to understand where he was coming from. When I didn’t say anything he spelled it out more clearly.
“You’ve been in everyone’s bed but mine, you’ve been out with everyone but me. And,” his eyes darted to my mouth and back to my face, “I’m pretty sure I’m the last to taste you,” his voice low and husky.
My eyebrows came down, my determination to defend myself pouring out of me. “FIrst of all, Pierce took me without asking last night.”
His eyebrow lifted in interest, “Took you?”
I smacked his chest, “You know what I mean. He found me crying and was trying to help. I haven’t kissed everyone, and last, I go where I’m told on a daily basis.”
His head leaned down again, staring at his feet, his hand still on my chest.
I continued, “I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. You guys brought me into this mess, and the feelings I have inside of me are like nothing I have ever felt. I don’t understand the strong compulsions I feel, the needs I now have. But I know,” I reached out with my other hand and brought his face up to look at me. “That I feel just as much for you, as any of them.”
He nodded, bringing his hand up to mine that was on his face.
“But I can’t do this,” I whispered.
His eyes opened quickly, his mouth tightened, panic in his eyes.
“If I know I am hurting any of you, by being with the others, I can’t…” I shook my head, “I won’t…” My throat became thick with emotion and I had to swallow hard.
His face came close to me and his nose touched mine, “The things I have been through with the other guys, the things we have seen, and experienced, makes us closer than brothers. I would do anything for them, and I know they would do anything for me.”
I let out a slow breath as I listened to him, my hand on his cheek moving to the back of his neck.
“I want only the best, for all of them. And I know they feel the same way about me. And you, are no doubt, the best any of us could ever have.” He dipped his head lower and brushed his lips against mine. “I would rather share you, than not have you at all.” His lips came up and brushed my forehead. “And I can always watch.”
There was humour in his voice and the playful light back in his eyes. I tried to smile, but my body tightened at his joke that I was pretty sure wasn’t a joke.
His mood was significantly better. Happier, and content. I relaxed a little knowing I had accomplished what I needed to do. My head tilted up as I offered my mouth to him, wanting to feel his full lips on mine. My fingers on his neck pushed into the bottom of his hair, feeling the wet strands on my skin.
He smiled at me, but instead of leaning in to me, he took a step back, forcing my hand to drop.
I looked at him in confusion.
“I better get back inside.”
Surprised at his actions, I stared dumbly.
He smiled at my response, “I have to get back to work.”
I nodded quickly, “Of course.” I swallowed and tried to shake off the desire that had been racing through my limbs. He was right. Pierce needed him.
Alex leaned in and put a kiss on my cheek before heading back into the house.
With Alex gone and our moment passed, I realized I was soaked and freezing. I pulled off my wet shirts, and found a black sweatshirt draped on a weight set. I could smell Pierce as the cotton settled around my body. There were several towels on a workbench that I used to dry off my hair and face.
The rain continued to come down, the cool air drifting into the garage. The rain speed varied, slowing down at times, and pouring hard at others.
I sat on a padded bench, pondering about the last 24 hours. Thinking about Alex’s touch, Pierce’s bed, and the others. I was head deep in my feelings for all of them. The bond I felt between all of them was growing, shifting into something strong, almost palpable. I knew being able to sense their emotions so clearly now, stemmed from kissing them and sharing intimate physical contact.
There was also the physical changes. Pierce and Gavin had mentioned feeling stronger, faster on the New York op. I thought about my toned muscles that came out of nowhere. Could being together be making us stronger as well? Adding up all these factors and changes boggled my mind. How could we have been created to react like this around each other? What would someone had to of done to our biomolecular cells to make us so reactive to each other in this way?
I flexed my muscles and stood up, walking into the middle of the garage on a black padded mat. In addition to cable machines there were circular bar weights, kettlebells, and dumbells. I looked around, trying to figure out how to condition my energy. I walked over to the large circular weights and piled up four 45 lb weights in the middle of the garage.
Taking several steps back I looked at the pile of iron, drawing in a deep breath through my nose. I hadn’t conditioned my energy ability in several weeks and I wasn’t sure how I was going to do this. Usually about once a week I would use the excuse of going on a long run to go out into the an isolated rural area to work on both my energy and fighting exercises. I had snuck watching Youtube videos at the public library one summer to study various fighting styles to implement into my workout. It had been tricky to do solo, but I felt confident in myself that I could hold my own when needed. Consistently combined with large amounts of squats, pushups, and crunches, it had toned my body into a tight machine.
I put my hands in front of me and let out a steady stream of energy aimed at the weights. The iron immediately began to slide backwards. I stopped, looking down at my hands. The energy I had released hadn’t felt like enough to move 180 lbs worth of weight. I flexed my fingers and looked back at the pile and released a lesser amount of energy. The weights shook at the rush of pressure, I continued letting the energy out. As I stood there, with my palms up I closed my eyes and focused inward on my energy. Instead of using it as I always had, as a pushing force, I attempted to connect with it, and warp it as I desired. My mind tried to put an extension of my mental sense into my physical energy.
