Chapter 19 #2
Nico forked a bite into his mouth and had what he could only describe as an orgasm in his mouth.
Cooper’s plate consisted of five wagyu beef sliders and truffle fries. He took the first slider into his hands, his eyes catching Nico’s. “How’s your fish?”
“Tastes like heaven, but if I’m being honest, I’m a little worried the spiciness is going to do a number on my intestines and I fear a worst case scenario of not being able to get that dick I’ve been waiting six months for.”
Cooper narrowed his eyes. “Have you ever tried not saying everything that comes to your mind?”
Nico shrugged, wishing he could locate the filter switch to turn it on. “I’m afraid I haven’t found the cure for that which ails me.”
Cooper finished off three sliders in quick succession while Nico picked away at the sea bass, trying to savor not only the meal but the time he had with Cooper.
Alone, without fear of the outside world.
Though, he caught his gaze wandering to the kitchen door every so often, just waiting for some nosy chef to pop his nosy head out of the kitchen and ruin both of the quarterback’s lives.
However, Cooper promised Stassi was holding the staff hostage inside the kitchen.
Speaking of Stassi…
Speaking of not being able to contain the thoughts in his head. Nico swallowed a bite, cleared his throat, and stuck his nose where it didn’t belong.
“Do you ever feel guilty?” he asked.
“For?”
“Stassi. She knows all of your secrets and wastes her life away being your beard?”
Cooper grabbed at his fries. “That’s n—”
“None of my business.” Nico nodded, pushing his plate to the side. “I realize that.”
Cooper sighed and sunk in his chair. “She has an off ramp whenever she wants it. I’m not going to get into her business with you, but this arrangement makes her happy for her own reasons.”
Nico quietly contemplated what that could mean. What would make a woman stay with a man who wasn’t attracted to her? Why put up with that? Unless… “Is she a lesbian?”
“What part of not going into this right now went over your pretty little head?”
Cooper called him pretty. Nico was pretty sure that was a new one. It made his stomach flutter, injected dopamine straight into his allegedly pretty head, and made him want to take Cooper straight to the bathroom to let the other man have his way with him.
But this wasn’t the time for fucking, not when calabrian spices were filtering through his system.
“I’m just curious.” Nico shrugged. “Maybe I should find a beard of my own.”
Cooper laughed and shook his head. “I don’t think you need one with how many women you take home.”
“How do you know how many women I’ve been with?”
“Because you’re always taking them home from Pink Lotus.
” Cooper shoved the last fry into his mouth and pushed his plate to the side.
“I didn’t think Stassi knew about you, not until she mentioned she saw you leaving our house on the ring cam that night we don’t talk about.
” Cooper puckered his lips and exhaled. “When she’s out here in LA. , she keeps an eye on you.”
Nico frowned. “So not only do I have to worry about you, I have to worry about your girlfriend too?”
“She’s protective over me.”
“We’re not together, though,” Nico pointed out. “Not officially and certainly not exclusively, so I don’t think she needs to be watching me.”
Cooper pushed himself back in his chair, straightening himself out as the fingers of one hand rolled across the surface of the table. “I have a question for you.”
“I might have an answer.”
Cooper looked away, his throat tensing. “Why do you think I put this evening together for us?”
“Because I’m a good fuck and you finally realized you should be paying for my services.”
“Correction, you’re a great fuck. Don’t sell yourself short.” Cooper stood up and circled the table. He placed a hand on each of Nico’s shoulders and leaned over him. “All of this? It’s because I’m trying to…”
Nico cocked his gaze to meet Cooper’s.
Cooper ran a finger over the side of Nico’s face. “Can we just enjoy the night and see where it goes?”
After finishing a plate of gold-plated chocolate-covered strawberries, Cooper stepped away to the bar to grab another round of drinks. While the other man was gone, Nico’s eyes never left the kitchen door as if he was waiting for the bubble to burst at any moment.
Nico jerked in place as a shadow fell over him.
“Here, jumpy boy,” Cooper said, sliding a drink onto the table in front of NIco.
It wasn’t another gross-ass kiwi cucumber mule.
Instead, it appeared to be the drink Nico wanted from the jump but was too stubborn to admit as such.
“A spiced pear mojito, which I hope you actually enjoy because I spent a week learning how to make it.”
