He scoffs, shakes his head, then scoffs again.
I get into the leg press and catch Percy’s eyes wandering over me with the same hunger I can feel building in my gut every time I look at him. His gaze lingers on my thighs and on the swell of my soft cock pressed against my shorts. When his eyes meet mine, I wink at him, and a blush rises in his cheeks.
“I’ve never hooked up with any of my clients before.” I grunt as I do my first rep. “Not that some of them aren’t hot, I’ve just never really thought about it. Work and dating have always been separate in my mind. It seems messy otherwise.”
His bottom lip is right back between his teeth.
“Sure, I get it. Don’t shit where you eat and all that.” He wheezes out a tight laugh. “So… uh, don’t worry about… you know… what happened. It was no big deal, and I’m not going to make anything weird or messy. I probablyshouldcut back on my training sessions a bit though. I’ve really been slacking on my schoolwork, and?—”
“Rocky.” I let the weights fall into place with a noisy clatter. He stops rambling and waits. My heart pounds a wild rhythm inside my chest, and for a second, my nerves almost get the best of me. But fuck it. No guts, no glory. “Can I take you out sometime?”
“You…” He licks his lips again. “You want to take me out?”
He glances somewhere behind me, and I’m sure Callan, Fender, and maybe even Silas are watching this whole thing go down and wishing they had a tub of popcorn between them. Then he looks back at me and nods.
“Sure. Yeah. That would be nice.”
Relief bursts in my chest like water through a cracked dam and I grin up at him.
“Kick-ass. Now, give me a little encouragement for this last set, and then we’ll hit the treadmills before my next client comes in.”
“Uh, okay. Breathe, baby, you can take it,” he purrs.
I sputter a laugh and let the weights clatter again. “I do not sound that porny when I coach you.”
“Yeah, you do,” he says confidently. “Now, finish this set or I’m going to make it twice as hard next time.”
“That threat sounds porny too. I really need to work on my technique as a coach before I get sued for sexual harassment.”
“I’m definitely not complaining.” Percy grins, and my stomach flutters.
We have a date. A nebulous, “sometime” kind of date, but I’ll take it.
CHAPTER TWENTY
PERCY
“I’m not goingto tell you what’s on next week’s test, but I would strongly advise you to be prepared to write a short essay on the religious practices of the Yuka,” I announce loudly over the din of students packing up their laptops and chairs squeaking as they drag against the tile floor.
Out of the corner of my eye, I notice John, another PhD student and TA in the anthropology department, lingering just inside the classroom door with his hands in his pockets and a smile on his face. When he sees that I’ve spotted him, he weaves past the flow of students going the opposite direction to get to me.
“I can’t decide if it’s extremely generous of you to give them that hint, or evil to do it while none of them are paying any attention,” he says with a chuckle, his gaze roaming down to linger over my body for a few seconds before returning to my face.
Is he checking me out?
A small thrill goes through me. Not because I’m interested in John, but because it’s nice to know that I’m not the only one who can tell that my biceps are bigger and my ass is firmer. I deleted the M4M app after Butch and I hooked up, but I’ll take a little ego stroking where I can get it.
I laugh in response and finish tucking my notes into my bag, right next to my gym clothes, which are wadded up inside. Then I sling it across my shoulders and wait for him to say something else, like why he stopped by my class when we’ve never had more than a passing conversation before.
“What’s up?” I prompt when he doesn’t offer an explanation on his own.
“Oh, right, well I was wondering what you’re up to next weekend.” He rubs the back of his neck, and I’m pretty sure my face is full-on Shocked Pikachu before he goes on. “A bunch of the Anthro grad students were thinking about going out for drinks to blow off some steam and celebrate making it through midterms.”
I let out a relieved breath. He’s not asking me out, he’s just inviting me to a group outing. Of course he is. Why would he be asking me out? Just because I can now run three miles without needing to call an ambulance and I’ve been walking around with a fuckton more confidence since Butch and I hooked up last weekend doesn’t mean every guy in the world is suddenly clamoring to date me. Butch hasn’t even brought up the whole “taking me out sometime” thing again. It’s been a week, and I’ve seen him just about every day at Sweat, but it’s still just this nebulous, nonspecific thing hanging between us. Maybe it was just his way of distracting me in the middle of trying to quit the gym.
“Percy?”
That snaps me out of my spiral, and I give him a polite smile.
