Provoking the Punter

Chapter 17

CHAPTER

SEVENTEEN

It was becoming a habit, knocking on the hotel room door on a Monday night.

Chester didn’t have time to say anything before Garrett kissed him and then dragged him inside. He should be dragging him out and doing something.

“Good day at work?” His hands slid over Garrett’s chest, tracing over the familiar Bathtubs logo, wanting to rip off his t-shirt. His hair was wet, as if he’d just had a shower.

“Yeah… making nice with the assistant coaches and such.”

“Did you eat?”

Garrett kissed him again. “No. We can order in.”

“We could go out?”

Tension hardened Garrett’s body before he spoke. “I… I want to…”

“But it’s not part of the plan.”

“I don’t even know that there is a plan. No one has said anything. It was a relief at first. Now I don’t know who knows, or what they know. I’m almost praying to be called into Coach’s office.” His hands were everywhere as if he couldn’t get enough, and his blue eyes were dark.

Chester was torn between wanting to keep their relationship protected and wanting to see if it could survive in the public eye. He wanted to protect Garrett, even though that was impossible.

“Don’t be in such a rush to go somewhere.” He wasn’t sure if he was saying it for himself or for Garrett. “Enjoy this in between because once it’s out, you can’t go back.”

That was definitely for himself.

“I know, but this isn’t what you want.”

That was true and a year ago he’d have laughed if someone had told him this was where he’d be. “I want you.”

It might just be sex.

Which is why he’d suggested the weekend away.

It wasn’t just sex, not for him, anyway. Not anymore. And that was terrifying because he didn’t know what to do. He couldn’t drag Garrett out, and he couldn’t hide, and they couldn’t be careful forever.

It wouldn’t be forever, so he needed to take his own advice and chill.

Chester ran his hands over Garrett’s chest. “Why don’t you pour us a drink, and I’ll have a look at the menu.”

He bit his lip. “I was kind of hoping you might want… that is, I want to try… I want you to fuck me.”

Chester studied him for a moment. Was it just sex for him? It was hard to tell because sometimes when Garrett looked at him, he wanted to trip and fall.

They were sharing stories.

Tales they hadn’t talked about in years.

History he hadn’t told anyone. Ever.

In those moments, it felt as though he held Garrett’s heart. Now Garrett was offering his ass. Was he actually offering his heart? Because Chester knew Garrett didn’t bottom with just anyone?

Chester smiled, but it felt forced. “There you are, rushing again.” He wasn’t rushing that. He didn’t want to scare him; he wanted Garrett to enjoy it. Chester wanted to enjoy it. “I have another idea.”

Garrett sighed, and Chester wasn’t sure if it was from relief or disappointment.

He brushed his lips over Garrett’s. “But let me be clear, I do want your ass tonight.”

He picked up the menu. The room key Garrett had given him was right where he’d left it. Next to it was the box with the bottle of gin and card inside. Not on display, but not hidden either, and Garrett was wearing the T-shirt he’d given him, which made Chester feel more than a little smug.

Garrett opened the fridge and pulled out glasses, ice and soda water. “I feel like you should be doing this.”

“I pour plenty of drinks at work, and it’s not as though you’re going to make it too strong.”

“True.” Garrett cracked open the bottle and poured a decent amount of the non-alcoholic gin into each glass before adding the ice and soda. “Chocolate?”

“Sure… Are you having one?”

“Dessert before dinner? Why not?”

Chester smiled. “Let’s order, but tell them we want it in an hour.”

“What are we doing for an hour?” He wasn’t freaking out, and there was a smile on his lips along with a flicker of heat and hope in his eyes.

“Having a pre-dinner snack.” He was going to anyway. He picked up his glass and took a sip.

“You’re going to need to be far more obvious, or I’m not able to guess.”

“You don’t need to guess. You can just enjoy.”

A flicker of concern bloomed in Garrett’s eyes.

Chester lifted an eyebrow. “Do you trust me?”

“Yeah.” Garrett took a large swallow as though hoping to find a little courage at the bottom of his glass.

“Then give me your order, get naked, and go lie on the bed… face down.”

“And you told me not to rush.”

“I won’t be.” He lifted an eyebrow. “Do you want me to tell you what I plan to do?”

Garrett closed his eyes as he fought some internal battle.

He placed a hand on Garrett’s cheek, liking the roughness of stubble against his palm. “I don’t want you to be uncomfortable. If you want me to tell you, that’s fine.”

Garrett opened his eyes and turned his head just enough that he could kiss Chester’s palm. “I’m so used to keeping what I want in a very narrow lane that not knowing… even though I trust you… is kind of scary.”

