Chapter - 14
LOGAN
I’m not saying that sliding out of a sleeping Eloise’s grip to dispose of a condom and get dressed was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, but it sure as hell wasn’t easy either. She had passed out on me almost immediately, which made weird feelings stir within my chest. I hadn’t ever had sex with a woman, only to then have her immediately fall asleep on me.
It was so intimate.
Also, a bit of an ego boost for me.
I quietly slipped my clothes back on, careful with my movements because Eloise was breathing deeply on her stomach, half her face smothered in her pillow now. Her freckles peeked through the blonde locks of hair that fanned around her face.
After straightening my clothing I stepped towards her, taking the opportunity to brush some of that hair off of her face. She looked so peaceful, her blush still lingering on her cheeks as if it was sticking around just for me. I traced my finger along the apple of her cheek, only pulling back when her mouth twitched and she made a soft noise.
I stood straight again, glancing around her bedroom to see if there was anything for me to use. Examining her desk, I saw a small notepad and a cup of pens. I gently ripped a blank page off the notepad, checking over my shoulder to ensure that she was still asleep, before plucking a pen out of the cup.
What do I say?
Thanks for the fuck?
It felt too crude, too casual for what I experienced with Eloise just now. Not that we were in a committed relationship or anything. The fact that she immediately fell asleep let me know that we wouldn’t be defining whatever this was tonight.
I thought for a moment, before smiling to myself and scribbling something down.
For the record, you look beautiful underneath me, too.
There. That way she would know that I wasn’t offended by her spontaneous dirty talk and that I wasn’t leaving because I never wanted to talk to her again. Sure, it caught me off guard, but I was also excited to learn more about this woman.
She clearly had some sides to her that she didn’t show others that often. Based on how embarrassed she was with her words, I had a feeling that she kept a lot of herself close to her chest.
…Kind of like I did.
Plus, her words were an obvious slip of the tongue. She immediately regretted saying how good I looked underneath her, which made me want to tease her for it. But I held back, instead trying to lean into her regret by telling her to make it up to me. Frankly, I had somehow found a way to offend her almost every time we were in the same room, so I figured I’d like that awkward moment to pass.
Plus, I wanted to see her again.
To no one’s surprise.
I shouldered my backpack after leaving the note next to her on the bed, when my shoe nudged something on the floor, making me pause on my way out of the room to see what it was. It was a book, a well-used book by the looks of it.
I reached down to pick it up, intending to set it on her desk or something, when the cover art caught me by surprise.
It was clearly a romance novel.
Courtney had told me many times about how romance covers were starting to be more and more discreet. Instead of covers of half-naked models, a lot of them were brightly colored cartoons. Which was exactly what this was. I glanced over at Eloise, still sound asleep with my note next to her on the bed, then I glanced at the book in my hand, the bookmark of where she left off peeking out in the middle of it.
I knew I should put it back.
Instead, I found myself unzipping my backpack and shoving the novel inside before I could talk myself out of it, then quickly unlocking her bedroom door to hopefully sneak out through the front door.
I paused when I heard voices coming from Courtney’s room, her bedroom light shining underneath the door.
“Don’t you dare,” Josh scolded.
“Don’t you want to know who Eloise just had over?” Courtney whisper-hissed, sounding like she was close to the door.
“Yeah, but instead of ambushing the guy, we could just ask her about it in the morning,” Josh chuckled, making Courtney grumble a disgruntled noise.
I stood frozen in the hallway, my heartbeat rapid in my chest as I wondered how to proceed.
I knew Eloise had been loud, but I didn’t realize how thin the walls of the townhome were. Would she tell Courtney about us? …Would I? To my knowledge, nobody knew about our FaceTime call that I had thought about for the last couple of weeks. Would it be different now that she and I had actually, well, had sex?
“How did she even find someone so fast? Those dating apps really don’t mess around.” Courtney’s voice got quieter as she retreated from her bedroom door and the squeak of a mattress let me know she settled in for the night.
I exhaled a harsh breath of relief, before continuing my quiet journey downstairs.
***
A week passed. I exercised, practiced on the ice, and ran. I was consumed with reliving that experience with Eloise in my mind. I kept replaying it over and over again.
I was addicted.
