Page 13 of Jacked
“Not that it’s a big deal,” he hurries to say.
“Right, it’s not a big deal.” I bob my head and then chug down the rest of my shake, hoping it will douse this jittery feeling in my stomach. “I should…” I stand up and point over my shoulder towards my room.
“Right. You coming by for training this afternoon again?”
I hesitate. If they already think we’re, like, boyfriends or whatever, maybe it’s better if I find a different gym? Just so things won’t be weird. I immediately hate that idea though. Andbesides, like he said, it’s not a big deal. We’renotgay, so who cares? We’re just two guys working out together.
“Yeah, I’ll be there,” I say, and AJ looks relieved.
He pulls back to a neutral expression quickly and gives me a quick up-nod. “Cool.”
“Cool.”
I head down the hall to my bedroom to get dressed for work, and the more I think about it, the more laughable the whole thing is. Me, gay?
If I were, I think I would have realized it a hell of a lot sooner than thirty years old. What kind of idiot could miss a thing like that?
Plus, chicks are soft and pretty and they smell great. And boobs. I mean,come on.
Yup, I’m definitely straight.
CHAPTER SIX
AJ
“I am so fuckingover this heat,” Slater groans, grabbing the collar of his shirt behind his neck and tugging it up over his head.
His muscles are bulging and his skin is glistening with sweat after the hard workout I just put him through. It’s only been ten days of training him, but I feel like I can already see some extra bulk on him in the right places.
He gets a few lingering glances and straight-up wolf whistles as we pass the bar below our apartment. If the attention from guys on the street makes his insides hot and squirmy like it does mine, he doesn’t show it. That smile that never seems to leave his face just gets wider, and I swear he puffs up his chest and adds a little extra swagger to his step before we round the corner.
“You never feel weird getting attention from dudes like that?” I ask in a low voice, fishing my keys out of my pocket.
“Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how picky most gay guys are?” He uses his wadded-up tank to dab the sweat off hisface and keeps his arm up to block the sun from his eyes while he waits for me to unlock the door.
Maybe I should point out that the brim on his hat was designed to do exactly that? He really rocks the backward cap look though, so I’m not going to mess with that.
He has a point about the heat. I never thought the heatwave would last this long, and goddamn am I ready for it to end. I can barely remember what it feels like tonotbe damp. I yank the door open and Slater shoves past me with a booming laugh, body checking me with all of his sweaty, bare skin.
“Last one up is in charge of dinner,” he shouts, taking the stairs two at a time, his gym bag bouncing against his shoulder and his ass flexing in his tight shorts with every stride.
I shake my head and chuckle. Normally, I can’t resist a challenge, but no way am I risking leaving him in charge of dinner. He wasn’t kidding when he said he can’t cook. French vanilla creamer in scrambled eggs isn’t even the worst of his food sins this week. He tried to make ramen on the stove yesterday using soy sauce instead of water to cook the noodles. It managed to be both completely uncookedandburned, and so salty I actually ended up Googling “how much salt can kill you?”
I jog up the steps after him, setting aside my ego and happily letting him beat me by a mile. By the time I get there, he’s already inside, leaving the door open for me. He drops his bag right in the entryway, kicks his shoes off, and drops his shirt on the floor next to them. We get along great and I really like living with him, but I can see why he might have had trouble with his last girlfriend. I nudge his shit off to the side with my foot and toe off my own shoes.
Slater flops down on the couch and makes himself comfortable, splaying his legs wide and slouching with a tired groan. I don’t know if it’s because of the heat or if he’s just the type of dude who prefers to wear as little as possible, but I’vedefinitely gotten used to the sight of him shirtless around the apartment, and sometimes even out in public. I keep noticing the weirdest shit though, like how light the sparse hair on his chest is and the way his abs tighten when he laughs.
Maybe these temperatures are making me delirious, or maybe it’s this stupid “no jerking off” thing I’ve been sticking to. Can cum backup scramble your brain? Because it kind of feels like it can. I don’t even want to think about some of the strange shit that’s run through my head this week. Like two days ago when Slater got sauce on his hand and licked it off. For a hot second I actually wondered what it would feel like to have a dude’s tongue on my nipples. What the fuck, right?
I shake my head to clear that train of thought. Slater shamelessly shoves his hand down his shorts to scratch his balls, and I snort a laugh.
“Do you have to do that in the living room?”
He rolls his eyes. “I’m scratching my balls, not jerking off.”
He pulls his hand out of his shorts and flips me off. I force out a laugh, but a hot feeling squirms through me at the same time. Yeah, I definitely need to end my No Nut Challenge tonight before my thoughts get even more fucking weird. I should not be picturing him jerking off right there on the couch just because he made a dumb-ass joke.
I clear my throat and turn towards the kitchen.
