Finn stood in the locker room of Ringside, dressed in his workout clothes, at a loss for what he should do next. Eli was undoubtedly waiting for him to come out and start his warm-up, something that Finn normally didn’t mind. But today he knew Leo was out there, because they’d made eye contact as Finn had walked through the gym on his way back here. Leo had even gone so far as to wink at him. Which was completely mind-numbingly surreal.
Then there was Justin.
He was in the main office talking to Zack and someone who Finn assumed was a contractor, given the blueprints he’d caught sight of as he passed. Justin hadn’t seen him, which had given Finn the opportunity to stare, if only briefly, at the man who’d so unexpectedly come into his life.
Had it only been a week? Two?
Not that they had anything going on between them. But last evening’s pretend date had been stuck on repeat in Finn’s mind. His lips still held the warmth of Justin’s, his nose still held Justin’s scent, and his cock had ached long into the night. Why he’d reacted the way he had to a practical stranger, Finn wasn’t certain. Justin was abrupt, more than a little snarky, and not even remotely the type of man Finn would be attracted to. So being unable to get Justin out of his mind, especially when he had a date coming up with Leo, didn’t make sense.
Rather than confront him, he now stood in the locker room.
Because that was what he always did when he was being a chicken—avoid.
He paced long enough to know that he was being ridiculous. Justin was a friend, that was it. They’d both gotten caught up in the moment, which was understandable. Nothing had changed in his desires, his want for Leo. If anything, he was more determined to see his date through to the end, if for no other reason than to prove to himself that he could do this. Justin was a nice man and good-looking—well, if Finn was being honest, Justin was pretty damn hot. But that didn’t mean that Finn would throw away months of longing to pay attention to the new shiny.
No, he had a plan and he needed to stick to it.
He needed to get out to the ring.
Taking a breath, Finn grabbed his gloves and marched out to the ring. Eli was leaning on the ropes talking to one of the other regulars. He smiled at Finn as he got close. “There he is. I thought you got lost back there.”
“Sorry.” Finn should give some sort of explanation, but the words wouldn’t come. He wasn’t about to lie to Eli, but the truth was far too embarrassing. “Warm up?”
Eli narrowed his gaze slightly. “Ten minutes. Use Jacobs Ladder until you drop, then finish with jumping jacks.”
God, he hated Jacobs Ladder. “Yup.”
The machine was off in the corner, pressed against the wall. The wooden rungs looked easy enough to master—oh hey, nothing more than a perpetual ladder—until you realized that the never-ending hand-over-hand, rung-after-rung climbing sapped the life from you within seconds. It was Eli’s favorite torture device.
Today it would be doubly so for Finn, because it gave him an unobstructed view of the office and Justin.
Wonderful.
He snapped the emergency stop band around his waist and began his climb. The wooden rungs fit snuggly into the palms of his hands as he moved. Most people at the gym would last less than two minutes, but Finn had been subjected to this beast long enough that he could manage nearly ten. As he moved, it was easy to fall into an unthinking state. His body screaming at him from the exertion, requiring all of his focus to keep from slipping. All he could do was stare straight ahead at the office and the occupants inside. Well, occupant—his gaze had pretty much landed on Justin and he hadn’t been able to look away.
Finn watched as Justin pushed his dark-rimmed glasses up the bridge of his nose and pointed to something on the blueprints that were stretched over the office desk. He was wearing dress pants and a dress shirt again, and his cuffs were rolled up to the midpoint of his forearms.
Justin’s actions were contained, no frantic waving of hands the way the contractor spoke. Finn knew from experience that Justin’s words were well selected, each one absolutely necessary to get his point across, and nothing more. His body was lean, and Finn now knew what he felt like, even if he’d been left wanting more.
He knew what Justin tasted like as well.
“Jesus, he puts you on Jacobs Ladder?”
Finn started, losing his rhythm and nearly falling off the machine. “Shit.”
Leo came up from behind him, arms crossed, and grinned. “I hate it. Why the hell would Eli make you use this?”
Finn’s heart pounded even harder in his chest. “Endurance.” He regained his footing and increased the pace.
“I guess that makes sense. Maybe I’ll have to add it to my routine.” Leo stepped closer and started to watch what he was doing. “Five minutes. That’s not bad.”
This is the part where you say something about your goals. About working your way up to doing this for twenty minutes straight. Maybe flirt a bit. “Thanks.”
“I’m anxious for our date next week.” Leo moved so he was now looking Finn directly in the eyes. “I want to hear all about your training routine. The things Eli has you doing. How you’ve progressed. I wish we could have gotten together sooner, but I’d already committed to going out with another guy. Don’t want to be rude and bail.”
“No. That’s fine.” Finn’s hands were sweaty, making it more difficult to maintain his grasp on the rungs. But he wasn’t about to break eye contact, not when Leo was paying such intense attention to him.
Leo paced beside the machine as he spoke. “I hope the Pear Tree is good for you? I’ve got to stick to my budget and all that crap.”
