It felt the way he’d always known it would: amazing. As if that space was made for Brian and Brian only. No one had ever filled him like Brian, given him exactly what he needed. Brian lowered himself so that he could reach Ty’s mouth and kissed him as he made a first tentative retreat and thrust. Ty whimpered and Brian repeated the action with more confidence. When Brian found the right depth and pace and force, Ty cried out in absolute surrender, and Brian tortured him by hitting that spot over and over. The way Brian moved inside him, it was as if he’d crawled around in Ty’s head and found out his secret desires and set out to fulfill them. He made Ty feel so damn good that he was pretty sure his eyes had rolled back in his head. They were a clutching, grasping tangle of arms and legs. Ty had ahold of the backs of Brian’s thighs, pulling him in, trying to keep him right where he wanted him, and Brian’s hands were leaving marks on Ty’s thighs from the force of his grip.
“Can’t last,” he panted against Brian’s lips. “Won’t. Sorry.”
“Don’t,” Brian said harshly. “Don’t last. Don’t hold back. I want it. I want everything.”
Ty could feel his balls pull up and he shouted Brian’s name as pleasure washed over him with the force of a tidal wave, pushing out every thought but Brian and how good he felt. Brian followed him moments later, dropping his forehead on Ty’s shoulder and shuddering in his arms.
He lay there in the aftermath, stunned and shaking and sweating, Brian’s weight a welcome blanket on top of him. After a minute, a sound penetrated his fuzzy head. A phone buzzing. He raised his head and looked around. Brian started to get off him, but he wrapped an arm around his shoulders and held him right where he was. With one hand, he reached down and felt around on the floor. Brian had knocked his phone out of his shorts when he was searching for his wallet. When he finally found it, he grabbed it and pulled it up. It was vibrating again. The screen showed one missed call.
“Randi,” he said, his voice rough. He cleared his throat and swiped the screen. “Hello?”
—
Brian froze when Ty answered Randi’s call. They were still panting and locked together, and Ty was taking her call. Well, that put things in perspective, didn’t it? With a hard push, he broke Ty’s hold on him. As he jerked back, his cock slipped out of Ty, and he couldn’t stop his indrawn breath at the shock of the cool air after the hot clasp of Ty’s ass. He stumbled off the couch and over to the wastebasket and disposed of the condom. He wasn’t worried it would be found. He was pretty sure the cleaning crew had found worse around here.
“Wait,” Ty said, sitting up on the couch. Brian looked at him expectantly, only to realize he was talking to Randi. “I’m at the stadium. With Brian.” He looked at Brian then, and Brian’s gut clenched at the guilt and confusion on Ty’s face. “Let me come over there. We’ll talk.” There was a long pause as Ty avoided his eyes, clearly listening to Randi. “It wasn’t like that,” Ty said sharply. “You’re the one running away. So I guess that means you got what you wanted, right?” Brian stepped forward then, frowning. What was going on? Ty stood up and turned his back on Brian, folding his arms while still holding the phone to his ear. The posture screamed defensive. “Sure,” he said, his voice still sharp. “Fine. Whatever. You got it. See you around, babe.” His arm dropped to his side and he kept his back to Brian.
“What happened?” Brian asked quietly.
Ty didn’t turn to look at him, just bent over and scooped his shorts up off the floor. He searched around and found his shirt and grabbed that, too. “Nothing,” he said. “Same old, same old.” He gave Brian a brittle smile. “I’ve got to go clean up. One of the realities of butt sex.” He walked to Brian’s door, and Brian was too stunned to stop him until he opened it.
“Wait,” he snapped. “That’s it? We have sex after eight years and it’s ‘So long, Brian, thanks for the memories’?” he said, quoting what Ty had said earlier.
“Don’t throw my shit back in my face,” Ty said, his voice low and angry. He spun around and faced him at last. “What do you want? The truth? Or a polite lie to keep this”—he gestured between them—“professional?”
“Don’t shut me out, Ty,” Brian begged. “What the hell just happened?” But he knew what had happened. Randi called and Ty regretted every moment of what they’d just shared.
