No Rep by Lani Lynn Vale

CHAPTER 10

Don’t rush me. I’m waiting for the last minute.

-Coffee Cup

TAOS

The next day, it was storming.

In fact, it was storming so badly that nobody in their right mind would be out in it.

However, I owned a gym, and we had a class scheduled that I again had been conned in to teaching. It wasn’t like I could just decide to stay home because the weather was bad, but no one had shown up for the five am class and it wasn’t looking good for the six am class.

In fact, they called for the storm to turn into ice by midmorning, and that was a pretty big deal seeing as it hadn’t snowed or iced in Paris in about seven years.

We were in a weird spot in Texas.

See, the north part of Texas got it all the time. But with us being more mid-Texas, the possibility of it getting cold enough here was something that didn’t happen all that often. Hence the reason for no snow in seven years.

Why did I know that it was seven years? Because that was all Fran had talked about last night during the workout.

How excited she was for it to snow.

Which was funny because she hated being cold.

If I asked her to run outside, the girl hated it because it meant that she would be cold.

Which was hilarious to listen to.

That, and even her whining voice was sexy as hell.

Maria’s had literally felt like claws raking against the inside of my skull.

I hadn’t been able to stand listening to her whine, and the bitch did it a lot.

I hadn’t realized how much she’d done it until we were officially divorced, and I realized that there was a direct correlation between the number of headaches that I got, and the amount of time I spent with Maria.

I stood at the windows that separated the outside from the inside of the gym on the off chance that Fran was crazy and would arrive.

When the clock struck thirty minutes after five, there still wasn’t a single soul in the building besides me and the cat.

“Well, looks like I get to go home after all, Rogue,” I said to the cat. This weather would keep everyone inside today.

The cat picked his head up from the seat of the nearest rower and yawned before dropping it back down to his front paws.

I rolled my eyes and waited some more, convinced that nobody was coming.

Thinking I could go ahead and get some work done, I cued up some music and started to go through a series of stretches as I thought about what muscle groups I wanted to hit today.

I winced when the lights flickered and idly wondered if I’d make it through the workout with lights and music, or if I would have to work out in the dark and silence.

Just as that thought hit me, a pair of headlights filled the front window.

I looked at the clock and groaned.

It was fifteen minutes after the start of class, and there was no way in hell that they should expect me to…

Fran’s cute little ass streaked past the window, and suddenly she was inside, standing in the entranceway, dripping.

I started to laugh at her tortured expression.

“Lose the shirt, girl,” I teased as I walked toward her. “Why are you here in the middle of a monsoon that’ll shortly turn into a winter storm?”

She groaned and threw the backpack that I’d given her down on the ground next to her, before stripping out of her shoes and t-shirt. “I promised myself I wouldn’t give myself any excuses. So, rain or not, I’m here.”

I held in my groan at the sight of her tanned skin that the t-shirt revealed.

She was wearing a bra that came about halfway down her ribcage, only showing off just a small sliver of her belly before her high-rise leggings took over.

I grinned at her.

She looked absolutely miserable.

“You have any shorts or anything to change into in that bag?” I wondered as I watched her shiver.

She shook her head. “I have another bra, but that’s not what’s wet.”

I thought about that for a moment. “I might have some in the office but they’re a little shorter than what I’m sure you wear.”

She blinked. “You just have those laying around?”

I snorted. “Actually, kind of. We placed an order for shirts from a screen-printing place, and they sent out some shorts as a ‘complimentary’ item. They’re actually pretty cool and all, but they’re short as fuck, and we were kind of hesitant to hand out shorts to members when there’s a high likelihood that nobody will wear them.”

She grinned. “Let’s see them.”

I went to the office and she followed me after giving Rogue a small pat.

When we arrived in the office, I started searching through the bins of shirts that we kept inside the office for when the ones that hung outside in the small ‘store’ we had set up sold out.

Finally finding them at the bottom of the pile, I handed them over to her.

She grinned when she saw the shorts.

They were black with white lettering on the ass that said “Madd CrossFit.”

“Why, exactly, did y’all name it Madd CrossFit when there are two of you that co-own it?” she wondered as she shook out the shorts.

“Because Madd CrossFit is actually a shortened version of it. And when we were doing the sign, it was expensive as fuck. It’s actually ‘Madd Taos CrossFit,’” I explained.

She grinned and turned around, heading to the bathroom.

The sight of her leggings, plastered tightly to her ass thanks to the wetness, made my dick hard, and I had to count to a hundred as I waited for her to get done.

She came back out long moments later in the shorts with her CrossFit shoes in her hand hanging by the heels, and I felt my tongue lodge somewhere in the back of my throat.

Goddamn, was she beautiful.

Like so freakin’ beautiful.

I swallowed hard and grinned. “They fit.”

The words sounded more like a croak, but if she noticed, she didn’t say anything.

“Are you working out today?” she asked.

I looked at the rain pouring down outside through my office windows that I’d yet to buy shades for.

“Wasn’t planning on it quite yet,” I admitted.

“Were yougoing to work out at all?” she wondered.

I shrugged my shoulders and a bright idea hit me.

“Let’s do a partner workout,” I suggested as I walked to the front door and flipped the lock. “I need to get a workout in before leaving anyway, and with it raining and cold outside, we’re not going to want to go out there for the actual workout.”

