SATED: #3 in the Fit Trilogy (2 page)

“Well hello, Keira,” he said cheerfully, as he walked by. “See the place didn’t blow up while I was gone.”

“Yeah, we managed,” Keira mumbled. Armando popped into the back office. He reappeared a minute later, chest bare, carrying a Melrose Fitness shirt in his hand. Keira tried not to look. He was taken too, but a nice body was a nice body.

“What’s going on?” he asked.

“Nothing.” Keira delivered another hard kick. More sweat slicked down her back.

“You okay?”

“Peachy.”

“Hey. What’s going on?” Armando grabbed the bag and held it in place. That didn’t stop Keira from throwing a few more punches. She glanced up at his face. He wasn’t going to leave her alone until she talked. Keira sank to the floor and started pulling off her wraps.

“I went out with Travis Humphrey last night and it was terrible.”

“What happened? Did he try any funny business?”

That made Keira laugh. “He hinted heavily at the funny business, but he didn’t try anything. I just don’t know why I bother. I go on so many first dates, but guys never seem to like me. Maybe I’m just too buff. Some guys don’t do muscles.” She playfully poked at her sweaty bicep.

“That’s not it. You’re too pretty.”

She looked up at Armando, scowling. “Thanks?”

“Listen. Men are functional morons. We take everything at face value. We see a hot woman and we think about sex and nothing else until we actually speak to you. And then some of us, the assholes mainly, can’t believe it when a woman comes with weird shit like a brain and her own personality. Look, it’s stupid, but we have a hard time seeing past a pretty face sometimes. Shit, even I read you all wrong when we first met.”

“You did?”

“Yeah, ask Grant. I was pissed when he hired you. I had to force myself not to ask you out.”

“Cause you’re my boss?”

“Pretty much. But then I got to know you and I realized—”

“You realized that we’re such good friends. That I remind you of your little sister. I know, I know. Connie and I are practically personality twins.”

“You are, but that’s not it. I realized that we’d be terrible together.”

Keira flopped onto her back. “You’re not helping.”

“Come on. You know I love you to death, but could you honestly see us together?”

“No.” And it wasn’t because he was her boss. Armando and Grant were both funny, sweet guys, but something about them always made Keira feel like they were on a different level of cool adultness. Didn’t help that both of them were involved in some bondage club, freaky domination type stuff. It intrigued her, but she could never be on the receiving end of that kind of torture and, from what she’s witnessed between Armando and his girlfriend, he was only into giving.

“Dude, you’ve met Nailah. You see how much I love her. Or look at Grant and Violet. He’s a teddy bear and she’s Miss Skeptical-Sarcasm.”

Armando had a point. Nailah had a very cool demeanor that you had to chip away at. Once you got to know her though, she was sweet as pie. They weren’t friends, exactly, but Keira liked Nailah a lot and seeing her with Armando, it was clear how good they were together. He was hot and she was cold. Keira herself was also hot, cheerful and outgoing, just like Armando and Grant. Their upbeat personalities made it so easy for them to get along, made it easy for the three of them to run the gym so smoothly, but there was nothing romantic there. It wouldn’t make sense. Dating Grant or Armando would be like dating herself.

“Seems like opposites do attract, but it’s not like Travis and I were too much alike.”

“Something tells me that you and a guy like Travis Humphrey have nothing to connect on at all.”

“And I don’t even like him! Ugh, you’re right, but what am I going to do? It’s not like…” Keira let out a deep breath. “I know I don’t
need
a man—”

“Keira, stop.” Armando’s tone was too serious. The sound of it made her look up again. “You need what you need and if you need someone in your life who cares about you that way, then there’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t rush it. If you want the real thing, be patient. He’ll come along.”

“When did you get so insightful?”

“Blame Nailah. She makes me think about crap like feelings and shit.”

“I’ll have to thank her.”

“You’re going to that comic thing this weekend and you said your Internet buddies bailed, right?” It wasn’t some comic thing, but Keira was too tired to correct him.

“Yeah.”

“You should meet up with my buddy, Daniel. His brother is involved with the show. I’m sure he can hook you up with some behind-the-scenes perks. Help you take your mind off this dating crap.”

