Chapter 5 - Reece
Leaving the team wasn’t easy, especially knowing it didn’t only affect him—and seeing firsthand how it affected his friends only made things more difficult.
Instead of being closer than ever their senior year, Nick had been putting distance between them.
Pinning the blame on all the pressure he was enduring with his status helped Reece deal with the distance, but he was far from happy about it.
He missed Nick. He missed all his friends. He missed basketball with them. All the silly memories he had from their time in the locker rooms. All the training. All the naps Alex enforced that kept them all on their game. Reece had many fond memories, but he wanted to keep making new memories too.
What he did have were ball days with his friends every Thursday, a routine they established after Reece left the team.
It was the most he got to play with them anymore, and more than he could hope for—he knew well how busy they were and didn’t want them pushing themselves simply to keep him entertained, but Reece had clung to those moments all the same, knowing their time was limited even if he didn’t know how limited exactly.
Graduation came too soon. Reece filled the void of basketball with his modeling and fashion.
He made new friends, visited his sisters, and never missed a chance to cheer on the Mess wherever they played.
It wasn’t the same Coastal Miami life Reece had come to know and love, but it was still an experience and he hated for it all to be over.
And yet here he was, dancing the night away in celebration of their graduation.
Declan might’ve been hosting, but it was Reece who’d planned the party and simply informed Declan that his apartment would be the location.
It was easy math. Declan had the nicest place.
And he was the only one not living in the campus dorms. It was crazy to think they’d all be moving again in the coming weeks.
Everything about the night was perfect. The food, courtesy of Declan.
The music, courtesy of Nick’s playlist. And most of all, the company.
Reece had been lost in the buzz of it all, wondering if they might ever have another night like this, or if their time really was numbered.
These thoughts had his eyes drifting to Nick for the thousandth time of the night.
He was at the end of the kitchen table, taunting Declan.
The two of them were in the middle of an arm wrestling match that had been ongoing long enough for Reece to note every flexing muscle in both of their strong arms. They were both six and a half feet of pure muscle, though Declan was thicker these days.
They’d worked so hard to get here, but it was easy for Reece to remember them when they were younger. Softer even.
Reece was so proud of them both, and even a little starstruck, but often teased them about how they could just take the modeling route alongside him if they ever got tired of basketball. They were too hot to handle on the court, Reece could only imagine once the magazines got a hold of them.
Nick was wearing one of those loose sleeveless tees, nearly the entire sides of the shirt gone.
The open sleeves hung low and open, and with the way he was leaning forward and pushing against Declan’s arm, Reece had a delicious view of Nick’s dark skin and rippling muscles.
The look of determination on his face never failed to get to Reece, too.
Those fierce, deep blue eyes. The pinched brows.
Alex, who was nodding off, fell into Declan’s side, just enough of a distraction for Nick to get the upper hand and end the match by slamming Declan’s hand to the table.
Declan turned to his red-haired boyfriend, wrapping a protective arm around him all while cursing Nick for being a cheater—and Nick just grumbled a retort that Reece didn’t even hear, because he was too focused on Nick leaving one end of the table and walking closer to him.
A man straight out of Reece’s deepest, darkest, and best dreams.
The distance between them only caused Reece to yearn more deeply. He missed Nick, but craved this closeness with him more and more each time they were separated for too long. He wished things didn’t have to be so complicated.
Reece shuddered as Nick neared. He was way too pent up and horny to be up close and personal, and yet when Nick plopped his ass right beside Reece, he found it next to impossible not to lean into his larger frame, to breathe in the scent of him—he smelled so clean, that familiar sweet-like scent that Reece wished he could lick clean off him.
It made him crazy. Everything about Nick made him crazy.
That stupid little crush that had blossomed back when they were just kids had become something new.
Something dangerous.
Reece felt that danger creeping over him when his wandering eyes found Nick’s already on him, studying him as if he was laid bare.
It wasn’t the first time Reece had been caught staring. Wasn’t even the first time they’d ever had this level of tension sparking between them.