I should’ve changed the workout at the beginning of the week when I realized that the rain possibility was high, but if I did that, I would have to change every single workout from now on. The chances of the rain actually ruining the workout was slim to none. The poor weathermen rarely got it right.

“I guess I could…” She hesitated. “If it’s something I can do.”

I snorted. “You’re capable of doing almost everything. Even if we have to modify it slightly,” I admitted. “I don’t think I’ve ever had someone come in here with so much potential before.”

Her face flushed with excitement as she walked toward the bar.

“Well, I just have to say that I’m really good at sucking in.” She patted her belly. “And the invention of these shorts that are high-waisted do an excellent job at hiding all the imperfections. But, you’re right. I have potential. I notice that I do. But I think the driving factor in all of this is my dislike for your ex-wife.”

I couldn’t help it.

I burst out laughing.

The laughter built and built until I had to lean over to catch my breath.

When I finally got myself under control, I looked up to find her smiling and warming up on the rower.

The rower that Rogue was now glaring at her for kicking him off of.

“Uh-oh,” I teased. “You’ll never be his friend again.”

She shrugged. “I’ll live.”

I pulled a rower down beside her and got on. “Let’s go for five hundred meters.”

Then I explained what the workout would be.

Ten minutes later, we were five minutes into our workout and I was watching her do burpees.

The lights went out, but we continued to work out, even cycling back to the rower without problem. The only thing lighting our way was my phone that was now playing the music as well as hers that was face down with the light shining in the air.

I could hear her heavy breathing, and it was fucking turning me on.

Thank God that the lights were mostly out, and she couldn’t see my erect cock bouncing with each movement we performed.

“How many more minutes of this?” she gasped, the rower sounding around us.

I looked at my watch in between wall balls. “Five minutes.”

She cursed and I couldn’t help but smile at that.

We were halfway through the five-minute set when a pounding sounded at the front door.

Both of our attentions were caught, but neither one of us moved toward the sound.

Mostly because it was more than obvious who that person was.

Maria.

I would not, under any circumstances, go and see what she wanted.

I was working out.

It was half past when class was supposed to start.

And I didn’t fucking like her.

So that was exactly what I did.

Left her there to get rained on.

That might make me a callous man, but Maria was just not going to be something I dealt with this morning.

No matter if it was pissing freezing rain or not.

“I hate her,” Fran panted through labored breaths.

I chuckled and finally finished my set, heading to the rower with my phone as I said, “Switch.”

So we did, staying like that until she finished her set, too.

Then, when we were completely done, we collapsed next to each other.

Her head hit my thigh, and her sweaty arm landed precariously across my sweaty chest.

But neither one of us moved.

“That was awful,” she whispered. “I’ll move off of you in just a second. I can’t breathe.”

I snorted out a laugh, causing her arm that traveled up the length of my chest to slip slightly to the side. Only my large hand catching her small one kept it where it was.

I didn’t know why I did that.

Honestly, we were both really gross, me more so than her, and sweat was pouring off of me in waves because Madden insisted turning the heater on was the best move for our members—I disagreed. I felt like it was better to be too cold than too hot. But whatever.

Regardless of our states, I liked her exactly where she was.

If she’d move just slightly to the right with her head, my dick would practically be poking her in the face.

“Why do you think she showed up that late and expected someone to still be here?” she asked curiously.

If there was anything that would make the need go away that I was feeling, it was talking about my ex-wife.

“Honestly?” I asked. “Because she likes to make my life difficult. Showing up late would’ve made her the center of attention in the class. I would’ve had to acknowledge her, which I don’t do all that often.”

She hummed then stood so swiftly that I missed her almost before she was even gone.

“Do you want your water?” she asked as she moved toward our drinks.

“Yes,” I replied. Though, I would’ve rather had her stay where she’d been. Fuck being thirsty.

My eyes were glued to her ass as she moved toward the bottles, then on her tits that were practically spilling out of her sports bra when she made her way back.

She handed my water to me when she reached my side, and I reluctantly sat up, taking it from her.

I swallowed large gulps from my bottle before looking at her and realizing that her eyes were on me.

“What?” I asked, spilling the water slightly and feeling it run down the length of my chest.

She followed the length of the water, and then swallowed. “I was thinking we should probably turn off the lights to preserve the batteries since we’re probably not going to get power back anytime soon.”

She was right.

We were generally the last ones to get power since we were off the beaten path in the grand scheme of things.

Our town, though healthy and thriving, was also one of the smaller ones on the grid.

Fewer people equaled less urgency to get things rolling in the power department.

“Probably a smart thing to do,” I admitted. “But don’t you not do well in the dark?”

That had been why I’d turned on my phone instead of just leaving hers to light our way.

I knew that she had problems with the darkness, and I wanted to make it as comfortable for her as I could if I had the ability.

And I’d run out of phone battery all day long if it meant keeping her comfortable.

“Yes.” She paused. “Though, lately not with you.”

Something soared in my chest.

“Really?” I asked, feeling my throat rasp with the words.

She grinned and downed her bottle of water, getting up to throw the empty in the trash before coming back, with our phones this time, and watched as I turned my light off first before answering.

“I think that first time you helped me run outside in the dark, my mind associated you with nothing dangerous. As a protector more than a person I should be afraid of.” She paused. “I’ll tell you the why of the fear of darkness one of these days… just not today. Not in the dark.”

I grinned when she readjusted the shorts that she was wearing, which in turn made my cock hard. Again.