Chapter 10
TEN
Something had shifted between them—again, caught up in a river of their very own making with change as the only constant.
At breakfast, Alex sat with Jeff and Marco, Lee a few tables away.
Each time their eyes met, anticipation pressed thick against the back of Alex’s throat, a dizzying tangle of nerves and elation.
He spent the trip back to the team hotel in Alicante with his headphones in, trying to catch up on sleep that had been elusive last night because…
well. With things about to get real, he’d only meant to do a few minutes of research, brush up on his knowledge of guy-on-guy mechanics since gay porn didn’t seem like a reliable source of information.
Turned out the internet was a rabbit hole. Surprise.
Back at the hotel, they had just a few minutes to drop off their bags before they were due for a strategy session. About to leave the room, Alex snagged Lee’s elbow to stop him from opening the door. Lee turned slowly, with a tentative smile, and Alex suddenly didn’t know what to say.
Several seconds of silence stretched between them, then Lee huffed out a small, amused breath. “So. This is awkward.”
Which was when Alex remembered that he was meant to be the charming one. “Not awkward, no. Just different.”
“Different, huh?” Lee tilted his head, smile growing.
Charming, right. Alex could do charming.
“Different,” he repeated, letting his voice tilt down a little. “For example, I can do this now.” He shuffled closer, tucking himself up against Lee’s body as he slid his hand down to tangle their fingers, nosing along the curve of Lee’s cheekbone.
“Not a girl,” Lee protested, but he didn’t sound genuinely upset.
“Tell me something I don’t know.”
“We’ll be late.” Lee made no move to pull away—angled himself closer, in fact, and Alex pressed his grin against Lee’s cheek.
“I know that. Anything else?”
Lee turned his head just enough for their lips to brush, the contact so light it barely registered. “I want you.”
Jesus.
Alex cleared his throat. “Warn a guy.”
“Where’d be the fun in that?” Lee ran a hand down Alex’s back to cup his ass, pulling him in for a sweet, leisurely roll of Lee’s hips, and okay, Alex was coming to see the appeal of loose training shorts. Especially when Lee bumped Alex away right after, gently but firmly.
Alex blinked. “Hey. I was enjoying that.”
“Me too.” Lee’s voice had dropped by a margin. “We’re already late, though.”
So what?
Alex was about to say as much when he realized that Lee would have spent years herding his sisters, managing their schedules along with his own, making sure they made it to school on time.
Funny how Alex’s initial assumptions about Lee had been so far off they’d landed on a different continent entirely—too cool for school, messy, aloof. Wrong, wrong, and wrong.
With a sigh, Alex took a step back and tugged his jersey into place. “All right, let’s go.”
Lee nodded, hesitating for just a second before he smiled. “Later?”
Alex smiled back. “Later.”
Later, as it turned out, amounted to a total of twenty minutes before dinner, hardly enough time for both of them to get clean and change.
Alex left the bathroom door deliberately open before he stepped under the shower, and maybe Lee would have done something about it if his mother hadn’t chosen that moment to call.
While Alex made a half-hearted attempt to tune out the conversation, he found it impossible to ignore Lee’s voice—quiet and careful, younger than usual.
The phone call had ended by the time Alex exited the bathroom with just a towel wrapped around his hips. Unusually conscious of his near-nakedness, he found Lee in one of the armchairs by the window, expression absent as he frowned at the landscape.
“You okay?” Alex asked.
Lee started slightly and glanced over. Briefly, his gaze dropped from Alex’s face down to the towel. “My mum wants to come to the next match.”
“You said she’s stable, right?” Alex reached for a pair of boxer briefs and the jeans he’d left on his bed, but he didn’t move to pull them on just yet.
“Yeah.” Lee scrubbed a hand down his face, looking abruptly tired. “But routines and regularity are good. Stress and excitement? Not so much.”
“Can’t blame her for wanting to see her son play in a bloody World Cup, though.”
“I guess not.” Lee drew a long breath before he got up. For a few seconds, he simply stood there, watching Alex with a strange kind of intensity before he smiled. It didn’t quite reach his eyes. “All right, I’ll get showered too. I’ll be quick.”
Alex considered asking whether Lee would like some company—but really, not the moment for it.
It felt like Lee could use something to lighten the mood, though.
“You know what I should get you? A short-sleeved denim shirt with black trousers. It’d go great with your casual vibe but would still be a bit more effort than whatever T-shirt you found at the bottom of your wardrobe. ”
It did the trick because Lee’s shoulders relaxed. “Trying to model me into the kind of guy who could meet your parents?”
