step outside the bedroom to Cade leaning against the wall.
“You ready?”
I peer at the door, then back to Cade.
“Mate, you can’t be messing around with Star. I won’t be the cause of blood before your first game.”
My hand is tapping out a rhythm on my thigh as I try to unravel the thoughts zinging through my mind at the same speed of my heartbeat. It’s like a bloody rollercoaster, and there’s no point at which I want to jump off. Can’t a guy enjoy the high of drugs and sex while it’s still in his bloodstream?
Cade looks at my hand and then back at me. “You’ve had enough of whatever it is you took in there. Let’s go. Now.”
“I should say goodbye,” I tell him.
“No time. The Uber is here.” He gives me a look like I should be a little scared. I’m not that far gone not to listen to advice, so I follow him out of the house, around the side where there’s barely any lighting, yet I manage not to stumble.
He’s right.
There is a car waiting out front, so we jump in.
“What’s your address,” Cade asks.
I give him the instructions to East Brisbane.
We sit in silence, and I’m not sure if Cade’s pissed at me as I don’t get time to ask. It only takes ten minutes to reach my house. I thank the driver and tell Cade I’ll see him around.
“I hope so,” he says before he pulls the door closed.
I wander along the path leading to a large wooden door and pull out my phone to call Braxton to let me in.
He tugs the door open and takes one look at me, then shoves his hands through his curly blond hair and shakes his head. “Where the fuck have you been?”
3
The damn alarm scares the shit out of me. I hit the screen and want to throw it against the wall to shut it up. I wander out of the bedroom and meet Brax in the hallway.
“Christ, that’s something I’ll never unsee,” he mutters and turns away.
“You’ll be seeing me like this in the change rooms almost daily,” I reply and lean a hand on the doorframe of the bathroom.
“Yeah. After training.” He focuses on my face. “Not when you’re fucking nearly seven feet and your semi-morning wood is nearly as long.”
I tap the wall twice and admire my cock. “Yeah, I’m surprised after last night.”
“Don’t want to know, bro. We’re leaving here in fifteen, and if you’re not ready, you can find your own way to the club.” He points a finger as though he wants to say something else. Instead, he shakes his head and walks away.
Whatever. I shower and down a banana smoothie—sans dairy—before Brax is yelling for us to head to the garage to his Mercedes truck.
Rushing off, I head to my room and flip the sheets searching for my wallet.
It’s got to be here somewhere.
“C’mon, Dustin. We’re out of here.”
The roller door of the garage grinds as it rolls upward, and I have only a matter of seconds to get my arse out to the car.
“I don’t have time for this,” I mutter while grabbing my phone and throwing it into my football bag, then jog through the kitchen to the adjoining door that leads to the garage.
“Lock that door behind you,” Brax says, leaning out the driver’s window.
Once done, I slide into the front passenger seat. Rohan and Henry take the back seat. A smart move. They are the two draft picks straight from their private Catholic boys’ school in Melbourne. I arrived a few days after them, and they’ve barely uttered a word around me, something I’m grateful for, because today I’m not in the mood for small talk. We pull up in the special carpark for players, and both Rohan and Henry jump out.
“Go ahead. We’ll see you in there,” Brax tells them. He opens the back of the truck and slides my bag closer without giving it to me. “As for you, we’re having a chat.”
“Christ, you’re not my mother.”
“You’re in my house. And I agreed to teach these two youngsters by example before I agreed for you to stay.”
The house I was going to rent fell through before I arrived, and Brax has let me stay with him until I find suitable accommodation. It’s not an ideal situation living with three other dudes, so I’m looking at houses next weekend. It seems like everyone wants to move to Brisbane. And I have a specific taste