One Shot

by Vicki Tharp

  “More of an innocent embellishment.”

  “I’m calling bullshit.” Elijah reached in his pocket for his phone. “Alex put you up to this, didn’t he?”

  Demetri grabbed Elijah’s phone, but Elijah wouldn’t let go.

  “What are you doing?” Demetri had a tight grip.

  “I’m calling an Uber.”

  “Would you hear me out?”

  After a beat, Elijah nodded, and Demetri let go of the phone.

  “Yes, Alex asked me to bring you here.”

  Motherfucker. “You’re my friend. You’re supposed to be on my side.”

  “I am on your side. If I wasn’t, Alex couldn’t have talked me into this.”

  Unbelievable.

  Elijah popped the door latch and thumbed open the rideshare app, but the seatbelt brought him up short giving Demetri a chance to put a hand on his forearm and stop him from leaving.

  “Go in there. When it’s over, if you never want to see him again, he’s promised to stay out of your life. Deal?”

  How do you expect to get over Alex, if he refuses to go away?

  Go in so he wouldn’t have to wonder if he’d see Alex around every corner he turned? That almost sounded like a deal too good to pass up.

  If it meant he had to watch the stupid press conference for Alex’s re-signing to get Alex out of his life once and for all, he would.

  And, yeah, as much as he tried to avoid all things Alex, he’d have to have gone full ostrich-head-in-the-sand mode to have not found out that the Hawks’ had re-signed him.

  To have not read about it online.

  To have not watched all the news reports about it.

  To have not stalked the Minor League Baseball pages about it.

  You’re fucking pathetic.

  Elijah eyed the hand Demetri held out and shook it. “Deal.”

  By the time they slipped quietly into the back of the room, the press conference had already started. The constant strobe of camera flashes was bracing enough to trigger seizures.

  Alex sat at a table dressed in a Hawks’ jersey and baseball cap flanked by Gomez and one of the coaches from the Hawks’ organization.

  At the moment Elijah entered the room, Alex’s gaze flicked to him, and for a blip of time, Alex’s public smile turned heated and intimate. That satisfied turn of Alex’s lip Elijah had only witnessed after Alex had given him a good pounding.

  It hit Elijah the way he imagined that first hit of heroin feels like as it slams into an addict who’d just thrown away years of sobriety.

  It hit like he was home.

  He couldn’t do this.

  Elijah took a step toward the door, but Demetri clamped a hand on his shoulder, pinning him in place.

  A buzz of murmurs zipped around the room. People glanced back at Elijah, and the unease crawled under his skin as if it were a living, breathing entity.

  Elijah was afraid to smile back at Alex, not only because of the attention it would garner, but because he feared it would show his vulnerability and how truly gone he was for this man.

  In the middle of Coach King’s answer to a reporter’s question, Elijah took his eyes off Alex and tuned back in.

  “The club should never have let him go,” Coach King said. “But that’s baseball. Alex’s recovery post Tommy John surgery fell well behind the curve. Management must make the best decisions they can with respect to the budget and the information they have on hand. Sometimes you make a mistake. And sometimes, like today, a team is lucky enough to rectify that mistake.”

  King patted Alex on the back. Alex grinned like a man about to get the keys to the kingdom, his chest swelled out with pride.

  When King called on the next reporter, the woman asked, “What do you think it means for your team that you’ll be adding a man like Alex to the roster?”

  The question hung there in the silence. A silent stink bomb that permeated every corner of the room. People cleared their throats, glanced down, and shifted from foot to foot, though everyone had known the subject of Alex’s sexuality would come up.

  King gave Alex’s shoulder a squeeze and leaned into the microphone. “A man like Alex?” He stared at the reporter for a long second, then another. “You mean a pitcher, correct?”

  The reporter stammered but King talked over her. “It means we’ll win games. That’s what it means.”

  “What if his teammates have a problem with him?” That from a guy near the back. Now that the subject of Alex’s sexuality had been broached, it was like the little Dutch boy had pulled his finger out of the dike, the inappropriate questions flooding out.