I imagined the energy as another set of hands, tried to feel through the power I pushed out. Taking a deep breath, I used my energy to wrap around, under and over the weights. I was surprised at the sensations, excited at the tangible senses I was able to feel through my energy. Trying not to lose focus, my body adjusted to the new feelings coming into my hands. My energy was still changing, morphing as I pushed mental power behind it. Textures, and temperatures were absent, only mass and solidity.
Stepping back I opened my eyes and paused my energy release to regain my thoughts. My breathing had become labored, yet I didn’t feel expended as I would have a month ago. I found several 35 lb weights and piled them on top of the stack. I went back to my position and let my energy out again, wrapping immediately around the weights. I focused most of my en
ergy at the base of the pile, forcing the energy underneath the weights.
Frustration built inside of me as the weights did nothing but wobble. It felt impossible, trying to get my energy under the weights and beginning the task to lift. There was no progress. When I increased my force the pile shook unsteadily but stayed where it was.
I let go with a huff, my face flushed and my body trembled slightly. Maybe I was going about this wrong. Perhaps I needed to try lifting by wrapping my energy around the weights instead of going under.
As I was bent over with my hands on my knees, my head hanging down, the door into the house opened. I didn’t look up to see who it was, I could feel it was Gavin. His permanent darker presence was distinct from the others.
“What are you doing?” He asked with a hint of annoyance. I looked up to see him looking at the pile of weights with a raised eyebrow, then over to me.
I swallowed and put my hands on my hips. “Experimenting.”
“Hu.”
He walked down the steps and circled the weights, mentally counting up the total in his head.
Not wanting to let him distract me, or lose my focus, I fixed my eyes back on the pile of weights, and began lifting my hands slowly. I took a deep breath and let out another powerful force of energy. My fingertips waved subtly, trying to work the energy around the pile. My head tipped down in determination, my whole body straining.
Digging deep, I pushed out even more energy, my chest heaving with exertion. The weights shook, trembling under my force. So close. I could feel that I was so close.
Everything disappeared. I didn't feel, didn't see Gavin. My focus was purely on the task in front of me. Time stopped for me as I pushed myself harder than ever. My strength was beginning to drain but I gritted my teeth to hold onto my efforts.
Closing my eyes and focusing inward, I knew it was now or never. My arms raised a tiny bit, as did the weights. Sweat beaded on my forehead and I held on, raising my hands an inch, watching in triumphant joy as the weights moved up as well.
Knowing I was at the last trickles of power, I let my hands move back down and dropped the iron to the mat, my body melting to the floor. Gavin braced my back and head as I landed, lowering me the rest of the way. My eyes were closed as I panted, trying to catch my breath. Sweat dripped from my forehead, and down my chest. My arms hung limply, but I could already feel my strength regenerating.
Gavin crouched by me, waiting silently I peeled an eye open and looked at him. His dark locks hung forward as he looked down at me, his unshaven face shadowed with dark stubble. My right hand reached out limply, patting him, searching for his chest. When I got ahold of his shirt, I pulled it closer to me then pressed down, sucking in air as the hum in my chest flared wildy.
My eyes closed and I savored the thick warmth that flowed into my limbs, restoring my spent power and bringing me back to normal. It was almost as good as swimming. After a minute I was able to let go of his hand and sit up, ready to head inside.
Gavin was crouched next to me, his eyes tracing my face. His dark eyes were intimidating, and I struggled meeting them. Our heated discussion from Monday coming back to me with a painful reminder of his bitterness.
“You can do more,” He stated simply.
I looked up to glare at him. He shrugged, looking over at the weights.
“How would you know?” I eyed him, “Why do you think you would know my limits?”
“Because you're weak.”
I scoffed. “You just said I could do more though. That sounds hypocritical.”
His finger tapped on my forehead,”You are weak here.”
I smacked his hand and glared at him, pushing myself off the ground. “Whatever.”
He straightened his legs and stood as well. “You haven't had any reasons, any opportunities to push yourself to expand and grow in your ability.”
The rain picked up, pouring relentlessly at that moment. We both turned to watch it for a second, and I could feel when Gavin turned from the rain to me, watching me. I turned away, and began putting away the weights I had been using. Defiance oozed from me and I didn’t want to listen to him.
“I’m tired,” I said.
“Because you’re weak.”
“No,” I snapped, “because I’m tired. Because I don’t sleep anymore.” I let the weight slam down that I had been holding and the metal clang echoed in my ears.
“Stop making excuses, Jade.”