“Some realities of my life were just made crystal clear,” Ty said in a tight voice. “I need to remember that.” He smiled, but it was more of a grimace. “I’m very good at this.” He waved his hand at Brian’s office and Brian understood that he meant the sex. “And that’s fine with me.”
“I’m not the one running,” he said, and then winced because it sounded exactly like what Ty had said to Randi.
“Not yet,” Ty said. “New rule: Ty gets to be the one who leaves first from now on.” And with that he spun on his heel and stalked off buck naked down toward the locker room.
Brian stood there and ran his hand through his hair in frustration. It was clear that talking with Ty tonight wasn’t going to get him anywhere. And Ty wasn’t who he needed to talk to. Randi had just done a number on him, and Brian needed to find out why. Because he knew damn well she was into Ty for more than the sex; he’d seen it and he was good at reading people. And Ty’s reaction tonight confirmed what he’d known all along. Ty was falling for her, hard. He needed to find out what the hell was going on with her and see if he couldn’t make it work for them. No matter what Ty said, Brian wasn’t going to let him be unhappy again if he could help it.
Chapter 14
Brian stood in the early morning humidity and stared out at the football field. What a fucking week he’d had. Ty was barely speaking to him, he hadn’t been able to find Randi and was afraid to ask Ty, the atmosphere at the coaches’ meetings had been awkward, to say the least, he didn’t feel like he’d made any progress, and he was seriously doubting his efficacy here in Birmingham. And this morning his cellphone died. Not quite his dog, but still. So he’d come in early and was going to run his troubles away. That was the plan, anyway. These days, none of his plans seemed to be working, so he didn’t have much faith. He bent forward to touch his toes, doing one last stretch before he started.
“Hey, Coach,” someone said from behind him. He straightened and turned to find a young rookie running back, Tom Kelly, standing behind him, stretching his arms over his head, dressed for a workout. Brian had met him the day before.
“Hi,” he said, not having adopted the Southern greeting of “Hey” just yet. He was sure that if he stuck around it would only be a matter of time. “What are you doing here?” Cass had once described Kelly as big enough to eat a Honda, and standing there next to him, Brian believed it. Brian could tell he was a good-natured kind of guy.
“Getting ready for a workout,” he replied. “I like to start early. Not so hot. What are you doing here?”
“The same thing,” Brian said. “I need to think.”
“Think, huh?” Tom said. “About what?”
Brian laughed. “I have so many options, I’m not sure which one to choose.”
“Hmm,” Tom said as he put one foot back and stretched his calf muscles. “Well, I try to pick the most urgent problem. Then I push it to the end of the line and think about what I’m going to have for breakfast.” He sounded just like the Nebraska farm boy he was. He looked the part, with his big, wide smile, crew cut, and freckles.
“Breakfast, huh?” Brian replied with a laugh. “Protein shake. Not very exciting or thought provoking.”
“I see your problem,” Tom said, grinning. “Thinking about our first game against Vegas? The Gamblers are a tough team. A Hall of Fame offense right out of the starting gate. Taylor Reutsch, Darren Slater. I think they’re setting records for a new franchise.” Tom frowned, staring into the distance. “And you guys got me.” He looked at Brian and smiled wryly. “Sorry.”
“Well, they had the bankroll to sign those guys,” Brian said. “And who’s to say we didn’t get a Hall of Fame offen
se this year?” He smiled at Tom. Tom just laughed. “But Vegas isn’t even on my problem radar today.”
“Okay,” Tom said. “Well, then, let me ask, are they personal or professional problems?”
“Both.”
“Whew,” Tom said. “Tackle the personal. That’s the shit that gets in your head.”
“True enough,” Brian agreed.
“Got heart trouble?” Tom asked, patting his chest with his fist.
“Yep.”
“Ain’t we all, brother,” Tom said, shaking his head. “You know what works for that?”
“What?” Brian asked, enjoying their back-and-forth. He was damn easy to talk to.
Tom put his arm around Brian and turned him to face the stands. “Stairs.”
“Stairs?” Brian asked.