  “My door is always open. My players know that. They have a problem, we can have a conversation about their concerns. If they can’t get past Alex’s personal life then, yeah, it’s going to be a problem.”

  King let that sink in. Alex’s face became stoic, and he adjusted and readjusted his cap as if it no longer fit well. King glanced at Alex and added, “For them, not Alex.”

  Addressing the room at large again, King said, “If my players can’t be an adult in the locker room and on the field, I’m happy to release them from their contract. Trust me, there are plenty of extremely talented young men out there who would jump at the opportunity to take the empty slot on the roster.”

  As the murmurs died down, King called on a reporter near the front.

  “This question is for Alex,” the reporter said. Alex scooted his chair closer to the table and the mic. “There’s been a lot of speculation about you over the past few months. Most of it met with ‘no comments.’ For the record, how would you label your sexual orientation?”

  Before Alex could speak, Coach King cut in. “What does that have to do with baseball?”

  “It’s okay.”

  Alex didn’t shrink from the question the way Elijah had expected he would. He sat straighter, bearing the confidence of a man approaching the mound knowing he was about to strike out the side. “I’d like to answer.”

  Elijah glanced at Demetri. Demetri had some screwed up enigmatic expression on his face that gave away absolutely nothing.

  Alex cleared his throat into the microphone and Elijah returned his focus to the front of the room.

  “I’m going to have to answer your question with a question.” Alex’s eyes fell away from the reporter and found Elijah at the back of the room. “What do you call it when you think of someone first thing in the morning and the last thing at night? When you can’t wait to hear their voice, their laugh?”

  Gradually, people turned, following Alex’s gaze.

  “What do you call it,” Alex continued, “when you want to put a smile on their face? When they’re the first one you want to tell about the good things, and the one you want to run to when things go bad?”

  The heat burned up Elijah’s neck and settled in his cheeks, but his embarrassment paled in comparison to the way Alex’s words picked up those scattered pieces of his heart and started putting them back where they belonged, piece by broken piece.

  By now, not only had everyone turned toward Elijah, but the crowd had parted, like some modern-day parting of the Red Sea shit, and Elijah now had a direct line of sight to Alex.

  But Alex wasn’t finished. “What do you call it when you pour your heart and soul out to someone and hope like hell it’s not too late and that they can forgive you for all your bullshittery?”

  The room remained silent. Alex pulled the microphone closer. “That wasn’t a rhetorical question.”

  The reporter who’d asked him for a label stammered. “Uh... love?”

  Alex grinned, but not at the reporter. At Elijah. “There you have it then.”

  Holy shit. Alex loved him?

  Where had all the oxygen gone in the room? It was there a second ago. Then... poof. Elijah swayed, and Demetri held him by the back of the neck, grounding him. Elijah scrubbed a shaky hand across his jaw and finally drew in a breath.

  Alex popped the wireless microphone out of the stand a
nd stood. “The short, very personal, answer to your question is that I’m gay.”

  Alex didn’t hesitate. It rolled off his tongue as if he were telling the reporters his shoe size. Size thirteen by the way. If anyone asked Elijah how he’d found that out, he’d flat out lie.

  Alex skimmed around the end of the table and walked toward Elijah, the camera flashes coming fast and furious and the video cameras getting more up close and personal than Vin at Black Stallion ever had.

  “I’m gay,” he said again, maybe for those in the back not paying attention. “And I’m stupidly, hopelessly in love with a man who would be insane to take me back, but I’m asking.”

  Alex stopped in front of Elijah and lowered the mic. Reaching up, he cupped Elijah’s cheek, lowering his voice when he said, “I love you, Elijah. What do you say? Will you give me another chance? I swear it will be a decision you won’t regret.”

  Their relationship had begun in front of the camera. Seemed fitting it would continue that way as well. Elijah swallowed, but that did nothing to dislodge the baseball-sized lump in his throat, so he nodded, holding himself together.

  Cumming on camera was so much sexier than crying.

  “Yeah?” Alex’s eyes lit, and it wasn’t from the additional artificial lighting.

  “Yeah,” Elijah managed.