Chester set his glass on the table. “And that’s okay. You’re used to a restrictive takeout diet.”

“And there you go, comparing sex to food again.”

“Because it works. You can’t live on boiled chicken and plain rice. Well, you can, but it’s boring.” And he should know. There had been nothing wrong with his relationship with Michael. It had been calm and kind and loving, and also completely dull and predictable. At the time, it had been enough, or it had felt like enough. “To be honest, I am rediscovering some things myself, because it has been a while.”

“But you were with someone?”

Chester nodded. “And sometimes things fall into a rut that is extremely comfortable, and I didn’t want to be the one making changes.”

Which, now that he said it out loud, seemed foolish because if one of them had said something, they might still be together. Maybe. Or perhaps it always had an expiry date, and he hadn’t noticed. It wasn’t as if he’d been unhappy. Had he gotten too comfortable? Was that even a possibility?

“So this isn’t a painful experience for you, trying to get me up to speed?”

“Is that what it feels like? It’s not meant to be a lesson.” Was he doing this wrong? It wasn’t his job to bring Garrett up to speed, so his next lover or boyfriend got to benefit. He was having fun. He was enjoying it far too much.

It wasn’t just sex, even though it should be.

Garrett rested his forehead against Chester’s. The tips of their noses brushed together and sent a shiver of heat down Chester’s spine. “It doesn’t feel like a lesson. I’m not used to exploring what I want, but I want to. I want to with you, and I’m glad you’re also enjoying it.”

“How could I not?” Garrett was gorgeous. He probably had a string of girls who wanted him, and he didn’t even notice. Hell, he probably had a few guys panting after him, and he was oblivious because he wasn’t letting himself look. Once he did, he wouldn’t waste his time with him. He’d end up with some A-lister or B-Lister and then use their influence to create a perfume or something.

But even as he thought it, he couldn’t imagine Garrett being happy with that kind of image-focused lifestyle, which meant putting everything on social media.

He barely had social media.

“Then I guess I better get my gear off.” Garrett took a step back and lifted the hem of the T-shirt, baring his well-defined abs.

“You’d better tell me what you want for dinner first, so I can put the order in.”

He pulled off the T-shirt, reminding Chester that he wasn’t here for the food. “I’m worried you’re going to judge me.”

“Oh, I am judging the menu. Burger, a steak sandwich which is a fancy burger, pasta with two sauce choices, a pizza, and a salad. Is this what you eat every night?”

“No, sometimes I go out with some guys from the team, or I eat at one of the restaurants downstairs. I miss cooking for myself.”

“You can come to my place and cook for me anytime. I am so sick of cooking for one.”

Garrett grinned, dimples forming, before he grabbed him around the waist and kissed him. “Careful, I might take you up on that offer.”

He couldn’t take Garrett home because then he wouldn’t be able to lie to himself, not that he was doing a good job of it, anyway. “Can you actually cook? Or do you call dried chicken breast and rice dinner?”

“Excuse me, are you dissing my cooking skills before you’ve tasted anything?”

“Well, I am used to?—”

“I am a very good cook. And I do much more than throw a few sausages on the barbecue… though I can barbecue as well.” Garrett’s hands were under Chester’s shirt, fingertips sliding against the skin of his lower back. Chester couldn’t resist. He rocked forward, hoping to feel the hard thickness of his dick.

Garrett stepped back, as if knowing exactly what Chester wanted. There was a devilish glint in his eyes, and his smile would get people arrested. “You’d better order. I’m having the chicken salad with extra chicken and boiled potatoes.”

Chester’s gaze skimmed over him. There was no way he was going back to boring, safe, and comfortable. Not when he was enjoying testing to see how much heat he could handle. Sure, he was going to get burned at some point, but didn’t every relationship end up with someone in tears?

He wasn’t sure if his had been tears of relief or fear that he was alone.

Either way, he’d been fine until Garrett had turned up, and he hadn’t been able to help himself.

“I’m sure you could find a short-term rental until you?—”

“No.” Garrett shook his head. “Until I know what’s going on, I’m staying here.”

“In purgatory.” Unable to go back and unable to go forward. A different kind of holding pattern.

“I’m pretty sure there are plenty of people who would swap places with me. I am aware I’m complaining about nothing.” He hooked his thumb into the waistband of his shorts, and from the jut of his erection, he wasn’t wearing any underwear again. Garrett was trying to kill him.

Chester wasn’t sure he cared. He picked up the menu and pretended to examine it again, as Garrett slowly pushed down his shorts, aware that Chester was not-so-secretly watching. Then he moved the pillows to one side and lay on the bed, his head where his feet should’ve been, as if he was going to watch TV. “Just bill it to the room.”