Cooper sat back down across from him with a fresh bottle of beer. “Are you excited about being reunited with Reyes?”
“Someone should tell Coach White he’s an idiot for letting him go.”
Of course, Nico understood it wasn’t that simple. Whatever the case, he was happy that Matteo would be joining him in Hollywood.
“He was a free agent and he was asking too much,” Cooper said.
“You should offer your condolences to your team ownership because they’re playing a very dangerous game being that close to the cap.
” He held his beer against his lips and studied Nico’s face.
“I’m glad you’ll be playing with an old friend, though. ”
“Yeah, I don’t have the best chemistry with half of the pass-catchers here. It’ll be nice having someone I know I can depend on. Someone I can trust on the field.”
Cooper pulled his thumb to his mouth and chewed at the fingernail. “You need to be careful about Matteo. He knows.”
“Knows what?” Nico asked, but he couldn’t hide his inner panic as he tasted a hint of vomit in the back of his throat.
“Not about you.”
Nico breathed a sigh of relief, but it still tasted like throw up.
Cooper continued, “He knows about Luke and I.”
Nico leaned in and whispered, “Since when?”
“I’m not sure when he started piecing it all together, but he knows.
” He palmed his beer up and down as if he was torn between finishing the bottle and not drinking it at all.
“He’s a good guy, and I have no reason to believe he’s going to tell anyone but it scared the shit out of me when he told me.
I saw my career going up in flames and losing everything I have in this life.
And then when I saw him again, it was like we’d never talked about it. ’
Nico nodded, taking it all in. “Does it give you hope that someday you can be out and open?”
Cooper’s eyes shifted to his lap. “I don’t know that it’s possible and I’m not willing to gamble with it.”
“When this first started, almost three years ago, I was just finding myself. I’m still finding myself, but when I realized I was most certainly bisexual, I wanted to scream it from the top of my lungs.
I wanted the whole world to know. If it wasn’t for you scaring some sense into me, I probably would have and most likely, I would be sitting on a bench somewhere until my four years ran out. Never to be seen again.”
“I meant it. I didn’t want this life for you.
” Cooper’s gaze lifted again, but not with understanding.
It was something else, more akin to sorrow.
“The secrecy and all the shit that comes with it, but we are in unique positions that nobody else in the world can understand.” He bit into his lip and shook his head.
“A wide receiver or a running back? Could be palatable to the public but they’re not the face of their teams, of their cities, of their states. ”
Nico understood exactly what Cooper was talking about. This fucking cage neither of them could break free from, but if he had to be imprisoned, he was at least content to be caged in it with someone that made his heart flutter… sometimes.
“If it wasn’t for Elon, I think I would have cracked by now.
” Nico ripped the straw from his drink and tossed it onto the table.
He grabbed the glass, tilted it against his mouth, and chugged half of it.
When he had his fill, he wiped the back of his mouth with his palm, and let out a belch. “I have to finish what he started.”
Cooper smiled. “You’re going to get that ring someday.”
“Yeah, and hopefully before you.”
“Fat chance,” Cooper said, and it sounded like another fucking bet.
And Nico fucking hated losing bets.
Cooper stood above Nico and reached his hand out to him. “Have you ever danced with a man before?”
Nico took Cooper’s hand and let him guide him to his feet. “Is it any different than dancing with a woman?”
Cooper pulled Nico away from the table to the empty space where the rest of the tables had been shoved out of the way. Suddenly, Nico understood the reason for the reorganization of the dining area was for this moment.
For this dance.
Cooper dropped a firm hand to Nico’s waist. “Someone has to take the lead.”
“Since you paid for dinner, I think it’s only fair I let you have this moment.”
“Don’t get it twisted. I’m always in control. I always take the lead.”
Nico had no incentive to object. Still, he considered doing so because that’d be the bratty thing to do.
If he was nothing else, he was a brat. But he let Cooper win this battle because truthfully, this is what he wanted.
It was the rare occurrence where one winning meant the other was also winning.
Cooper stood in place.
Nico stood in place.
Why weren’t they moving? Why weren’t they dancing?
The lights dimmed all around them, casting shadows upon the empty space. But the light right above them broke through the darkness like a spotlight fixed right at them. In one of the loudest cities in the world, it was just the two of them trapped in the beauty of silence.
A song began—Wings by Birdy. It played over the speakers, soft and quiet.