the first time I’d been responsible for two men who didn’t want anyone knowing where they were, and I didn’t have a cover story prepared. After following us to the end of the building, Zach held out a hand for his room key and told us he’d call our room in the morning.
No questions. No teasing. It seemed my brother realized this wasn’t the time or place.
Inside our hotel room, PJ and I stood awkwardly, trying to figure out what came next. I didn’t do hookups. Zach said I was weird because I’d never understood guys who had one-night stands on a regular basis. The only sex I’d ever had had been with guys I was in committed relationships with, even if they were short-lived.
“I’m going to take a shower,” PJ said, breaking down the wall of tension rising between us. “I feel like there’s a film of grease all over me from sitting in that bar all day.”
“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything, but yeah, you’re a bit ripe,” I teased. He didn’t smell, but I wasn’t about to try and talk him out of a shower. The idea of him naked and dripping wet had me fighting the urge to strip and join him. You know, to make sure he didn’t miss any hard to reach spots on his body.
PJ flipped me off as he pulled a change of clothes out of his bag. With that one simple exchange, we somehow went from two strangers who’d fooled around once to friends with the promise of much more to come.
9
Pj
This was the life I wanted. Even though we’d had a bit of a bump in the road when the door slammed closed behind us, leaving us alone in the silent, sterile hotel room, we’d quickly overcome the thick tension between us. While I waited for the shower to heat up, I stared at my reflection.
“What in the hell have you done?” I asked myself, pausing as though the mirror would answer me. For the first time ever, there was no direction in my life. I had no clue what I was going to do tomorrow.
“Talking to yourself is a sign of insanity,” Nate called out from the other side of the door. “Quit thinking about today. It’s time for you to relax.”
Fat chance of that happening. Nate couldn’t realize how much of my life I’d given up to play ball. He didn’t understand how my entire existence was wrapped up in my career. The career I’d walked away from because I hated my coworkers. A career that I loved, with one glaring exception.
The worst part was I’d made an irrational decision that could very well destroy my chances of going back to the game. I was still under contract with Miami for two years, which meant they owned my ass. I had exactly two options unless Doyle could convince them to release me after what’d happened today: go back and play for Miami or retire.
“Seriously, stop freaking out, PJ,” Nate yelled from deeper in the room. How in the hell did he know what I was doing behind closed doors? “Get in the shower and I’ll be out here waiting for you. Naked. With food, because I can’t imagine whatever you ate at the bar was enough.”
The man knew the way to my heart. Sex and food. Okay, so I’d never really thought I was that shallow, so maybe it was the fact that he was working so hard to take my mind off the single worst day of my life that had me falling for him. I stepped into the shower and let the hot water pound on my back.
The hotel wasn’t much to look at, but the shower had better water pressure than places that charged three times as much per night. My muscles started to relax and I made quick work of scrubbing the grime of the day away.
My dick perked up as I ran the washcloth down my torso. I closed my eyes and imagined that was Nate’s hand touching me. His soft fingers curling around my dick. I turned off the water with more force than necessary because there was no reason for me to jerk off to my memories of Nate when he was in the other room waiting on me.
Steam poured out of the bathroom when I opened the door. I stopped short at the sight of Nate lying in the bed with the sheet draped over his hips. This was