Herd That (The Valentine Boys 1)

“You should go over there and show him how it’s done.” Desi slapped my back.

I got up and shook out my legs.

My muscles started to scream in protest the moment I took a step forward.

“I can’t do anything next to that man. He puts me to shame.” I shook my head.

“Just do it.”

I shook my head furiously and started heading in the direction of the rowing machine.

The trainer who was helping those who wished for help had given us a list of things that we needed to accomplish today. Our first day.

One, we had to do a physical fitness test that included how many push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, and squats we could do in a measured amount of time.

Let’s just say, what I found out wasn’t all that great.

I was a weak ass.

One who couldn’t do anywhere near as much as I thought I might be able to.

And to realize that in front of a few of the most eligible bachelors in town? Yeah, that was even worse.

After getting our base fitness level, we were told to find our ‘max’ on bench press, squats, and deadlifts. Once we did that, we were to row a thousand meters as our cardio for the day, and then we could go.

I still had bench press, rowing, and squats to go.

Then Desi said the one thing guaranteed to entice me to go anywhere near that man.

“I’ll leave early with you,” she offered.

My legs stilled, and I looked at her over my shoulder.

“Promise?” I asked.

She nodded.

“And you’ll go to lunch with me?” I asked.

She grimaced. “Yes. As long as it’s somewhere that has healthy food that I can eat.”

I stuck out my tongue.

“That leaves us with the deli or the stupid sandwich place. There’s nothing good at either one of those places,” I declared.

Her face was pleading then, and I rolled my eyes. “I was going to go over there once he left.”

She snorted. “He’s not going to leave. And if you go over there now, with me all done, I don’t mind leaving early. You can skip all you want. But I’m going to finish. And I’m going to kick ass at this race.”

“Only because you know your ex, Mal, will be there,” I mumbled. “You do realize you’re probably not going to beat him, right?”

She scrunched up her nose.

“No,” she agreed. “But when I told him I’d like to run this race with him, he laughed in my face saying that I couldn’t do anything this physical. Now I want to prove him wrong and look hot while doing it so he can see what he missed.”

I sighed and gritted my teeth. Then pulled my big girl panties up and started marching like I was on a mission toward the bench presses.

Desi followed me at a much more sedate pace.

I walked to the closest bench press machine that wasn’t in use—the one that was two away from the one Ace was currently using every weight in the entire damn gym at—and looked at the bar.

“How much does the bar weigh?” I asked Desi.

“Umm,” Desi paused. “I think it weighs thirty-five. That’s what the girl who helped me max out said.”

I swallowed. “I think I can do thirty-five.”

“It’s forty-five,” Ace’s strained voice came from two benches over. “Add two fifteens to each side and see if you can do that.”

I thought about his suggestion and decided that it might be a good one.

Turning to look at the weights, I scanned for fifteens and didn’t find any.

“There aren’t any fifteens,” I pointed out.

“Grab two tens and two fives,” Callum suggested.

He was spotting Ace, who was straining to get his bar up.

I stared at all the black weights labeled ‘45’ and shook my head.

“Okay,” I said, grabbing first a ten, then a five. Once I had those in place, I went for the other two.

Once I had those in place, I sat down on the bench and lifted my hands to the bar.

I heard the weights of Ace’s bar hit the rack and Callum say something under his breath to him that made him laugh.

But I closed my eyes and focused, pushing up on the bar and lifting it free of its holder.

I slowly brought the weight down and went to push it back up, only to realize that it was too heavy.

Like so heavy that the weights didn’t budge.

I gritted my teeth, then pushed with all my might.

It still didn’t move.

That’s about when I started to panic.

But before I could so much as get a squeak out, the bar was lifted easily and placed back in the holder, causing me to open my eyes and blink rapidly at the penis head that was inches away from my face.

There was a penis head, followed by a sizeable shaft, behind a pair of sweatpants that were stained lightly with sweat at the top.