He confirmed it for me when he said, “For you, yes. If you have goals, I’ll help you get there.”
What if my goal was to have him on top of me?Could we get there, Atlas?
“I’ll keep that in mind,” I said with a smirk.
After some struggling, I pulled my bank card out of the pocket of my leggings and passed it across the counter to him.
He ran my card through the machine, passing it back to me with a copy of the agreement and my receipt. “Welcome to Leviathan Fitness, Tegan.” The sultry smile he gave me made me feel like I was going to spontaneously combust. “What size tank top do you wear? I have a few different colors. I really like the white with the neon logo. It has a real ’80s vibe.”
“Oh, I love neon. I’ll take a large.”
“Neon it is.” He smiled at me again before turning to rummage through a box of tank tops. When he did, his tail started wagging, knocking over his shaker bottle and spilling his protein shake all over the counter.
“Shit. Stupid tail,” he huffed while reaching for a roll of paper towels to clean up the mess. Even when he was irritated, he was still so cute.
“Let me help. It’s the least I can do after the whole wedding-cake debacle.” I held out my hands and motioned for him to give me a few paper towels.
“Thank you,” he said as he bent over the counter.
I leaned in to help him. As I wiped up the protein shake, my hand brushed against his.
Slowly, we looked up at each other, our gazes connecting. I could see my freckles and messy bun reflected back at me in his full-moon eyes. Our faces were so close that I could feel his warm breath against my face and I desperately wanted him to close the distance between us. Kissing him with that long muzzle of his would be interesting, but I’m sure we could make it work. There were other things we could do with our mouths.
But just like at the wedding, it was over just as quick as it began.
Atlas stood up and looked away, running his hand over his ear and along the back of his head as he puffed out a breath.
Did he feel this, too?
He shook his head, like he was shaking off what just happened.
Yeah, he felt it, too.
He cleared his throat. “Did you, uh, want a tour?”
“I’d love that. I’m really curious to see what you did with the place.” That, and I wasn’t in any particular rush to get away from him, and in even less of a rush to start my workout.
“Cool.” He set aBack in Fifteensign on the counter and made his way around the desk.
Standing next to him made me feel butterflies all over again. I would really have to focus if I wanted to retain any of the information he was going to tell me.
“Obviously, this is the main floor,” he said, strolling out into the middle of the gym.
Instead of a traditional gym, Leviathan Fitness had more of a modern-athletic-club feel. Yes, there were rubber floors made for dropping weights, mirrors lining the walls to check your form, weightlifting benches, machines, and free weights—but it wasalso bright and open. A far cry from the rec center of my childhood.
“I think this used to be a basketball court?” I said, noticing the exposed-brick wall that ran along the side of the building.
“Yep. The ceilings in the old building were really high, so we added a second story for more space,” he said proudly. “Did you come here often as a kid?”
I nodded. “Summer camp. Birthday parties. It was the cheapest way to entertain kids in a small town.”
“Why do I feel like we had the same childhood? I spent a ton of time doing rec activities when I was a kid.”
The difference was that he actually stuck with the sports he tried. My parents never made me stick with anything.
“Speaking of swimming,” he said, leading me through a doorway in the back of the room. It led to a corridor with a few doors on each side. “These are the offices and locker rooms. And this,” he said, pushing open another door, “is the pool.”
It was huge. Much bigger than I remembered. The most surprising part was that it didn’t have that public-pool smell—no overwhelming sting of chlorine lingering in the air.
