Page 60 of Tailwind

Until I saw the foggy outline of a man only a few feet away.

I spun on my toes, kicking in the direction of the silent creep.

A warm hand caught my ankle, suspending my leg in the air. The towel fell either side of my raised leg, I grabbed at it to stop it from revealing anything further, throwing me off balance.

Not for long.

I yanked my foot back, pulling him closer. My sweat let me slip out of his grip, allowing me to ground myself on two feet again. I used the momentum to swing my fist forwards.

‘Wow, Paldon!’ He dodged the punch. ‘It’s a steam room. You’re meant to relax!’

‘Vaspre?’ The whorls of steam calmed and thinned.

Standing opposite me in his own towel was Theo. The moisture hung heavy in his hair, making it somehow darker and lengthening the curls. Moisture beaded on his skin. There was a lot of it on show, including the ripples of his torso and patchwork of tattoos along his left arm. His towel was slung low and loose below his waist, showing off the V-shape chiselled above his hips.

‘My eyes are up here.’

My head snapped up, almost giving me whiplash.

His eyes were dark, watching me as the heat danced around us. I stayed light on my toes, unsure how it was going to play out. My fight or flight response hadn’t decided where to go from here. There was a tension building inside me, maybe adrenaline, low in my belly.

‘Do you often wait in silence for women to wander into the spa, or is it just today you decided to be a creep?’

His smile spread as he sat back down on the wooden bench that bordered three sides of the small room. He locked his hands behind his head. His triceps flexed, probably on purpose.

‘Oh, I’m sorry. Am I making you uncomfortable?’

I narrowed my eyes. I knew a challenge when I heard one. So I sat myself down on the opposite bench. Theo’s edges blurred from the distance, but nothing could mask the mischief in his eyes.

‘For what it’s worth,’ he said, ‘I prefer a quiet steam room experience, so I come here after hours to avoid Colly’s arcanite-powered chatter. I love the guy, but hearing about his grandparents’ wedding anniversary while sweating it all out isn’t exactly my idea of a good time.’

‘Funny,’ I replied. ‘Sweating it out with a self-obsessed showboat isn’t my idea of a good time. We don’t always get what we want.’

His chuckle floated across the small room. ‘Feel free to leave, Paldon.’

‘Likewise, Vaspre.’

We both knew this wasn’t about soothing muscles or relieving ourselves of toxins anymore. It was about outlasting one another in the steam room. I had the benefit of arriving after Theo, but he’d been doing this regularly for years – he was more used to taking the heat than I was.

Minutes crawled by. I tried to let go of the knowledge that Theo was there too. Tried to forget about the way his towel ended above his knees, daring me to look so he could taunt me about it.

Instead I replayed the Victrolia race in my head, just like I had while at the punching bag. The successes, the failures and the fact I’d been able to celebrate with Josie and Gottyk afterwards. Our little team.

‘How many are you up to?’ he said, ruining my attempts at forgetting him.

‘What?’ I bit back, annoyed.

‘How many times have you gone over the race now? It’s been hours since it finished, so I’m guessing at least five.’

‘Nice try, but I don’t do that anymore,’ I grunted out the lie, thankful for the steam for disguising my grimace. I hated that he knew. ‘If you’re going to insist on talking, pick another topic.’

There had to be something that wouldn’t ruin my good mood.

‘Do you still have your tattoo?’

Wrong topic. Wrong topic. Wrong topic.

My hand twitched to my left arm, conscious of my exposed skin. Where Theo had grown his collection, I still only had the one. Fast and Fair. My silence must have been telling.