It had been a long flight. The change over in Dubai had been tiring, just killing time to when the next flight took off. Then the joys of immigration, queuing with 100s of other tired and miserable people, just waiting to get through the desks, pick up luggage and get to the hotel. And here he was, safely checked into his Bangkok hotel, 2am and yet, due to the joys of jet lag, and against all logic, Steve was sitting on the edge of his bed wide awake.
"Sod it" he said to himself, pushing off the bed, glancing at himself in the mirror as he did. Nothing special he thought to himself as his 6ft tall sandy brown hair and blue eyes reflection looked back at him.
He certainly didn't have a body that drew the attention of everyone if he took his top off. Not that it was that bad he thought, just no 6 pack or rippling muscles, but a bit of muscle definition, and a bit of a decent tan since he'd been spending a lot more time out by the pool soaking up the rays.
This prompted him to think of something to pass the type during his current insomnia. The 24 hr gym seemed like the perfect place to try and burn a bit of this unwanted energy, and at this time of night it was unlikely that there would be anyone else there to disturb him. Making his mind up, he quickly stripped his pyjamas off and wanted naked to his case to find his gym kit.
Ten minutes later he was exiting from the lists to the gym reception. Wandering to the desk, the hotel staff member asked him to sign in. Filling in the book, he noticed that there was one name above him that hadn't signed out. "So much for having the gym to myself" he thought, and for a brief moment considered heading back to his room, but he was here now, he told himself, might as well make the most of the facilities.
Grabbing a bottle of water and towel he headed straight to the exercise bikes, his favourite apparatus. The treadmills would have been a better workout, but he preferred cycling to running, and you still worked up a decent sweat on the bikes with the right resistance. Putting the water and his key card into the holders he quickly set up a routine he knew from experience would get his sweating and out of breath in no time. With that, he settled onto the saddle and began to cycle, noticing that even as he started, the room felt warm from the local heat.
He'd been going for about 5 minutes, and already could feel the beads of sweat all over his body, soaking into his vest top, running down his tanned arms, trickling down his back, under the waistband of his boxers and running tantalisingly down his ass crack. Looking up for the first time he took in the rest of the gym. Off to his right, was a bank of treadmills, all of them were empty. To the left, were some free weights, mats and balls for us in Pilates and yoga? Also empty. Directly in front of him, dominating the centre of the room was a mini-gym complete with various weight machines.
As he took all this in, he also noticed what had caused him to look up in the first place. Settling himself onto the shoulder press machine was the only other occupant of the gym. "He must have been working on one of the machines on the other side" Steve thought to himself, as there's no way I'd have missed him before.
The guy in front of him was probably 6'2 at least, although sitting down it was hard to tell. And what muscles, the guy was seriously stacked, his arms almost rippling as he set up the weights, setting them up at a weight Steve wouldn't even think was possible to lift. Settling himself onto the bench he sensed that Steve was looking in his direction and nodded a greeting. Feeling like he had been caught starring, Steve guiltily nodded back before focusing back on his workout.
Now at this point it should be noted that Steve wasn't gay. At least he didn't think he was. He'd often wondered what it would be like to be with a guy, but he'd never actually been attracted to a man, which is why he never thought himself gay. Maybe bi-curious he thought to himself, as he risked a glance back in the guy's direction. . His vest t-shirt seemed to be living a charmed life, as If at any second the massive pecs it contained would burst out, such was the definition of his chest.
Glancing down at the guys legs, solid as tree trunks, Steve guiltily noticed how short the shorts were, and being on a bit of an angle, he could see quite a lot of the guys quads, which, as with the rest of what was on show was tanned a dark mahogany. Seemingly oblivious to Steve's observations, the guy was fully engrossed in his work out. Grunting with exertion, the guy lifted the weights again, his shoulders and upper arms bulging as they lifted the massive weight.
"Stop staring!" Steve thought to himself, trying to snap out of the daze that he'd somehow descended into. "This isn't you, I could understand it if there was a hot girl in a tight top over there, but it's a guy, and you're not that way inclined; are you?" Too late he realised that he was still starring at the guy, who now finished his reps, looked up at the wrong time. Flustered, Steve dropped his gaze back to the little TV monitor, determined to not look up again until the guy had left, or at least moved out of eye line.
This determination lasted for all of about 5 minutes, when the noise of the guy's exertion caused him to look up. This time he was working on the leg press, at right angles to Steve's view. The muscle definition on the legs stood out each time the guy thrust forward, pushing the weights up with ease. "Wow, he's just so powerful" Steve thought to himself, envious at the weights being lifted.
Almost unconsciously he started to check the guy out, almost for the first time looking at the guys face. The shaved head was glistening from the sweat his efforts were. Clean shaven, the deeply tanned face showed that the guy obviously spent a lot of time outside.
His reverie was broken when the exercise started bleeping at him to indicate the end of the workout. Thoroughly dripping with sweat, and having worked off his energy, Steve should have called it a night and gone back to his room, but for some reason, he couldn't draw himself away from the gym, and so quickly set the bike going again on another workout. Whilst he was doing this, the guy got up from the machines, took a drink from his water and headed over to the treadmills.
Obviously not one to start easy, the man cranked the speed up on the machine straight away and before long was flying along at a pace Steve knew would have sent him off the back of the machine. "He can't keep that up for long" Steve though, as the effortless easy the guy pounded along, the rhythmic thumping of his shoes on the treadmill kept reminding Steve of how his legs were beginning to tire, courtesy of his own work out. Yet still he continued, the pace never let up, minute after minute. Steve had by now slowed to a crawl on his own machine, and was finding it harder and harder to not look over at the guy who seemed to have limitless endurance.
"You got a problem?" a voice suddenly sounded out, shocking Steve out of his latest daze.
"Err, what sorry?" was all he could stutter out.
"You've been practically staring at me the whole time you've been here, first on the weights and now on the treadmill. It's very off-putting," the guy replied, slowing his pace to a walk.
"Oh, sorry about that", Steve said, "it's just that you're so fit." he added, inwardly cursing himself for the choice of words as soon as he said it.