My wet hair hung down in my face and covered the pink spots that blossomed on my cheek bones. He was right, I was making excuses. My wrist brushed over an imaginary itch on my forehead as I avoided looking at him. The last thing I felt like doing was training with Gavin. Or doing much of anything with Gavin.
When I turned to head towards the door his body was suddenly in my view. I was forced to take a step back before my face made contact with his chest. I lifted my head, his freshly shaven skin smelled masculine in the morning mist and his perfectly shaped lips pressed together.
“Come on,” he ordered. “Let’s do just a little bit more.’
My eyes went to the ceiling and I let out a heavy huff. “It’s too bad we can’t spar. I would love to flatten your ass right now.”
“In your wildest dreams, Princess.”
“Stop calling me that.” I gave him a dark glare but reluctantly turned back towards the weights in the garage.
We spent the next 45 minutes continuing what I had worked on, lifting the weight, and then adding more. We added physical conditioning intra mixed with my energy conditioning. Sprinting on a nearby treadmill and then jumping off to move weights with my energy. Burpees and pushups and then energy pushes. All sort of combinations to strengthen my reaction time both physically and mentally.
Gavin was surprisingly patient. Not warm and encouraging, but not overbearing and demeaning like I thought he would be. At times when I would have to close my eyes and dig deep within me, the world around me would disappear. But his deep bass voice would appear next to my ear, saying what I needed to accomplish the current task at hand.
I was sweating, weak, shaking, when I finally walked backwards to lean on the cable machine and declared once and for all, “I’m done.”
Gavin glared at me, his hands on his hip.
“If you call me weak I will nail you to the wall from here.”
Giving up, he nodded once and began cleaning up the scattered weights around the gym, hanging them in all their proper locations.
I reached out, my 6th sense brushing over his emotions, wondering what he was feeling. My mental reach cringed back when I felt the continued bitterness that had been plaguing him since I had arrived. Rolling my eyes in frustration, I walked over to a small fridge to pull out a water bottle. Obviously he had not sorted out his issues yet. Still not my problem.
How I wished it was that easy. I hated the deep instinctual urge to help and care for him. But I felt helpless and ill equipped in my skills to settle the bitter anger he held onto so tightly inside of him. It was like trying to pet a viper.
His footsteps sounded behind me as I lifted the water to drink deeply. “Have you really gotten so fat that you have to wear Pierce’s clothes now?”
The water stopped in my throat and I choked at his question, sputtering in disbelief. “Excuse me?”
Wiping spit and water from my chin, I turned to look at the smug tilt of his mouth, the unrepentant gleam in his eyes and he reached past me to grab his own water bottle.
He continued his bullying, “Didn’t you just buy a bunch of clothes last night? Because…”
My head cocked as I waited for him to finish his sentence, anger swelling inside of me.
“Your others don’t fit, right?” He asked, trying to guod me.
I blinked, and then finished off my water. “You are a royal ass.”
“But it's true right?”
My eyes narrowed and I shifted a hip out. I fought the urge to curl my lip into a sneer, instead putting on a look of nonchalance
.
“You really think it’s because I got fat?” My tone sweet and curious.
He shrugged and motioned towards me, “Hey, I don’t judge.”
I threw my water bottle on the ground next to my feet. The sound of rolling plastic fading behind me. His mouth held its same stupid smirk and his eyes laughed at me. I held his cocky gaze as my hands grabbed the bottom hem of the sweatshirt and then whipped it over my head in one swift motion.
My skin was still soaked from chasing Alex into the rain had left my skin moist and clammy. I didn’t look down, but I knew my chest was rising and falling quickly as I struggled to keep my anger in check.
The cool air whipped over my skin, making goosebumps rise instantly. I bit back a shiver as I watched Gavin’s eyes widen in surprise and roam over my shoulders, my cream bra that held my breasts, my toned abs and then back up to my face.
“Do I look fat to you?” I cocked my head at him and let my tone ooze faux innocence.
His adam’s apple bobbed uncomfortably and I knew he was peeling his tongue off the roof of his mouth. The bitterness within him had shifted sharply into desire and I knew he was burning inside.
I took a step forward and leaned closer to him, his breathing becoming rapid. “I didn’t think so,” I whispered smugly.
His hands lifted, reaching for my waist and I skirted away from him. “Don’t touch me,” I growled.
I squared my shoulders and glared at him, gripping the heavy black sweatshirt in my hand. “I hope one day you choke on the shit you talk.”
Gavin’s eyes narrowed on me, his emotions overflowing with desire now mixed with frustration.
He opened his mouth to speak when suddenly the door into the house open and I whipped around in surprise.
Pierce stood in the doorway looking down at us. “What the hell?”
CHAPTER 29
I quickly threw the black sweatshirt back over my head and pulled it down to cover myself. The cool damp air against my bare skin, though brief, sent a shiver through me. Pierce cleared his throat, his eyes going between the two of us.