Free Working It All Out by Dena Garson

Chapter One
     
    “Come on, Angie. Just one more.” Noel Coffield’s deep,
smooth voice was both encouraging and distracting.
    I was torn between calling him a sadistic bastard and
licking a trail from his Adam’s apple to his bellybutton and maybe even lower.
At the moment, “sadistic bastard” was winning so I thought it best to keep my
opinion to myself.
    Every muscle in my arms cried out in protest as I pushed
against the seemingly unmovable weight centered over me. At least I had
something yummy to look at as I was tortured. Noel stood nearby and if I turned
my head just a bit I could see the well-defined muscles along his chest and abs
through his fitted shirt.
    From where I lay it wasn’t safe to look lower. Even if he
didn’t catch me looking, as fair-skinned as I am I would have turned six shades
of pink with one glance. Then he would have known exactly what I had been
looking at, not to mention thinking about. And that would have been more
embarrassing than I could live with for the next couple weeks.
    Noel had been the object of my fantasies for several months.
As soon as I joined J&N’s Gym on the recommendation of a friend, I fell in
lust with Noel. The same friend talked Noel into coaching me as I trained to
run in a corporate fundraiser. Not being a big fitness buff, and having had my
forty-fifth birthday, I don’t know why I agreed to do the fundraiser much less
to allow Noel to coach me. Soon we were spending three evenings a week together
in one-on-one sessions and my wayward thoughts were getting harder to control.
    During one of the sessions we went for a run around the city
park. Instead of watching for unsavory characters lurking in the shadows as all
safety training tells you, I started fantasizing about me and Noel up against a
tree in a hidden grove. I was so lost in the thought I almost ran over two
other joggers using the running path. Thankfully Noel steered me away before I
did any damage, but he probably thought I was some kind of nitwit for not
paying attention to where I was going.
    It was his fault I was so distracted. For weeks his touches
had been lingering a little longer and it seemed as if he was standing a little
closer each day. By the time I got home I tingled everywhere he had brushed
against me. I kept telling myself that he was too young for me and he couldn’t
possibly be interested. That didn’t stop my traitorous body from responding.
    The good thing about my fascination with him was that it
kept me from thinking about how tired and sore my muscles were when I got home.
    “Did you finish that set already?”
    “Huh?” I realized I had gotten lost in my thoughts once
again and was just sitting there with the bar in the upright position. “Oh
yeah.” I let the bar down easy then quickly sat up to cover up my distraction.
“That’s all of them.”
    Noel didn’t look like he believed me but didn’t say
anything.
    “Let’s try something new tonight to mix it up a little.”
    “That would be great,” I said with forced excitement.
Although learning a new exercise should keep my thoughts from straying. I
hoped, anyway, as I followed him toward one of the back rooms.
    The clock above the doorway we passed through indicated it
was after seven. J&N’s was a small facility and had somewhat limited
equipment. Whenever Noel scheduled me to use the weights and machines I liked
to come in late. It meant no waits and fewer people around to see how inept I
was.
    “Here we are.” Noel indicated the monstrosity of cables,
handles, weights and bars in the center of the room.
    I imagined getting tangled up in some of the cables and
hanging myself. Panic must have shown on my face.
    “It’s not complicated once you figure out how to attach the
parts,” Noel quickly assured me. He squatted next to one of the lower sections
and attached a flexible handle to a cable. It looked as if he’d adjusted the
weight before pulling on one of the handles to try it.
    Seemingly