CW: Body image, bbw, D/s, humiliation, bondage, s/m.
***
I'd met James at fetish wear fashion show. I'd come alone and been jostled towards the catwalk among the audience until the partiers in the crowd surged drunkenly forward and pitched me into him. I'd apologized despite spilling my drink on myself instead of on him. He'd laughed at me but I wasn't mad. He was tall, with broad shoulders, dark auburn hair and eyes the color of seaglass.
We chatted about work and I found out he was a personal trainer. I lifted weights four times a week but had long since plateaued. I was self-conscious anyway. Being naturally soft and thick, I was used to health nuts rolling their eyes in disbelief at my workout regimen, but James offered me a discount rate for a one hour session.
"What's the catch?" I asked him as the models did their final walk and the spectators cheered.
James smiled. His eyes held me in theirs until the volume dropped. "Do you want a regular personal training experience or a kinky one?"
I raised my eyebrows. "That's an option?"
"For you it is." James sipped his beer.
I chose the kinky option.
James' private gym was on the edge of the city, a dusty patch of east industrial warehouses that remained mostly unsold except for the end unit with it's non-descript little placard in the window, a black silhouette of a dumbbell with white lettering that read "Jim's Gym" in writing too small to see from the nearest parking space, let alone from the road. A more legible typewritten sign hung below it: "By appointment only".
I got out of the car, gym bag in hand. I had an appointment. I'd always been too intimidated to work with a personal trainer in the past but there was something about James that made me want to let him yell and me while I got sweaty. I was halfway through texting him when he waved from the door, ushering me inside and locking the door behind me.
James hugged me and I returned it awkwardly, stealing the opportunity to smell his skin, an intoxicating vetiver tangle of bergamot and leather mixed with chlorophyll. I stifled a shiver and let James gesture to a seat near the door, across the small desk where he kept his laptop and a fitness resource library. I noticed mixed in among the powerlifting, running, and physio DVDs were a collection of racier titles that recalled porn. James caught me looking and grinned, apparently unabashed.
"Right Kady, you registered for my Kinky Bootcamp package, that entitles you to five one-on-one training sessions with me and 20 solo sessions at this gym. This session is free but to take advantage of the rest of the discount package, you have to complete this session to my satisfaction."
"What does that mean?" I wanted to know.
"That if you leave early or don't give your best effort, I won't take you on as client," James explained.
I nodded. "That won't be a problem. I take this kind of thing very seriously."
"Fitness?" James stared into my eyes as though daring me to look away.
Maybe not fitness, I thought, but performing well with an authority figure. Letting someone dominate me through my workout. "Yes," I nodded.
"Read this and sign," James slid a clipboard across the desk. It was a waiver, a commitment to the regimen he would create for me based on my completion of this assessment class, and a third sheet with a kinkier edge, stating that I understood that I was to fully and completely obey my personal trainer down the letter, that any deviation from his fitness plan was unacceptable and that refusal to comply would mean the end of the gym session and the end of future training sessions with James. Fair enough, I signed up for a kinky private personal training session for a reason. I signed my name to all three pages and filled in my credit card information before sliding the clipboard back to James.
I stood up to get changed and James stood too.
"Can I see your bag?"
I handed it to him and he rummaged through it, taking the turquoise cross-trainers out and handing them and my athletic socks and passing them to me. He tucked the bag under his desk.
I frowned. "I can't work out naked."
A half smile. "You will if you want to stay."
"It's not realistic," I explained. "I'm a soft woman. I jiggle and wobble, it's not going to work."
"If I assign something where you need support or a barrier, we'll see about some wrapping tape," said James, "but the rules of my gym are non-negotiable."
I stood in front of him holding my shoes and socks and nothing else. James was watching me, maybe wondering if I planned to bolt. Instead I saw the washroom behind the desk and excused myself to strip. To his credit, James didn't try to point out the inherent silliness of stripping in privacy to get naked working out in front of him. Maybe he realized I needed a moment to collect myself.
I studied my naked body in the bathroom mirror. Just socks and trainers, hair in a high pony. Round hips and ass, strong arms, thick thighs and heavy breasts. How was I going to make it through this workout naked?
I mounted my courage and left the bathroom, handing my clothes to James without meeting his eye. He said nothing but hitched a black duffel to his shoulder and beckoned me into the workout room proper.
It was a few thousand square feet, with high ceilings, a squat rack, bench, climbing rope, exercise bikes, a treadmill, and an assortment of plates, dumbbells, medicine balls, and other floor work equipment. It looked like a small, private, otherwise normal gym. James closed the door and keyed in a code and I heard a bolt slide into the lock.
"I'll let you out if you ask but that constitutes forfeiture of future training sessions," said James, noticing my distress. Wetness gathered between my legs despite myself.