by Eden Finley
I laugh. Hard. “Here I thought I’d fooled the entire town when I’m starting to think no one believed me. I don’t know if Mom and Dad told you, but I’m not gay. I’m bi. It’s a long confusing story.”
“As long as Damon makes you happy, we’ll all love him.”
“He does.”
“We better get to the rink,” Tommy says after a while. “Feel better, and we’ll see you at the next family get-together.”
“Like there’s many of them,” I say.
“Maybe you all could come to Boston for Thanksgiving,” Jacie says.
“Okay, I’ll see you in six months,” I say dryly.
“We’ll organize something in the off season,” Tommy says.
“Sounds good,” Damon says, and I love that he immediately knows it includes him too. When they leave, Damon slumps back in his hospital bed. “I need to get my sister back for this.”
“Oh no. He’s gone to the dark side. Fight it! Don’t stoop to our level. Save yourself!” My dramatic crying has a nurse coming to check on Damon.
I chuckle and wave her off. She tells me to keep the noise down.
“I bet she’s fun at parties,” I say.
Damon ignores me. “I could be hanging out with Tommy-fucking-Novak and Ollie-fucking-Strömberg tonight instead of being stuck here. Vengeance needs to be served cold, and I have the perfect plan.” He turns to me and grabs hold of my hand. “I had a surprise for you tonight too. Where’s my phone?”
“I have it. They gave it to me in the ambulance.” I pull it out and hand it to him. It takes him a while to find what he’s looking for because he can’t focus on the screen without wincing. He gives up and hands it to me. “It’s in my email. First one in the starred file.”
“A cruise? To Bermuda?”
“You know how Matt signed with OTS?”
“Yeah?”
“We hired a PR firm to help his case. Part of his marketing strategy is to clean up his image. We figured the best way to do that is to get himself a boyfriend.”
“I’m so confused. What’s this got to do with the cruise?”
“It’s a setup and a PR stunt. Matt will be there with his new boyfriend. They’ll be photographed together, and it’ll be leaked to the press. We’re going to spin it so he’s a good ol’ wholesome gay man in love, instead of what that gossip rag made him out to be which was … well, a dirty manwhore and the abomination all those crazy church people claim we are.”
“Okay, so who’s going to be his boyfriend?”
Damon grins. “Noah.”
A laugh escapes. “Noah? Poor Matt.”
“As un-PC as this is, they hit all the targets. Gay, interracial, and Noah’s from a prominent family, so they can’t accuse him of being a gold-digger after Matt’s money. They’re kind of a PR’s wet dream.”
“How did you get Noah to agree to this?”
“I reminded him how bored he is being the rich trust-fund guy. Plus, he finds Matt hot. I get to go along with them on this cruise to oversee everything, and I bought an extra ticket for you, because I know how much you wanted to travel and see the world. It’s only Bermuda, but hey, it’s not Canada.”
“That should be a tourism slogan. It’d work for anywhere. ‘Come to West Shittyville, Ohio. There’s nothin’ to do, but at least it ain’t Canada.”
Damon winces. “Fuck, don’t make me laugh.”
I lean in and press my lips to his. “Thank you.”
“I’ve had it organized for weeks, because I wanted to do this for you. If I had the choice between following you wherever you wanted to go or pitching a no hitter in a Major League Baseball game, I’d choose you. Every time.”
“Shit, that was practically a marriage proposal coming from you.” I kiss him again until I realize … “Wait. How exactly are we using the cruise to get back at Stacy?”
“When I asked her to organize the week off from work for you so I could surprise you, she said how much she wanted to come. I might be sending her an early birthday present in the form of her own room on board.”
My eyes narrow. “I still don’t get it.”
Damon cocks his eyebrow. “What’s your high school friend Jared up to lately? Think he’ll be interested in a free cruise?”
A smile breaks out. “You’re more evil than both me and Stacy combined.”
“Yeah, I am. Don’t mess with the Dik.”
I almost choke on my laughter. “You’re the best fake boyfriend a guy could’ve ever asked for, and after tonight, you’ll be the biggest sports agent in town. I’ll do some recon for you with all of Tommy’s teammates and see if anyone else needs a new agent.”
“If you keep finding me clients, I may have to hire you as my assistant.”
I shake my head. “Bad idea. We’d never get any work done.”
“True. I love you, Maddy.”
