Chapter 15 #2
And when Nico buried himself completely, he stayed there. Didn’t move. Didn’t even want to move. He wanted to stay just like that, filling Cooper completely. It was Cooper who moved first, bucking his hips forward, and then back. A slow dance of taking a little and then giving it all back.
Nico tangled a hand around the red jockstrap and pulled tight. It was better than digging into the skin of Cooper’s pale ass.
Cooper drove himself faster—harder—on Nico’s cock.
Even though Nico’s dick was in Cooper’s ass, Cooper was still in control. Nico didn’t mind, not really. Nico’s gaze wondered down to Cooper’s ass, and fucking hell… The sight of his cock thrusting in and out of Cooper… Nico’s breathing hitched and his heart raced.
He wasn’t going to last.
“Don’t forget,” Nico panted. “I won the bet.”
“Shut up,” Cooper barked. “Shut up and fuck me.”
“You asked for it.” Nico pushed Cooper onto his stomach and without pulling his cock out of the other man, rolled on top of him. He braced both hands on the headboard, steadied himself, and began pounding away.
“Fuuuckkk,” Cooper moaned, the same elongated word thrown from the back of his throat every time Nico’s body smacked against his.
“Oh my god,” Nico managed to eke out. “I’m gonna—”
“Ahhh…” Cooper cried. “Shit. Fuck.”
Sweat dripped from Nico’s hair, landing on the back of Cooper’s neck. His arms tensed, and the muscles in his back pulled taut. Every ragged breath that escaped his mouth sounded like the precursor to a heart attack. His thrusts shifted from measured strokes to something far more erratic.
Short and then longer, and then short again.
The rhythm and the melody was gone. All that was left was a desperate hunger for release and when he took one quick look at Cooper’s reddened ass, it sent him over the edge.
He bucked forward, his arms threatening to give out from the weight of his body.
“Jesus Shit Christ,” Nico screamed, his voice quaking, as he buried himself to the hilt and stayed there.
It was only after the third or fourth load that he realized he had raw-dogged Cooper.
He collapsed on top of him, their sweaty bodies clinging together like messy saran wrap.
His voice trembled as he taunted the man below him, “I own you now.”
“I hope you had the time of your life,” Cooper said with a playful laugh. “Because that’s a one-and-done.”
“Whatever you say, Coach.” Nico rolled over and collapsed on his back, his chest heaving from the comedown.
“Well that’s what I said, Rook.” Cooper said, rolling onto his back.
Nico reached to Cooper, and felt something warm and sticky against the skin of his arm. He glanced down and saw a pool of cum dirtying the sheets. His eyes tore straight to Cooper. “Is that your jizz or someone else’s?”
Cooper narrowed his eyes and shook his head. “You are incorrigible."
“Come here,” Nico said, propping his arm underneath Cooper’s head.
But Cooper had other plans. He did the same to Nico, and he won that battle, pulling Nico’s head to his chest. “Now, we go back to our regularly scheduled programming.”
Nico was more than okay with that. As much as he loved taking Cooper the way Cooper had always taken him, he was certain now which he preferred. He was a taker and he planned to take and take from Cooper until there was nothing left. Until Cooper’s walls crumbled.
Cooper loved hotel rooms. He loved the privacy, and he loved the urgency. Most of all, he loved the fact he’d most likely never see that same room again. It was a way he could do what he needed to do and leave it behind him.
Back at home, the memories of Luke haunted him.
Recently though, he’d been haunted by the ghost of the night Nico came over.
Saw the ghost of Nico in the closet and in the shrine.
Saw the somber look on Nico’s face in the kitchen and felt his lips on his own every time he marched up or down the towering staircase.
It’d been about a half-hour since he gave himself to Nico, something he hadn’t done with anyone in over three years. The sweat had dissipated into the abyss, their breathing had steadied, and all that was left was silence as Nico laid on Cooper’s chest.
Nico cupped Cooper’s necklace in his palm and held it in place. “LC,” he said and peeled his eyes upward to meet Cooper’s. “Luke and Cooper?”
“It means last chance.” Cooper took the ring back into his hands and sighed, but Nico didn’t look convinced. “You’re too nosey.”
“You always have a piece of him with you.”
It wasn’t like Cooper could wear the engagement ring Luke had given him, not on his necklace and certainly not on his finger.
The diamonds were a dead giveaway. The small inscription that honored the love of his life could be worn discreetly wherever he went—the gym, the pool, the locker room. Nobody was ever any the wiser.
Nobody except this irritating quarterback.
But Cooper didn’t want to talk about Luke, and so they didn’t.
They laid together in silence for another half hour before Nico grew antsy.
Nico sat on the edge of the bed and pulled his underwear up his legs before standing up and finishing the job, tucking his perfect ass away into white briefs. Cooper figured he should do the same, climbed out of bed, and slipped back into his sweats.
Cooper watched Nico walk to the island separating the kitchenette from the couch and TV.
“What the hell is that?” Cooper questioned, his eyes narrowing on the new tattoo on Nico’s back.
Nico cocked his head over his shoulder. “What?”
