Alex hadn’t put his mouth on me yet. That was, what, third base? Could he handle my size? Heck, could he handle my size when we went all the way?
Those thoughts don’t matter, I told myself. Alex wiggled out of my hold, planted a quick kiss on my lips, and went down the hall to fetch something to clean us up. I sat there on the corner cushion of my couch, naked, legs spread, covered in myself and Alex. And the first thing on my mind was:we need to do this again in a few minutes.
I laughed at myself. Years of suppressed libido needed to sate itself on a man I found incredibly attractive. A man to whom I could commit.
Had already committed to, really. I had eyes only for Alex.
He came back and laughed at the sight of me, spread-eagle and smiling like a goof. “I’d take a picture if it weren’t so inappropriate,” Alex said as he ran a warm washcloth along my thighs. I hadn’t exactly gone soft since coming, but I sure got fully hard again as his hands brushed against my balls.
“Sorry,” I said shyly.
“Well if you can wait at least fifteen minutes…” He said in a faux-annoying tone.
I’ve waited years for you.Those words almost—all-friggen-most—came out of my mouth. I clamped down on my tongue and kept the stupid smile on my face.
Alex grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch, squirmed his way up to me, and made me extend my legs along the couch so he could lay with me, wedged between my legs, his back on my chest, head on my shoulder. Just as he settled in, another errant thought popped in my head and this one Ididsay aloud.
“Will you spend the night?”
He twisted so he could look up and over at me. “Really? But your schedule… you have a game tomorrow. Won’t I interrupt your rituals and stuff?”
I turned his face away, kissed the top of his head, and squeezed him closer to me. “You’re not interrupting. I’m not sure what your day looks like tomorrow but I usually try and make it to the stadium by noon.”
Alex nodded. “Okay. And how late do you sleep in usually?”
“Between nine and ten.”
“So… that’s, what, an hour and a half of free time? Roughly?”
I kissed his hair again. “It is, yep.” He cleared his throat and I saw his fingers fidget. “What is it you want to ask me?”
“I know that sometimes…athletes… don’t, y’know, drain the ol’ lizard the day of a game or match.”
I snorted, guffawed, and choked on my own spit. Both our bodies shook from my sudden laughter. I slapped out a hand to the back of the couch to secure us from falling. “Jeez, did you just say ‘drain the ol’ lizard’?”
“I’m trying to be polite here!”
I knew he probably thought of Ricky. Fighters were especially cognizant of masturbation and climaxing before matches. Perhaps football and hockey were similar, but no other sport came close to the sheer volume of games baseball players had to play. Our days and nights were forged in ritual and rote efficiency. I’m sure there were players who felt thatholding on, as it were, helped them out. But I was not one of them.
“Don’t worry about that,” I told Alex as I calmed down. “I appreciate that consideration, though. Very thoughtful.”
“Well,” he said as he re-draped my arms across him, “I’m sure you’ll miss me terribly during our little break here and I want something to be remembered by.”
What we did five minutes ago was more than adequate to hold me over until I saw him on the twenty-seventh. But I sure asheck wasn’t going to tell him that if he had more things in mind.
“So will you, then? Spend the night?”
He picked up my hand, kissed it, and said softly, “Of course I’ll stay the night, Rome.”
He said “of course,”I thought. I turned the words over in my head, let them echo and rebound in the suddenly cavernous spaces of vacant thought. Of course, as in it was implied he would. Of course, as in he liked me so much that staying the night was a given. Of course, as in the direction we were headed meant there would be so, so many more nights like this to come.
I kissed his hair again. Closed my eyes.
Of course. Of course. Of course.
Chapter Twelve
Alex