Maybe it was the alcohol that happened to change things tonight—what made him want to give in to his desires for once without ignoring them.
Maybe it was Reece’s desperation—his desire to hold onto Nick for as long as he could, however he could.
Normally, he’d play off such things as if it was nothing, blame it on Nick’s imagination if he was ever called out.
This time, though, he stood his ground and decided to tease Nick.
After all, how many more opportunities would he have?
And what could it hurt as long as he kept it playful?
If Nick ran from him again, he’d give up. But if he didn’t run…
“What?” he huffed, ready to blame his flushed cheeks on the alcohol even if Nick was the culprit. “You can’t go around flaunting and not expect people to check you out. I’m a model, so I know.”
“Yeah, well, you look like you might wanna do more than just check me out.” A challenge or an accusation, Reece didn’t know. He faced it head-on either way.
“Yeah, well,” Reece mocked him, leaning in close enough so that he could whisper and keep his next words just between the two of them, “you look like you might be good at it. And I’m horny, so…”
“The fuck do you mean ‘might’?” Nick scoffed as if those words were a personal attack, and Reece snickered.
“Can’t know for sure if you don’t show me. Can I?”
It wasn’t the first time Reece dared to tease Nick, even if it had been a while since he blatantly flirted with him. He made subtle attempts over the years, all to no avail. Reece always assumed that Nick not only had a preference for women but wasn’t much interested in Reece in particular.
But something about this night hit Nick differently, and Reece didn’t know what. He didn’t even have a chance to contemplate it.
One minute they were at the table, eyes locked, Reece’s heart pounding, and the next they were alone in Declan’s only spare room that had only a full-sized bed.
It wasn’t accommodating at all, not for Reece’s long legs and certainly not for Nick’s.
But neither of them cared. Not as Nick forced Reece to sit on it.
Nick came so close that Reece’s breath hitched in anticipation of feeling those lips on his own for the second time—or would it feel like the first?
—but a kiss never came. Just Nick stripping him.
Reece assisted, obligingly shifting his body to make it easier for Nick to remove his clothes—but everything was fast. Frenzied.
Nick didn’t kiss him, but Reece was hardly able to miss a kiss when Nick’s hands were all over him, so big they made Reece feel small.
And he wasn’t. He was only a few inches shorter, but the bulk of Nick made up the difference.
At least forty pounds. Reece could feel it with Nick leaning over him.
“Gonna show your ass since you wanna see so bad.”
It was a promise that came off like a threat with the way Nick’s tone had dropped. Reece was so hard it was dizzying.
“Show me.”
He was breathless, tugging Nick’s loose shirt up and over his head at the same time his toes hooked onto the waistbands of his shorts and underwear and pushed them down.
Nick laughed at his eagerness, the sound warm and comforting in a way that damn near had Reece melting.
He laughed too, lightly, but the sound teetered off as Nick’s hand laid over his chest and slid up to his throat and back down.
It was really happening. Nick was touching him.
Looking at him like a ravenous beast. Nick was going to fuck him and Reece was flying on cloud nine.
He’d thought about this moment so many times, or thought of getting to have sex with Nick more times than he could count.
Reece had so many fantasies, so many things that he wanted to do with Nick, that a single fuck would never be enough.
But if that was all Reece could get from Nick, if he’d only ever be granted this one night, he’d take it. Any part of Nick he could get, Reece would hold on tight and run with it.
He was still trying to collect his thoughts and calm himself from how turned on he was when he was flipped onto his front, Nick moving him to his liking as if Reece was light as a feather—and if that wasn’t the biggest turn on, Reece didn’t know what was.
“On your knees,” Nick said, voice an octave Reece was certain he’d never heard before.
He was strong enough that he could’ve easily kept moving Reece, could’ve yanked him up onto his knees by his hips, yet he chose to make Reece shift himself so he could watch, one of those large hands smacking Reece on the ass.
He blushed ten shades of red between how good that felt and the shameless moan that he emitted in response to it.
Without even peeking at Nick, Reece could feel his smirk, but he still looked over his shoulder to see it for himself.