No matter how many times he says it, I can’t hear it enough. It doesn’t freak me out, and the idea of being with him forever doesn’t make me antsy. I crave him, more than I’ve ever craved anyone or anything in my life. I always used to think relationships meant compromising what you want for something somebody else wants, but I never realized that when you meet that one person who becomes your priority it’s not compromising because you’d willingly do anything to make them happy. Just like I know Damon would do the same for me.
I kiss him again. “You remember when we first met and I told you I felt like I don’t belong?”
Damon nods.
“I found it—where I’m supposed to be. It’s with you.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX
DAMON
I heave the final box on top of the others and let out a breath. “Done. Finally.”
Maddox stands in the middle of his—no, our—apartment with an adorable scowl on his face.
“What’s up?” I ask.
“What’s up? Oh, I don’t know. How about the fact I have no apartment left? How much crap do you own?” He holds his hands out and turns in a circle. Granted, there are boxes piled up everywhere, and there’s barely a clear path to the bathroom … or kitchen, but it’ll be fine once I find homes for everything.
“Whatever we don’t have room for, I’ll put in a storage unit.”
Maddox falls back on his bed amongst a heap of boxes. There’s just enough room for him to squeeze his lithe body in between them. “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
“Jaws reference? Really?”
He throws his arm over his eyes.
“Babe, are you freaking out?” My heart pounds, and the same doubts I’ve had since we got together creep in. I’m worried I’m pushing him into something too serious before he’s ready. I thought we were over this, but maybe it’s all too real for him now that it’s actually happening.
“Yes.”
The weight on my chest plummets to my stomach. “About me moving in?”
In a rush, he sits up and stares at me wide-eyed. “What? No. I’m freaking out about not having enough room and practically living on top of each other. Maybe … maybe we should look for somewhere with more space.”
I rub my sore chest in relief. “This is fine for now. If we can endure this for a year—two tops—and put aside what we normally pay for rent, we’ll have a down payment for a place in Jersey or Brooklyn.”
Maddox gasps. “You dare suggest I move to Jersey? You really are a monster.”
“I know. I’m the worst,” I say dryly. “Jersey is not that bad.” But hey, I should be thankful he’s only worried about the Jersey part and not the sharing a mortgage part.
“How can you call yourself a New Yorker?”
I ignore him and lift my shirt to wipe the sweat off my face from lugging boxes all day. When the shirt falls back in place and I lock eyes with Maddox, his tongue darts out and wets his top lip.
“Like what you see?” I mock.
“Mmhmm. You should come over here and share this ginormous bed with lots of space … oh, wait …” He gestures to t
he crap surrounding him.
I try not to laugh. “Sarcasm isn’t good for you, you know.”
“Lies. Sarcasm is great. You can say anything and pretend you’re joking. People think I’m hilarious when in reality I’m just an asshole.”
“Yeah, but you’re my asshole … That sounded extremely wrong.”
Maddox snorts. “Maybe that should be in our wedding vows.”
His words throw me, and when I take a step backward, my foot gets stuck on the lip of a box and I go crashing to the floor—what’s left of the floor anyway. My hip digs into the corner of a box, and a sharp stabbing pain fills my head. I still occasionally get residual effects from the concussion. Doctors say it should go away soon—along with the daily headaches, thank God.
“Shit.” Maddox is by my side in an instant, hovering over me and cradling my face with his hands. “Are you okay? Is it the concussion? Are you dizzy?”
“I’m fine,” I grumble and sit up. “I tripped over a stupid box because you said wedding vows as if it’s a possibility. You shouldn’t do that to a guy.”
He leans back on his knees in front of me. “Why wouldn’t it be a possibility?”
“Because you’re Maddox.”
“Like that’s a reason?”
“Let’s look at the facts.” I run through the reasons, keeping score with my fingers. “You ran away from your hometown so you didn’t have to marry Chastity. You wouldn’t sit still during her wedding ceremony and admitted to feeling more comfortable in a graveyard than in a church. You could barely get the boyfriend label out of your mouth at first, so I’d hate to see what you’d be like with the word husband. And you practically broke up with me when I suggested we live together.”
“But that was before.”
I shrug. “I just figured being with you meant no wedding in the future, and I’m okay with that. I want a life with you. That doesn’t mean it has to include marriage.”
“I want to marry you, though.”
I replay his words in my head over again, because they don’t make sense. I’m not ready for that, so surely he can’t be. We’ve only been together a couple of months. That’s way too fast, and—
“Fuck, I don’t mean now,” he says with a laugh. “Or soon. Geez, role reversal. You look like you’re going to pass out. I mean for the first time in my life, I see a future with someone and want the possibility of spending the rest of our lives together.”
