Football and Ballet - Jason Collins Page 0,19
too, when I’d decided to take football more seriously, officially marking myself as being out of the loop for the rest of my life.
“Did you have this place professionally decorated?” I asked as I spotted a sculpture of a flower vase set out on the table. “It looks like it’s right out of the pages of one of those home décor magazines.”
“That’s because it is.” Patrick chuckled. “I don’t know. I saw a spread about a dreamy bachelor pad, and when I was away on my last tour, I had a team come over and redecorate the whole place.”
“Wait. So, you didn’t pick out any of your stuff?”
“No,” Patrick admitted, his voice falling flat. “I don’t really have a lot of time to get out and do stuff on my own, especially when I’m in the middle of a tour.”
“Do you have friends over a lot or something?”
“Over here? No. But that’s just because all of my friends are whoever’s on tour with the ballet company,” he explained. “I’m close with a lot of the other dancers, but really, the tech people are my favorite. They’re not as competitive, not as catty. Plus, they always know where to find the best bars, regardless of whatever city we end up in for the night.”
“Oh.”
“Oh what?”
“Nothing, it’s just…” I sucked in a breath before I gave Patrick my honest opinion. “It… just kind of seems like you’re using your apartment as set dressing or something. Like, it’s not really part of your life, just something you want other people to see? I mean, the few people who get to see it, anyway.”
“What an astute yet devastating observation.” Patrick frowned. “Is this how you talk to all the guys you go home with? You accuse them of being… shallow?”
“I never said you were shallow,” I replied. “It’s just that I get it, Patrick. My place is pretty much the same thing. I let Elana do whatever she wanted with it, as long as it turned out nice. Fuck, I barely spend a full week there, between training and appearance gigs.”
“Well, it’s nice to know that you’re as equally shallow.” Patrick grinned.
“I think we have a lot in common, actually,” I suggested. “And honestly, it’s kind of nice to meet someone else who gets it—”
“Yeah, too bad we’re never going to talk about this again,” Patrick said before he interrupted our conversation with a kiss, his lips quickly gliding along my neck. He then pulled away from me before he asked, “Did you still want to do this? Or?”
He was deflecting. Kissing me was Patrick’s way of trying to change the subject, and even though a part of me wanted to talk to him for just a little longer about how much we had in common, I couldn’t deny that I was dying to run my hands all over his body, to kiss him until he couldn’t breathe.
“Yeah, I still want to do this.” I nodded as I brought my hands down to Patrick’s jeans. It didn’t take me long to pull the belt away from the fabric, freeing the material so I had more than enough space to touch Patrick exactly how I wanted to.
And then, I pressed a hand down underneath the fabric, not stopping until my fingers were gliding along the front of Patrick’s boxers.
Fuck.
He was already hard.
“Wait, wait, wait…” Patrick murmured, taking a step away from me.
“What is it? Did I do something wrong?”
“No, I just don’t want to get the party started while we’re in the middle of my living room.”
“Why not?”
“Because I spent way too much money on a mattress to not make good use of it.” Patrick scoffed. “Besides, if we get started out here, we’re probably going to end up on a couch, and that can’t be good for my joints—”
“Which way to the bedroom?”
“Right down that hall—Hunter!” Patrick screamed as I scooped him into my arms. His screams soon turned into a joyful laugh as he wrapped his arms behind the back of my head, holding onto me as I walked down the hallway.
I couldn’t help the smile that spread across my face.
I’d never heard Patrick laugh like that before, like he was carefree, like he wasn’t so worried about the future, like he was able to let go, if only for a moment in time.
When I finally set him down in what looked like his bedroom, he shot me a half playful, half annoyed look. “I think I could’ve made the walk, you know.”
“Sure,