Love Cursed

by Julia Derek

  By the time I left the women’s locker room and headed to the fitness desk at Crunch, I was a shivering mess of nerves. My heart pounded like a sledgehammer on speed and my stomach was churning with nausea. I really didn’t get why I was so nervous; all I was about to do was meet with my trainer and have a training session, yet I felt like I was about to go on a first date with the man of my dreams. So stupid.

  I took a deep breath and made myself turn the corner that hid the fitness desk. And there he was, leaning against the counter with his back to me while talking to another trainer guy. He must have sensed me approaching because he turned around as I was getting close enough to tap him on the shoulder. He broke into a big smile and I could feel myself swooning, he was so cute. Even cuter than the picture I had of him in my mind, in fact. It took all I had to pull myself together.

  “Ricki,” he said in that fantastic voice and leaned in to kiss me on the cheek. “It’s so good to see you again.”

  “Thanks,” I said, struggling to keep my voice steady. “It’s good to see you, too.”

  It really was. Either it was something wrong with my memory or I’d simply forgotten how hot he was with that amazing olive skin and the black hair that kept wanting to fall into his dark, burning eyes. Oh, God, I will never be able to get through this session with him… I’d probably break my neck doing some exercise as shaky as I was feeling.

  Dante introduced me to the guy standing next to him, then he and I headed into the gym together. He kept eyeing me as I was walking. Somehow, I managed to control the rushes of emotions charging through me and felt almost normal again. I exhaled a silent sigh of relief. I would be all right. I realized then that it was several hours ago since I’d had lunch. I nodded to myself. That moment of lightheadedness must have been due to low blood sugar primarily, not Dante’s presence.

  “How do I walk?” I asked.

  “Pretty good,” he said and winked at me. “You do have a slight limp. Very slight. Does it hurt when you walk on the foot?”

  “I wouldn’t say that it hurts,” I said. “It’s just a little tender. And it doesn’t feel as steady as the other foot. But I guess it’ll get better eventually, huh?”

  “Definitely. As long as you keep up the exercises the physical therapist had you do, it should be back to normal in a couple of weeks. You’re already even better than I thought you’d be considering how badly you sprained it.”

  “That’s true,” I said and smiled. I was glad he seemed so relaxed around me, a lot more so than the first time we met, but I could also tell that he seemed tired. His eyes, now that I had a closer look, were a bit bloodshot and glassy, the way eyes look when you have a fever. I hoped he got enough rest in between all his clients.

  We stopped in a corner with a couple of workout benches and two towers loaded with shiny free weights. No one else was in the area, working out. Dante turned to face me, his hands on his hips.

  “Since it’s your first day back to working out, let’s do a light session,” he said.

  “That sounds good. The physical therapist told me I could do anything I wanted, but that I should stay away from anything with jumps.”

  Dante laughed. “No jumping jacks today then. How about I hold your hands and you do a few squats? Do you remember what those were?”

  “Sure.”

  “Great.” He extended his hands to me and I took them, my smaller ones disappearing into his strong ones. Holding him made me feel safe, like nothing could go wrong as long as his hands were around mine. A smaller smile curled his lips this time and he asked softly, “Are you ready, Ricki?”

  “Um, yeah.” I started squatting, gripping his hands like my life depended on it. I had to admit, having tripped from doing that lunge had traumatized me a little, so I was grateful he was assisting me.

  “Can you do ten?” Dante asked as I squatted for the seventh time, holding my gaze with his all the while. I wasn’t sure if my heart rate was going up so fast because of me sitting up and down so deeply, or if the way Dante looked at me so steadfastly had anything to do with it, too. I figured it was because I was so totally out of shape, having been more inactive than normal lately.

  I nodded and completed the ten squats.

  “Thanks for holding me like that,” I said, a little out of breath. “It really made a difference.”

  “I’m glad it did. I can imagine you must feel a little intimidated working out now after hurting yourself last time. But don’t worry; I’ll make sure nothing will happen to you again.”

  “Okay,” I said and smiled at him, warmth gathering in my stomach and spreading to all my limbs. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure. Now let’s do some seated rows over there.” He nodded toward a rowing machine in a corner. We walked over there and he showed me how to sit correctly on the machine and how to do proper rows. I couldn’t help but stare at his amazing, tattoo-covered arms on which the big muscles got even bigger and more defined as he pulled the machine’s handles repeatedly.

  “Now you,” he said and left the machine.

  I sat on it like he’d shown me and grabbed the two handles.

  “Lift up your chest more and lower your shoulders,” he said, and then his hands were on my sides as he adjusted my form. A pleasant rush went through me. I was suddenly imagining him moving his hands up along my ribcage and then forward so they ended up over my breasts, cupping them. And squeezing them. Electricity rushed up the insides of my thighs and crashed in my erotic center. My cheeks heated and I was glad he was standing behind me so he couldn’t get a glimpse of my face, which must be red now. Oh, God, why am I thinking about sex right now?

  I forced the image out of my head and started pulling the handles the way he’d shown me, making sure I kept my shoulders down as he wanted. Only when I got to the eighth repetition did I realize I could see his face in the mirrored wall from where I was sitting. Which meant he could see my face, too.

