Thad wasn’t sure what Graham was talking about. After the monotony and boredom of prison, that felt like a hell of a lot to him. “I lined up some photography gigs,” Thad admitted.
“Yeah? What kind?” Graham took a drink of his water.
Thad’s gut tightened at the bob of his Adam’s apple when he swallowed. He really shouldn’t have let himself fantasize about what it would look like to watch Graham suck his dick.
“A little bit of everything. Mostly portraits though.”
“Yeah? I’m not surprised. You’re good at those,” Graham said.
“Thanks.” Thad glanced down, surprised by the flush of pleasure that went through him at the praise. In addition to his usual marketing duties, he’d begun taking some artsier shots of the players.
He’d never intended for them to be anything official for the team. They were him fucking around with a camera and seeing what came out.
But Tyson had spotted them on his computer last spring when Thad had been showing him some photos for a new campaign and been really enthusiastic about how good they were. He’d suggested Thad add them to the usual themed social media posts. They’d gone over well there and plenty of people had commented on how much they liked them.
But it wasdifferenthearing Graham say it.
“So were the photos you did like the ones you do of the team?” he asked.
“Yeah, somewhat. I did some freelance work at a few sporting events, some modeling headshots for comp cards, stuff like that.”
“Let me guess, you slept with all the hot models.” Graham rolled his eyes.
“No,” Thad snapped. “Actually, I didn’t.”
Graham looked taken aback. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to?—”
“No.” Thad forced himself to take a deep breath and lower his shoulders. “No, it’s … that would have been shitty of me to go after them. It’s … it’s a weird power dynamic and while I’m not saying I’m the kind of photographer who could make or break their careers, there’s a lot of exploitative shit in that field and I don’t want them to think that’s normal or expected or any of that.”
Graham’s expression softened. “No, that’s good of you.”
“It’s basic human decency is what it is,” Thad pointed out. “Besides, most of them were in their late teens or early twenties. I don’t sleep with people who are nearly two decades younger than me, even when they’re actually adults.”
“I’m twenty-six.”
“Mmm,” Thad said, surprised by the fact Graham sounded so defensive about it. “You are. But we’re not sleeping together either.”
Graham flushed. “Right. No, I know that. I just meant …”
Thad gritted his teeth together to keep from saying something he’d regret.
Something about how they could be. Because the truth was, while Thad hadn’t been a monk this summer, the hookups had lost a little bit of their luster.
And he had a sneaking suspicion he knew why.
Thad’s preferences had run to muscular blond men in the past few months, but it hadn’t exactly scratched the itch he had.
With Graham back, that wasn’t getting any better.
“Don’t you worry. I had my share of fun this summer anyway,” Thad said with a cocky look, holding Graham’s gaze. Because Graham didnotneed to know how much he was getting under Thad’s skin.
“Yeah, I bet you did.” Graham waggled his empty water bottle. “Hey, uh, I need to grab something. I’ll catch you later, okay?”
With that he was gone and Thad stared after him with a frown because he’d definitely fucked something up and he wasn’t entirely sure how to fix it.
Because he didn’t like the way they’d left their friendship at the end of the season and while he’d hoped the months between then and now would have smoothed that out, it clearly hadn’t.
Fuck. Maybe he needed to apologize for the shit that happened on the pub’s patio before they went their separate ways. He’d been kind of an ass to Graham.