“Let’s run some stairs,” Tom said, nodding. “That should do the trick for both of us.”
Brian had run stairs a few times. It would certainly require concentration and take his mind off his troubles. “All right,” he agreed. Anything was better than the pent-up nervous energy that was making him crazy.
“All right,” Tom said happily with a big smile. “Let’s go.”
“Go where?” someone asked. They turned and saw Rasheed, Dominique Reyes, Jo Jo, and Danny Smith approaching in workout gear.
“Stairs,” Tom said.
“Sweet.” Rasheed stepped to the front of the crowd. “Let’s go.”
Marian, Cass, and Beau walked out of the tunnel. “What are we doing?” Cass asked, looking around.
“Stairs,” several of them said. Brian almost laughed at how eager they sounded. It was definitely the start of preseason practice. Any other time there’d be bitching about doing this much work at six a.m.
“Wait a minute,” Marian said sternly. Then she grinned. “Let me get into position. I want to say start.”
They fanned out, each of them taking a section. Marian stood on the sideline below, one arm raised, the other holding a bullhorn, waiting for them to get ready.
“Are you really as corn-fed as you seem?” Brian asked Tom as they headed for two sections, side by side.
“Well, I had your boy Tyler a few months ago,” Tom said in a friendly way as they separated. “They don’t teach that in the cornfields.”
Brian stopped and stared at Tom with his mouth hanging open. Then he narrowed his eyes at Tom. “Oh, it is on, kid,” he said. Tom just laughed.
Ty came out of the shadows of the tunnel once they were all ready at the bottom of the stairs on one side of the stadium. Tom had called him to come in for an early-morning workout. He’d agreed because he was hoping they could have a private talk. He hadn’t realized so many of the guys would be here, including Danny. He’d seen Tom and Danny on and off over the summer, but the night he’d spent with Tom, Danny, Cass, and Beau a few months ago making love to Marian made things awkward between them. For Danny and Tom especially. Danny couldn’t get over the fact that he’d revealed his secret desire to be held down, and that Ty had done the holding. And after jerking Ty off and coming all over him, Tom was suddenly confused about his sexuality, and too embarrassed to talk about it. Yeah, “awkward” was putting it mildly.
Shit, shit, shit. With his two running backs barely able to look him in the eye, and his head completely fucked up with mixed emotions over Brian and what he wanted, and now, missing Randi—which was stupid, since they’d been together for, like, three days, and who could miss someone after only three days together?—this season was already fucked. Unless he did something about it. All of it. The only problem was that he didn’t know what to do. Danny and Tom might be an easy fix if he could get them to talk to him about what happened, but he had no easy answers for dealing with Brian and Randi. He still wasn’t sure what he wanted with Brian, and Randi had dumped his sorry ass. So much for happy endings.
Marian lowered her arm and yelled, “Go!” and the guys all started running up the stairs. That shit was too hard for this early in the morning. They were all crazy. Ty wandered over to Marian, who saw him coming and offered her cheek for a kiss.
“Did you see me do the start?” she asked eagerly. “I always wanted to do that.”
“You just needed a scarf and a couple of hot rods and it would have been a movie,” he said. “You looked great.”
“Better than great,” Melody Ann Merriot, their resident PR guru, said from behind Ty. “I’m so glad I got here in time to catch this on video!” she shouted. She pushed past Ty, filming the guys in the stands on her phone. It was one of those giant phones that really should be called a tablet. She was a tiny thing and the phone looked even bigger in her hands. She was young, or at least seemed young. Ty thought she’d gotten the Rebels PR job right out of college. She must know someone. Today she was wearing a tight pair of black pants that barely reached her ankles, big, chunky black sandals with a skyscraper heel, and a Rebels T-shirt that looked like a jersey, but wasn’t. Her brown hair was tied up in some crazy knot on her head, with a black ribbon laced through it. He had no idea how that worked. It looked like it should be falling down but wasn’t. The physics of hairstyles eluded him. She got away with dressing like that at work because she worked behind the scenes, not in front of the cameras, and she’d made the Rebels a trending topic on social media more than once over the last few months.
