“Right, how about the most embarrassing machine in the room?” Giles asks and he does look a bit more animated again.
“Not that leg opener?” I groan.
“The hip abduction machine, you mean.” Giles taps the back of his hand against the side of my thigh and then he's off crossing the gym floor.
Reluctantly, I stand and on wobbly legs, follow him.
“I swear no matter how I sit in this machine, it makes me look like I have a boner,” I grumble.
“Trust me, nobody is looking at your crotch,” Giles reassures me before turning and plonking down in the machine's seat. “Why don't I go first and show you how nobody gives a flying fuck what you look like doing this exercise?”
He drops the weight pin down, right down.
“You're just going to show off,” I point out.
“That too,” Giles says and I'm pleased when his moustache wriggles and there's a little more light in his green-blue eyes as he begins opening and closing his legs. I say green-blue because I can’t figure out which colour they are. It’s a mystery I sometimes feel determined to solve but then I remember that it’s rude to stare at somebody for no reason so I try to turn my attention elsewhere. Luckily, my brain is good at doing that. Very good, in fact.
Right now, my attention is being grabbed by Giles’ legs. I watch his quads work, tendons and muscles moving under his skin. Smooth skin that catches the light and reminds me of…
“Giles,” I say slowly.
“Yeah,” he pants.
“Do you shave your legs?”
The machine clanks to a stop with Giles legs locked in place wide open. He looks down at his legs. “I got them lasered actually. Why?”
“Does that... does that help with training?”I've literally never thought about shaving or, shudder, waxing my legs. Is it something I should think about? Maybe it's an optical illusion andthat'swhy Giles legs look so powerful, so sculpted. Like, does it make you run faster or lift heavier weights?
He clears his throat loudly before he replies. “No, I just like the way it looks. And how it feels.”
And now that's all I'm thinking about. How Giles’ legs feel, all silky smooth and a little slick with sweat like they are now.
Fuck.I clearly didn't eat enough before this workout. I'm losing it.
“You don't have to be hairless, if that's what you're thinking. Although," he pauses and resumes his reps, “I suppose it could help with the swimming.”
“Do you...” My mouth goes dry. Yes, definitely dehydrated. “Did you get laser everywhere?”
Giles' laughter is loud and hearty. “I'm not going to make you wax your scrotum, Marcello, don't worry!”
“That's... that's not what I was thinking...”
“Your face says it all. You look deathly worried.” Giles shakes his head as he continues to chuckle while still opening and closing his legs. And I’m sorry but he is not proving me wrong; the way his shorts have all bunched up what limited material there is of them, it very much looks like he has a boner.
I blink my gaze away, feeling immediately guilty and just, weird, for lookingthere.
“Maybe it's not such a terrible idea,” I say. “I might even have more luck with the ladies if I did it.”
“You mean to tell me,” he grunts and winces through a rep, “that you have trouble with women?”
“I would love to have trouble with women! I would love to have anything with women!”
“But you don't?”
“I do not.”
“Why not?”