It was only then that Chester walked over and picked up the phone. Garrett’s ass cheeks were paler than the rest of him, and Chester was tempted to lean over and bite one pale globe. “Are you sure?”

“Yeah.”

Chester ordered, requesting it to be delivered in an hour. If they were at his place, they could’ve cooked dinner, eaten dinner, and then gone upstairs to his room. It would’ve felt more like a date… Not whatever this was.

He was such a liar. Just the idea of seeing Garrett made him excited.

Chester stood at the end of the bed, eyeing Garrett’s body, laid out like an offering for him. “So, when you were busy exploring things…” He ran his palm over one pale ass cheek, pulling it slightly, so he could glimpse Garrett’s hole. “Did your boyfriend ever rim you… or you him?”

Garrett’s head whipped around so fast Chester was worried he’d sprain his neck. “Did he what now?”

“Lick your hole.”

Garrett’s eyebrows lifted. “I thought that was a porn thing. Is that what you…” His cheeks reddened, and he buried his face in his arms.

“You just showered.” He kept smoothing his hand over Garrett’s ass cheek. “And you want me to fuck you.” He assumed Garrett had showered extra well.

“Yeah.”

“It’s a fun way to become used to ass play, and I swear I won’t stick anything in.” He unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it on the chair.

Garrett lifted his head. “Anything?”

“No fingers or tongue or dick… no matter how much you beg.” He took off his pants and added them to the chair a little more carefully.

Garrett watched him. “Oh, I am going to be too weirded out to beg.”

Chester smiled. He doubted that. “Is that a yes, proceed, or a no, don’t put your tongue anywhere near my ass?” He left his briefs on for the moment. He leaned in and kissed Garrett’s forehead. “And no, I don’t expect you to reciprocate.”

“What if I enjoy it?”

“What if you do?” Chester climbed onto the bed, kneeling over Garrett, as if to give him a back massage. Which wasn’t a bad place to start, because he wanted to touch him.

“Do you?”

“I think we have already established I enjoy having my ass played with.”

“I haven’t played with it that much.”

“Which is fine.”

Garrett turned his head. “Is it?”

That had been his one complaint about Michael. As much as Chester liked all the things on offer, they had fallen into a lazy pattern of always having the same thing. There had rarely been any oral and even less anal. So the fact that Garrett had started this whole thing by sucking him off, and enjoyed giving him head, was a lure and hook he had taken.

“Yes. My previous relationship was mostly frot—which I do like—but I need more than a lazy grind once a month. Ugh. That sounds terrible.” He pressed his thumbs into the muscles of Garrett’s shoulders. He had muscles in places Chester didn’t think was possible. “It wasn’t a bad relationship. It just…”

He wasn’t even sure what to say about it and Michael. He could say the spark died, but he didn’t think there had ever been one. It had been a mutual falling into something that had been convenient for both of them. It had been what he needed at the time.

Maybe this was no different.

He’d been enjoying being single, and now he was enjoying rediscovering all the needs he’d put on the back burner. He was using Garrett under the guise of expanding his outlook on sex.

“It was boiled chicken and rice. Perfectly nutritious, but not much better than takeout sex,” Garrett offered.

“Yes.” It had been fine. Yet at the same time, it had only been fine. “They both have their own issues.” He moved back so his hands could work lower. “This is too soft of a massage for you, isn’t it?”

Garrett turned his head to glance at him. “I figured this was for you and that you wanted to touch me because I’m so gorgeous.”

Chester laughed. “I said it once, and I’m never going to live it down.”

“Make the most of it, because when I get a boring accounting job, I’m not going to be working out or training all day.”

Chester dropped one knee between Garrett’s thighs. It was enough of a hint for him to spread his legs. “Is that your plan for life after football?”

“Plan A is to play for enough years that I put a couple of mil in the bank, then I can choose what to do, or live on the interest.” He sucked in a breath as Chester massaged his ass cheeks, gently spreading them.

“You can tell me to stop, okay?”

“I know… I’d be just as nervous if you were about to fuck me.”

“I wouldn’t want to destroy your hole before you have to get naked in the locker room.”

Garrett laughed and lowered his face to the bed. “No one looks that closely at my ass in the locker room.”

“They should. It’s a very nice ass. I want to see it in those tight gold pants, honey.”

“Same. If I get to pull on those pants and play, you can do whatever you want to my ass.”

“Mmm. Don’t give someone free rein to your ass. That’s inviting all kinds of trouble.” His thumbs brushed over the crinkled skin of Garrett’s hole. “But if you play, I will gladly fuck you. Does Monday work for you because I don’t want you walking funny at training.”

