Page 19 of Weston & Cyrus (Beautiful Shame #6)

Cyrus

Friend and Buddy Weston might’ve tried to walk in the door, but I’d been planning on Boyfriend Weston being the one to stay for a while.

Sub Weston would’ve worked too but we needed a bit more privacy for that to be a good idea.

The Weston I had currently, though, scrunched up his face and nearly stomped his foot. “You can’t say that around here.”

“Bullshit.” It was my business; of course I could. “Owner. Boyfriend. Dom.”

I laughed as he peeked one eye open like he knew what I’d meant. “Owner of the business.”

Slut.

His cheeks heated as he opened his eyes and grumbled under his breath, probably calling me names. “What? I didn’t hear that. Were you asking about our plans later?”

Utter silence.

He was definitely still calling me names in his head, but he quickly realized saying them out loud would not be a good idea. “Yes. I.”

Pausing, he swallowed and tried again as he smoothed out his face, looking a bit like he was in a business meeting. “I just realized we’d left that kind of open, but we can come back to that point after we work out.”

Now seemed like a more enjoyable plan to me, but he glanced around and straightened before taking a step back. “I…yes…work out first and then we’ll…we’ll talk.”

Was that something I should push back on?

Was he thinking about that whole naked-working-out fantasy?

As I wondered what he was thinking versus what I should actually do, he inched back again. “How was work today?”

It was like I could see walls mentally going up, and it made me wonder what the fuck was going through his head.

“Good. It was busy first thing this morning when we were texting, but it’ll pick up again as more people get off work.

” The middle of the day was generally quiet since we didn’t have a lot of the traditional mom crowd who went to other gyms during that time.

He knew that already, but it seemed like we were basically talking about the weather.

“Nico’s in the back getting paperwork done and he’ll come out on the floor later. ”

We traded off doing terrible jobs and I’d spent a stupid amount of the afternoon answering questions from my accountant.

Nodding slowly, Weston looked like he was working to get his brain functioning again or maybe simply going in a different direction. “I didn’t really look around to see who was working.”

Too distracted?

Was I not supposed to tease him about that while we were at the gym?

Did he realize he was sending mixed signals?

He kept backing up and looking like we’d just met, but he was also licking his lips and stealing glances like he was picturing dirty shit.

“No competitions right now means everyone’s slacking off a bit.” Which was good sometimes because it gave me a chance to get caught up on the boring shit. “It’ll pick up next month and then it’ll be nothing but complaints about how they shouldn’t have slacked off.”

It was a cycle I’d been glad to jump out of since I wasn’t doing competitions any longer.

I thoroughly enjoyed lecturing other people about their bad habits and loved takeout with Weston. He certainly didn’t seem to mind the lack of a competition physique if I was judging by the way he’d worshipped my chest over the weekend.

Hmm.

Subtly tightening my chest and making my pecs jump, I kept up the neutral expression and boring conversation. “Depending on how busy we get, I was thinking about hiring a part-timer to give me more flexibility in the busy season.”

Especially now that I had a reason to make sure I had some fucking work-life balance.

Weston blinked like the conversation we were having didn’t match the one going through his head. He did that when work was frustrating him sometimes, but I didn’t think he was obsessing over paperwork at the moment. “That sounds like a good idea if you can swing it.”

Nodding, I inched closer again to invade his personal space. “We’ve been doing great with the baseline membership numbers staying stable, so I think it’s a good idea, but we’re crunching the numbers just in case.”

I would freely admit to numbers not being my thing unless they related to fitness or food, but Nico was better, and running the different scenarios was one of the things he was working on.

“I’ve got a few people I’m looking at, so it won’t be hard to get them up to speed when we’re ready to pull the trigger on it. ”

People came in to ask about that kind of stuff on a regular basis because it made a great second job. I just hadn’t seen a need for it before, but if I wanted to make sure I had time for Weston every weekend, more planning was necessary.

“That sounds great.” Blinking, he let out a soft sigh before standing straighter again. “I didn’t realize how much time you took off over the weekend until Monday when I…well…when I had time to think.”

When his head had cleared and he’d started gathering up all the things he was supposed to overthink about.

“The timing worked out pretty good.” I’d had a couple of cancellations, and Nico had taken up the slack since his last girlfriend had decided to move to Mars or somewhere like that to be an English teacher.

Standing a bit too straight like he was trying not to wiggle or grab me, Weston nodded and pressed his hands against his thighs. “That’s great. It…it was nice having you around the whole time.”

To dominate him?

To be able to fuck with him?

To help him relax?

To go out for dinner?

He was technically talking but it felt like he wasn’t actually saying anything. We really should’ve had more logical conversations, but it was only obvious when we had awkward moments like our current level of weirdness.

If it was a scene, I’d have taken charge but Weston had always said he didn’t want a lifestyle partner. He’d stopped dating one guy around the time we’d first met because he said the guy had been trying to put too many rules in place outside of sexy times.

“I had fun too and I was thinking we’d do something similar for this weekend?” I was flexible about the club but I wanted to be with him and have control the rest of the time. “Same kind of plan?”

He was quiet for a few seconds before coming back to life and nodding. “Sure. Um. Starting Friday?”

Was that a yes to the club or a no?

“I’m open.” Because I didn’t have enough information to make a good decision one way or the other. “We’ll figure it out.”

