“If you’re sure? I’ll be five minutes max.” Rob grabs the bag from Alexander. The two share a knowing glance with each other and then look at me.
“I think I can handle myself if he ends up posing a threat,” Alexander says, pointing his thumb at me.
“I’m not so sure. I do have a blackbelt in origami.” I place my hands on my hips and arch my brows, triggering another laugh from Alexander as Rob looks on with a perplexed expression.
Clearly his sense of humor isn’t as strong as his physicality.
“You know… to fold you into an aeroplane and turn you into a flying fuck I no longer give.” I motion flinging a paper plane at him.
Rob opens his mouth to respond, but Alexander stops him, patting him on the chest.
“I’ll be fine, and anyway, I could use someone to spot me with the weights.” He looks at me to see if I am down, and although I had planned to go for a run to fight off the jet lag and mentally prepare for lunch with my mum, this isn’t such a bad alternative.
“Sure,” I say, trying to sound as nonchalant as possible to prevent Alexander from getting any inclination that I might enjoy this.
Rob leaves with the cleaner, who’s managed to remove all remnants of vomit from the gym, leaving us alone.
There are probably a million people who would kill to be in my position.
Alexander makes his way over to the bench press, grabbing the thirty-two kilo dumbbell weights, and lies back in preparation to lift them, leaving me to follow.
“Big night?” I ask.
There’s a nervousness in my tone that reminds me of thatfirst date feeling. I’ve never been a fan of small talk, but what do you say to someone with this level of fame?
“Oh, the vomit,” he says, pushing the weights up and down above his chest. “No, just woke up feeling crappy this morning. Must be a bug or something.”
“Yeah, right,” I laugh, rolling my eyes. His exhales get louder with each push up of the dumbbells. My eyes drift down his body, skimming his washboard abs—he definitely has an eight-pack—and pausing on the bulge in his shorts that I couldn’t help but dream about last night. “I could barely sleep for hearing those girls screaming your name in ecstasy.”
“What girls?” he snaps. He drops the weights and gets up off the bench.
“Calm down, treacle,” I say, trying to recover the easy camaraderie we’d just had. “I mean the ones outside the hotel who accosted me when I arrived. They were still chanting your name when I tried to sleep.”
I can see why they’d be screaming his name. Those blue eyes, that chiseled jaw, the body that’s just the right amount of muscular, all adds up to a breathtaking whole.
“Oh God, I’m sorry. Did they keep you up for long?” He stares intently at me.
I debate whether to tell him the truth: I didn’t sleep at all, and that it wasn’t helped by the endless videos I had watched of him on TikTok. But I opt for the easier path instead.
“I managed to get off round two-thirty, three. Don’t they keep you up?”
“Noise-cancelling headphones,” he says, retrieving them from his pocket and shaking them at me. “They’re a godsend. You should get a pair.”
I feel a wild surge inside from the way he smiles at me. How can a man as devilishly handsome as this be engaging in conversation with me?
“Wanna swap?” He motions to the bench.
“You are joking right?” My gaze is drawn to the dumbbells. “These guns can barely lift ten kilograms, let alone thirty-two.”
Before I know it, Alexander is gripping my left bicep leaving me no time to flex to try and save face at how scrawny I am in comparison to him. A surge of electricity rolls across my skin, forcing my body hair to stand upright and my cheeks to flush.
“It’s not so bad,” he says, letting go. “Here, let me grab you a couple of fifteens, and we’ll see if we can get you to bench that.”
He heads over to the rack to retrieve the weights, and I find myself being convinced to do something I’d usually never dream of doing. I attempt to make myself comfortable on the bench, adjusting my shoulders as Alexander stands over me, holding the weights in position above my chest.
“Here. Let me just adjust your hands.” He twists my wrists forty-five degrees as he passes me each dumbbell.
As I look up, I can almost make out his cock through his shorts.
