Before he could give himself any more time to worry about it, Chad packed his workout gear and grabbed his Tank Security ID badge and headed out.
***
Chapter 7
Peter took Aiden down with a vicious elbow to the back, knocking the wind out of him and pinning him to the mat without giving him a single opportunity to block the move. Holding him down for ten seconds, feeling him struggle uselessly beneath him, Peter finally took mercy and let him up.
“You’re getting slow, Aiden. You should have seen that coming,” Peter said, reaching out a hand and helping his best friend to his feet. They were sparring at Aiden’s request, waking up at an ungodly hour so that Peter could fit the session in before he went to work.
“I know, I know… but fuck, man. Are you getting stronger? You wouldn’t have been able to flip me like that two years ago.”
Peter grinned. His new job had left him with a lot of time to work out and he was bigger than ever. The added bulk had made him slower, though, so any advantage the added strength gave him should be well offset.
Aiden had no excuse for losing so spectacularly.
“You need to work out more,” Peter admonished, only half joking. Aiden was a prime specimen of alpha, his body optimized for speed and strength, but he could be even better if he put in more effort.
Aiden just snorted and started walking toward the changing room. Peter followed.
“Thanks for coming out here today,” Aiden said, stripping off his shirt as they walked and using it to wipe his brow. “It’s getting hard to find people who will spar with me.”
Peter grinned. He didn’t doubt for a second that Aiden had trouble finding willing sparring partners. The man was abeast,and he always gave it his everything when he went on the mat. The only problem with that was that Aiden’severythingwas quite a bit more than most guys could handle.
“No problem. Are you headed home?”
“Nah, I’ve got some stuff to do. What about you? Busy day at the office?”
Peter grimaced. Now that his blood was pumping and the thrill of victory had his cock half hard, the last thing he wanted was to go to work and study network security.
“Nothing too bad.”
When they reached the locker room door, Peter stopped. “Hey, I’m going to squeeze in a quick workout before I head out. I’ll see you around, okay?”
“Sure, take care, man.” Aiden waved him off and stepped through the door. Peter turned around and made his way to the weights room, grabbing a towel and heading straight for the dumbbells.
Thirty minutes later he was sweating and breathing hard, the muscles in his chest, arms, and shoulders feeling pumped and swollen. He gave himself a quick glance in the mirror, pleased by what he saw.
He looked good.
Making his way to the locker room, Peter dumped his towel in the laundry bin by the door and headed to his locker. Pulling his shirt over his head, he heard the door open and the sound of someone stepping inside.
The new arrival was wearing boots by the sound of it, though the heavy footsteps came to a quick stop as the door slammed shut. Curious, Peter turned around to see what was up. He was entirely unprepared to see Chad Brand standing by the door with a wide-eyed expression on his face.
Fuck.
Chad looked just as good as Peter remembered. Dressed in tight jeans, biker boots, and a snug leather jacket, he looked good enough to eat. Just the sight of him had Peter’s cock filling the pouch of his jockstrap and straining to get free.
“Mr. Brand,” Peter said after a tense second, turning all the way around and walking right up to where Chad was standing. Chad didn’t look like he had any idea what to do. He looked around with a wide-eyed expression, and Peter forced his mouth to pull up in a rare smile. “I wanted to apologize for the other night. I misread the situation. It wasn’t my intention to make you uncomfortable.”
Chad didn’t answer. His face was a mask of surprise as he stared at Peter in befuddlement. Peter recognized the exact moment Chad realized that his staring might be construed as a challenge, his neck bending so fast Peter worried he might get whiplash.
Chad’s gaze was now trained right on the sizable mound in Peter’s compression shorts, and Peter tried to think unsexy thoughts to prevent the already sizable bulge from becoming pornographic.
“I, uh... you knew that I worked here?” Chad asked after a second, moving his face so that he was looking at the floor to Peter’s left. It was not the question Peter was expecting. He shook his head and offered up a rueful grin.
“No. I found out after when I was going through the evaluations on all our new hires.”
“Oh.” Again, Chad didn’t say anything else.
