Chapter 19
Nineteen
Alex resurfaced from his writing sprint and read the passage he’d just written. He was done—officially done—with the first draft of his book, and two weeks ahead of time too. He’d spend the next two weeks self-editing and polishing before sending it to his editor, but the bones were there.
He sat back in his office chair and released a breath.
He’d been writing for as long as he could remember, but this was the first project he’d ever finished that he felt good about.
Better than good. His book dug into the nuts and bolts of professional sports and into how the high expectations of friends and family, coaches, scouts, and the athletes themselves, affect a player’s decisions.
Now all he needed was a title. His editor had already nixed “The Dark Side of Sports,” claiming it was too doom and gloom. He’d think of something.
But after his weekend with Mitch.
Saving his work, he checked the time, grabbed his keys, and headed out. Mitch’s flight was landing in less than half an hour and it’d probably take Alex that much time to get to the airport.
Mitch had bitched and groaned when Alex had told him that he’d gone ahead and purchased Mitch’s ticket to Tampa for him to visit over the President’s Day long weekend, but Alex wasn’t about to let him pay when the man could barely afford food.
“You did what?” Mitch had been sexily rumpled, bedcovers pulled up to his mouth to ward off the early morning Vermont cold the day after their visit to Stowe.
“I bought your ticket,” Alex repeated, knowing full well that Mitch had heard him and was simply having trouble processing. He pulled a hoodie on over his T-shirt and waited for the inevitable protests.
“You can’t do that,” Mitch said. He sat up in bed, shivered, and hunkered down again, covers up to his nose.
Alex stuffed dirty underwear into his duffel. “I already did.”
“Alex.” Mitch rubbed his forehead hard. “You can’t just buy stuff for me.”
“Sure, I can.”
Huffing, Mitch rolled out of bed and struggled into the closest items of clothing he could find, which happened to be yesterday’s boxer briefs and the blue hoodie Alex had left in his car on the road trip to Vermont after New Year’s.
Standing in the middle of his bedroom with his arms crossed over his chest in nothing but morning stubble, underwear, and an oversized sweatshirt, hair all over the place, he made Alex want to simultaneously give him a noogie and tumble him back into bed.
Last night had been completely unexpected.
He hadn’t set out to seduce Mitch, as much as it might seem like it.
He’d been dying to see Mitch, to hold him, to talk to him, to sleep curled around him, to kiss him until his lips went puffy and red.
But then Mitch had been so attentive to him, asking Alex what he needed and making sure he had it, visiting Grandpa Forest with him and then spending all day distracting him when it turned out Alex couldn’t handle seeing his grandpa broken and sick in the hospital.
It’d hit Alex that they were already solid.
And the way Mitch took care of him, the way he was as attuned to Alex as Alex was to him?
It solidified something in Alex, something that had him seeing Mitch in a new light.
In a way that said life partner, rather than merely boyfriend.
And that was a damn sexy image. And that, in turn, made Mitch even more attractive to him, which, of course, had led to last night’s double orgasms.
Fuck, he wanted to do that again.
“I can pay for my own ticket,” Mitch said.
Alex cleared the want from his throat and zipped his duffel. “You’re just mad I stepped on your pride by getting it without asking first.”
Mitch growled at him like an angry fox.
“Yeah, yeah, you hate how much I know you. Look.” Alex cupped his face and kissed his unsmiling mouth.
“First, I have the money. Second, it’s just sitting there, so if I want to use it so that my boyfriend can come visit me without putting a dent in his own wallet, I’m going to.
And third, if our situations were reversed, wouldn’t you do the same? ”
Mitch softened and wrapped his arms around Alex’s waist. “That’s different.”
“Why?”
“Because it is,” Mitch said in Alex’s neck.
Alex chuckled and hugged him close. “If you say so.” There was a lonely three weeks coming up.
Sure he’d be busy, but that wouldn’t stop him from missing Mitch, from wishing he could reach out and touch him whenever he wanted.
He stuck his nose in Mitch’s hair and inhaled deeply.
Mitch smelled like come and sweat and a little bit like laundry detergent.
With a heaviness in his stomach, Alex kissed Mitch’s forehead, and pulled away. “I need to go.”
Mitch’s sigh was sad, his eyes downcast. “Yeah, I know.”
Alex kissed him once, twice, and before he knew it, they were wrapped around each other tightly, breathing hard, one of Alex’s hands down the back of Mitch’s underwear.
Mitch’s nails dug into his lower back and heat like Alex had never felt before last night pooled in his belly.
He wrenched his mouth away even as his hips sought Mitch’s, making Mitch laugh and kiss his neck once before stepping completely out of his arms.
“Come on.” He picked up Alex’s duffel and headed for the door. “I know you need to leave.”
Reluctantly, Alex followed him down the stairs. “I’ll make you dinner on Valentine’s Day.”
“For the love of God, nothing that costs ninety-five dollars,” Mitch said, dropping Alex’s bag on the bench by the front door.
Alex sat to put on his boots. “How about fettuccine Alfredo with chicken?” he suggested, knowing how much Mitch loved cheesy things.
“Yeah?” Mitch grinned. “Can I have beer too?”
Alex finished tying his laces and stood to put on his coat. “It really goes better with wine.”
Mitch wrinkled his nose.
“Beer it is.” He held a hand out to Mitch. “Come here.”
