She laughed, but I could hear the embarrassed edge to it. "They were shaking so badly after just a few reps. I could hardly walk back to my seat after putting my chair in the back of my car."
Carefully, I watched her face as I asked my next question. "And you still wanted to work out more afterward?"
That had her eyes flashing.
Heart of a peacock feather blue.
"You think I can't handle more?"
I held up my hands. "I may not be the quickest guy in town, but I'm not stupid, Sonic. Telling you that you can't anything is the fastest route to getting my balls punched."
Her eyes lowered to the area of which I spoke, then narrowed thoughtfully, which made me want to cup myself just to be safe.
"Hey now, I wasn't giving out suggestions," I said, which made her eyes snap up and a smile stretch over her face. "I'm just wondering, is all. When I have a tough workout, the last thing I want to do is head back to the gym."
Joss swallowed and stared past me for a couple of seconds. Maybe it was the sudden rise in date feelings that had me overanalyzing everything, but it seemed like I saw her questioning what came out of her mouth more and more. Had she always done that? Or did I just not notice?
When she finally answered, her voice was quiet, and her eyes never met mine. "I needed to put the rest of this … energy somewhere."
I nodded slowly. It was easy enough for me to read between the lines. Something that made her feel strong. Something that would allow her to push against the barriers that she could flatten, not ones that would make her stagger back.
"I hear you."
Finally, finally, her eyes drifted over to mine. "You do?"
I leaned down and braced my hands on her armrests. Joss held her breath, her gaze flitting down the front of my body.
"Think you can do more pull-ups than me, Abernathy?"
Those eyes narrowed again. But the spark of challenge, oh man, it did beautiful things to her.
"In what world do you think I can't?"
I smirked, straightening to my full height.
"Can't you put a shirt on?" she snapped.
"I am capable of doing so, yes."
Did I move my hands to my hips on purpose?
Yes.
Did I flex my abs to see if she'd so much as move her eyes a single inch?
Hell yes. I wasn't stupid.
But Jocelyn Marie Abernathy was as stubborn as the day was long, so all she did was shake her head.
With a sigh, I dumped the messy blender into the sink and did a quick swipe of the countertops so that my mom wouldn't tan my hide when she got home.
"Good thing I came over."
"Yeah? Why's that?" I tossed the dirty towel into the sink next to the blender.
"Looks like you've been slacking on your abs. You might want to do some crunches while we're in there."
Slowly, I turned my head to glare at her, and she was already backing her chair up with a grin. She pivoted and turned toward the direction of the gym when I took off, grabbing the back of her chair and tipping her backward until her hair was almost touching the ground.
She shrieked, holding tight onto the arms of her chair as I held her captive. Her breaths came in helpless gulps between laughter. "Put me down, asshole."
Because I couldn't help myself, I held her there for another second before she lifted her fist in a warning.
"Not fair," I told her as I set her to rights.
Joss smacked me in the stomach before she pushed forward. "Life isn't fair, Buchanan. Get over it."
I watched her turn the corner before I dropped my face into my hands with a groan.
"Get over it, she says," I muttered.
Yeah, because it was that easy.
Chapter 11 Jocelyn
It didn't take long until I was convinced that somewhere inside my body, a writhing, pulsing mess of hormones had been uncapped. Whatever thing caused a person to start noticing things they'd never noticed before was officially unleashed.
Just as he always did, Levi held my feet steady while I did crunches, then Russian twists until my core muscles were shaking. He used only one hand while the other scrolled through his Instagram feed.
Every time I levered my upper body back up, I caught myself noticing the vein that twisted around the top of his forearm and over the generous curve of his bicep. After the smoothie incident, he'd decided to forgo a shirt, and I felt … weird about it.
Because I didn't usually spend much time cataloging muscles. On anyone.
Levi wasn't covered in bulky, gym rat muscles.
Everything was tight and wiry and densely packed, stretched like a snare drum and as precise as the stick hitting the surface.
And when did his six-pack become so … perfectly defined? Each compact square underneath his skin had neat lines delineating them. There was a V exactly where a V should be on a man.
Because of course there was.
As I grunted through another twist, I damn well knew I didn't have the same cut of muscle on my own midsection. I could probably do a thousand stupid twists every day, and I wouldn't be able to replicate it.
I had abs, faint, toned ones that absolutely no one saw because I wasn't exactly rolling down Main Street in a bikini.
"You should start one of these," he said, giving me quick glance.
"Start one what?"
He turned his phone screen to face me, and I caught a quick glimpse of one of the fitness accounts he followed.
I blew a raspberry as I heaved myself back up and twisted my clasped hands back and forth. "No, thank you."
"Why not? You're like, inspirational and shit."
My back hit the floor with a thud when I started chuckling. "Thanks."
"Done?" he asked.
When I nodded, he let