It wasn’t until the following weekend when I was waiting for Courtney and Josh to show up at the gym that I realized how excited I was to see her again. We had texted only a few times, short flirty notes that ended after just a couple of messages back and forth. It never escalated to a repeat of the night we FaceTimed, and I was okay with that. Part of me wanted to wait until we could get together again, just the two of us.
I also read her romance novel.
Eloise had clearly highlighted her favorite parts, which weren’t philosophical or educational. No, Eloise instead liked to highlight parts simply because she liked them. The highlighted lines were either cheesy pickup lines from the male love interest or dirty lines he would say during the many, many sex scenes the book had. Sometimes there were little drawings of a fireball or a panting face in the margins, letting me know exactly what her thoughts on the dialogue of the story were.
I had never gotten hard from reading a book before…but I did now.
I then googled the phenomenon and learned what book boners were. And thus, I suddenly wanted to learn more about the romance novels that Eloise read. It didn’t take me long to find her social media accounts on the internet, but none of them showed what she liked to read. I did, however, see her comment on one of Courtney’s posts. It was a picture of Courtney and Josh reading in bed together, with millions of likes and comments, but Eloise’s comment is what caught my eye, “I saw your review for this one on Goodreads and immediately added it to my Tbr!”
And just like that, I learned what Goodreads was and found Eloise’s account. I was able to see all the books she read, what she rated them, and why.
So here I was, a week after I had snuck through Eloise’s window and four romance novels deep, thanks to her online recommendations.
I was sitting on my bench, taking a break from my reps to read a couple more paragraphs of the latest romance novel I was on. It was categorized as a hockey romance, which unsurprisingly, had very little to do with the sport itself and had more to do with the love story between the man and woman.
“Well, well, well.” I heard Josh’s voice before I saw them, smirking to myself as I quickly pocketed my phone and turned to face him. “If it isn’t exactly who we came to see.”
Josh was weird.
“Who started without us, again.” Courtney made a show of glaring at me before she set her bag down and pulled her sticker-clad water bottle out.
That was when I spotted Eloise.
My heart thudded in my chest.
I struggled to remember what I was doing so that I could continue the movement and not be super obvious about what her presence did to me.
“Shocker.” Eloise’s lips twitched a little as we made eye contact, but she broke it first by bending to drop her bag next to Courtney’s and digging around in it. There was no indication in her body language that she was just as affected by my presence as I was by hers. While Josh and Courtney chatted about, well, something, I took a moment to take in Eloise.
She was wearing a black headband that kept most of her hair out of her face. Her light blue sports bra was the kind with only one strap over one shoulder—I wasn’t an expert on sports bras, but I figured that wasn’t one she could confidently wear while running. She wore the same little black shorts she had worn last time, showing off her dainty flower tattoos on her hip and thigh. The shorts did wonderful things to her ass, her ass that I couldn’t keep my eyes off of before I knew how it felt in the palms of my hands.
I stared at the flowers on her hip, promising myself that I would take the time to trace them with my tongue should Eloise allow it.
Fuck me.
Eloise stood with her water bottle in hand, pausing only a moment when she realized I had been staring at her. Courtney and Josh were grabbing their weights to the side, so I took an opportunity to hold her gaze.
I wanted to see how she wanted to play this.
Eloise was a woman, and it was a universal truth that women talked to each other about who they hooked up with. Did she tell Courtney about what happened between us in her bedroom? I wouldn’t be upset if she had. Maybe I would have been upset a few years ago, but after being friends with a raging feminist like Courtney, I now understood how important it was for women to discuss these types of things with each other.
Not just to gossip, but for their own safety.
Such as, to learn what a sexually healthy relationship was, versus not.
To know if the guy behaved inappropriately during the hookup.
Sometimes, though, it was just to gossip. Usually, women only gossiped if it was either a great experience or a hilariously bad one. I was fairly confident that our experience in her bedroom wasn’t bad. I would argue that it was great, actually.
Still, I wanted to know if I needed to brace myself for any sort of interrogation from Courtney after hooking up with her friend whom she thought still hated me.
Eloise’s skin flushed under my gaze, making a smile form on my lips that I quickly tried to hide with my hand as I rubbed it down my face.
“So, what are we doing today?” Eloise asked, her voice a little higher than normal as she tucked her hair behind her ears, even though she was already wearing a headband.
