“Hi!” She smiled. “How may I help you?”
“I lost my—”
“Hey, Nan. Do you happen to have—”
Ulric knew that rumbling voice. His heart sank as he looked up, meeting the eyes of the last person he wanted to see.
Mr. Handsome raked his gaze down Ulric’s front—head, shoulders, chest—sending tingles through Ulric’s skin. And he straightened, standing taller. Like he needed to.
Ulric gritted his teeth. He didn’t care that he would lose in every kind of competition to that guy. He wasn’t going to show any damn weakness in front of Mr. Handsome.
“You first,” Handsome said.
Ulric narrowed his eyes. “No, you first.”
“Ah, but you’re a guest.” Handsome waved Ulric toward the receptionist. “Go ahead and help him, Nan.”
And let him discover Ulric’s fuck-up? “No, it’s fine. I’ll be back later.”
He turned, striding for the exit. Ulric was about to open the door when someone grabbed his arm. A warm, firm touch.
Ulric almost swung a punch at him.
“If you want a fight, I’ll give you a fight,” Handsome growled, his voice raking all the way down Ulric’s spine. “Give me a time and place.”
Up close, they weren’t so different in height. About the same, although Handsome was maybe a few years older than Ulric’s twenty-seven. And Ulric smelled fresh sweat on him, along with pine and a trace of musk. Had he jerked off during work? What did his cock look like?
Ulric shoved that thought out of his mind. He didn’t need to know. “Fuck off.”
“I saw the way you looked at me,” Handsome murmured, his voice sliding into Ulric’s ears like silk. “Fight me. In bed.”
Ulric’s hole squeezed. Fuck, fuck. He would lose to this man. And it would be glorious. And humiliating. And maybe Ulric wanted to know what that would feel like.
Handsome huffed triumphantly. “Your place.”
Desire and wariness twisted through Ulric’s veins. If he let Mr. Handsome anywhere close to his body... he would get laughed out of his own bed. “No.”
Not just that—maybe this was just a huge joke. Like the time in high school when a pretty alpha had asked Ulric to close his eyes, and instead of kissing him, the boy had slipped away. And Ulric had sat there for a good ten minutes, just waiting.
He should just retrieve his phone and get the hell out of here. He’d drop this gym crap and find some other way to lose weight.
Ulric shook off Handsome’s grip and stalked to the reception desk. “I lost my phone earlier. Do you know if it’s here?”
“Yeah, someone reported a lost phone,” Handsome drawled behind him.
Ulric bit down his snarl. He didn’t need to be strung along again, and told he wasn’t someone else’s type. “Fuck off,” he hissed.
Nan looked curiously between them, before focusing on Ulric. “I’ll need to see your driver’s license,” she said.
Ulric handed it over, feeling the weight of Handsome’s stare. Then, before Nan could take the card away, Handsome leaned closer and rumbled, “You’re from New York. Ulric, huh?”
The way he said Ulric’s name—no one had growled it all low and seductive before. Ulric’s heart skipped several beats.
He really needed to leave this place. Before he went and developed a crush on that bastard, and Handsome shattered Ulric’s heart.
Handsome met his eyes. He was standing so close that Ulric felt the heat rolling off his skin. For a moment, Ulric dreamed about a relationship where he could be happy. Where someone accepted him for who he was.
“I’ll need you to describe your phone, Mr. O’Neil,” Nan said, breaking that perfect image.
Ulric sighed and told her. “I’ll even tell you the passcode and everything.”
Nan looked thoughtful, but she took Ulric’s phone out of a drawer. Ulric’s anxiety eased a little. “We don’t usually require you to unlock the phone as proof,” Nan said.
“That’s fine. I’ll tell you anyway.” Ulric recited the passcode, waiting for Nan to tap it in. The phone unlocked to display his home screen—with about twenty bright yellow cartoon ducks filling up the background.
“Oh, those are cute,” Handsome said.
Ulric didn’t know if he should feel offended; his face heated up anyway. “They’re just ducks,” he muttered.
“Better than dicks.” Handsome grinned. “That would be awkward.”
Ulric dragged his eyes away from that man. He needed to leave this place and never return. But if he wasn’t going to return... maybe he could fuck up a bit more. “I don’t even know your name.”
Surprise flickered through Handsome’s gaze. Then a slow grin spread across his lips. “Gage Frost,” he said, extending his hand. “I’m a personal trainer here. Feel free to schedule an appointment with me. We’ll sort out all your physical needs.”
Fuck. Ulric’s blood swooped south. He shoved his phone into his pocket, staring at Gage’s hand. He shouldn’t touch it. The less he felt of this alpha, the sooner he’d forget him.
But Gage’s hand looked strong. Sturdy. And Ulric had been wishing he’d taken Gage’s proffered hand earlier this morning. Just for a bit of touch to tide him through to his next lay.
What the hell, he told himself. It’s just a handshake.
He took Gage’s hand. Gage gripped him firmly, his fingers callused, his warmth soaking into Ulric’s skin. Ulric tingled all over. What would Gage’s touch feel like, further down?
Ulric suppressed all his thoughts, snatching his hand away. “Thanks,” he muttered. “I’ll keep that in mind.”
He left the gym feeling like a coward. Gage hadn’t laughed at him, but... maybe he was doing it in secret. The handsome ones always did.
Ulric sighed, climbing back into his car. When he got home, he was going to start work—data analysis felt like such a safe place, away from all the tricky social interactions. Ulric sucked with relationships.
And so he was certainly never returning to that gym, even though he’d paid for a full year’s membership there.
A month later, he went back.
It had been a moment of weakness. Ulric had been flipping through the dating apps on his phone, and after much consideration, he’d put up new photos as his profile picture.