“Sure. Yeah, that’s good.” For the first time since Finn had laid eyes on Leo, he wanted the other man to leave. It was getting incredibly hard to keep his pace up, and he was almost at his record. I might finally break ten minutes. Shit, he’s still talking.
“You know what?” Leo snapped his fingers and grinned. “I’m free tomorrow night. Why don’t we get together then instead?”
Finn stumbled, and rode the rung to the floor, triggering the emergency stop. “Tomorrow? We said next Friday.” Friday was doable for him. It was a week away, which gave him time to work with Justin on what he was going to say.
Leo’s smile dulled ever so slightly. “I know we did, but isn’t tomorrow better? It’s Saturday. We can talk about all sorts of things; maybe you can tell me how you made out today with your training?” Leo moved into Finn’s personal space, close enough that Finn was worried he’d get sweat on him. “You can do tomorrow, right? I mean, this date is important, yeah?”
Oh God, it’s not enough time. “Sure. Okay.”
Leo traced his finger along the machine, so close to where Finn’s arm was that he nearly touched it. “I’ll see you there at five, then.”
“But I—”
Leo blew him a kiss, turned, and left.
It took Finn a solid thirty seconds to make sense of what had just happened. Out of the blue, Leo had approached him and changed their date time. Had changed everything that he’d assumed was going to happen with a proverbial snap of his fingers. Finn wasn’t ready for this. Not at all.
He was covered in sweat, his heart pounding out of his chest, and somehow needed to figure out how to get ready to go for an early supper. Tomorrow night. Not Friday like they’d planned.
Shit.
He looked up in time to see Justin staring at him from the office. Finn’s chest tightened as blood rushed through him. He’d thought he had more time to prepare, more time to work on his introduction, to practice what he would say about his job so he wouldn’t bore Leo to tears. God, he hadn’t had a chance to work on what he’d gone over with Justin last night.
It was becoming difficult to pull air into his lungs. He had to force himself to breathe in through his nose, and out through his mouth so he wouldn’t get too light-headed and pass out. Justin was still staring at him, and now took a step toward the door. Finn shook his head hard, stopping him in his tracks. At least he listens to me.
As much as he wanted to talk to Justin, to tell him what was going on, he had no right to disrupt his meeting. They weren’t best buddies, even if Justin had shown him more kindness than nearly anyone else. Even if, despite everything that had happened between them last night, Finn really wanted Justin to ignore his request, come over, and help him figure out an action plan.
Instead, Finn moved over to the mat and began doing his jumping jacks.
Eli would find him shortly, and then he wouldn’t be able to think about dates, freaking the fuck out, or anything else. He’d focus on the here and now, and only once he was done with his workout would he figure out how the hell he’d survive tomorrow night.
Justin wasn’t easily distracted. Especially when he had to focus on a key project deliverable. Zack had been going back and forth with his contractor about the budget and the changes they’d like to make in the apartment. He and Zack had prepped beforehand, Zack wanting to take the lead in the meeting, with Justin offering his two cents when a decision had to be made.
That was why he’d been painfully aware of Finn climbing onto the torture machine Eli had mandated, why he’d known the second Finn looked at him, not to mention the instant Leo showed up and Finn freaked out. Justin hadn’t been this hyperaware of another person since Grady had left Vancouver, and it was more than a little disconcerting.
Especially given how last night had ended.
“We can gut the kitchen next week. It’s not big, but I have no clue what we’ll find behind those walls. I need to know you have a contingency budget that I can draw on in case I need to.”
Justin cleared his throat and glanced at the contractor. “We’ve allowed for a runover. The plumber has already identified several concerns, and we’ve taken those into account. Unless the electrical is worse than we’re anticipating, then we should be covered.”
When he looked back to Finn, he knew something had gone terribly wrong between him and Leo. Leo blew Finn a kiss, turned, and left Finn standing there appearing shell-shocked. Justin took a step toward the door, not that he knew what to do, but he wasn’t about to abandon his new friend. But the second Finn shook his approach off, he forced his attention back to the matter at hand.
Because if everything went the way he and Zack were planning, his living arrangements were about to become entertaining.
Zack glanced over at Justin and frowned. “I don’t want to start knocking down things until the custom cupboards are ready to ship. You’ve got to live in that mess, so I’d like to minimize the chaos as much as I can.”
“I can manage. There’s an excellent choice of takeout around here.” Now that Justin had gotten a paycheck from Zack, that was something he could comfortably do. At least in the short term.
The contractor picked up his papers. “If I can start tearing walls down next week, then that gives us time to make sure any problems we find can be addressed before the cupboards arrive. I have a good supplier right now, and custom work has been coming reasonably fast.”
Zack tapped his fingers against the desk. “I’m trusting you on this. Okay, let’s move forward. Justin will then be able to start finding leads on clients for future apartment development. If we can get twenty percent rented, that will give us enough working capital to make the entire project profitable.”