Alex was startled into a laugh at the mere thought of his father’s face. “Yeah, that’ll be the day. Think I like you too much for that.”
Something sparked behind Lee’s eyes, gone before Alex could analyze it. “Do you?”
“Yes.” There was more Alex could have added.
Time was ticking though, and Lee disliked being late and Alex still couldn’t quite read his mood.
So he left it at, “Especially once you’ve had your shower and you’re all nice and naked.
On that note, I wouldn’t mind getting my mouth on that tattoo on your hip. ”
“Such a sweet-talker.” A hint of amusement curled the corners of Lee’s mouth, and Alex reflected it tenfold.
“Plus, I’m pretty—according to you.”
Lee’s smile turned real. “I’m never gonna live that one down, am I?”
“Never,” Alex said with conviction. “We’ll be old and gray and my mind will slip at times, but that part I won’t forget.”
“Glad I made a lasting impression.” Any lingering trace of heaviness had dissipated from Lee’s posture, and only now did Alex acknowledge to himself that it was what he’d been aiming for ever since he’d caught sight of Lee in that armchair, staring at nothing.
“Unforgettable,” Alex said with all the dramatic flair of a cheesy pop ballad, and Lee snorted but didn’t deign it with a response.
When he brushed past Alex on his way to the bathroom, he paused just long enough to curve one hand around Alex’s waist, leaning in for a gentle neck bite while Alex stood completely still, breath catching in his throat. Jesus.
With a tiny grin that said he knew exactly what he was doing, Lee moved on. Alex was left staring at the closed bathroom door, the shower starting to run a moment later.
Wow, okay. Alex might have accidentally jumped into the deep end, but fuck if he wasn’t going to figure out how to swim. His heart was still beating a tad too fast when he pulled on his clothes, stomach hot with anticipation at the uncharted waters ahead.
And somehow, he was loving it.
Alex wasn’t shy.
He might have been shy once, when he’d been little, but it wasn’t a trait well-suited to the Earl of Clydesdale and future Duke of Eastwyck, so he’d been trained out of it. Social situations didn’t scare him anymore.
Making his way back to the room, Lee right next to Alex just like he’d been all throughout dinner—Alex wasn’t scared, no.
But he did feel uncommonly shy. He hovered an arm’s length away while Lee tapped the keycard against the lock before he held the door for Alex, and had he done that before? Alex couldn’t remember.
He sent Lee a quick smile as he walked past him into the room, then drew to a halt not far from the foot of Lee’s bed. Too close? He didn’t want to seem desperate, but he also didn’t want to come across as overly reserved.
“Cat got your tongue?” Lee asked quietly, and Alex spun around.
“No!” He cleared his throat, shook his head. “No.”
Casual? Nailed it.
Lee left his shoes by the door before he padded closer, eyes serious. “Okay, so… Talk to me?”
“Um.” Alex tugged on his ear, then remembered it was a nervous habit he’d ditched years ago. “Sure. About what?”
“Anything.” Lee walked past Alex and sat down on the edge of his bed, silent for a beat before he looked up at Alex with a cautious tilt to his head. “Like whether you still want to do this.”
“Yes.” Too desperate. Alex dialed it down a notch. “I do, I swear. Just a bit nervous is all.”
Something twitched around the corners of Lee’s mouth. “Okay, here’s the plan: we’ll start with you deepthroating me, and then maybe I can give you a quick rim job, get you ready to take my cock. Then let’s do it all again, but switch roles.” Another twitch of Lee’s lips. “How’s that sound?”
“It’s not funny,” Alex told him with as much dignity as he could muster, sudden laughter tickling the back of his throat.
“Oh, but it is.” Lee’s grin emerged in full—bright and almost sweet as he leaned forward, hands laced between his thighs.
“Look, it’s not a race, okay? Or a test. When I said I want you, I didn’t mean immediately, right this second, drop your trousers, what are you waiting for?
Not that I’m opposed as such, but it’s certainly not my expectation. ”
Alex exhaled and chuckled softly. “Right, yeah. That makes sense.”
“Then how about you take off your shoes”—Lee waved his hand—“and sit down next to me? And then we just see.”
“Sounds good.” It did. So Alex toed off his trainers and lined them up near the entrance, then glanced at the balcony door they’d left half-open before dinner, golden evening light spilling in. Just a few days past the peak of summer daylight.