The three of them stood there for a minute or so watching the runners. Ty couldn’t take his eyes off Brian. Other than his size, he fit right in there with the players. His competitive streak had always turned Ty on. He was up for every challenge. Players loved that about him. Loved that he was right there beside them, that he didn’t ask them to do anything he wouldn’t do, or at least try to do.
“So,” Marian said a little too casually. “Brian looks good.”
“You mean the new coach?” Melody Ann asked, staring at her screen. “Fine as wine,” she said.
“And having a good time,” Ty rhymed, and they all laughed. “You realize that’s going to be on the video, right?” Ty asked Melody Ann.
“Oh, shit,” she said. “I mean darn.” Her consternation was cute. Ty wasn’t sure if she was more upset about admiring Brian on the video or cursing.
“Here,” Marian said, shoving a bullhorn in his hand. “Yell at them. Encourage them.” She waved as she walked off. “You get to be the coach for a while. I have paperwork.”
“Oh, yes,” Melody Ann said, stealing a glance at him. She motioned to the camera with a nod and he understood her to mean that it would sound good online. He grinned mischievously.
“Come on, you pussies,” he yelled in the bullhorn. “You call that running? Run!” There were some shouted obscenities in response and he laughed. “Look,” he said into the bullhorn, “if you need motivation, the winner gets my ass.” Melody Ann snorted with laughter and then groaned.
“Ty,” she admonished. “Seriously. Come on.”
“My ass,” Ty shouted again. “Come on. You know you want it.” Rasheed gave him the finger, which made Ty laugh harder. Then he noticed that Brian and Tom were running hell-bent for the top. Oh, shit. He might have to deliver. But he knew he’d only do it if Brian won. If Tom did, it would be a good time to have that talk with him. He’d been thinking over the last few days, and while he wasn’t entirely comfortable with it, he knew that the only guy he wanted to fuck right now was Brian.
“I’m surprised Reyes isn’t running as fast as he can in the other direction,” Ty commented. He and the new defensive tackle had had words a couple of months ago at minicamp, outside the locker room. Well, Reyes had had words with Cass and Beau about their relationship, and Ty had butted in. Reyes was homophobic and not happy about the developing romantic relationship between his fellow Rebels.
“He’s not that bad,” Melody Ann said with a frown and another nod at the camera. “He’s here, isn’t he?”
“Everyone who’s here is bad to the bone, sweetheart,” Ty said. “That’s why we’re here.”
All
the players had reached the top and were now racing down the steps. This part always gave Ty a stomachache. It was easier to trip and injure yourself on the way down. “Focus,” he yelled into the bullhorn.
“Shut the fuck up!” Danny yelled back.
“I think he’s settling in well,” Ty commented to Melody Ann, who laughed. Smith was a notorious hard-ass, one of the most hated players in the NFL. He was also one of the best players in the NFL, and Marian’s best friend. When Ty found out that Smith had saved Marian from a vicious rape in college, Ty had instantly forgiven Smith every rude word he’d spoken, and every infuriating thing he’d ever done. But the sex a few months ago had certainly complicated the situation. Too many times to count, Ty had found that sex made a bad situation worse, and yet he kept ignoring his own advice and diving in dick first. He did have to admit, though, that Smith was a bit softer and not quite as bitter as he’d been when he’d shown up at Rebels minicamp in June. That might be because he was rooming with Tom. Who wasn’t in a better mood after being around Tom? It was impossible not to like him.
“I think your coach might win,” Melody Ann said. “I wonder if he was properly motivated?” She smirked behind the camera.
“That’s going to be on the video,” Ty reminded her, but he was secretly rooting for Brian all the way.
Chapter 15
Randi pressed two fingers to the throbbing ache between her eyebrows. Johnny had gotten her up at the ass crack of dawn to go down to the station to file her report and sign off on paperwork. “Asshole,” she muttered.
Johnny was driving her to the station to make sure she went. “What’s that?” he asked sarcastically, putting his hand up to his ear.
“You heard me,” she grumbled. “This is supposed to be my vacation.”
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