A few more details and a couple of handshakes and then the contractor was out the door. Justin sighed, relieved that the meeting was over. He turned to see that Finn was now in the ring with Eli. Eli was holding two giant pads for Finn to punch and kick.
Zack moved around behind him, the rustle of papers being rolled up and filed away filled the air. “How have things been going for you?” Zack sounded more like a CEO than a curious friend. “I know you’ve only been here a few weeks, but have you settled well upstairs? In the city?”
“I’ve finally managed to scrape the living organisms off the countertops in the apartment. I’ll be almost sorry to see them go.” Justin tore his gaze away from Finn to look at Zack. “Almost.”
“Nolan said Finn came up to help run cables?”
Rogers Cable had arrived, and he now had high-speed internet. Justin might have even given a fist pump once the installers left. “He did. I can now binge-watch Netflix to my heart’s content.”
“The two of you seem to have hit it off.”
Justin crossed his arms, preparing for what was clearly an interrogation. “I’m helping him with a little problem he has. That’s all.”
“Really?” Zack snorted. “Nolan was shocked to have seen the two of you together at the speed dating event. It’s my understanding Finn doesn’t really talk to many people.”
“And I’m not exactly the warm fuzzy type.”
“I didn’t mean that.”
“Yes, you did.” He’d been told how much of a cold bastard he could be over the years. “I promise, I’m not abusing any of your patrons.”
“You don’t like to make it easy for people to like you, do you?”
“Being liked was never one of my goals. You can’t be everyone’s friend and have your business be number one.” That was something he’d firmly believed working for Theo Barnes—still did if he was being honest with himself. “It’s why I had to leave Vancouver in the first place.”
“I used to work with a lot of people like you at Compass Technologies. Hell, I used to be like you.”
Justin had heard all about Zack Anderson, asshole and CTO of Compass, from Grady and Max over supper the other night. He hadn’t quite been able to reconcile what he’d heard about Zack and the man he saw on a nearly daily basis here at Ringside. “What changed?”
“Nolan.” Simply saying his partner’s name made Zack’s entire demeanor soften. “He showed up, and I realized that there was a different way of doing things. It took me a while to accept that I could have it all: a solid relationship, kindness, a successful business. I just had to change my perspective on life.”
“As easy as that.” Except, it was nothing but. The fortune might favor the brave, but it also tended to reward the aggressive, uncaring manipulator as well. It was a fine line that Justin often found himself on the wrong side of.
The farther away he’d removed himself from his past, the less he knew what to do with himself in the future. All he had were his instincts and his words.
And quite a challenging project in Finn.
After he’d left Finn’s place last night, Justin had decided to take a step back from what had happened and examine his actions. Why he’d allowed himself to get caught up in the moment was beyond him, an anomaly of his normally reserved self. Finn had overwhelmed his sensibilities with his shy smiles and intense gazes. Justin hadn’t been on the receiving end of that sort of attention before.
It had been flattering, and unexpectedly arousing.
It couldn’t happen again.
Finn wanted Leo. He’d been quite clear in his request and hadn’t wavered in any of the conversations they’d had. It wasn’t his fault Justin had let things go too far, had allowed himself to get taken in. Nor was it Finn’s fault that Justin had been able to see himself in the role of better than Leo.
He was here to help Finn win Leo over. Nothing more.
Zack cleared his throat. “I think his time with Eli is almost up. If you wanted to go over and say hello.”
Jesus, the last thing Justin needed was for others to start meddling in his personal life. “I see that.”
“Are you going to talk to him?”
“I have to. We’ve made eye contact.”
“Right. It would be rude to ignore him now.”
Justin somehow managed to keep his sigh inside. “Say hello to Nolan for me.” Knowing Zack wouldn’t give up until he spoke to Finn, Justin left the office as Finn headed back toward the locker room.
Sweat covered his body, making his black hair darker than normal, slick and stuck to his forehead. Somehow, his crystal-blue eyes appeared to sparkle. “You look quite disgusting.”
Finn’s smiled brightened the room. “Eli’s an asshole.”
“I’ve heard that from more than one person.” Justin knew he should let Finn go and have a shower, but he couldn’t quite get himself to move out of the way. “I saw you speaking to Leo earlier. I was concerned. You appeared upset.”
And as quickly as Finn’s relaxation was there, in a flash it was gone. “I need to talk to you about that. Ah . . . something’s changed.”
“That sounds ominous.” Justin swallowed past an unexpected tightening of his throat. Did Leo break things off before they’d begun? “Why don’t you come up to my apartment once you’ve cleaned up and we can talk about it?”
“Yeah, thanks.” Finn wiped a hand down his face, taking sweat with it. “Give me twenty minutes and I’ll be right there.”
Ignoring the fleeting image of Finn naked in a shower, Justin nodded. “Of course. The door will be unlocked, just come right in.”
He turned and made a direct line for the back stairs, his words rolling through his head like a mantra.
You’re only here to help. He’s not yours.