Are You In

by P W Steele

  Are You In?

  POWERHOUSE Book One

  P.W. Steele

  Copyright © 2020 P.W. Steele

  Are You In? (POWERHOUSE Book One)

  Written and published by P.W. Steele

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this story may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form, by any means, without the written permission of the copyright holder, except in case of brief citations and within critical reviews and articles.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

  Please purchase only authorized electronic editions and do not participate in, or encourage, the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author's rights is greatly appreciated.

  This book contains sexually explicit material which is suitable only for a mature audience.

  For more information about P.W. Steele, please visit - www.pwsteele.com

  Contents

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Chapter 1 - Breathe

  Chapter 2 - You Are Exactly Where You Are Supposed To Be

  Chapter 3 - First Workout

  Chapter 4 - Heat

  Chapter 5 - One Year, Four Months and Twelve Days

  Chapter 6 - Falling in Lust

  Chapter 7 - Mind Right

  Chapter 8 - No Jack, Only Scotty

  Chapter 9 - A Progress What?

  Chapter 10 - First Workout...Again

  Chapter 11 - Naked

  Chapter 12 - Same, But Different

  Chapter 13 - Are You In?

  From P.W. Steele

  Chapter 1 - Breathe

  AMAZING FITNESS

  The bright blue neon sign above the gym entrance flickered in the late afternoon light. There was no way Andy could miss it as he pulled into the parking lot. The blue lights reflected across his face as he looked up at the sign, his heart racing with a mixture of excitement and nervousness.

  Andy didn’t feel amazing. Or fit.

  He parked his car and took a look around. The sky was filled with brilliant flashes of purple and orange. The late afternoon sun was beaming in filtered strands of sunlight, imbuing an otherwise dreary parking lot with an ethereal feel. A strand of sunlight danced across his face as he looked at himself in the rearview mirror. The light highlighted the flecks of gold in his hazel eyes.

  He looked nervous. He was nervous.

  The first street lights began to turn on as dusk disappeared, surrendering to the evening. Andy realized he was still gripping the steering wheel, his knuckles white with tension. He let go of the wheel and closed his eyes as he took a deep breath, calming breath.

  His momentary attempt at zen was cut short by the buzz of his cell phone vibrating. Opening his eyes, he leaned over and picked it up from the passenger seat. He smiled as he read the text.

  Good luck Andy... will feel AMAZING afterwards. Enjoy! xoxo

  Even though she was half a world away, had a toddler going through her terrible twos and another baby on the way, her timing was, as always, impeccable.

  Thanks. Feeling a bit nervous, but I’m looking forward to it. Hope you had a great -

  Andy scratched his head and opened up the world clock app on his phone. Even though Emily had moved over three years ago, Andy was completely useless when it came to remembering the time difference between the west coast of the US and the east coast of Australia. He clicked delete a few times and re-worded the last sentence of his text.

  - Have a great day! x

  Math, or time zone math, was one of the few things he couldn’t wrap his head around. He more than made up for it in pretty much every other way.

  He had been granted a full scholarship to the Advanced Institute of Architecture Academy after college, he was the youngest architect to be made project lead at one of the nation's leading architecture firms and he had designed his first fifty million dollar residence - all before hitting the ripe age of twenty-five.

  The even more remarkable thing about Andy’s impressive career accomplishments was that they didn’t come at the expense of having a social life. His hard work and dedication when it came to his professional pursuits was nicely offset by his natural, easy going nature. Andy was the kind of guy that made friends wherever he went. He was down to earth, witty and easy to talk to.

  He had a knack for being able to make people feel comfortable and an innate talent for getting people to open up and reveal themselves to him. It was a great social skill, but also one of the secrets to his professional success as well. Getting inside people’s heads to understand what motivated and mattered to them, enabled Andy to design houses that instantly felt like homes for his clients.

  In many ways, Andy knew he was lucky. He was raised by two kind and decent parents who loved their only child beyond measure. His parents instilled in him progressive ideas alongside traditional values. Don’t judge others, respect your elders, say ‘please’ and ‘thank you’, and above all else, treat people the way you would like to be treated.

  While some of those ideas seemed a little hokey and old fashioned to him now, they embedded in him a deep sense of non-judgmentalness. It allowed him to see people on a deeper level. He wasn’t quick to judge others. It was one of the qualities that drew people to him and made them enjoy being in his company so much.

  It also didn’t hurt that he had a classically handsome face. Thick, mid-length and stylishly cut ashy blonde hair framed his perfectly symmetrical features. His strong, angular jawline was complemented by two large, puppy dog hazel eyes. His long, straight nose led to wide lips that when parted, revealed a set of perfectly white, straight teeth that could light up a room.

  As he sat nervously in the gym parking lot, none of that mattered. He took another deep breath, trying to focus his thoughts. “Okay, it’s time to do this. You can do this,” he said to himself. He let out a warm exhale through his nose, grabbed his duffel bag and got out of the car.

  He started walking towards the bright neon blue sign above the gym entrance. At six-foot-four, he cut a tall and imposing figure. But his deliberate choice of baggy shorts and an oversized t-shirt hid a harsher reality. One that had begun to bother him more and more in recent months.