“Ass and legs,” Courtney replied, adding weights to the squat rack I was previously using.
Josh was watching Courtney add the weights with an obvious look of admiration in his eyes. His fiancée was fit, and he clearly appreciated that.
“Cool, is this one available?” Eloise asked, pointing to the empty station next to Courtney and Josh. I nodded and followed her over to that one.
“I’ve never lifted like this before,” Eloise spoke, pointedly going out of her way to avoid my gaze as I set the bar on the rack. “Can you show me how to form myself, Court?”
“Logan can,” Courtney replied, getting into position underneath the bar as she wrapped her hands around it, “Josh is going to spot me here.”
“Oh, okay.” Eloise sounded nervous, which immediately set off alarm bells in my head. If Eloise didn’t want me to help her, I wasn’t going to force her. I had set some tens on either side of the bar before I paused and gave Eloise a questioning look. She stared at me with her wide blue eyes, her teeth gnawing on her bottom lip hesitantly as she contemplated while Courtney and Josh ignored us.
Are you okay?I asked Eloise, remembering to dramatically mouth my words for her so she could understand. Her eyes glanced between my hands and my lips, and she took a moment to inhale a deep breath before she nodded and surprised me.
I’m N-E-R-V-O-U-S, Eloise signed, slightly mouthing her words.
I blinked at her.
That was pretty good. It was clean, I didn’t see an error with her fingerspelling at all.
She smirked at my expression.
Nervous, because of me?I asked, showing her the correct sign for the word.
She nodded.
I frowned, then took a step back away from the weights to give her space and reached for my water bottle that sat on the ground in between the two stations.
“Alright, show me how to do this, big guy.” Eloise’s voice sounded like it had an edge to it, like how she spoke to me before we hooked up. Before we both admitted that we wanted each other. I lifted an eyebrow, seeing that she was glancing at our friends next to us before she stood underneath the bar that I had racked and gave me a challenging look.
I took a sip from my water bottle, watching her.
Her gaze dropped to my throat as I swallowed, and the gulp she subtly made before she dropped her eyes to the ground made heat run in my veins.
Oh, maybe I did make her nervous, but in a good way.
Chin up, I told her, sauntering back over to her. Her cheeks flushed again, but barely. She was putting on a show as if my presence didn’t affect her the same way her presence affected me.
This probably brought me more joy than it should have.
“You’re crushing it, love,” Josh encouraged as he stood behind Courtney, his hands hovering underneath the bar just in case her muscles gave out. His eyes could have had literal stars in them as he watched his fiancée squat.
Courtney grunted before racking the bar and standing to her full height, shaking out her arms and stretching her shoulders.
Back straight, I corrected Eloise with my hand on her spine, making her freeze as she made eye contact with me in the mirror. I mouthed the words to her again, and she nodded.
Fuck, her soft skin still felt amazing under my hands.
Eloise unracked the bar and started to slowly bend herself in half, barely bending her legs at all.
I quickly reached out from behind her and grabbed the bar, just enough to keep her from continuing the movement. It would be a dangerous thing for me to do if it was anyone else lifting (and if the weight wasn’t light enough for me to catch with one hand) but my instincts took over. At Eloise’s frustrated look, I shook my head at her and waited for her to rerack the weight.
I released the bar from my own hands and explained to her, You need to activate your legs. I then stood in front of her, showed her my profile, and demonstrated how her body should look squatting.
Eloise’s eyes darkened a little as they glued themselves to my thighs, then my ass as I showed the angle the legs should bend.
“Oh, I get it,” Eloise nodded. “I was focused on how heavy the bar was, I think.” I nodded because it was a common mistake people made when they lifted for the first time.
“Want to lower your weights, Lo?” Courtney asked as she settled underneath her own bar again, bumping Josh’s body with her ass playfully. He gently tapped it once before hovering his hands underneath her bar again.
“Actually, yeah I might.” Eloise stood as if she was about to rerack them, but I beat her to it. I quickly removed the tens on either side and added fives. The bar itself was close to forty-five pounds, so it made sense that I was overzealous with giving her tens on either side to start.
“Alrighty,” Eloise arched under the bar, tipping her chin up and checking her form thoroughly before giving me a look.
I stood in front of her, wondering what she was waiting for.
