CHAPTER SIXTEEN #2
‘Fifth! Lena, fifth!’ Josie’s professionalism was gone, her voice warbled, sounding like she was jumping.
I chuckled, enjoying having something to celebrate and someone to celebrate with.
‘Thank you, Josie.’ I slowed Gottyk down, soaring around the circuit one more time before landing. ‘I think you might have been right about the whole teamwork thing.’
‘I’m right about everything. You should know that by now.’
Her confidence was back and so was mine.
The night sky was black beyond the glass roof, a mirror to the empty gym carriage.
The punching bag absorbed my hits without so much as a tremor.
The same absorption augments that ran through my flight suit were being used in the squat box too.
It was satisfying to feel the padded thump as I spun into it again, this time with the flat top of my foot.
I wasn’t working out anger and bitterness this time. There was no need. I’d come fifth in the race. This workout was pure celebration. Josie had rolled her eyes when I’d asked to borrow Bach’s pass card, but handed it over anyway.
Thump. I replayed the overtake of Omar Wilver in my head. Thump. I sliced through the arcan and sent it spiralling back at Theo. Thump. I revelled in the feeling of crossing the finish line in the top half of the pack.
An hour later I was drenched in sweat and feeling like my limbs were made of wet noodles. I rested against the punching bag.
As much as Josie had encouraged me to train with Theo again, I couldn’t bring myself to hunt him down and ask. Not after our last conversation. So I’d opted to wait to use the squat box at night when everyone else was already asleep.
Bad for my sleep pattern, good for my emotional stability.
I wiped my face with the absurdly soft towel – no longer having to hide how much I loved the luxury – and grabbed the bag I’d brought with me. Another benefit of being here alone was that I got to use the spa.
I ducked into the changing room, wrapped in a fresh towel.
I sighed, pushing open the frosted glass door to the steam room as the soft material flowed over my bare skin.
It was another level of bliss to have it all over my body.
The heat of the spa sank into my muscles, loosening the tightness that had built up over the past hour.
Until I saw the foggy outline of a man only a few feet away.
I spun on my toes, kicking in the direction of the silent creep.
A warm hand caught my ankle, suspending my leg in the air. The towel fell either side of my raised leg, I grabbed at it to stop it from revealing anything further, throwing me off balance.
Not for long.
I yanked my foot back, pulling him closer. My sweat let me slip out of his grip, allowing me to ground myself on two feet again. I used the momentum to swing my fist forwards.
‘Wow, Paldon!’ He dodged the punch. ‘It’s a steam room. You’re meant to relax!’
‘Vaspre?’ The whorls of steam calmed and thinned.
Standing opposite me in his own towel was Theo.
The moisture hung heavy in his hair, making it somehow darker and lengthening the curls.
Moisture beaded on his skin. There was a lot of it on show, including the ripples of his torso and patchwork of tattoos along his left arm.
His towel was slung low and loose below his waist, showing off the V-shape chiselled above his hips.
‘My eyes are up here.’
My head snapped up, almost giving me whiplash.
His eyes were dark, watching me as the heat danced around us. I stayed light on my toes, unsure how it was going to play out. My fight or flight response hadn’t decided where to go from here. There was a tension building inside me, maybe adrenaline, low in my belly.
‘Do you often wait in silence for women to wander into the spa, or is it just today you decided to be a creep?’
His smile spread as he sat back down on the wooden bench that bordered three sides of the small room. He locked his hands behind his head. His triceps flexed, probably on purpose.
‘Oh, I’m sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable?’
I narrowed my eyes. I knew a challenge when I heard one. So I sat myself down on the opposite bench. Theo’s edges blurred from the distance, but nothing could mask the mischief in his eyes.
‘For what it’s worth,’ he said, ‘I prefer a quiet steam room experience, so I come here after hours to avoid Colly’s arcanite-powered chatter. I love the guy, but hearing about his grandparents’ wedding anniversary while sweating it all out isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.’
‘Funny,’ I replied. ‘Sweating it out with a self-obsessed showboat isn’t my idea of a good time. We don’t always get what we want.’
His chuckle floated across the small room. ‘Feel free to leave, Paldon.’
‘Likewise, Vaspre.’
We both knew this wasn’t about soothing muscles or relieving ourselves of toxins anymore. It was about outlasting one another in the steam room. I had the benefit of arriving after Theo, but he’d been doing this regularly for years – he was more used to taking the heat than I was.
Minutes crawled by. I tried to let go of the knowledge that Theo was there too. Tried to forget about the way his towel ended above his knees, daring me to look so he could taunt me about it.