Matthew (BBW Country Music Bear Shifter Romance) (Bearly Saints Book 1) (59 page)

Up in the gym, the place was busy. Lots of people bustled around, going from machine to machine. I was pleased to note that lots of different types used this gym. There was nothing worse than being the only normal person in a gym full of athletes and models.

I watched a balding man step off the treadmill. I ran over to snatch the open machine, putting my water bottle in the little holster. I stepped up on the thing and in moments I was speedily walking at an incline. 

“Do it! Lift it!” a man said loudly from the free weight area.

The man next to him was beet red, lifting a bar full of weight up off the ground. With a loud grunt he heaved and stood erect, then lowered the weight down. He breathed in heavily and walked around in a little circle.

I put my earphones in and fired up the 90’s dance playlist I’d spent way too long putting together. A Cher remix came on and I was in the zone. One song led into the next, and I was just putting one foot in front of the other. My thighs protested, my thick ass whined but I paid them no mind. Before I knew it, tiny droplets of sweat were forming on my brow and cascading down the sides of my face. The soreness abated, replaced by a feeling of power. My body hadn’t moved like this in a very long time, but it was remembering.

I looked out the large windows onto the avenue below, the street lamps casting a soft glow over the people walking between shops. Directly across from the gym, in what might seem like a cruel twist of fate, was an ice cream shop. We’re not talking about the icy and sugar crap slung in forty-nine flavors or whatever. This was the super premium stuff. It would melt on your tongue like a velvety blanket of heroin, filling your brain with “all the feels” as the kids say these days.

I watched the people going in and out of that place. I realized something strange: I didn’t envy them. I didn’t want to join them. I kind of felt bad for them, because they weren’t sweating right now. 

Then, to my surprise, the ice cream shop emptied and they turned off the lights. How strange for them to close to early. I glanced down at the readout of the treadmill for the first time since I stepped on it.

I almost tripped when I saw the number. A hundred and fifty minutes. Great, I thought, I chose a broken one. I looked around the gym and saw that very few people remained. I tapped the screen of my phone to turn it on. It was past 10PM, closing time for the gym.

“Hey there,” a voice said from behind me. 

I turned and was looking at a tall bleach blonde guy with very wide shoulders and golden eyes. “Hey yourself,” I said, grabbing my water bottle and bringing it to my lips. It was empty. Damn.

“My name’s Frank, I’m one of the trainers here. I saw you were really working it, and I didn’t want to interrupt you, but it’s closing time,” he said. 

“You were watching me work it?” I said casually. Where was this coming from?

“Umm,” he said, his eyes going wide. “Not like that. I mean, we get people in here that work hard. But you’re something else,” he said.

I was pretending to look up at the clock on the wall. I could feel his eyes roam over my body, taking in my curves through the soaked fabric of my t-shirt and yoga pants. “And what if I’d just kept going?”

“I don’t know. I guess it would’ve been a late night,” he said, grinning. 

“Well, my name’s Olivia, and I was just wrapping up,” I said. I hit the stop button on the treadmill and stepped off. 

“Be care-“ he said.

I took a step, and my quadricep seized up. “Eeeek!” I cried as the worst charlie horse I’d ever felt rippled through my right leg.

“Here,” Frank said, ducking under my arm and grabbing my waist to help me walk over to a bench.

As soon as I took another step, my other leg seized up. I threw my other arm around his neck and hung on for dear life, my legs hanging uselessly under me.

“Ok,” he said. “New plan.” Without hesitation, he dipped low for a second and his arms went under me.

“No, don’t hurt yourself!” I pleaded. Then I was weightless. I was floating. In this man’s arms. Like a new bride being carried over the hearth in those old stories, he walked me over to the nearest bench.

“Now just relax,” he said as he gently placed me down. “You’re fine, but you could seriously injure yourself if we don’t relax this muscle.”

“I’m fine. I just need a few seconds,” I said, gritting my teeth through the pain. After a decade of being a couch potato, I speed walked at an incline for two and a half hours. Stupid! “Besides, you have to close up.”