His words shouldn’t surprise me—Maddox is always changing the expected—but the fact he’s even thought about the long run makes me love him even more.
“I don’t think getting married is necessary,” he continues. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t want to do it. Especially when I know you’d like to get married someday. The operative word being someday. Isn’t marriage the whole point of a relationship? It’s like the end goal or whatever.”
“I never … I …” I don’t know how to get the words out. “I never expected you to change who you are for me. The end goal can be anything we want it to be. House, marriage … kids, if you want them. Or not. We can choose our own future, and it doesn’t have to fit in a box or have a label or match society’s expectations.”
“I thought you liked labels?”
“Maybe you taught me labels don’t matter. What does matter is you. And me. Nothing else.”
Maddox’s eyes fill with awe as if I just gave him the world. I’ll gladly make it my life’s purpose to keep that look on his face. “Nothing else,” he murmurs.
“Except maybe how we can find room to fuck when all these stupid-ass boxes are in the way.”
Maddox tackles me to the ground. We haven’t had sex since the concussion, so he’s a little overeager. My head hits something hard, and I wince at the pain, but I don’t care. I want Maddox’s lips.
Before his mouth meets mine, he pulls back. “Wait. You’re not supposed to have sex with a concussion. No strenuous activity.”
“I just moved a shit ton of boxes.”
“And you have a headache. I can tell by the concentration lines in your forehead.” He trails the lines, and his fingers feel amazing on my skin.
“The headache’s because we haven’t had sex in years.”
He laughs. “Try a week.”
“Feels like years. It’s a mild concussion. I’m good to go. I promise.”
The smile Maddox gives me is innocent while his burning gaze is anything but. He presses his mouth to mine, but there’s only tenderness. And it’s over way too fast. “I’m going to be a good boy and wait until you’re better before I attack you.”
I let out an involuntary whine. I want him now.
He clamps his hand over my mouth. “We have forever, Damon.”
Even though I still want to jump him, his words settle in my chest. I smile up at the guy who’s become everything to me and relent, because how can I complain when he’s promising me something I never thought he’d give me?
“Forever?” I ask.
“Yes, Dik. Forever.”
Thank you for reading Fake Out
********
Trick Play (Matt and Noah’s story) is coming soon!
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**Note about the Trademarks used in Fake Out.**
This is a work of fiction. As such, team names—like the Bulldogs—are completely made up. The views in this book in no way reflect the views and principles of the NFL or any of their real teams.
Books by Eden Finley
THE ONE NIGHT SERIES
One Night with Hemsworth (M/F)
One Night with Calvin (M/F)
One Night with Fate (M/F)
One Night with Rhodes (M/M)
One Night with Him (M/F)
FAKE BOYFRIEND SERIES
Fake Out (M/M)
Trick Play (M/M) COMING SOON
Deke (M/M) COMING SOON
STEELE BROTHERS
Unwritten Law (M/M) COMING MAY, 2018
Breaking Anders (M/M) COMING SOON
Acknowledgments
I want to thank all of my betas: Kimberly, Edie, Shelly, Michelle, Karma, and Janice.
Deb Nemeth for the wonderful editing and helping me bring Damon and Maddox more depth.
Thanks to Kelly from Xterraweb editing—you are always the best.
To Lori Parks for one last read through.
Leslie Copeland, for everything! From talking me off the ledge, to the quotes, to being an awesome new friend!
And definitely Kellie from Book Cover by Design. You are a rockstar for getting me out of my jam.
Lastly, a big thanks to Linda from Foreword PR & Marketing for helping get this book out
Table of Contents
Chapter ONE
Chapter TWO
Chapter THREE
Chapter FOUR
Chapter FIVE
Chapter SIX
Chapter SEVEN
Chapter EIGHT
Chapter NINE
Chapter TEN
Chapter ELEVEN
Chapter TWELVE
Chapter THIRTEEN
Chapter FOURTEEN
Chapter FIFTEEN
Chapter SIXTEEN
Chapter SEVENTEEN
Chapter EIGHTEEN
Chapter NINETEEN
Chapter TWENTY
Chapter TWENTY-ONE
Chapter TWENTY-TWO
Chapter TWENTY-THREE
Chapter TWENTY-FOUR
Chapter TWENTY-FIVE
Chapter TWENTY-SIX
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