  For all the confidence he had in his work, his social life and with his family, there was one area where Andy didn’t feel confident at all. His body.

  The first time he really noticed it was a week before his twenty-fifth birthday. It was just a little pang, an internal whisper that barely registered in his consciousness. For what would, over the coming months, avalanche into an almost twenty-four-seven obsession, it started in the most innocuous of ways.

  Fresh out of the shower and brushing his teeth one Monday morning, Andy wiped away the steam from the mirror cabinet. The reflection staring back at him stopped him in his tracks. Andy was struck by the bones protruding out of his shoulders, how undeveloped and sickly his chest looked and how tiny his waist was. He froze, the toothbrush dangling from his mouth. He felt like an alien in his own body.

  As he continued brushing his teeth, albeit slightly slower, it dawned on him that it had been a while, in fact he couldn’t even remember how long, since he had seen himself naked. Or at least, semi-naked. He did have a towel wrapped around his waist, but there was no way he was going to take that off. That was a whole other set of issues he had spent most of his life avoiding as well.

  The avoidance was deliberate. He had always been skinny. But if he didn’t see it, he wouldn’t think about it. If he didn’t think about it, then he wouldn’t have to do anything about it. But h
e couldn’t ignore what was staring back at him in the mirror. This wasn’t lean or lanky. This wasn’t thin or slender. This was sickly skinny.

  The strangest part was that it didn’t make any sense. Andy had the worst eating habits of anyone he knew. He didn’t enjoy cooking and he had no talent for it. It had been four years since he had moved into his place and the ovens remained untouched. It took him six months of living there to realize his kitchen even had a second oven.

  He held a dubious record of ten consecutive days eating every single meal from a fast food outlet, breakfast, lunch and dinner. While not something he was necessarily proud of, it showed that, if anything, Andy’s problem should have been too much weight, not too little.

  For all the accomplishments in other areas of his life, Andy was embarrassed by his body and completely uncomfortable in his own skin. His shoulder bones protruded jarringly out of his body, as did his hip bones, pushing their way out from his minuscule twenty-eight inch waist. His arms and legs were long and lanky, with no meat on the bones.

  There was so much of him, and yet so little of him, all at the same time.

  Brushing his teeth that Monday morning, staring at his semi-naked body in the mirror for the first time in forever, there was no way he could look away. He couldn’t unsee what he had seen.

  Which left him with only one choice - do something about it.

  Andy wasn’t used to being defeated by anything, and there was no way in the world that he would let himself be defeated by this. This was a problem that had a solution. He just had to bite the bullet and take the leap from wanting to doing. The feeling of alienation, mixed with horror that hit him as he looked at his reflection, was just the motivation he needed to take the first step.

  He had noticed a new gym had opened up on his way to work one morning. It was only a five minute drive from his house and it had a free week joining offer. The deal was anyone who signed up got access to a personal trainer, nutritionist and wellness coach, free for seven days. After that, they could continue at a discounted weekly rate of ninety bucks.

  Andy had no idea whether that was a deal or a ripoff, but he didn’t really care. He spent more than that on fast food in a week. If he could outsource the problem to professionals to help him get the body he wanted, he was totally fine with that.

  As Andy approached the gym entrance, he noticed his reflection in the front window. He actually liked being tall. There was no way he could be missed whenever he walked into a room. Part of him liked the attention that his size drew. It’s just that he desperately wanted to fill out.

  To counterbalance the feelings of embarrassment and self-loathing he felt towards his body, Andy began wondering about what his ideal body would look like. Did he want to become lean and toned, or go big and bulky? He thought a lot about it after seeing himself in the mirror, and over a few weeks, a clearer picture emerged.

  He got an idea one evening and jumped onto his computer. In a few clicks, he had brought up his entire internet history. He quickly learned a few things.

  First, he needed to ban himself from searching for ‘surprised animal reaction faces memes’, or any other memes for that matter. He was a twenty-five year old man goddamnit. Second, he spent an inordinate amount of time searching for 30 Rock quotes (Liz Lemon may have been his spirit animal but his friends would be relieved) and third, a closer look at his porn searches revealed that a particular word kept cropping up again and again.

  Big muscle dude

  Hot muscle couple

  Muscle daddy

  He pulled away from the bright light of the computer screen to let the realization sink in. It was true. He couldn’t deny it. All of his life, he had always been attracted to muscular guys.

  His first crush had been his dad’s best friend, Tom. He was a blue collar worker that did all sorts of jobs - construction, truck driving, whatever it took to pay the bills and provide for his wife and two kids. Tom was a typical man’s man, in the old school sense, tall and solidly built. He even had a 1970s-style moustache for a while, but what Andy loved most were his impressive, bulging arms. All the more impressive given Tom never worked out in a gym. His body was built purely from the work that he did.

  Even Andy’s most recent, and rare for him, one night stand was a total muscle stud. He was a producer for a local news station. Despite Andy’s passionate abhorrence of dating apps, a moment of loneliness led to a night of semi-decent sex with a fit, twenty-seven year old muscle dude called Steven. The sex would have been ever better if Steven managed to peel his eyes off himself in the full length mirror he had in his bedroom and focus a bit more on being present, but hey, if Andy had a body like his, he probably would have been checking himself out too.