“Are you going to spot me?” Eloise asked, nodding her head for me to step behind her like Josh was doing for Courtney.
I could easily spot standing in front of her, but who was I to correct her? I smirked before walking around and hovering my own hands underneath the bar, careful not to touch any part of her body.
Eloise’s form was almost perfect now. She paced herself and didn’t try to complete the set as fast as possible. Her breathing was controlled, even though she was clearly struggling by the sixth squat.
After eight, she racked the bar and stood, her hands immediately going to her ass as she turned and gave us all a surprised expression.
“Holy shit, is my ass ripped yet?” She made a show of twisting around so she could see her own backside.
Josh and Courtney laughed, and I smiled.
“Right? You feel it immediately when you do it right.” Courtney encouraged, swapping places with Josh. He had to set the bar higher up because the guy was tall.
“No kidding,” Eloise nodded toward me. “Okay, your turn.”
I shrugged and went to add more weights to the bar.
After the fourth set of forty, I could feel her eyes on me. I paused what I was doing and glanced over at the little woman standing tall with her arms crossed over her chest, a small frown on her face.
“Are you trying to rack more than my body weight?” Eloise grumbled.
“He’s such a showoff sometimes.” Courtney agreed.
I flipped them both off as I positioned myself under the bar. I was obviously stronger than both of them simply because I had been regularly exercising for the past decade of my life. Not my fault if they felt self-conscious about that.
“I got you,” Eloise said as she waltzed behind me. I hesitated and gave her a look over my shoulders. “What?” she asked.
I straightened and turned around to rest my elbows on the bar, looking down at her, You think you can catch me? I barely mouthed that question to her as I signed it, but I wanted to see how much ASL she could communicate with and understand.
Eloise frowned, glancing over at Josh and Courtney for help, but they were distracted again. It had been a week since Eloise scolded me for not signing in front of her, which made me realize how much of an asshole I was to her the first time we met.
Simply because she couldn’t understand ASL, and I had the emotional depth of a puddle.
However, she had clearly picked up on some things.
Yes, Eloise signed.
I felt the grin spread across my face before I could stop it, making her frown loosen a little as she took in my expression. I shrugged; Just checking. How much had she learned?
Have you been learning ASL?I asked, forgetting completely that it was my turn to squat. Eloise’s cheeks turned pink again, was she embarrassed?
Yes, Eloise signed, glancing over at our friends who seemed to be in their own world; I am in a class.
I smiled fully at her then, making the corners of her lips turn up as well.
That’s great, I then turned around and positioned myself under the squat rack. Why was she learning ASL now? When we first met, she hadn’t taken a class for it or anything. Last I heard, she didn’t know more than the core words they used at the early intervention clinic with kids. Beck and Susan relied on ASL half the time to communicate without their hearing aids, and Courtney was basically fluent, so did she just not want to be left out?
Was it to show me up for being an ass to her over a year ago?
I wouldn’t blame her if it was.
Even if she was learning the language out of spite, I couldn’t ignore the fact that I would directly benefit from Eloise learning my preferred form of communication. It would make things easier on my end, in general.
Maybe Eloise would understand how blunt of a language ASL was.
Maybe I wouldn’t put my foot in my mouth as often around her.
…Maybe we could get to know each other better.
I finished my set, robotically reracking the weight before I stepped away to grab my sweat towel and water bottle. I wiped off the damp skin on my neck before turning back to glance at her.
Her eyes were hooded as she watched me, not bothering to hide her interest as her clear blue eyes took in their fill. Everywhere her eyes touched made heat break out over my skin. As if her gaze was physically caressing me. She was openly checking me out, still standing in the same place that she was as she spotted me.
I glanced over at Courtney and Josh, who were aware of the blatant ogling Eloise was doing. Josh wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, while Courtney gave me curious looks as her eyes bounced between Eloise and me.
I took another swig of my water bottle, tipping my head back to give Eloise a show of my neck, and wanted to pump my fists in pride when I saw her gaze go towards my throat again. She licked her lips and blinked as if she was coming out of a daze.
Weirdly, neither Courtney nor Josh mentioned anything about that awkward moment.
Well, awkward for them. It wasn’t awkward for me. If Eloise liked what she saw, that meant that she’d probably want to get together again. Which was something I was very, very interested in.