And with his arms around Mitch for what was going to be the last time for almost three weeks, Alex almost said the words, the ones he’d been thinking since Christmas.
But it didn’t seem right to say them when he was about to walk out the door, so he swallowed them, squeezed Mitch tight, gave him a last thorough kiss, and left.
* * *
Three weeks later, Mitch was taking his own personal tour of Alex’s apartment while Alex fixed them each a chicken salad sandwich as a late dinner in the kitchen.
He also chopped up some raw vegetables and put them on Mitch’s plate, since the man’s daily veggie intake was somewhere between nil and Mama Jean’s pizza sauce.
“Have you really read all these books?” Mitch called from the second-floor loft.
“Yup,” Alex called back, licking mayo off his thumb.
Mitch’s footsteps sounded on the stairs.
Seconds later, he padded into the kitchen on bare feet.
He’d fallen asleep almost instantly on the drive here, but now he was wide awake, eyes trying to take in everything at once.
Sometime since Alex had last seen him, Mitch had gotten a haircut.
His hair was still longer than most men tended to wear it, but those perfect curls no longer fell every which way over his forehead and ears.
Instead, they curled upwards into a fluffy, mini afro, which made him look delightfully mussed at all times.
“This isn’t what I expected your place to look like.” He hopped up to sit on the island.
“What’d you expect?”
“Less space. Less…personality.”
Alex’s seventeen-hundred square feet condo in the Channel District wasn’t huge, but it was stylish, with low-ceilings, exposed brick, blackened steel, and wood finishing.
He had an open living room/kitchen with floor-to-ceiling windows along one wall, a bedroom and bathroom on each floor, office space in the loft, and a small patio he was never around to use.
“I guess I expected it to look like an interior decorator put it together.”
“Nope.” Alex passed Mitch his plate. “All me. Why are you making that face?”
“Why is my sandwich on a croissant?”
Alex bit into his own sandwich. “Why wouldn’t it be on a croissant?”
Mitch blinked at him. “Yeah, okay, I guess that’s as good an answer as any.” He popped a piece of carrot in his mouth. “What are we doing tonight?”
It was past nine-thirty. What could he possibly want to do? And shit, when had Alex gotten old? “What do you want to do tonight?”
Mitch shrugged and ate his sandwich. “Nothing. Just didn’t know if you had anything planned.”
“Well, first I’m going to feed you. Then I’m going to put you to bed.”
“And then?” Mitch asked, sitting up straight.
“And then you’ll probably fall asleep in about point two seconds.”
His shoulders slumped. “I slept on the plane. I’ll be up for hours.”
“It took you four minutes to fall asleep in my car.”
Mitch grumbled something Alex didn’t catch and polished off his sandwich.
“Cheer up.” Alex nudged his knee. “We’ll fool around tomorrow. I even bought condoms.”
Mitch choked on his food. “You…what? Well damn, I’m wide awake now if you feel like putting them to use.”
“Tomorrow.”
“But why?”
“Because it’s Valentine’s Day.”
Mitch’s grin started slow, the corners of his mouth twitching as his eyes lit up. “Aww. You’re such a sap.”
Alex crossed his arms over his chest. “I prefer the term ‘romantic’.”
“Sap.” Mitch ate another carrot. “How’s the book coming? Is Mitch slash Adrian having lots of adventures?”
Alex leaned a hip on the island next to him. “It’s not that kind of book.” He stretched a kink out of his neck. “Actually, I finished the first draft today.”
“Holy shit.” Mitch’s mouth fell open. “Alex, that’s awesome! Can I read it?”
“You want to?”
“Of course. You wrote it.”
Touched beyond words, Alex loaded their plates into the dishwasher.
He could feel Mitch’s eyes on his back. The man might as well have been touching Alex for how fast he broke out in goosebumps.
Shutting the dishwasher, he turned and leaned against the counter, facing Mitch, who kicked his legs against the island like a little kid.
It had been barely twenty minutes and already Mitch had taken over Alex’s apartment.
His duffel was in Alex’s bedroom down the hall, his running shoes by the front door, backpack next to the couch, discarded socks dropped onto the living room rug, flannel shirt draped over one of the island barstools, and his cell phone sitting on the island.
Less than forty-eight hours from now, he’d take everything with him when he left, leaving Alex alone again and his apartment feeling less like a home and more like a stopover onto something else.
Mitch reached out with a foot and poked Alex in the thigh. “What are you thinking about?”
That I miss you already and you’re not even gone yet. “I like having you here.”
Mitch’s mouth quirked, his smile tentative yet quietly pleased. “Yeah?”
“Yeah,” Alex said, voice gruff. He walked into the space between Mitch’s legs and ran his hands up Mitch’s sides, nuzzling Mitch’s throat. “I’ve missed you.”
Tilting his head back, Mitch sighed softly and clamped his legs around Alex’s hips. “I’ve missed you too. Being here is…”
Alex kissed him gently. “It makes us feel more real.”
“Yeah.” Mitch’s eyebrows pulled together in that way he had that told Alex he was surprised Alex understood him so easily. “I don’t know why, though.”
“Maybe because,” Alex said, kissing the fingertips of one hand, “it’s just us here. No parents, no roommates. And we can just…”
“Be.”
“Yeah.” Alex brushed his thumb over Mitch’s lips. “We can just be.”