  One of the perks of being gay was that in the absence of a partner who could fulfill his muscle fantasy for him, he could instead become his own fantasy guy. Andy wasn’t interested in getting big and muscley to impress anyone else or to get the ever elusive guy of his dreams. He was doing it to become the guy of his dreams.

  Once he had started thinking about it, the idea of becoming big and muscley took on a life and energy of its own. Over the coming weeks and months, he couldn't stop fantasizing about becoming that guy. He saw it so clearly in his head, how he would look, the way he would walk, the clothes he would wear, the confidence it would give him. Confidence that he had in every other aspect of his life, except for this one.

  It was as if he had unleashed decades of pent up sexual desire and fantasy. He wanted big biceps. Massive shoulders. Legs of steel. Huge quads. Bulging calves. For the first time in his life, when it came to his appearance, Andy knew exactly what he wanted, and he owned it. No shame, no guilt, just a pure, laser sharp focus on getting himself to where he wanted to be.

  Andy didn’t mind being a giant, he just wanted to be a giant beast. A total muscle powerhouse.

  He reached the gym entrance. This was it. There was no turning back now. He was about to step into a gym for the first time in his adult life. He looked up at the bright blue neon sign, took one final deep breath, and strode in through the gym doors.

  Chapter 2 - You Are Exactly Where You Are Supposed To Be

  As the doors opened automatically, Andy was struck by the size of the gym as he walked in. It looked big-ish from the outside, but inside it was absolutely huge.

  The gym was all open plan. It had a modern, minimal and slightly industrial design. The palette of browns and greys was neutral and inviting, radiating a subtle hint of masculinity, while the bright splashes of neon blue, pink and green scattered throughout the space clearly showed that someone with design skills had been involved with the creation.

  He breathed a sigh of relief. He had no idea what to expect and his initial impression was one of pleasant surprise. He walked up to the front desk. It was sleek, white and minimal. It was so shiny and well polished he could almost see his reflection in it. A neon green digital sign sat atop it displaying a message:

  You are exactly where you are supposed to be.

  It was a nice touch. He let out a smile. The tightness in his chest eased a little. He felt...safe.

  He rearranged his duffel bag across his shoulder and as he looked around, a guy in his mid-to-late thirties, with a shaved head and massive biceps that were bursting out the sides of his form fitting black tank top strode over. A big smile spread across his face, lighting up his piercing green eyes. “Hi, I’m Scotty. Welcome to Amazing Fitness.You wouldn’t be Andrew Parker by any chance, would you?” he asked in a rich, deep voice.

  “Yeah, that’s me,” Andy replied trying to sound cool, calm and collected, as if he had been at a gym, like, thousands of times before. “You can just call me Andy though.”

  “Sure thing Andy,” Scotty replied, his green eyes laser focused on Andy’s face. A slight warmth filled Andy’s cheeks. Scotty had a friendly smile, but his gaze was intense.

  Andy shuffled his feet. He glanced downwards at Scotty's massive, heaving torso. He could make
out the defined outline of his pecs, pressing against the thin material of his tank top. His bulging biceps were covered in beautiful, bright and intricate tattoos which crept all the way down his hairy arms to his wrists.

  When Andy looked up again, he noticed the tattoos creeping outwards from the top of Scotty’s tank top, making their way onto the base of his thick neck, where he wore a thin black chain. Between his thick neck and massive shoulders, Andy saw muscles he didn’t know could even humanly exist. The guy was a wall of muscle, an absolute brickhouse.

  “Your trainer is just getting ready," Scotty said, his gaze burning into Andy. "I know you’ve filled out the online form, but can I ask that you fill out these two forms as well please?” He reached across the desk and slid some paperwork in front of Andy.

  “Sure," Andy said, still looking downwards, as he grabbed the pen and began filling out the paperwork.

  As Scotty walked away from the desk, Andy snuck a glance upwards and noticed the shorts Scotty was wearing. They were tight, form fitting grey shorts that clung closely to his skin, hugging his massive quads and beefy butt firmly.

  Andy squinted a little more intently and could make out the outline of Scotty’s underwear on each butt cheek. That thought stirred a feeling in his own shorts. Right at that moment, Scotty turned around. Andy was now staring at Scotty’s equally tight and bulging front side. He quickly looked away and continued filling out his paperwork, not daring to look up to see whether Scotty had caught him checking him out.

  After filling out the two forms, Andy looked up and slid the forms back across the desk. Scotty was there a moment later and as he scooped up the papers, his hand gently grazed Andy’s. Andy blushed again. Scotty cocked his head to the side and smiled.

  “You look a little nervous, handsome,” he said with a reassuring tone in his voice. “Don’t be,” he said a bit more firmly as he placed his heavy palms on Andy’s hand. His hands were strong and tough. Andy could feel Scotty's calluses, no doubt the result of a lifetime spent at the gym, rub the top of his hand.