Garrett laughed. “Your dick’s not that thick.”

“And your ass isn’t that well trained.” He ran his teeth over one ass cheek.

Garrett tensed. “No bite marks, because the guys will ask where they came from.”

Damn.

“I will save biting your ass for postseason.” Chester shouldn’t have said that because it implied, they’d still be together postseason.

“Are you going to add biting my ass to your sex degustation menu?”

“I’ll think about it.” Because now there was a getaway that he really wanted to go on looming in front of him. “And what is Plan B?”

Chester leaned in and licked Garrett’s hole. Garrett sucked in a breath and nearly levitated off the bed. Chester returned to massaging his ass cheeks, separating them, and stroking his hole. He waited for Garrett to tell him to stop or answer his question.

“Plan B is falling back on my degree. Two years of playing is a nice nest egg, but not enough to live off. Not at my rate of pay, anyway.”

“Please, per minute, you’re one of the best paid players.” He moved slower this time, letting the tip of his tongue linger. “Will you go back to Australia?”

“I don’t know…” He scrunched the sheets, gripping them tight. “I can’t think that far ahead. I have to think…” He gasped. “Of the next training session… of the next game.”

With every lick, Chester took note of Garrett’s reactions. The way he drew in a breath and held it, the way his ass cheeks tightened beneath Chester’s hands, and the way his hips moved as he humped the bed.

“God, can you please…”

“Please, what? Stop or keep going?”

Garrett groaned.

Chester rocked back and grabbed a pillow. “Put this under your hips.” Garrett lifted his butt enough that Chester could shove it beneath. “Is your dick comfy?”

“Yeah, my balls aren’t.”

“So I should keep going?” He worked one spit slicked thumb around Garrett’s hole, watching the way it flexed as though trying to grab him.

Garrett rocked his hips as though hoping Chester’s thumb would accidentally slide in. “Please… I need a little more to come.”

“Uh-huh.” He didn’t give him anymore. He kept his promise of not fucking him, and continued to lick, and circle, and press as he was about to thrust a finger in.

Garrett groaned and begged and humped the pillow. His hips lifting and back arching in a perfect picture of need. A strand of pre-cum stretched from the tip of his dick to the pillow.

“I need… uh… I’ll do whatever…”

Chester moved his tongue in a slow circle around Garrett’s hole, listening as the pleading disintegrated into a moan.

“You beg so prettily.” Chester rubbed a thumb over Garrett’s taint, pressing on his prostate.

“Oh, fuck.” Garrett’s hips jerked as he came. “Fuck…” He collapsed onto his belly. “What the fuck was that?” His voice was muffled by the sheets as he sprawled on the bed, limp and sated.

“That is how you can enjoy butt stuff without putting things up your butt.” He ran his palm over his aching cock. His briefs were damp with pre-cum. It would only take a couple of strokes. He’d forgotten how much fun it was to play with someone and make them squirm.

Garrett groaned again. “I want you to fuck me.”

Chester gripped his cock a little tighter. “Gold pants first, honey.”

“Fuck.” He lifted his head. “You haven’t come.”

“No.” And if Garrett asked to be fucked again, he wasn’t sure he’d be able to resist. Why was he trying to resist? “Want to suck me?”

“That’s not even a question. Of course I want to suck you.” All of a sudden, Garrett was alive. He pulled the cum-wet pillow out from beneath his hips and rolled onto his back with Chester dodging his leg. “Get up here.”

They both moved until Chester knelt over Garrett’s head.

“Why do you still have clothes on?”

“So I wasn’t tempted.” Not that they had helped.

Garrett pulled the briefs down, freeing his cock. It bounced as if desperate to find its way into Garrett’s mouth, and then Garrett’s lips closed around him. His hands were on Chester’s hips, but his grip didn’t tighten, and he didn’t drag Chester closer.

His tongue worked along the underside.

Chester rolled his hips, thrusting a little deeper each time. Garrett swallowed everything he was given, then tilted his head, asking for a little more. He’d done his homework, and Chester thrust a little deeper. Garrett swallowed, his throat tight, and it was enough. He came, spilling down Garrett’s throat. And Garrett made greedy little noises like he couldn’t get enough.

Chester rolled onto his back next to him. His heart raced, and he was breathing hard. He was never going to get enough of Garrett. Turning his head to glance at his player, he found Garrett already looking at him with that dimpled smile on his face.

And Chester’s heart did that stupid little flippy thing, like it was tipsy from too many bubbles.

He was in trouble, but he couldn’t stop himself from smiling.