Chapter 43

Elena’s movements suddenly stopped.

In the mirror, she caught sight of a dark, blurry figure moving behind her. Almost instinctively, she turned her head toward the entrance.

Richard was slowly walking in.

He was wearing a gray athletic tank top with a low-cut neckline, the fabric clinging closely to his body.

Elena’s eyes moved downward before she could stop them.

Her gaze traveled over his broad shoulders. The contours of his deltoids pushed against the edges of the tank top, forming smooth, full arcs that extended from his shoulders down toward his upper arms.

His physique wasn’t exaggerated. Everything was proportionate, powerful, and controlled. Beneath that, the defined lines of his biceps and triceps stood out, faint veins running along his arms and toward his large, well-defined hands.

And then—

The neckline of his tank top was cut unusually low, almost reaching the middle of his sternum.

She could clearly see the shape of his chest—thick, solid, and sharply defined. A shallow shadow ran down the center, rising and falling slightly with each steady breath.

The fabric clung tightly around his abdomen, revealing hints of his abdominal muscles and the sharp taper of his waist, creating a perfect V-shaped silhouette beneath his broad shoulders.

Rationally, Elena knew staring at someone like this wasn’t exactly polite.

But she couldn’t stop herself from looking for a few seconds longer.

She even noticed that Richard’s skin was unexpectedly smooth.

Under the lights, his skin had a warm, healthy glow.

From his clean, muscular arms to the slightly loose neckline of his tank top, there wasn’t much body hair to be seen. He looked almost like a sculpture that had been carefully polished to perfection.

The only things that broke that sculpted impression were the black wireless earbuds in his ears—

and those dark, deep-set eyes.

Elena’s heartbeat accelerated again.

It wasn’t as though she was unfamiliar with the male body.

She had trained in several different styles of dance and had partnered with plenty of men with impressive physiques. Close physical contact during dance was nothing new to her.

And as for simply seeing them?

She had seen all kinds—lean, muscular, slender, broad-shouldered. She knew plenty of male dancers.

But for some reason, no one had ever affected her quite like this.

Not the way he was affecting her right now.

“…Good morning.”

Elena took a deep breath and greeted him as he approached.

Richard walked with his back straight and his steps steady, every movement carrying a calm sense of authority.

Perhaps because his arms were exposed, there was something more primal and aggressive beneath that composure.

Elena felt her face growing warm. She quickly turned around, picked up her phone, and stopped the music.

“Alfred the butler said you told him I could use this place—”

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Richard stopped about two meters away from her.

“Mm.”

Elena blinked.

“So… are you here to work out? Or do you need me to leave? I was actually planning to practice outside, but it’s raining.”

Richard lowered his eyes to her.

“You stay here. Do whatever you want.”

He seemed as though he wanted to say something else.

In the end, he said nothing.

He simply turned and walked toward the strength-training area.

Elena stared at his back.

For some reason, she had the strange feeling that this guy was running away.

She shook her head, dismissing the ridiculous thought, but her eyes still drifted back toward him.

The dark-gray fabric of his tank top stretched tightly across his broad back. His thick latissimus muscles formed beautiful fan-like shapes on either side of his shoulder blades.

He reached up and took a weight plate from the rack.

As he did, the lower edges of his lats and the serratus muscles along his sides became clearly visible, their contours looking almost like they had been carved into his body.

When he bent over, the hem of his tank top shifted upward, revealing a small section of his side.

The skin there was smooth and taut, the lines of his external obliques clean and sharply defined.

Elena:

“……”

She abruptly turned back toward the mirror and stared at her own slightly flushed face.

Calm down.

You didn’t come here to admire someone else’s physique.

She took a deep breath and decided she needed something else to focus on.

Elena walked to the dumbbell rack at the far edge of the training area and glanced over the neatly arranged weights, ranging from light to heavy.

She took the lightest pair from the top, stepped back a few paces, and found a spot beside the mirror.

Then she began a few simple upper-body exercises.

Lateral raises, front raises, bent-over reverse flyes, and similar movements to strengthen her rotator cuff and improve upper-back stability.

Elena had plenty of experience with strength training. She moved through each set and rotated between exercises with practiced ease.

But her eyes kept drifting toward Richard.

He had already moved to the Smith machine and was bending over to load weight plates onto both ends of the bar.

She couldn’t see the exact numbers, but judging by the thickness of the plates, there had to be several times her body weight on the bar.

She watched as Richard began squatting.

His descent was slow and controlled, his knees consistently tracking in line with his toes.

At the bottom of the movement, his quadriceps suddenly tightened beneath his training pants, the muscle definition clearly visible through the fabric.

Then he drove himself upward.

At the moment he stood, the muscles beneath his tank top tightened sharply, each section of his abdomen becoming more defined.

His lower-body muscles tensed at the peak of the movement, filling out the black training pants with a dangerously sharp silhouette.

Elena’s lateral raises came to a complete stop.

She stared without blinking.

Richard completed the set, returned the bar to its rack, took a breath, and grabbed a towel to wipe away the sweat.

Elena looked at the hard, sharply defined line of his jaw.

Her cheeks felt hotter and hotter.

She quickly resumed her own exercises.

But she still couldn’t stop herself from watching him out of the corner of her eye.

After finishing his squats, Richard walked over to the pull-up bar.

He raised both hands and gripped the thick metal bar above his head.

Elena instinctively turned her head.

His lifted shirt exposed his abdominal muscles, each one clearly defined and neatly arranged. The deep V-lines extending toward his hips looked almost carved into his skin, making his entire torso look almost unreal.

Her throat felt dry.

She even bit her lower lip without realizing it.

…Stop looking.

A quick glance was fine.

But staring this long was starting to feel a little wrong.

Elena tried to summon what remained of her conscience and common sense.

It didn’t help.

She was still staring at the man’s back, watching the muscles spread like a fan with every pull-up.

His trapezius, rhomboids, and latissimus muscles tightened and rose in layers, moving beneath the dark-gray tank top.

At the top of the movement, his arms paused for a second.

His biceps seemed to tighten to their limit, individual muscle fibers visible beneath the skin, a thin sheen of sweat covering them.

Under the warm lights, his skin seemed to take on a dizzyingly sensual glow.

Then he slowly lowered himself.

The descent was even slower than the pull upward, every inch controlled through the eccentric movement.

His shoulder blades gradually spread across his back, like two folded wings slowly opening again.

Elena had completely forgotten what she was supposed to be doing.

She remained frozen in an awkward position, still holding the dumbbell in one hand as though she were about to smash the mirror in front of her.

Richard finished his set of pull-ups, released the bar, and landed lightly on the floor.

Then he turned and looked at her.

Elena met his gaze.

Her already-burning cheeks suddenly felt even hotter.

Richard raised an eyebrow, a hint of amusement appearing in his eyes.

“What are you looking at?”

Elena pressed her lips together.

“…Nothing. I just spaced out for a second.”

Richard gave a thoughtful hum.

“Is that so? I thought you were watching me.”

He kept looking at her, and Elena suddenly felt uncomfortable under his gaze.

She couldn’t help turning her head away, her mouth running before her brain could catch up.

“What’s so special? You’re just doing pull-ups. I can do them too.”

Seeing the way her eyes kept darting everywhere except at him, Richard’s lips curved slightly.

“Is that so?”

He tilted his head.

“Then how about we have a little competition?”