  Crap. I really hoped he hadn’t looked when all those sexual thoughts had been floating around in my head…

  As I got to the eleventh rep, I stopped worrying because pulling the weight became so hard I couldn’t focus on anything else.

  “Good job, Ricki!” he said when I finished the fifteen reps he’d asked for. “Now let’s do a plank. It’s like a pushup, but you hold yourself up on your elbows instead of on your palms.”

  He showed me how to do a correct plank, his long, lean body extended as he held himself up with his elbows and feet on the ground. I didn’t fail to notice that he had the most perfect little apple-shaped butt, even though I made sure I didn’t stare but only glimpsed at it from the corner of my eyes.

  “It’s important that you don’t let your midsection sag,” he said and showed me what he meant by dipping that delectable butt closer to the ground. Then he brought it back up again, almost giving me a heart attack as it instantly made me think thoughts I definitely shouldn’t be thinking right then. “You need to engage your core to maintain a straight plank. I’ll show you.”

  I went down on my knees and got into a plank-position the way he had shown me.

  “Okay, that’s good, Ricki, but you need to lift your behind higher. Remember how I just showed you that you need to keep your midsection up?”

  “Yes.” I tried to lift my butt higher, feeling kind of stupid. “Like this?”

  “Almost. Is it okay if I touch your stomach?”

  I swallowed. “Um, sure. Do whatever you need to do.”

  Already sitting on his knees, he leaned forward and stuck a hand under my stomach. Then he pinched the area above my navel, right where the two sides of my ribcage met. “You need to suck it in right here.”

  I sucked in with all my might and it did make my butt shoot up higher. But having his hand on my stomach made my pulse speed up to the point that I soon had a hard time breathing. And I was already struggling to breathe as it was in this position. To make matters worse, he didn’t remove his hand as he counted down from twenty, the
time he wanted me to remain in the position. By the time I was allowed to come down on the floor again, I was sure my face had turned blue from lack of oxygen.

  Dante

  Having her shapely butt stick into my face made it hard for me to concentrate. But concentrate I needed to do. I was determined to keep Ricki as my client, so I’d better not say or do anything stupid and make sure all my charm buttons were turned on. Not that it was hard to be at my best since she was much easier to work with this time around, exactly as I’d thought, doing everything I told her without complaining or questioning me. And she was looking as good as I remembered in her black tights and snug workout top in which her breasts swelled over the edge. Better even since there was a big smile on her face most of the time today, not an unhappy puss.

  When I’d finished counting down from twenty, she collapsed on the floor, breathing hard.

  “Are you okay?” I asked her. I tried to get a glimpse of her face, but she had it buried in her arms.

  Finally, she pushed herself up on her elbows and turned to me. Her pale skin had a purple tinge and she was panting slightly. For a moment, the way her berry mouth was open and her breasts were packed into that yellow top, I was transfixed and my brain stopped functioning. For the life of me, I couldn’t think of what I would have her do next.

  “Yeah,” she said. She gave me a confused look. “Are you?”

  “Um, yeah.” I smiled and shook my head, hoping that would jumpstart my paralyzed brain cells. It did, sort of. “Let’s go down to the first floor.” Walking down there would buy me some time.

  “Okay,” she said and we started walking.

  “How is your foot feeling so far?” I asked.

  “Oh, actually not bad at all. I can barely feel anything.”

  “I’m glad. Maybe we can take it up a notch then?”

  “Sure.”

  We spoke some more about nothing special until we reached the gym’s first floor. When I saw the TRX frame, I knew just what to do with her. I pointed toward the yellow and black straps that hung from the frame’s horizontal top bar.

  She stared at the TRX frame. “What’s that? It looks like a bunch of swing sets.”

  I laughed. “Yeah, I guess it does look like swing sets. But I can assure you, you won’t be swinging from them. More like hanging from them.”

  She gasped. “Hanging? Are you saying you’re gonna tie me up in them…?”

  I winked at her and gave a sideways grin. “Only if you want me to…”

  Her cheeks turned pink like they’d done when she was on the rowing machine, and it made her look adorable. She giggled in that cute way. Okay, she’s definitely continuing to train with me.

  We spent the rest of the session doing exercises using the TRX straps since Ricki really liked them. When there were only ten minutes left, I suggested we go stretch.

  “Yes, that would be great,” she said and smiled. I realized how much I liked watching her smile. It truly seemed to light her up from the inside, making her glow.