  Alex ducked his head—and holy fuck yes—kissed him in front of their friends, his teammates, his coach, the reporters, the cameras... the world.

  And not a chaste peck on the lips. A deep dive. Tongues and teeth and heartfelt promises.

  When Alex finally broke the kiss, he wrapped his arm around Elijah’s shoulder, holding him tight against his body. He turned to the room at large. “Does that answer everyone’s questions?”

  After the press conference, Alex couldn’t get Elijah away from all the cameras and reporters fast enough. On the way to his apartment, they only stopped long enough to pick up an order of Chinese food.

  Alex unlocked his front door and ushered Elijah into the kitchen where they dumped the bags of food on the kitchen island.

  Elijah started unpacking the bags. Alex wanted food, but he wanted Elijah more. He walked up behind Elijah, took the two cartons of food out of his hand and placed them back on the counter.

  Elijah reached into the bag and pulled out the condiments. “Hey, you were supposed to put them on the table.”

  Alex spanned his hands on the bar on either side of Elijah, pressing his hips against the hard muscle of Elijah’s ass.

  “You trying to tempt me?” The way Elijah’s voice dropped two registers raised goosebumps on Alex’s flesh.

  Jesus Christ. Alex ran his hands under Elijah’s shirt and spanned them across his belly. “Do you know how long I’ve wanted you in my arms again?”

  He nipped at the juncture where Elijah’s neck met his shoulder and soothed the bite with the caress of his tongue. Elijah smelled of fresh soap with a hint of whatever oil he must have slathered on himself for the photo shoot.

  The groan that ripped from Elijah’s throat made Alex’s cock go from a semi to a Louisville Slugger.

  Elijah reached a hand back and cupped Alex’s neck, holding him close. “I’ve gotten tennis elbow from jacking off to the skyline scene we shot.”

  Alex chuckled, popping the button on Elijah’s jeans and sliding a hand beneath the waistband and grabbing hold. God, he’d missed the feel of that hard dick in his hand. More importantly, he’d missed the man attached to it. “Lucky for you, I’m here to help.”

  Elijah turned in his arms and stripped the shirt off Alex’s back and skirted his fingertips through the light mat of hair on his chest. “You sure this is what you want?”

  “It isn’t just this—the sex—that I want, it’s you that I want. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure it out.”

  “You had a lot on the line. You coming out—”

  “Had to happen. I’m not the kind of guy who could have lived their whole professional career in the closet, hiding who I really am and, more importantly, hiding who I loved.”

  He’d told Elijah he loved him at the press conference, but now that they were alone, he needed to repeat it, to make sure those words sank in.

  Alex sucked in a deep breath. Having pushed all of his chips to the center of the table and throwing his cards down, revealing what lived in his heart so soon into their relationship could be premature, but he couldn’t hide his feelings.

  Despite not wanting to live his life in the closet, he wouldn’t have done what he had in front of the press if he hadn’t been terrified he’d lose Elijah for good.

  “I—” Elijah cut himself off. The conflict, and perhaps some deserved confusion, swirled in his eyes.

  Alex didn’t know if Elijah was going to say he loved him, too, but the hesitation was there. His rapid one-eighty must be a lot for Elijah to take in. Hell, he’d been happy Elijah had agreed to have dinner with him. He hadn’t expected Elijah to agree to come to his apartment.

  Alex pressed his lips to Elijah’s, looping his fingers in Elijah’s belt loops to hold him close, or to not let him escape.

  Breaking the kiss, Alex said, “You don’t have to say anything. I’m not trying to pressure you into saying something you’re not ready for. I’m thankful you’ve been willing to hear me out.”

  “I almost didn’t.” Elijah glanced away as if it were something he should be embarrassed or feel bad about.

  Elijah shifted, and his hard cock brushed against Alex’s thigh. Alex hissed in a breath when what he’d wanted to do was throw Elijah over his shoulder and carry him to his bed.

  When Elijah met Alex’s eyes again, whatever Elijah had been feeling had shifted to something heated and lascivious. “But I’m glad I did.”

