Chapter 5
Chapter Five
The bass of the club rattled the walls behind Nico and his teammates.
A beautiful woman cradled herself in Nico’s lap with an arm wrapped around the back of his neck.
She was dressed in a tight-fitting cocktail dress with long, slick bleach-blonde hair.
Her name was Angela or Amber, maybe even Ambrosia.
He couldn’t exactly hear her over the loud music and it wasn’t like it mattered anyway.
It was the night before a game and he should have been back at the hotel resting, but Matteo and Razer convinced him to go out for one drink.
The leather couch surrounded a long table filled with bottles of liquor, mixers, and empty shot glasses. For the rest of the team, one drink turned to two, and two turned into losing count.
For Nico, he nursed on a glass of ice water with a cherry on top.
One beer was enough and after that he switched to a mocktail.
It was a big game the next day and he needed to be in the right headspace.
Coach Callahan would murder him if he fucked this up after all the practice they’d put in the last two weeks.
Two weeks of all work, absolutely no play, and absofuckinglutely no talking about what happened between the two of them.
Nico’s cock twitched in his trousers just thinking about that Sunday in his apartment with Callahan.
Angela—he’d settled on that being her name—cocked an ornery grin and pawed at his erection.
He throbbed under her touch and widened his stance, providing more room for her to work her magic.
His eyes searched the immediate surroundings, but the boys were too locked in on women of their own to notice the depravity right beside them. It’s not like they would care. They’d probably cheer it on. Boys will be boys.
Nico would be Nico, but Nico was anything but Nico.
Angela dropped her head low against Nico’s shoulder and shouted over the music. “Want to take this somewhere more private?”
In his mind, he followed her to the VIP bathroom.
It’d be private enough and more often than not, there was even a lock on the door.
He’d slip her panties down her legs, drop his pants to the floor, and fuck her on the sink in the dark bathroom.
He could see the entire scene playing out in his head, but the ending suddenly changed.
The point he reached climax, screaming ‘Touchdown’, it wasn’t Angela sitting bare-assed on the sink anymore. It was Cooper fucking Callahan, legs spread on the counter like some club whore.
For the past two weeks, anytime he even thought about sex, Cooper was always right there on the edge just as he’d come. He didn’t need Copper in his mind to come, but it certainly made coming much more intense.
Cooper Callahan had fucking broken him or something.
Back in the real world, the one where Angela waited desperately for an answer to her inquiry, Nico felt trapped. Sweat dripped down the side of his face, but the club was hot with enough mouth-breathers to suck all the oxygen out of the massive space. His heart raced faster than his cock.
He leaned forward on the couch and gently eased Angela off of his lap. It was time to get the fuck out of there. He turned back to her, planted his hands together in prayer formation and apologized. “I’m so sorry. I have to go.”
He didn’t wait for a response before squeezing through the thin space that separated the table from the couch, slipped past his friends without saying a word, and made his way into the thick of the crowd.
“Fallon,” Razer screamed from behind and latched a strong hand onto his shoulder. “What the fuck are you doing?”
Nico turned back to his fellow rookie and scratched at the top of his forehead. “I have a headache.”
“What?” Razer screamed back, clearly unable to hear him over the music.
Nico leaned forward and stood on his tippy toes—the rookie running back was that fucking tall—and screamed into his ear. “I have a headache and screaming right now isn’t making it any better.”
“Don’t be a bitch, “Razer coughed into a fit of laughter as he landed a playful punch against Nico’s shoulder. “They don’t have women like this back in Columbus.”
Nico shook his head and saw Angela crossing her legs on the couch, alone and clearly bored now. He smiled at his friend and pointed to the woman. “See that girl?”
Razer glanced over his shoulder quickly and then looked back to Nico with a raised brow.
“She could use someone to talk to.” Nico patted his friend on the chest. “Have fun!”
Nico didn’t breathe a sigh of relief until he exited the front doors of the club. Standing on the street, he waited for a ride, unsure if he was going to go to bed or if he was in the mood for a little trouble.
The only thing he was certain of was the only headache he had was the one in his cock.
Cooper wiped the fog from the bathroom mirror as steam billowed from the shower behind him.
He exhaled softly, his breath fogging up the mirror again.
Wiped the mirror again. Rinse and repeat.
In his own eyes, he could see the weight of the last few years.
They weren’t as bright as they used to be, and shadows lingered underneath.
He flipped the light switch off on his way out of the humid bathroom and stepped into the relatively cool space of the suite that had a kitchenette and a king-sized bed. Out the windows was an endless sea of lit-up skyscrapers, nothing like the view back home in Ohio.
As he approached the floor-to-ceiling windows, wearing only a towel branded with the Cobras logo, he was met by his own reflection again and it was a much different person staring back at him than the first time he stayed at the same hotel.
Stassi, Luke, and him had traveled to the city of angels for draft day five years prior.
Cooper was the number one prospect and was poised to be taken first pick overall, but somehow ended up being picked third.
Instead of ending up where he was destined—with the Hollywood Knights—somehow he ended up stuck back in the same place he’d always called home.
The only comfort was that somehow Luke ended up right there with him.
A faint knock at the door stole Cooper’s attention. He cocked his head over his shoulder and waited for the second knock, and then the third.
He looked through the peephole.
It was Nico, standing in the hallway with his ear pressed against the door.
Cooper ripped the door open.
A wrinkled smile passed over Nico’s punchable-sized lips. “I’ve been out here knocking for like five minutes.”