  I told her to lie down face-up on the mats at the end of the big room where we’d been working out. She did, and it was all I could do not to lie down on top of her she looked so inviting. I laughed at myself. I definitely needed to get laid soon, or I might start violating my clients as horny as I was suddenly feeling. In order not to let my raunchy mood overtake me, I thought about the way one of the guys in the gang used to chew with his mouth open all the time, mostly to annoy everyone else. It had the desired affect because when I grabbed one of Ricki’s legs, I managed not to get a hard-on despite straddling her in a highly compromising position. Normally, my crotch being so close to those of my female clients’ didn’t affect me much. I’d gotten used to it and trained my brain not to associate it with sex. But today it was not as easy to disassociate the two. Scratch that. It was hard as hell—or about to be, no pun intended. Yeah, I definitely need to get laid… It had been a couple months, it struck me then. With some chick I’d picked up at a bar, my usual M.O. It was never hard to get them to come with me, and I made sure it never lasted more than a couple days before I ended it. I always warned them beforehand that I only looked for short flings, and either they didn’t have a problem with that or they thought I wasn’t being serious. Some of them thought they could change me, but that wouldn’t happen. I would never again allow myself to have a girlfriend.

  “How does that feel?” I asked Ricki as I pushed her straight leg closer to her face so it stretched the back of her thigh.

  “Good,” she said, holding my gaze with her ice blue eyes. “I think you can go a little deeper….” She cleared her throat and her eyes widened a touch. “I meant further.”

  “I know,” I said and couldn’t stop myself from smiling a little.

  She was flexible, which was typical for girls like her who didn’t work out much. You could easily bend and twist them in all kinds of different directions… I felt a twinge in the groin area and I began to harden again. The vulnerable way in which she was contemplating me sure didn’t make it any easier to force my erection to go back down. I was getting so warm I could feel sweat breaking out on my forehead. Quickly, I pushed away any thoughts of how much fun it would be to play around with Ricki’s limber body. It took significant effort and lots of thoughts of Jose’s sweaty ass crack peeking out of his shorts when we were training before the heat between my legs started to evaporate.

  Damn, this is so going to be a challenge…

  “I really liked the way you were training me today,” she said.

  Was I imagining this or was she sounding out of breath? But why would she sound out of breath? Being stretched wasn’t exactly exhausting. If the way her eyes were suddenly sparkling and her pupils growing larger, making her irises nearly black, was any indication, she was feeling as excited as I was at the moment. I wasn’t sure if I thought that was a good or a bad thing. I decided it was best to simply stop wondering about it.

  “And you did great,” I said. “Especially considering your bad foot. You’ll probably be a little sore tomorrow. Not too bad, though.”

  “That’s okay. I can handle being sore,” she said with a brave expression. “That only means I got a good workout today, right?”

  “Right. But if you find that it bothers you, take a hot bath and add two cups of Epsom salt and you’ll see how the soreness will feel better.”

  “Oh, that’s good to know.” She bit her lip. “I really like taking baths anyway…”

  Is she trying to kill me here, biting her lip like that and talking about how much she loves to bathe? It took all I had to make the erection that was about to make my shorts tent at the thought of her lying naked in a steaming bath go away.

  I clenched my teeth and thought about the fat, hairy stomach belonging to some dude changing in the locker room earlier this morning. It had the desired effect.

  Finally, we were done stretching, which had turned out to be as much a pain as it had been pleasure, but pain in a good way. I hoped Ricki had found it mostly pleasurable or I was in trouble. Judging from the shine in her gaze as she looked at me when I helped her stand up, I wasn’t too worried.

  As we walked up to the fitness desk, I relaxed further because I could sense her contentment. She’s definitely continuing to train with me. I turned to face her when we reached the fitness desk. “So when am I seeing you next? How about Thursday at five thirty?”

  She smiled brightly. “Yes, that sounds good. My body should be recovered by then, right?”

  “Yes, it shouldn’t take you longer than a couple days to be ready for your next workout. We’ll work out harder then, maybe even do some boxing? Boxing is my specialty.”

  She looked scared. “Boxing? Do you really think I’d be any good at that?”

  I looked her deep in the eyes. “ Nena, trust me, I’ll make sure you’ll be great at it. I have a feeling you can throw a good punch. Maybe we won’t box the next session—it might be a bit premature with that ankle—but I promise we’
ll do it very soon.”

  She nodded. “Okay, sounds good. I’ll see you in two days then.”

  As she turned around and left, I couldn’t help but check out the way her hips moved and again I felt myself harden.

  Ricki

  “Oh, my God, I so need a cold shower,” I told Nina. I’d finally faced the fact that my jittery feelings had all been due to how I felt about Dante and not a spell of low blood sugar. I’d called her as soon as I was driving out of the massive mall complex that contained Crunch. The cell phone headset was firmly attached to my ear, which made it easy for me to focus on the traffic while talking. “I’m honestly not sure I’ll be able to drive home in this condition.”

  “Why?” Nina asked. “What happened?”

  “The training session I just had was so incredibly hot… I mean, it was sexilicious. And you know if a stupid word like that comes out of my mouth, it means something.”

  Nina giggled. “Yeah, it must… So, what happened? Did he order you around again and you suddenly realized you like it or what?”

  “Actually, no. He wasn’t really bossy at all today. It was just something about the way he was talking to me, looking at me. Touching me…” As my mind went back to the session my pulse started to race. I switched on the A/C to cool down.

  “ Touching you? What exactly were the two of you doing?”

  “Oh, don’t be silly! We were just training and he had to adjust my form every now and then.” I sighed. “But each time he did, I could barely breathe I got so excited… It was totally crazy.”