  Elijah pulled Alex in for a kiss, his tongue invading, taking, conquering. They kissed until their breathing became labored and pre-cum soaked Alex’s underwear.

  When they broke apart, Elijah nipped at Alex’s bottom lip. “I’ve missed those lips, and as much as I enjoy them on mine, I can think of a much better place for them.”

  Agreed. Plus, he had a little surprise for Elijah. He took Elijah’s hand and led him toward the bedroom. They didn’t waste any time undressing. Clothes fell to the floor, and they didn’t bother kicking them out of their way.

  Elijah propped up a couple pillows at the head of the bed and sat against the headboard, one knee up as he slowly jacked that magnificent cock. Alex couldn’t wait to have his mouth around it, but first... the surprise.

  The mattress dipped as hand over hand, Alex crawled his way up Elijah’s body until their hips and dicks aligned. The hand Elijah had used to stroke himself went to Alex’s ass, locking Alex against him.

  Alex drew his tongue up the center of Elijah’s torso and skipped it across a nipple. Bracing himself on his hands, he whispered in Elijah’s ear. “I’m going to suck you, and then I want you to fuck me. Are we clear?”

  Elijah groaned, his hips flexing up. “Don’t tease me.” He pulled back far enough to see Alex’s face. “Wait, you’re serious.”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’m not a small guy. You can’t go from nothing to having my dick in your ass. That’s not how it works. You need time and stretching and—”

  “What do you think I’ve been doing since the last time I fucked you?”

  Elijah’s mouth opened and closed. Alex loved that he’d rendered him speechless.

  “I’m the kind of guy that does his research, and his prep work. As long as you go slow, I can take you. All of you.”

  “You don’t have to do this.” Elijah’s voice dropped to that low register that made Alex’s balls tight. “Anal sex isn’t everything. There are plenty of amazing things we can do to get each other off.”

  “I know that.” Then it hit Alex. Maybe Elijah wasn’t into topping. “Look, if you don’t want—”

  Elijah chuckled. It came out deliciously dark and insanely sexy. “Oh, I want.”

  Elijah lace
d his fingers behind his head and raised his brows at Alex in a go-on-with-your-bad-self kind of way. “Don’t keep me waiting,” he teased.

  Alex worked his way back down Elijah’s body with a series of open mouth kisses, his fingers tweaking Elijah’s sensitive nipples as he went. He couldn’t wait to get his mouth on Elijah again. He’d woken up on more than one occasion having dreamt about blowing Elijah, of having his mouth stuffed full and tasting Elijah’s cum at the back of his throat.

  Settling between Elijah’s legs, Alex cupped Elijah’s balls and gripped his shaft. Elijah’s head thunked against the headboard and his eyes closed.

  Alex ran the flat of his tongue up Elijah’s cock and lapped up the pre-cum. Then he took Elijah deep, relaxing the back of his throat.

  “Like that, babe.” Elijah’s hands went to the back of Alex’s head and held him there as he gently thrust upward.

  The way that term of endearment rolled of Elijah’s tongue engulfed him like a warm blanket being wrapped around Alex’s heart. No matter what Alex’s coming out did to his career, he knew his decision at the press conference had been the right one.

  Baseball might come or go, but Elijah was what he needed in his life.

  Alex worked Elijah with his tongue, his mouth, his hands. Fast and slow and tenacious. Elijah’s fingers tangled in Alex’s hair, encouraging, coaxing. Alex glanced up to see Elijah staring down at him, watching every move, every sweep of his tongue with heat and delicious, decadent intent.

  Elijah’s hips bucked up, and he pulled Alex off him. “You keep going and I’m going to come.”

  Alex sucked one of Elijah’s balls into his mouth then let it fall free. The muscles in Elijah’s abdomen fluttered, and his hips kicked up of their own accord.

  Alex loved that he had Elijah on the ragged edge. “I thought that was the point.”

  “Come here.” Elijah pulled Alex up to him. “I don’t want to have to wait until I’ve recovered to have your ass. I want it now.” He pressed a kiss to Alex’s lips, then took it deeper, his tongue sweeping through Alex’s mouth. “God, I love how I taste in your mouth.”