Zach's handsome face greeted her as he opened the door. "Hi, Lydia. Come in."
Returning his smile, Lydia stepped through the doorway. "Hi, Zach. Good to see you again."
Realizing what she'd said, Lydia looked away from him for a moment, smiling to herself and thinking:
Oh, yeah, Zach. It is
really
good that I'm seeing you again.
All
of you.
God! It would be such fun to give herself complete freedom to enjoy all of this without second thoughts! If Zach would only agree to what she would propose today . . .
Will he say yes?
Lydia wondered.
Maybe it was the careful thought she'd given to what she was going to say to Zach that buoyed Lydia's spirits. Maybe it was the pure delight of being here again, only minutes from looking at Zach's naked body, his pretty dick and his great ass.
Maybe it was knowing that today, no matter what, she would have an answer about Zach's willingness to go along with what she would propose to him.
Maybe it was the confidence she had in the words she would say to him, the way she would say them — god knows she had practiced her speech countless times since her conversation with Connie. She could make her proposal to Zach in her sleep. (And in point of fact, in one dream she had actually done that right before she awakened yesterday morning.)
Whatever it was, Lydia allowed herself a brief moment to linger on the lovely idea of seeing all of him, but there was no time to pursue that thought. She returned her gaze to her training client and said, "Hitting your workout goals this week?"
He smiled and answered, "Hey, you're the one who should know. You have me on this strict diet, and you have me working through some tough workouts every week. If I'm doing that, then I'm doing well on my goals, right?"
She laughed. "You're right, Zach. So I guess what you're saying is that, yes, you've been following the workout and diet regimen since our last session."
They were climbing the stairs to his workout room. "Yep. It's tough, but I'm doing it."
Lydia was again in very sexy workout gear. She had splurged on multiple outfits, agonizing over every one, calculating how each might accentuate her body, how each might delight Zach, making him eager to get to know her body intimately.
She had never spent so much time and effort in dressing for a man!
They entered the room and quickly moved into the regular routine: Lydia putting her bag down, then pulling out notebook and scale, Zach seating himself on the workout bench to begin untying his shoes.
She strolled to sit next to him, notebook in hand, ready to talk through the day's workout. Things seemed easy between them until she finished talking him through the workout and he finished taking off his shoes and socks.
Then he looked down. "Uh, Lydia, I have to say something."
Oh, shit! Oh, shit!
thought Lydia, alarmed.
He's going to say he doesn't want-
Zach interrupted Lydia's anxiety-ridden thought. "I have to say this because, well, I think I'm gonna bust a gasket if I don't." He turned to look at her as they sat side by side on the workout bench. "You drive me crazy, Lydia. I know how that must sound, and I know you must have lots of guys with lame come-on lines saying stuff to you, but-"
He paused, looking down. Lydia's heart was thumping in her chest.
Zach! Zach!
Drawing in a big breath, he raised his gaze to hers and said, "But you
do
drive me crazy. These workout sessions have been, well, really . . . different." He paused, glancing down before looking briefly again into her eyes, searching for recognition from Lydia that she knew exactly what "different" meant. "But in spite of the thing that makes them so different — or maybe because of it — you have messed with my head, Lydia."
Lydia was literally teetering on the edge of the workout bench.
Could this be the end of it? No! No!
She agonized to the point of feeling tears beginning to well behind her eyes.
"But you haven't messed with me in a bad way," he continued. "I guess what I'm saying is that, for some weird reason, I want one thing to continue during these workouts, and for a reason I know is not weird at all, I want something else to start, something not connected to the workouts themselves. Something I'd really like. Away from the workouts."
Lydia was holding her breath.
Could he be saying-
"I've been in a knot the entire time since our first training session. Lydia, when you walked in and I was naked . . . hell, did that ever surprise me. And I admit it. It embarrassed me like you can never imagine. We guys, we like to be the ones who 'get the girl,' you know? But you walked in, and the tables were turned, and then you just waltzed over to stand next to me on that scale," and Zach cut his gaze to the scale now positioned in its usual place in the room, "and just like it was what you do every day you looked down to get your numbers." He paused, chewed his lip for a moment, then pressed on. "I knew you were looking at, um, well . . . I knew you could see everything, not just the numbers on the scale."