Cooper pointed at the tattoo he hadn’t seen before. A yellow bird trapped in a cage, hung right below the right scapula. “On your back.”
“It’s a tattoo.” Nico turned around fully with a shit-eating grin. “See, these guys have these cool little guns filled with ink and they draw art on your skin, which just so happens to be permanent.”
“If I was a violent person, sometimes I think I’d want to smack the shit out of you.”
“You did threaten to kill me once.” Nico poured two glasses of red wine. “But it’s just a bird.”
Cooper gritted his teeth. This wasn’t a game. “A bird in a fucking cage.”
Nico shrugged. “I just thought it was cute.”
“Bullshit,” Cooper scowled.
“Can we not do this right now?” Nico handed a glass of wine to Cooper.
“Tell me that’s not—”
“It’s not.”
Cooper sat the untouched glass of wine back onto the counter. “Please tell me that’s not because of what I said to you.”
Nico hesitated, rolled his lips together and then scoffed. “Which time?”
“Why would you get a tattoo of that?”
Nico rolled his eyes, took a sip of wine, and set the glass onto the counter. “It’s not like anybody in the locker room is going to be like, oh look Nico has a tattoo of a cage on his back. He must be a fag.”
“Don’t ever fucking say that word again,” Cooper scolded Nico like he was schooling a child.
“Yeah, I don’t…” Nico pinched the corners of his eyes. “I’m sorry.”
Cooper collapsed onto the couch. “I’m sorry, too.”
“For?” Nico asked, taking a seat beside him.
Cooper nodded, scratched at the scruff on his chin, and contemplated not saying anything at all. Banter was easy, especially with someone like Nico who made it simple. Talking? As in talking, talking? That was something else entirely.
“You deserve so much more than this.” He looked over to Nico, who wore only a pair of briefs.
Looked him straight in the eyes and swore he saw someone looking back at him who was so much more than the cocky rookie he first met.
“So much more than sneaking around in hotel rooms with someone like me. More than being trapped in this fucking cage.”
Nico leaned backwards. “Are you… like… breaking up with me?”
“We’re not together. We can never be together. You know that, right?”
“Yeah, I obviously get that.” Nico left Cooper on the couch and circled around the island. “But you were with Luke.”
Cooper stood up and threw his arms outward. “That was different.”
“Because you loved him?”
“I loved him. I still do.” That thing about not wanting to talk about Luke? That thing about not enjoying talking about the things that mattered? It hit Cooper like a brick and he felt adrenaline shift to his feet, ready to run. “I don’t know how to stop,” he said, his voice cracking.
Nico nodded as if he understood what Cooper was talking about. He couldn’t, though. Nobody could. Nico circled the counter and braced himself in front of Cooper. He ran a hand down the length of each of Cooper’s arms. “You don’t have to stop.”
“I…” Cooper searched the room for his clothes. He found his tee-shirt first and then his hoodie, and collected them in his arm. “I should go.”
Nico shook his head. “You should stay because I paid for this fucking suite to spend the night with you.”
“I’m sorry,” Cooper said deadpan, and Nico would be forgiven if he didn’t believe it was genuine. But it was. Cooper was sorry. He was always sorry, but was stuck in this tornado of grief he could never outrun. He pulled his tee over his head, and then did the same with his hoodie.
Nico let out a hurried sigh. “But not sorry enough to stay.”
“I’ll see you next year,” Cooper said, cold and to the point. He turned on his heel and grabbed the doorknob.
“If you walk out that door, I’m ending this for good.”
Cooper searched over his shoulder, but knew if he let go of the doorknob he wouldn’t leave, and so he didn’t.
“I get it. I know we’re not a thing,” Nico said. “And you have such a bad attitude that I don’t even know what it is I want from you. But it’s not this.”
Cooper pulled away from the door and took one step towards the other man. The writing was all over the walls and Nico was either too blind to see it, or didn’t want to see it. “We live on opposite sides of the country.”
“Who’s fault is that?” Nico questioned, venom in his words. “It irritates me that you think I’m so stupid that I don’t know the truth. Sending me off to Hollywood was signed in ink the day you signed on to be my coach.”
“Welcome to the big leagues, kid.”
“I’m not a fucking kid,” Nico seethed, teeth gritted.
“Sometimes, you act like one so forgive me for getting confused.”
“And sometimes you act like you hate the whole fucking world for what happened to Luke. I’m sorry you killed your boyfriend, but stop taking it out on everyone around you.” Nico dropped his head and sighed. “I’m sorry… I didn’t mean that.”
It didn’t matter what he meant. It only mattered what he said.
Cooper held up a hand that curved into a fist, where his own nails dug into his palm. “I have to get the fuck away from you.”
And that’s what he did, storming out of the hotel room without another word. He pulled his hoodie over his head as he raced down the hallway. It wasn’t until he was in the safety of the elevator that he realized he had forgotten his hat.
He caught his reflection in the mirrors that lined the sides of the elevator.
It wasn’t until then that he had noticed he’d been crying.
He chalked the tears up to rage, to Nico having the nerve to say what he did. To say he killed Luke. But maybe the tears were because he knew Nico was right.