Keira remembered meeting Daniel once and she only remembered because he was an intensely hot Asian guy who’d had one of his hands amputated. He also had a really deep voice that threw her off a bit. They hadn’t said more than a hello to each other at Grant’s last birthday party, but he was hard to forget.

“It would be nice not to walk around the convention alone.” She had planned to meet up with a few friends from the
Galaxis
blogs but, for one reason or another, each of them was unable to make the trip to Los Angeles this year.

“Cool. I’ll text him. I’m sure he has some sort of VIP access. You’ll have fun.”

Grant walked in then, face a little flushed, grinning from ear to ear. Lunch with Violet probably hadn’t involved any food.

“Hey! What are we doing?” he asked, as he lightly slapped the heavy bag still hanging near Armando’s head.

“I was just telling Keira she should go to the that Con thing with Daniel. You know, let him show her around.”
 

“Daniel Song?”

“Yep.”

Grant’s hesitation made Keira’s stomach sink. They couldn’t even find people who wanted to spend an afternoon with her. “Bad idea?”

“No, no. Not at all,” Grant said, cocking his head to the side. “I just realized you guys have never hung out. He’s a cool guy. And I think his brother is big in the sci-fi TV world. You should have a good time with him.”

“See? Forget about dating for a while. Just go to the comic con and have some fun.” Armando patted Keira on the leg before he stood up and pulled on his shirt. Keira hoped this was a good idea. If not, she was fully prepared to ditch Daniel. She could geek out on her own.

✶

Daniel stood in the middle of the arena floor, eying the stage. He hated last-minute jobs, but it kind of went against company policy at Fire In The Sky Pyrotechnics to leave a new client in the lurch.

Forty-eight hours prior, as his first nationwide tour kicked off in San Diego, “teen sensation” Blake Carlisle had to end the show when not one, but two of his pyro effects malfunctioned. The first caught the pants of a backup dancer on fire, but roadies were able to stop, drop, and roll her before any bodily damage was done. She was back for the next number, in new pants.

The fans to the left of the stage weren’t so lucky when a flame tower tumbled into the audience. Two dozen concertgoers were sent to the ER with severe burns and other injuries. Blake’s tour management had immediately fired the previous pyro team and stuck them with the legal problems, but the show had to go on. Daniel had a day to figure out how to fix or replace the stunts before the tour took up again at the Staples Center. He’d wished he’d brought earplugs though. They were doing a run-through of the whole show so Daniel could fix the issues, but the kid’s music sucked.

“The stage is too small,” Daniel said to his partner, Mike. Daniel gestured to the right side of the stage with his prosthesis. Sometimes it caused some discomfort, but he always wore it to work. Helped him manipulate the charges better and it scared newbies who thought you could fuck around with fire and not get burned. The body-powered beauty was black with a black hook attachment. He did like that it got people’s attention. “And they based the tower right on that slope. I’m surprised it didn’t take out more people.”

“Should we kill the fire all together?” Mike asked.

“That’s what I’m thinking.” Daniel looked down, as his phone vibrated in his palm. He expected his mother, checking in after her shift at the casino, but the number of a good friend of his, a buddy-in-kink, Armando Vasquez, lit up the screen instead. He’d known Armando and his business partner Grant for years. Daniel had taught them both a thing or two about wielding a flog. And dealing with male submissives. He usually caught up with them a few times a month at the bondage club Daniel’s close confidants and mentors owned. Master Philip’s or “The Club” as it was also known, was where all three of them had come into their own as masters of their sexual needs and desires. He’d spent some of the best nights of his life in that refurbished warehouse, recovering, playing, growing as the man and switch he wanted to be. There was nothing on The Club calendar that coming weekend, but maybe Armando had something else in mind.

Blake was still mid-performance, but Daniel answered anyway. He had the gist of this shit-show.

“Vasquez, what’s going on?” Daniel asked over the music.

“Not much. You busy?”

“Sort of. Just a last minute consult. What’s up?”

“Question for you. You’re still going to that convention this weekend, right?”

“Galaxi-Con? Yeah. Why? What’s up?”

“You feel like some company?”

