Something deep inside Greer recognized this wasn’t going to happen for him. Desire to win hadn’t been enough. No doubt, he’d given his all. A second later, Biker 101’s name blinked on the leaderboard and dropped three positions. Greer’s breath heaved. His thighs finally surpassing the pain, going into a blissful state of numbness as his profile name moved to the number one position.
Biker 101’s name blinked again, dropping three more positions. His current rank, number six.
Motherfucker! He hadn’t bested Biker101. The fucker had quit on him.
“No!” Greer shouted, giving a throaty grunt, pushing back on the seat to a sitting position. No! The class timer buzzed loudly, ending the competition.
“You won, Greer! I didn’t see that coming at all,” Kailey cheered.
“Right?” Beau agreed.
“Whoa. We did it. Great job everyone!” Even Skye sounded out of breath, and she always seemed to have endless energy. “Let’s take it down a notch. Congratulate our winners. You guys worked me hard tonight.”
Greer saw nothing but his nemesis, Biker 101, dropping through the ranks until he came in close to the bottom.
Whoever the hell Biker101 was, he threw the damn race.
“Wild_Rider,” Skye said, seeming to look straight through the monitor at him. “Great job! Shoot me an email, and I’ll get your membership comped.”
“Why isn’t Greer saying anything?” Kailey asked Beau.
Being robbed the satisfaction of a true win ate at him. The fucker had given up too early. Why? That shit just pissed him off.
“Buddy?” Beau asked.
Greer absently tossed a glance away from the leaderboard to see Beau still sitting on his bike slowly turning the pedals and Kailey laying spread across her bedspread as if the ten minutes she’d logged were too exhausting for anything more than rest.
“Those seats hurt my butt.” Years of Greer picking at his sister had Kailey knowing exactly what he meant by the weakling glance he gave her.
Greer reached for the small hand towel he’d placed nearby. The deeply unsatisfying win sent his mood into a maddening downward spiral. He swiped the towel over his face then over his wet hair as he said, “Beau, your wife’s broken into our private server. Keep a better eye on her for me.”
“Greer! I can’t believe you told him,” Kailey screeched, sitting straight up in all her outrage. “You’ve literally had the same three passwords your whole damn life.”
“Alexa, turn off my Zoom call.” The screen darkened, ending their session. Greer then pushed the power button on the BikeBro box securely clamped to his handlebars. The screen on his mounted pad went instantly dark.
He was left completely disheartened after a grueling workout and started to edge off the bike’s seat. First, he needed to gain feeling in the lower half of his body then find a way to blow off some of his pent-up steam. He was truly angry to his core. A win wasn’t a win if it was handed to you.
Something deep inside instantly rejected his plans to meet up with Skye tonight. He didn’t allow himself to dig too deep as to why he wanted to cancel, mainly because he didn’t really care. It seemed his infatuation with his personal trainer had run its course.
Besides, he had more pressing goals. He needed a cold glass of ice water. After that…well, he saw shots of something alcohol-related in his near future. Then he probably needed to find a willing sex partner on Scruff to relieve him of this sudden aggression from the stupid cycling class. His swipe-right needed to be strong and fit to do all the heavy lifting during sex. There was no way his thighs were going to participate. He saw rebellion in their future.
Fuck, he was pissed off.
Greer started for his personal bathroom, needing a shower, appreciative that his legs held him upright. A dissatisfying black hole grew in his chest, darkening his mood with each step he took. How could he be this frustrated after such a hard workout? Because the fucking win didn’t matter when the person turned tail and ran.
His cell phone rattled from its charging station on the nightstand. He slowed, looking down at the small screen. Skye’s name appeared. He let it ring as he headed for the shower.
Chapter 4
“What the fuck was that?” Dallas asked, slowly pedaling his bike, out of breath and dripping with sweat. He reached for his water bottle, resisting the urge to dump it over his head.
“He’s one of our corporate clients,” Ducky called out from the living room, creating an earsplitting echo of feedback from the mirror. He must have heard it too. His voice lowered, now only talking through the mirror. “My bad. He’s the one that bought all those boxes in January for his staff. He paid for all their membership fees in advance for the whole year. Remember him?”
“Yeah, yeah, I remember him. He’s a badass,” Donny said, nodding at the memory. His focused gaze landed on Dallas, giving him a critical eye as he looked him up and down. “You gotta be as exhausted as you look.”