Whipped (Hitched #2)(43)

She ribs me the rest of the day and I attempt to take it in stride. But as I grab my purse and my—gulp—gym bag, and get ready to leave, I'm suddenly nervous. What if I make an ass out of myself? Is this really the best way to kick off the 'I love you' phase of our relationship? Me next to all those hot, sexy, female gym rats who probably live to work out?

Oh God, what have I done?

***

When I arrive at Lach's gym, my nerves are anything but assuaged. It looks hardcore. The kind of gym you go to when you are f*cking serious about working out. This is not the gym for newbies like me. Not at all.

But he's expecting me, so I put on my big girl panties and enter.

I'm immediately confronted by the smell of sweat and deodorant, and I remember why I eventually canceled my unused gym membership.

I check in at the front desk and give the teen behind the counter the day pass Lach gave me. "I'm a guest," I inform him, redundantly.

He nods. "Sure thing. I'm required to give you a tour of the facility and take down your information before you work out."

I groan. "Seriously? I'm just here to work out with my boyfriend. I don't want a tour."

He shrugs. "Sorry. It's the rules."

And I'm sure this kid has never broken any rule in his life. Yeah, right.

Warm hands reach around me from behind and pull me against a hard chest. Lachlan leans in to kiss my neck. "Hey, babe. Thought you'd bailed on me."

I twist in his arms to face him. "Never. But I gotta say, I'm not impressed. I don't want a sales pitch."

He looks up at the kid behind the counter. "Jimmy, she's with me. If Nick has a problem, have him call me."

I turn my head to smile at the guy. "Yeah, Jimmy. I'm with him."

Jimmy nods. "Sure thing, Mr. Pierce. I'm sure there won't be a problem, though."

Lachlan leads me by hand through the gym of sweaty people doing sweaty things. "I guess your celebrity status pays off," I say.

"All the time." He stops in front of the women's changing room. "I'll meet you out here and we can get started."

Fast-forward thirty minutes later and let's just say that there's a reason I don't dance on stage for hours every night. I'm a wuss with zero stamina. Everything hurts. I'm covered in sweat and am the least sexy I've ever been in my life. I'd better have a six-pack and thighs of f*cking steel by morning or I'm suing.

Lachlan is telling me to do another set of pushups. I flip him off. "I'm done. I won't be able to walk tomorrow and that sacrifice will be for all the wrong reasons."

He laughs. "It can't be that bad. I went easy on you."

"Easy? You've killed every muscle in my body. Twice." Fucking reps.

"You have to break muscles down to build them up," he explains for the umpteenth time.

"That's the most f*cked up logic I've ever heard. That's not true anywhere else in the known universe, so I'm skeptical it's true here. I think this is one big scam to steal money and sweat from people."

His mouth twitches. "You think gyms are trying to steal sweat?"

I wipe a drop of sweat from my forehead and nod. "Probably the government has found a secret way of powering the world with sweat, and the gyms are secret high-paid distributors of said sweat. It's all a big conspiracy, and I'm not playing into it. No sir!"

Lachlan is laughing hard now. "Oh God, Vi. I love you so much." He leans over and kisses me and all I taste is salt.

"I love you, too, but you're going to need to find a new workout partner. I can't do this."

He reaches for my hand and helps me off the mat. "There's one thing here I think you'll enjoy."

I follow him reluctantly. "If it involves flexing any muscles of any kind for any duration, then no, I won't."

He chuckles. "It doesn't."

Ten minutes later we're soaking in a hot tub and I'm leaning against his chest, his arms around me, a big smile on my face. "Okay, this is my kind of workout."

He kisses my sweaty head. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure," I say, enjoying the feel of the heat penetrating my sore and tired muscles.

"Now that I've decided to stay despite losing my funding, I need to rethink my plans for the youth center, but I'm having a hard time. I've had such a particular vision in my head for so long, I can't imagine anything else."

I stroke his arm as I think about it. "It makes sense that it's hard to shift gears. Why not start from the basics? What do you, at the core, want out of this venture? What are you trying to accomplish?"

He's silent for a moment before speaking. "I want kids in this area to have a safe place to come after-school to study, learn, and dance. I want to teach those who are interested how to take their dance to the next level so they have a way out of their lives, should they need one."

"That's good," she says. "So what do you absolutely need to make that happen? Not what you want or think would be cool. But what do you really need?"

"A space. Primarily we need a space for the kids to come, for dance lessons to happen, for studying and after-school classes to take place. And I'd need at least a few people other than myself there to help run it and teach."