“You want to go?” Armando was cool and all, but conventions for popular sci-fi shows didn’t seem like his thing. Fan conventions weren’t really Daniel’s thing either, but he’d promised his mom he would show up and support his brother.

“No, I had someone else in mind. I think you might know her.”

Daniel listened as Armando laid out the particulars for what sounded like an adult play date with his co-worker, Keira. Daniel had only met her once, but she seemed like a nice girl and smoking fine, if his memory served him correctly. Armando was quick to explain that she was just looking for someone to hang out with while she took in the day’s events. Apparently Keira was a hardcore fan of
Galaxis
, but none of her local friends shared her enthusiasm.

“Yeah, send me her number and I’ll call her. I’ll make sure she has a good time.”

“Thanks, man. I appreciate it, but, uh, one more thing.”

“What’s that?”

“She’s…not like us.”

“What? A dude?”

“No, dick. She’s vanilla. Very vanilla. She knows about Grant and I, but it totally weirds her out, so don’t—”

“So don’t ask her back to my place to make a spanking video. Don’t worry. I’ll keep the kink talk to myself.”

“Thanks. I owe you one.”

Daniel ended the call and turned his full attention back to the train wreck falsely labeled as entertainment playing out on the stage before him.

Keira waited by the front doors of the LAX Westin. She’d decided against her Naymorian villager costume, which called for head-to-toe purple body paint, but only took one dedicated step down and dressed as Princess Orora from episode 1.16, “The Coronation”. It took forever and some serious online searching, and maybe a YouTube tutorial or two, or five, but Keira managed to fashion Orora’s teal gown and jeweled tiara. The makeup was simple enough, just a series of silver dots placed across her face, over the bridge of her nose. The gown though was a showstopper, as was evident by the number of people who had already stopped to take pictures with her in the few short minutes she’d been waiting for her con-companion for the day.

When she agreed to meet with Daniel, the conversation had been kind of quick. They were both busy with work and ended up ironing out the details over text. She wasn’t sure what to expect when he showed up, but she just hoped he was ready to dive right in to all the
Galaxis
related fun. A nerd through and through, she was going to gush over the actors during the afternoon panel. She was going to get in line and ask some questions. She was going to partake in the trivia games, and she was going to take pictures, and buy a t-shirt, hopefully some original art, and the only Orora figurines she was missing from her collection. And she was going to be as happy as a pig in poop doing it all. Hopefully Daniel could keep up.

“Keira?”

She swung around at the sound of a deep voice. There was Daniel, just stepping through the hotel doors. Keira blinked. She’d remembered that Daniel was attractive—Grant and Armando were allergic to having ugly friends—but she hadn’t remembered him being quite so good-looking. And she’d forgotten just how resonant his voice was. She could feel it under her skin.

Keira watched him as he came closer, all six-plus feet of him. He was dressed plainly, in a white t-shirt, black jeans and black boots, but his clothes fit him so well. You could see the muscle definition through his shirt. He wore his hair kind of like Armando did, shaved on the sides and along the back, but thick black waves on top were styled in a 50’s kind of way, with just a touch of hipster. It worked for him.

“It’s nice to see you again,” he said, reaching out with his left hand to greet her properly. Too busy staring at his face, Keira stuck out her right hand, which resulted in one of those awkward upside-down handshakes.

“Oh, sorry.” She laughed nervously.

“It’s okay.” He smiled back.

“I didn’t see you drive up.”

“I got here earlier. Didn’t know what the parking situation would be like.”

“Understandable. I made sure I bought parking vouchers with my convention pass.”

“Smart.” He took a step back and looked her up and down. “I thought about dressing up, but I’m glad I didn’t.”

“Why?”

“I don’t want to take focus off you. Armando told me you were going all out.”

Just then a mother and her young daughter walked over. The little girl was also dressed in Princess Orora’s coronation gown.

“Hi, sorry,” the woman said. “Can we take a picture with you? You’re the first cosplayer she’s seen today.”

“Of course!”

Keira posed for a few pictures with the little girl, then Daniel snapped a few so the mom could hop in the photos as well. When they were alone again, Keira glanced up to find Daniel staring at her with his striking brown eyes. She felt her face heat up.