“A few more minutes won’t kill me,” he said. “I’m a licensed kinesiologist, and I’d like to do a simple massage to each leg to restore blood flow. Is that ok with you?”

“Yes!” I said, my facade melting. I just wanted the cramping to stop.

“How long have you been a member here, Olivia?” he said, placing his hands on my knees.

“Is it still 2015?” I asked. His hands on my thighs sent a thrill through me. I couldn’t remember the last time a man had touched me that way. 

“Yes, it’s still 2015,” he said. His hands looked still but his fingertips were alternating pressure, like stroking the keys of a piano.

“Then one day,” I said, leaning back and closing my eyes.

“Are you always such a smart ass?” he said.his fingertips slowly moving their way up my thighs.

“My turn,” I said.

“What?” Frank said.

“You asked me a question. Now it’s my turn to ask you one,” I said. “That’s how this works.”

“I see. I didn’t know there were rules to conversation,” he said. His fingertips were right above my knees, and they began probing my supple flesh.

“So, are you a…bear?” I said. I don’t know what was giving me the courage to ask this, unless I’d filled my water bottle with vodka. In my defense, he was practically feeling me up, so a few questions were fair game.

“Yeah, I’m a bear Shifter,” Frank said. “We’re mostly bear Shifters on staff here. It tends to make a more conducive work environment.”

“Oh?” I said.

“Don’t get me wrong,” he said, his fingers giving a deep tissue massage to my outer thigh. “Being good people is more important than anything else. There are extra considerations when you’re a Shifter, though. Wolf Shifters, for instance, tend to be more pack oriented.”

“Ahh,” I said, my breath starting to speed up. His fingertips were working their magic, leaving calmed muscles in their wake. His large presence felt safe and very masculine, awakening another long dormant emotion inside me. I leaned back even more, letting my arms fall to the side. My breasts stuck out, my nipples growing hard through the damp fabric.

“It’s like,” he said, his fingertips pausing for a moment, “You ever have co-workers who always wanted to go out for drinks after work? Always trying to get big groups together? A lot of wolf Shifters are like that,” he said, his fingertips going back to work across the top of my thighs. “And that’s fine, but sometimes you just need some alone time, you know?”

“Mmmm,” I said, totally engrossed in the feeling of his hands. My slit felt like it was getting wet, but it might have just been the sweat. “What would the wolf Shifters say about you?”

He laughed loudly, a deep mirthful rumble. “They call us Momma Bears. Protective and easily attached to others,” he said, shrugging. “Honestly it’s all bullshit. You’ll have good people and bad people. Doesn’t matter if they’re human or Shifter.” His fingertips were higher now, working the inside of my thighs. 

I let my legs fall open, giving him better access to work with. I could feel my pussy lips pull apart, pressing against the tight damp fabric of the yoga pants. I knew I was giving him an anatomy lesson down there, but I didn’t care. His fingers stopped.

I opened my eyes in time to see him stand and turn around. The impression of a long hard cock snaked down one leg of his gym shorts. 

“Ok, you should be good now. I’ve got to go round up the towels,” he said, walking away from me.

“Thank you,” I said. Watching his chiseled calves flex as he walked away, I longed for him to come back. To put his strong hands back on my body.

“Come on Olivia,” I whispered. “You’ve got no shot.” That was the sad, sad truth. These guys were in peak physical condition, and all day they were surrounded by people who’d been going to the gym a lot longer than me. He was a good samaritan and my horniness made nothing seem like something.

I got to my feet, relieved to find that my legs could now support my weight. I bent my knees, testing my luck here rather than on the steel staircase that awaited me. No worries, my muscles were all on board now. He knew what he was doing, and not just how to turn me on.

I headed to the exit, pushing the glass door open and descending the stairs. Outside, a stiff breeze blew and I wrapped my arms around myself to ward off the chill. A block and a half away, I went to pull out my phone to check the temperature.

