“God, I’m going to be so sore tomorrow,” Giselle groans, leaning back to balance her elbows on the wood behind her. She rolls her shoulders, hissing. “I know leg day is the worst, but upper body day sucks, too.”
The corner of my mouth lifts. “I loved it.”
“Yeah, well, you’re a masochist,” she says, eyeing me for a second before her attention is back on the rocks. “Besides, sounds like you were blowing off some steam. There’s always more energy when you’re pissed off.”
I clench my jaw, but don’t reply.
“What’s going on?” Giselle asks.
The swimmers must think we want privacy, because they give us a little nod and smile before they see themselves out, and then it’s just the two of us.
I sigh. “I don’t really want to talk about it.”
“Come on. Maybe I can help. Besides, I’m nosy and the workplace drama has been unfortunately dry lately. Give me something.”
I shake my head on another fake smile. “It’s nothing, really. Just… Erin and I got into a little disagreement before she left for her trip.”
“Uh-oh. What’d you do?”
I actually chuckle at that. “Overreact, most likely. I don’t know. Her ex is back in town, and he goes to therapy with her, and they’ve been talking. I saw a text come through from him and I just… I lost it.”
“She didn’t tell you he was back?”
I shake my head, and Giselle whistles, massaging the side of her neck for a moment.
“Well, I’d be upset, too.”
“They’re just friends,” I say with confidence — which is funny, considering I didn’t want to hear it when Erin told me that same thing.
“Friends, with an ex?” She shakes her head. “I don’t know if that’s possible.”
“With them, I think it is. They have a complicated relationship, one that’s tied up in a lot more than just romance.” I frown. “I think he’s been an important part of her recovery.”
“Recovery?”
That makes my throat go dry, and I shake my head. “It’s not my story to tell. Just… I guess what I’m saying is that talking to you about it now, I realize I trust her, and I’m not threatened by him. But I certainly didn’t act that way originally. And she said some things, some true things, but still… they stung.”
“Like?”
“Like calling me out on the fact that I have a lot of family shit in my life that I’ve never properly dealt with, that I laugh at her going to therapy when in reality I probably need it, too.”
“This is your therapy,” Giselle says simply, and when I turn to look at her, it’s with a gaze of wonder.
Because she just nailed what I have been trying to tell Erin forever, I just never knew how.
“I mean, you come here to be silent, to sit with your thoughts, to work through frustrations. And from what you’ve told me, it’s always been this way, yeah?”
I nod. “Yes.”
She shrugs. “Not everyone has to talk about what’s happened to them. Sometimes, we handle trauma by working through it physically, overcoming it the same way we overcome a challenge in the gym.”
I watch her for longer than appropriate.
“What?” she asks on a smile.
“I just… yes. That’s exactly it.”
She looks at her nails before polishing them on her sports bra. “I know. I’m good.”
I smirk, relaxing a little bit and digesting her words as silence falls between us. After a long while, Giselle clears her throat, wiping at a bead of sweat rolling down her neck.
“You know,” she says softly, tentatively. “There are other ways to find that release you need.”
My heart halts in my chest.
“I could help,” she continues, and to my absolute horror, she scoots a little closer, angles her body toward mine, and touches my knee with one hand. Her eyes find mine, and where I hope she can read the warning in my gaze, I find only heat and lust in hers as she slides her hand up my thigh, higher and higher. “No one would have to know.”
“Giselle…”
Her smile turns wicked when I say her name, and unabashedly, she runs her hand up even more, wrapping around my cock before I can stop her.
I jerk away quickly, grabbing her wrist with more force than necessary and keeping hold of it as she giggles and bites her lip.
“You want to take control?” she asks. “I like that.”
“Giselle,” I say again, this time more firm. “This is inappropriate.”
Her smile wanes, and she blinks a few times before ripping her arm out of my grasp. “Oh, calm down. It’s not that serious.” She rolls her eyes. “It’s just a little fun. And trust me — you’re in need of it.”
“I have a girlfriend.”
“And I went to bat for you so you could have an extra-long weekend to take said girlfriend home to Pittsburgh, remember?” she challenges, arching a brow at me. “Erin is out of town. She also doesn’t know me and never has to find out.” Her gaze falls to my lap. “And I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but you’re hard as fucking tungsten right now.”