Chapter 13 Camden
Camden
Iwake up with a raging hard-on.
I huff out a breath and rub my eyes, then aim a glare between my legs.
“Are you fucking serious?”
It was hell trying to sleep with that thing between my legs, but no way was I going to jerk off to get rid of it. Not when Ellie is the reason I’m hard in the first place.
I feel like such a creep. I shouldn’t be thinking of her in that way. She’s my best friend. Yeah, we’re married. Legally, we’re husband and wife.
But it’s just so she can get the medical care she needs and deserves.
And here I am, feeling insanely attracted to her, when I know I shouldn’t.
I think back to our kiss during our wedding yesterday, how hot it was.
I’ve had plenty of hot kisses in my life. Not one of them was like that.
I think about how soft her lips were…how sweet and warm her mouth was…how her tongue teased mine…the way she moaned into my mouth.
It took everything in me not to pop a boner in that moment. I held it together all the way through dinner, until I had to watch her eat our wedding cake.
An image of her mouth, all lush and pouty, flashes in my brain. I think of her candy pink tongue running over her fork, licking her plush lips…
I think of how she looked at me, her eyes shy, biting her lip while offering me a bite of cake from her fork.
And like the terrible friend that I am, I instantly imagined her sucking my cock.
My dick throbs. “Fucking hell,” I mutter, pissed off at myself.
I had to quietly grab my fork and poke myself in the leg to get rid of my boner just so I could walk out of the restaurant.
I thought I was home free…until Ellie walked up and kissed my cheek.
Those satin lips on my skin, the smell of her perfume, feeling the heat from her body as she stood so close to me…it was all too much.
My dick started to get hard. Again.
So I ran off to my bedroom before she could notice.
Guilt throttles me. Ellie’s so sweet and kindhearted, and here I am, turned on at the thought of her.
I bet she’d be disgusted if she knew the things I was thinking about her.
I clench my jaw. I need to get my shit together.
I check the time on my phone and see that it’s just past six. I’ve got training at the gym with my teammates at eight. I’m going to be really early, but it’s better than lying in bed trying not to fantasize about Ellie.
I toss the comforter off of me and sit up right as I hear a beeping noise. A second later, I hear it again.
I stand up, grab my boxers from the floor, pull them on, and walk out of my bedroom and into the hallway, following the noise. I look up and see the light on the smoke alarm flashing. The battery’s low.
I scrub a hand over my face and sigh, annoyed. Why does the smoke alarm battery always beep early in the morning or in the middle of the night?
I hurry to grab a new battery from the drawer in the kitchen and the step ladder from the nearby closet. The smoke alarm is at the end of the hallway, just a few feet from Ellie’s bedroom door. I don’t want the noise to wake her up.
I slot in the new battery right as her door opens.
“Hey, what’s that…” She trails off as she looks up at me. Her eyes go wide as she gawks at my still-hard dick.
My whole body freezes. So does my brain. I’m too shocked and embarrassed to know what to do right now.
Ellie’s mouth falls open, but then she quickly closes it. She presses her eyes shut and shakes her head, like she’s trying to erase the image of my erect penis poking through the fabric of my boxers from her brain.
I scramble to step down from the ladder, then lose my balance and fall into the wall.
“Uh, sorry, I just…the smoke alarm…it was beeping…the battery,” I stammer as I straighten up. I quickly grab the step ladder and hold it in front of me to block my lower half from Ellie’s view.
When she opens her eyes, the look in her gaze is panicked. Her cheeks are bright red. She looks like she’s seen a ghost.
That guilt from earlier drags deeper into my gut. Jesus fucking Christ, I’m creeping her out so much right now.
“The battery on the smoke alarm needed to be changed,” I finally say once my brain figures out words.
Ellie nods quickly. “Okay.” Her tone is high-pitched and sharp.
Her gaze falls to my lower half, which is covered by the step ladder.
It feels like my entire body is on fire with humiliation. I owe her an apology for freaking her out.
“I-I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to…”
“It’s okay,” she says in that same nervous, pitchy tone. “Morning wood is totally, completely normal.”
She tries to smile, but it looks more like she’s grimacing. I fight a groan. If I could melt into the floor and disappear forever, I would. Jesus, this is humiliating.
“I’m gonna head to training,” I say quickly.
I hurry back to my bedroom and shut the door. Finally, my boner starts to die down.
I glower between my legs. “Great timing, asshole.”
“Dude, what the fuck?”
I’m barely two steps into the gym when I see Xander standing there, frowning at me.
“You got married?” he says.
Just then, the rest of my teammates walk over. Del, Theo, Blomdahl, Ryker, and Sam all look at me expectantly.
“Uh, yeah. I did,” I say.
“Why didn’t you text us back?” Blomdahl says.
I glance down at my phone, realizing that I still have notifications turned off. I turned it off right before the wedding and forgot to turn it back on the rest of the day and this morning.
I tap to turn notifications back on, and a million messages and missed calls flood my screen.
I skim the texts in the group chat I have with the guys.
Xander: Just saw on sports news that you got married. That’s gotta be a joke, right?
Blomdahl: It’s a joke. We all know Connors isn’t the marrying type
Ryker: If Connors is married, then my dick is made of vanilla pudding
Del: ???
Xander: Oh shit, I just saw the photo online. It’s not a joke!
Theo: Wait, you’re married? Seriously??
Xander: You and Ellie got married?! Like, legally married?
Del: Looks like you’ve got a vanilla pudding dick, St. George. Your new nickname is vanilla pudding dick
Ryker: Call me that and I’ll deck you
Blomdahl: Well, shit.
Sam: I didn’t see this coming lol. Congrats, man
Blomdahl: *champagne emoji*
I look up at my teammates and huff out a breath. I grin and shrug. “I got married. Surprise.”
Blomdahl tosses his sweaty towel at me. I make a grossed-out face and throw my Bashers hat at him, but he catches it. Fucking goalies and their reflexes.
“Dude, you have some explaining to do,” Blomdahl says.
“Seriously. You always said you’d never, ever get married,” Xander says.
I tell them what Ellie and I agreed to tell our friends and family.
“I never wanted to. But then Ellie and I reconnected,” I say. “I had a huge crush on her as a kid. She was the one that got away.”
They’re all quiet as they stare at me. My nerves kick up. I really, really hope they buy this.
“When we met again as adults, I didn’t want to waste any more time being apart. She’s it for me.”
I hold my breath as I wait for them to say something.
Xander’s face splits into a grin. He walks over and hugs me. Sam and Blomdahl are smiling too. So is Theo.
“Dude, I knew it. You’re just like me. A manwhore until you met the right woman,” Xander says, slapping me on the back.
I chuckle and glance up at Ryker and Del, who give me nods of approval.
“Congrats,” Ryker says.
“Thanks, guys. And sorry we didn’t invite you all to the wedding. We wanted it to be private. Plus, Ellie’s really shy and being in front of a crowd kind of freaks her out.”
I feel bad for lying to my teammates, but I need to make our last-minute wedding sound convincing.
“It’s okay. We get it,” Xander says.
“It’s your wedding,” Del says. “You guys can do whatever you want.”
“So does that mean you’ve got a plus one to all of our weddings this summer?” Sam asks.
“Yup.” I walk over and drop off my gym bag, then get started on my warmup for my workout. The guys continue with their workouts too.
Xander grins at me. “Welcome to the married club, wife guy.”
“Wife guy is gonna be your new nickname,” Theo says.
I can’t help but smile. For some reason, I really like the sound of that.