Shit, I didn’t have it. I’d left it back on the machine. A sense of panic crept over me, and I headed back to the gym. If there was one thing I hated, it was losing my phone. Having to go back to the wireless store, getting all my contacts put over to a new phone. It was the worst.

My climb back up those stairs was harder than the descent, and when I got to the top, most of the lights were off in the gym. Damn. I guess I’d have to get my phone in the morning before work. I turned to head back down the stairs.

I froze. Why was the building entrance unlocked, then? I turned back and walked to the glass doors. Obviously they were closed, and I didn’t want to impose or do anything I wasn’t supposed to do, but this was pretty much an emergency. I’d be right in and out without anyone the wiser.

I pushed against the door and it swung inward. I heard noise coming from the men’s locker room, but I quickly darted to the treadmills. I grabbed my phone off the treadmill and headed back to the entrance.

A voice rang out loudly from the locker room. “Dude, no way is she into you! You just met her!” I couldn’t be sure, but it sounded like Mark.

“I’m telling you, there was something there. You should’ve seen her. All splayed open for me,” the other voice said. That was definitely Frank.

I wish I could say that I was enough of an adult to honor the privacy of that conversation, that I blocked it out and headed out the door on my merry way. But let’s be real. Instead I made my way over to the locker room entrance and listened. 

“I’m sorry to have to tell you, but I saw her first,” Mark said.

“Fuck off, dude,” Frank said, laughing. “I practically got to second base. You’re still in the bleachers.”

“Well, it’s still a great view even from the bleachers. She’s got that sassy side,” Mark said.

Hearing them talk about me like that, I couldn’t take any more. My whole body ached, but my mind was fixated on these two men and the opportunity in front of me. I grabbed one of the clean towels outside the locker room. I stripped off my gym clothes and wrapped the towel around myself.

Then I walked into the men’s locker room. My mind was reeling, every hesitation trying to stop me, trying to make me turn around. It tried telling I was just going to embarrass myself. It tried telling me that I didn’t have a shot with these guys. I didn’t listen.

Both men were sitting on benches, peeling off their sweaty t-shirts. They froze when they saw me. Two sets of jaws dropped.

“I read that showering right after a workout is good for the soul,” I said as I walked between the two sitting men towards the showers.

“Umm, hi Olivia!” Mark said. “The women’s locker room is right next door.” His voice was a mix of husky lust and confusion.

“No, you said they were co-ed,” I said. I let the towel drop and sauntered into the shower. I knew I had two pairs of eyes glued to my ass. “But I might need some help in here,” I said, turning on the shower.

I’d never seen such fast undressing. Like a Vegas stage show, their clothes vanished in the blink of an eye. I was delighted to see both men had plenty to work with downstairs. A girl could be greedy.

“Were you spying on us?” Frank said, pressing himself against my back. His hands rested on my hips.

“Oh, I wouldn’t call it spying,” I said, my arms going up around Mark’s neck as he stepped in front of me. His manhood swung between his legs, his balls relaxing and hanging lower in the hot humid shower.

“Oh, she was spying alright,” Mark said. “I’d say she’s practically an intruder,” he said, his hands caressing my cheeks. His voice was like a growl, his golden eyes locked onto mine like cornered prey. Like a prize within his grasp.

Even with the hot water pouring down on us, his fingertips left trails of fire behind them. I pulled his head down towards mine and kissed him hard. He grabbed the back of my head, holding it in place so our tongues could wrap around each other.

I felt Frank’s mouth on my shoulder, kissing his way up my neck until he got to my ear. He took my earlobe in his mouth, his teeth nibbling on it softly. His hand left my hip and went lower, squeezing my ass in desperate need of relief. “Olivia, you’re so gorgeous.”

His words drove me wild. I moaned into Mark’s mouth, our tongues still wrestling in the battlefield between our joined lips. My hands grabbed Mark’s chest as I groped his magnificent rock hard chest. His skin was taut and stretched over the muscle like canvas over a frame. I grabbed his nipples and tweaked them.