I was getting hungry just standing there.
It felt like being a kid in some kind of fairy tale land where everything you’ve ever wanted to do was all under the roof of your own house.
After the bowling alley, I looked at the billiard room which contained several ivory inlaid pool tables, a large dart board, shuffleboard table, and doorway off to the side which led into a fantastic casino room with a poker table, a blackjack table, and several old style arcade games lining the perimeters.
The last thing I checked out on the bottom floor was the massive gym that Mason had built. It had every free weight machine and type imaginable, there were cable machines, abdominal crunch machines, treadmills, ellipticals, rowing machines, racks of barbells and dumbbells, and several ropes and pulley setups.
“This is intense,” I whispered.
Moving from the weight room, I came to another room that had me almost speechless, mostly because I didn’t know Mason had anything to do with martial arts. I found myself now standing in an authentic mixed martial arts gyms. There was a huge caged octagon, foam mats covering the entire floor, several heavy bags hanging from the ceilings, a few dummies that were used for punching and kicking, and a few pods that were used for slamming. Also a wide variety of jump ropes, as well as an assortment of martial arts weaponry. I saw nunchakus, katana swords, and several others I didn’t not even recognize. It was amazing fun.
Of course any one of the gyms had a doorway that led out to the swimming pool area where I’d seen Mason swimming that morning. Well, if you could call it swimming.
I’d woken up early and found my way out to the pool. I figured I might take a swim, but then realized I didn’t have a suit when I got out there. I actually thought it would be ok to go skinny dipping, because surely no one was awake at that time of the day. Lo and behold, Mason was.
I saw him leave the gym and hop right in the pool. He looked so beautiful. He was wearing nothing but a pair of tight workout shorts. His body was rock hard, muscular, sweating, glistening…. Every single muscle was just so tight. I just wanted to rub him down and return the favor of the massage from last night.
All of this was getting too intense. My attraction to him was growing by leaps and bounds and the weird thing was that it didn’t feel weird anymore. I just wanted him and I was ok with wanting him. I’d done all the stupid calculations in my head about why it was a bad idea and how it would never workout. I’d end up with a broken heart and swearing off men forever (like I’d done in the past) and then I’d be in a much worse place.
But wouldn’t it be worth it? I was so tired of just playing it safe in my life. Of course, if I’d played it a bit safer I might not have been in the predicament I was in.
I sighed and put my hands on my hips. I suddenly felt very tired. I was tired, or to put it more accurately—my mind was tired. I was tired of beating myself up and telling myself how wrong I was, how horrible I was, and how stupid I was. I’d made a mistake. I was trying to deal with it. I had definitely learned from it. When would I just forgive myself about it?
I just didn’t know if I could.
I walked back upstairs and turned a corner down another hallway. It wasn’t long until I came to a huge library. It was immaculate. The shelves were at least ten feet high, some of them you would have to reach with a ladder. And as far as my eye could see, were books upon books. They were all divided into author and category. It was like a real, functional library.
I spent about a half hour just browsing the titles and wondering how many of these had actually been read. All of the books looked brand new, as if no one had so much as cracked them open.
I was gonna have to give Mason a bit of guff about that.
After leaving the library I continued to the end of the hallway where I came upon a room that I did not expect to find anywhere in the house. It was a large door that was locked. I tried a few times to push it open, praying that it was just stuck, but it didn’t budge.
“It’s locked,” Mason said from behind me.
I almost jumped out of my skin. Where had he come from? How long had he been standing there? I did not hear him coming. He moved very light on his feet for a big guy.