Zach was fidgeting, running his hands through his hair and grabbing the edge of the weight bench as he sat next to Lydia. She remained quiet, her heart still pounding, hoping beyond hope she knew where this was going.
"So the thing I want to continue, even though I know it's weird and I am so hoping you're not going to judge me for this or think of me as some kind of idiot . . .." He blew out a barely audible sigh, his shoulders sagging, but then sucked in a big breath and straightened as he sat on the bench next to her. "The thing I want to continue to happen is you seeing me naked."
Lydia almost crumpled with relief.
"For whatever weird, crazy reason, being naked in front of you is so sexy to me that even thinking about it can cause-"
Zach interrupted himself, glancing quickly down. Lydia saw him wringing his hands and knew he was struggling to continue. Finally, when he looked up at her, she saw his embarrassment creeping up his neck and onto his face. Swallowing, he continued. "This is so hard, Lydia, admitting this, and I don't want to gross you out or anything, so I'm not gonna say what being naked in front of you causes me to think, to wish would happen." He looked into her eyes. "And if anyone had ever told me I would hire a gorgeous female trainer who walked in on me when I was completely naked, and what my reaction would be, I'd have said he was crazy. But it's true. Being naked in front of you these past few weeks has been the sexiest, most mind-blowing experience of my life."
Lydia was screaming for joy inside.
Yes! Yes!
She turned even more toward Zach until she was side-saddle on the bench.
'Gorgeous,' he said. Zach said I'm gorgeous!
"All this is so weird, I know," Zach continued. "But, Lydia . . . oh, damn! Here I am telling you that I like being naked in front of you, and, and . . . and I've been so worried about what
you
think about all this. And what I'm really hoping is that, well, maybe it's not, um . . . I hope it's not making you think I'm a pervert or anything. I mean, last week, you know? God, I thought I would die of embarrassment when I started to get, to get-"
Lydia wanted so badly to reach out and pull this man into a tight embrace. But she was frozen.
Or maybe entranced.
". . . when I started to get . . . well, you know," he continued. "But, damn, Lydia — after you left," pausing, he turned completely toward her on the bench, "after you left and I thought about you seeing that, seeing me, uh, you know, in that state, seeing what was about to happen . . . I hoped that maybe you weren't disgusted by it, you know?"
His questioning gaze caught Lydia off guard.
"But here's the thing," he continued, looking at her with an expression that was sincere mixed with worry mixed with hope. "I would
never
want this bizarre scenario of being naked in front of a woman with anyone but you. Honest."
Zach continued looking at Lydia, emphasizing his words. "Honest. I swear. Because the second thing I want to happen, which is definitely
not
weird, is that I want to go out with you. I want to go out on dates with you. I want to know you, Lydia, because you are an incredible woman to me, and the fact that you see me naked — hell, the fact that you've seen me start to get a hard-on in front of you — well, that's something that would kill things for me with any other woman in these circumstances, Lydia. I know it. I wouldn't want that with any other woman, and I wouldn't want to go out with any other woman that had me strip for her and stand on a scale to get weighed."
Oh, Zach!
Lydia thought, tears now beginning for a different reason. These would be tears of relief. And her prepared comments, her suggestions so carefully crafted and edited in the days since her talk with Connie about her brilliant solution to date Zach but still keep him nude on her scale — the pressure and the worries she was under before hearing his soul-baring confession had just evaporated.
Now, with what Zach had said, her words to him would come out in a torrent of relief and excitement and anticipation.
He wants what I want!
she thought in wonder.
This is so perfect!
But Zach continued before she could get out the first syllable of the first word, before her tears of relief fully made their appearance, before she could rush into her carefully prepared and rehearsed speech to him.
"So let's get this workout session going, and you can think about whether any of this makes sense," he said, standing and pulling his tank top up over his head and off while stepping to the scale. "I'm ready for my weigh-in, Ms. Tanner."
And he skinned off his shorts and briefs and stepped onto the scale, gloriously nude.
The abrupt end to Zach's confession about what he wanted, and the sudden loss of the opportunity to say what
she