Chapter 21: T-Thank you, that helped a lot.

Was it... desire...?

Lucian before would have never considered it but now, it was different.

And for some reason, the more he thought about it, the more it made sense. Whatever he had become, it was clearly related to desire.

So it wouldn’t be too far-fetched if he could smell other people’s desire.

"You okay?"

Vanessa questioned with a frown, confused as to why he suddenly turned silent.

"Ah, yes.

Sorry about that."

"What were you thinking?"

Vanessa questioned with a curious look. Lucian looked at her, then, a playful smile appeared on his face and—

"Bad things."

He answered suggestively.

"And what are these bad things?"

Vanessa played along with a smile.

"You don’t wanna know."

"I do."

"I am telling you, Vanessa.

You do not."

Lucian’s grin widened, his purple eyes glowing strongly.

"But I—"

Before she could say anything else, Lucian grabbed 7.5 kilo dumbbells and passed them to her.

"How do you know I lift 7.5?"

Vanessa tilted her head in confusion as she grabbed the dumbbells.

"Hmm? Didn’t Rachel tell you? I am one of the regulars here."

"Rachel did mention how you said you have been watching her."

She nodded, then, she raised her eyebrow and threw the first curveball.

"Does it mean you watch both her and me?"

Lucian smiled at that question—

"Why? Should I only be watching you?"

He questioned back, looking right into Vanessa’s eyes with a dangerous, predatory look on his face. Vanessa looked back into his eyes and felt her heart skip a beat. 𝓯𝙧𝓮𝓮𝒘𝓮𝙗𝙣𝒐𝒗𝒆𝓵.𝓬𝓸𝒎

’Dangerous.’

Every part of her body screamed that.

Her brain was sending strong retreat signals, that she should not be interacting with this man any longer but... her heart said otherwise and this time—

Her heart won.

Her body continued to drift towards him and—

"If I say yes, would you stop looking at her?"

She questioned in a low voice.

Lucian continued looking at her with the same smile, then—

"Let’s work on your form."

He spoke as he walked behind her, Vanessa didn’t find that uncomfortable, if anything, she was the one who was very subtly moving her body towards him.

"You didn’t answer my question."

She asked.

And that was when Lucian stepped closer, ignoring all her subtle movements and closing the distance directly, so much that Vanessa could feel him standing right beside her, with only one or two centimetres stopping their bodies from touching each other.

Her breathing quickened at that, then, she felt Lucian bring his mouth right next to her ear and—

"Has no one told you to be careful of what you are thinking of getting into? There are a lot of bad men in this world, Vanessa. Men who would take advantage of you if you let your guard down."

He whispered softly.

His voice made her body shiver, it was as if his voice alone was doing something she didn’t think could be done.

"Now, start curling."

Lucian ordered in that same, unreasonably compelling voice and before Vanessa’s mind, her body reacted to it.

She started curling.

"Good."

Lucian praised and that single compliment put a smile on her face, which was unusual since Vanessa was someone used to compliments, especially from men.

Lucian’s words shouldn’t affect her at all.

But...

They did.

"Hnngg~"

She let out a voice.

Even she didn’t know whether it was a groan or an outright moan.

Lucian got as close as he could get without actually touching her.

"Keep your elbow closer."

He ordered.

Vanessa did as she was told.

"Don’t let your shoulder move."

Vanessa followed.

"Move slowly, curl with control, do not use momentum."

As she followed the instructions, her dumbbells began to feel heavy but...

That wasn’t Vanessa’s main focus, her main focus was on his voice. How he stood behind her, her head couldn’t stop thinking about what he was doing behind her, what he was thinking, how she looked. Was her hair okay?

Curls were currently the least of her concern, her body was just doing that under Lucian’s command without her being very conscious about it.

"Alright, that’s it."

Only when Lucian actually moved away from her did her mind finally return to the reality she was in and—

"Huh? O-Oh..."

She let out a confused sound.

"T-Thank you, that helped a lot."

She nodded, trying to hide the state she was in. Lucian on the other hand, sensed something else, that strange scent he smelled when he met her, the one he thought was desire—

It strengthened.

He looked at her clearly flushed face and the way her eyes were looking at him and—

If it was only a guess before.

Now, he was sure.

This scent was the scent of desire.

And the stronger it was, the more the person it was coming from desired him.

Lucian deduced.

’That’s... helpful.’

He shrugged, he still wanted to test it a little before being absolutely certain, but yes, the probability of what he believed being true was quite high.

"You’re welcome."

He smiled.

"Alright, you do two more sets, I’ll go do another exercise."

"Hmm? You won’t do curls?"

Vanessa asked, unable to hide her disappointment.

"The goal is just to test my strength today."

Lucian smiled, then he excused himself and moved to lat pulldowns.

Lucian sat at the machine and loaded 100 kg. At this point, he had a rough idea about his strength, so he knew he could do it.

And he was correct, he gripped the bar, it came down smoothly, he kept his form proper, chest up, elbows tucked, back engaged and lats stretched properly.

He did 10 clean reps.

Then he increased the weight.

110 kg.

120 kg.

130 kg.

He struggled with the last two reps of 130 kg, but still, he kept his form proper and pushed forward.

130 kg became the final number that he noted down in his notebook.

He did a few more exercises, noting down the progress in all of them, a few more women came and talked to him, he didn’t reject anyone, since his mind was clear and didn’t have any of the dark thoughts he had been having, he enjoyed the new attention he was receiving.

Just like that, Lucian had spent two and a half hours in the gym, it was his longest session, by the end, he was dead tired.

It was time to leave.