“Please tell me you’re fucking joking.” Cooper poked his head out into the hallway and looked both ways, grabbed the rookie, dragged him inside, and slammed the door shut. “Did anyone see you?”
“So how does this work?” Nico asked, ignoring the question as he stepped past him. He turned around and began popping the buttons of his black shirt. Tore the shirt down his arms and tossed it onto Cooper’s tidied bed. “I take off my clothes and you do what I want you to do to me?”
Cooper stared at him wide-eyed and in disbelief. “Have you lost your mind? This hotel is filled with players and staff.”
“The team is at the club,” Nico said with a shrug, ignoring that the players were just one piece of the hundred-and-fifty or so entourage. “They say they’re going to make it back before curfew, but I have my doubts.”
Ever since the team—and the league—had become more lax about curfew, away games had turned into the wild west. “I don’t give a shit what the rest of them do. They aren’t my responsibility.”
Nico narrowed his eyes. “You do realize I’m standing here, nine minutes before curfew right? I’m doing the things I’m supposed to be doing which is a huge compliment to your coaching abilities because I have to say, I’d normally be out way past curfew.”
“You should be standing in your own room.”
“And yet I’m standing in yours.” Nico’s belt clanked, metal on metal, as he undid it and undid the top button of his trousers. He stared straight into Cooper’s eyes as he pulled down his zipper. “So tell me what the fuck are you going to do about it?”
Cooper forced his gaze upward, forced himself to stay there, to look anywhere but down. “I think you’ve forgotten who I am.”
“You’re Cooper Callahan,” Nico said with a sly wink. “I could never forget that.”
Cooper took a measured step towards him. “Say it with a little more oomph.”
“The great Cooper Callahan.”
The rookie thought he was smoother than he really was. These games he played might work on others, but they weren’t going to work on him. “Do you know what they say about me?”
“The good stuff or the bad stuff?”
“No such thing as bad stuff. Do you know why?” Cooper closed the distance between them. Stood right in front of him. Eye-to-eye. Breath on breath. “Because I always win.”
Cooper reached down and trailed a hand over the front of Nico’s thigh and reveled in the way the younger man’s breath seemed to hitch, the way his throat seemed to tighten.
He maneuvered his hand over Nico’s crotch and brushed it gently, just barely passing over the hardness growing beneath the fabric.
He took hold of the zipper and pulled it back to the top of Nico’s trousers and whispered against his mouth, low but stern, “Put your shirt back on. Nothing is happening here.”
Nico grumbled under his breath, but obeyed. He reached for his shirt off the bed and pulled it over his shoulders and began buttoning the buttons up. Cooper helped expedite the dressing by reaching for Nico’s belt and pulling it through the buckle.
The rookie didn’t always listen, but Cooper noticed he listened when he used a certain tone. It was a very specific tone, like that of a father scolding his child. That’s when he listened the best. Cooper took very good notes on what drove the rookie.
In his younger years, Cooper leaned more into chaos. It wasn’t until he was older that he began to find comfort in routine, and after the accident, he craved control like it was the only sustenance that gave him the energy to stay standing.
“All of this in your head? It’s a bad idea.
Trust me, I know.” Cooper knew this all too well.
Too often, he got lost in the thoughts about how different life would have been if he had stayed in control.
If he never let what he had with Luke get so far.
If he hadn’t intervened when White tried trading Luke away in his third year.
If Luke was anywhere other than Columbus, if he was with anyone other than Cooper, he would have been alive. “Bad ideas lead to bad outcomes.”
“I’m very attracted to bad ideas.”
The rookie was going to be the fucking death of him.
The longer he stood there, the longer Nico weaponized those demonic puppy eyes, the harder Cooper’s resolve fell.
If Cooper didn’t find a way to get Nico out of his room in a hurry, the rookie was going to find himself limping onto the field the next day and that wouldn’t be a good look for either of them.
And good luck explaining how a quarterback ended up on IR with an anal injury.
Cooper winced and pinched the bridge of his nose, not believing this incredibly bad idea was about to come out of his mouth. He choked on the words at first and then they finally came, “I’ll make you a deal. You go and win that game tomorrow night and I’ll do to you what you want me to do to you.”
Nico tongued the inside of his cheek, intrigued. “And how do you know what that is?”
“You’re not difficult to read.”
“You read one little dossier about me and you think you have me figured out. You’re almost as cocky as I am.”
“You want to know what it’s like for a man to go down on you.
” Cooper circled Nico and landed behind him.
He grabbed him by the waist with one hand and nuzzled his mouth against his ear.
“How different it feels to have your cock sucked by someone who knows what it feels like to have his cock sucked.” He lowered his hand further, brushing over his hip first and then moved to the inside of his thigh.
“Someone who knows just the right game script to make you blow like you’ve never blown before. ”
Nico cocked his head to the side, but not far enough to catch Cooper's gaze. “How about a preview?”
Cooper broke away from Nico. He’d already said too much.
Done too much. He approached the door and the rookie followed him.
“How about you go to your room, turn off the lights, and get some rest? Because if you embarrass me on that field tomorrow, you’re going to have much bigger problems than which organ is going in which hole. ”
“Yes, coach.”
“Good boy.” Cooper peeked through the hole in the door to make sure the coast was clear. He cracked open the door and Nico shimmied out, immediately taking a sharp turn to the right.
It was almost as if the rookie had experience sneaking out of hotel rooms, but had absolutely no tact in sneaking into them.