When we had privacy?

When we found where our ability to function as humans had wandered off to?

“Okay.” Looking relieved enough that I decided not to ask my questions or fuck with him at the moment, he seemed to forget how close I was to him as he blinked and looked around with a confused expression on his face. “What are we working on today? I don’t remember.”

Because he never remembered.

Weston was the kind of gym guy who’d run on the treadmill for a while and do the same handful of machines every time and then call it a good workout. “We’re starting with the chest.”

Because it was his favorite body part on me and himself.

I’d caught him checking himself out in the mirror more than a few times, not that he seemed to realize that. Weston was either oblivious or thought he was being subtle about a lot of things.

Ugh.

We were definitely going to have some long conversations.

Later.

After I’d had a chance to watch him strain and grunt like I was fucking him hard.

Yep, working out with him had always been fun and he seemed to have missed that too.

****

“I think.” He frowned, stretching his arms wide as he glared at me. “I think you went harder on me today than you usually do.”

Holding back a teasing comment I wasn’t sure was appropriate in the moment, I shrugged as I wiped sweat off my face with my towel. “I don’t think so.”

Not enough for him to be positive about it since he never kept track of the weight or reps he was supposed to be doing. But I refused to point that out as I threw my towel over my shoulder.

“Go get cleaned up and I’ll take you out to dinner.” It wasn’t technically phrased as a date but I could shift gears once we were out of the gym.

Hopefully.

I thought he’d appreciate me not fucking with him, but his frown got deeper. “What kind of dinner?”

Lord.

It was my turn to glare as I crossed my arms over my chest. “You came in clearly trying to make sure I kept things businesslike and I did, but now you’re poking at it?”

He had the smarts to simmer down and blush slightly, but it took him a few seconds to figure out how to respond. “I might’ve been sending mixed signals and I should probably apologize for that.”

It was a start.

“You don’t have to apologize for wanting to keep our time here professional.” God only knew we didn’t need to get caught doing anything too interesting. “But I need a bit more communication to let me know what to expect.”

I wasn’t even sure I could tell anyone we were dating.

He couldn’t seem to decide how to respond and sighed a few times before he gave in. “You’re right.”

It was painful but I wasn’t going to deny it.

“I know.” That had sexy frustration flashing in his eyes, but he held back whatever he was imagining doing to me. “I also know this is new and we need to work on talking more. I also need to figure out when I can push you and when you don’t want me to.”

Because that was clear as mud.

That earned me another big sigh but he managed not to roll his eyes. “I’ve never had to figure that out but it’s a reasonable point.”

“I know.” If he thought I wasn’t going to point that out, he was crazy. I was going to enjoy being right while I was on a roll. “So we’ll start working on that at dinner?”

Frowning still, he cocked his head. “No.”

It was thoughtful more than argumentative and not a safeword, so I waited to see what he would do next.

“I think…I think we need to start now?” Not looking quite as confident as he was aiming for, he faked it by standing straighter again. “I think we need to start now.”

His brain was a wonderfully curious place.

“Where would you like to start?” I wasn’t even going to begin to guess.

His sigh said that had been a good decision on my part. “Um, I shouldn’t have shut you down when you texted me at lunch. I realized at the time that you were trying to get me to talk about what I was comfortable with and I kept playing dumb.”

Wessie did that really poorly most of the time, so it hadn’t been hard to read between the lines. “If you’re not ready for a conversation, that’s okay.”

Most of the time.

“But you need to know when you can push and when you can’t.” Closing his eyes, he took a breath before opening them and stepping closer to me. He wasn’t quite touching but he’d very deliberately put himself in my bubble. “I’m sorry.”

“I’m sorry for not asking more questions and for not getting clearer limits from you about this kind of stuff.” I wasn’t going to tell Conner we’d skipped a few steps unless I had to. “But we’re going to work on it.”

Then I wouldn’t have to face the drama monster and tell him we’d done everything backward.

“Yes.” He looked like he was agreeing with me, but he didn’t move back or start heading for the locker room. “If you’d…”

Pausing, he shook his head and started again. “If I hadn’t stopped you from being…more than my friend earlier, what would you have done?”

A lot.

His Dom would’ve done a lot.

“I don’t mind being professional here and simply being friends when we’re at either of our workplaces.

” I was out and didn’t care but that didn’t mean we had to change how we behaved.

“But if I hadn’t been thinking of that kind of stuff, then I’d have probably fucked with you a bit between sets.

Stood too close and made sure you knew you made me hard. ”

Just listing it off logically was enough to get a sexy whine out of him.

I had to pretend to ignore it as I shrugged and kept going, though. “I’d have touched you more and talked to you about this morning.”

There were so many ways we could’ve made working out even more fun.

“Then after we were finished, I’d have made you get a shower in the locker room…right beside me, of course.” That had his mouth dropping open…which definitely wasn’t a safeword. “I’d have kept my hands to myself and behaved, but I think it would’ve felt a bit different now.”

He’d showered at the gym on a regular basis, especially if he was heading out afterward. He was just usually very careful not to end up naked near me, and it was easy to see why based on his reaction. “You could behave, though, couldn’t you? I mean, you’re not that big of a slut, are you?”

Desire and what I’d come to realize was humiliation flashed in his eyes.

He was that big of a slut and we both knew it.