Chapter Twenty-Nine Bennett
CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE: BENNETT
A fter another grueling game, I trudged into the hotel with the rest of the team. Although I was desperate to collapse in bed, I was starving. So much so that I knew I couldn’t wait for room service.
Once I grabbed my keycard from the assistant coach, I made a quick pit stop with the other guys heading to the elevators to stop in the hotel’s snack center.
As I fumbled with my chips and drinks to use the keycard, a voice behind me froze me. “I’ll get it,” Theo said.
“We’re together tonight?” I asked.
Usually, Grayson and Theo were roomies while I bunked up with one of our other close friends, Jace Malone.
Theo bobbed his head. “Since Grayson is still recovering, they put him in with the trainer so he could work on him.”
“I see,” I said softly.
After sliding in his key card, Theo held the door open for me. “Thanks, man,” I said, as I brushed past him.
Once I got inside, I dropped my bag on the floor before depositing the food on the desk. “Do you want the shower first?” Theo asked.
Shaking my head, I replied, “You take it first. I’m starving.”
“Order me a burger and fries, okay?”
“Sure thing.”
As Theo slipped into the bathroom, I grabbed the hotel phone and dialed room service. Once I placed the order, I plopped down on the bed. Staring up at the ceiling, I willed myself to push any thoughts of a naked Theo in the shower out of my mind.
At my continued thoughts of the muscled angles of his body, I groaned and swept my hand over my face. This was bad. So fucking bad.
With a grunt, I pulled myself out of bed and went over to grab my chips. Regardless of stuffing my face full of barbecue chips, I couldn’t keep my thoughts off Theo.
I was just thinking of calling Vivian to shift my focus when I heard the water turn off. When the bathroom door opened, a rush of steam enveloped Theo as he stepped out into the room. My breath hitched at the sight of him in only a towel.
After he grabbed a pair of briefs and a T-shirt out of his suitcase, he dropped the towel.
“Did you order the food?” he asked, as he slid on the briefs.
I nodded. “They said it would be about half an hour.”
He grunted as he grabbed his shirt. “Great.”
“Tell me about it. I’m starved.”
After throwing on his t-shirt, Theo jerked his chin at me. “Pass me some of your chips.”
“Get your own,” I teasingly replied.
“Dude, I’ll so take those from you.”
“I’d like to see you try.”
“All right. If that’s how it’s going to be,” Theo replied with a grin.
When he tried launching himself at me, I dodged out of the way. “Ooh, too slow, Goalie.”
“Ass,” he muttered. As he repeated his lunge, I outsmarted him again. I’d almost escaped him when he bent over and bulldozed his head into my abdomen, shoving us into the wall.
When he pulled his head up, Theo winked. “Caught ya,” he murmured with a smirk.
“Yeah, you did,” I replied.
As his body pinned me to the wall, I fought to keep my dick from reacting. A few moments passed and we stared at each other as our chests pumped up and down from our exertions.
Something electric passed between us as Theo’s gaze dropped from mine to stare at my mouth. I didn’t have a moment to process what was happening before his lips slammed against mine.
Fuck. Was this really happening?
I slid my arms around his back, fisting his shirt in my fingers. When Theo thrust his tongue into my mouth, I groaned. His taste was hypnotic. Lust mixed with the fruity remnants of the Gatorade he’d been drinking on the bus to the hotel.
Theo’s hand came between us to cup my half-mast dick. I thrust my hips against his hand as he rubbed my cock.
As I started to reach for his bulge, Theo jerked his lips off mine. After staring dumbfounded at me, he then shoved me away. Hard.
“What the fuck, man?” I demanded.
He shook his head wildly back and forth. “I’m not fucking you.”
“You already did,” I countered.
“That was different. Vivian and Gray were there.”
“What about the night on the bus?”
“It was just jerking each other off.”
Cocking my head at him, I argued, “Considering you just had your hand on my dick, what’s different now?”
“Because it’s more.”
“But we weren’t even doing anything yet.”
Theo threw his hands up. “Don’t you get it? Kissing you makes it different.”
And then it hit me. Everything we’d done before tonight had just been sexual. Kissing was intimate. Kissing meant emotions and feelings. “You do know there’s nothing wrong with what we just did, right?”
He jerked a hand through his hair. “I’m not gay.”
“I never said you were.”
With a glare, he countered, “Yeah, well, I’m not bi either.”
Crossing my arms over my chest, I countered, “That bulge in your pants tells a different story.”
Fear momentarily flashed in his eyes before he shook his head. “This is bullshit. I’m out of here.”
As I watched his retreating form, anger replaced my hurt. I stalked behind him. When he started to open the door, I slapped my palm against it, slamming it back. “Don’t you dare fucking walk away from me, Theo!”
“Get off the door,” he growled.
I shook my head. “I’m not letting you out of here until we talk about this.”
“I’ve got nothing left to say to you.”
“I’m your best friend. You owe it to me to talk about this.”
“Look, I’m fine with fucking Vivian together. But nothing else can ever happen between us.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s not who I am!”
“But why can’t you be that way with me?”
A maniacal laugh tore from his lips. “You’re joking with me, right?”
“This is too serious to joke about,” I replied.
“You act like you’re my best friend, but you don’t fucking know me.”
“I know you better than you think,” I countered.
“Then can you imagine what my parents would say if they got wind about the four of us?”
“Yeah, I can..”
“Then take that and multiply it by a thousand if they found out I’d been fucking some guy.”
His words wounded me so deeply that I sucked in a harsh breath. “Is that all I am to you? Just some guy?”
“Dammit, Bennett, you know what I mean? I could be fucking the King of England, and it wouldn’t make a difference to them. Being polyamorous would be a defect to them. Being gay or bi?” He shook his head. “That would be worse than a death.”
I narrowed my eyes at him. “Who the fuck do you think you’re talking to? I know exactly what you’re talking about. I’ve lived it, remember? I’m the one whose dad tried to beat the queer out of him. I’m the one who was thrown out of his house at seventeen and couch-surfed at friends’ houses until my aunt took me in. I’m the one who has been cut off from their mother and sisters all because I had the strength and courage to be who I was deep down inside.”
“You know how I feel about all that. I hate that you had to go through it. But it has nothing to do with me.”
“It has everything to do with you. You might not have fucked any other guys, but you did fuck me. ”
Before he could lie that it was a mistake, I grabbed his face in my hands. “I love you, Theo. I think I fell in love with you the first day we ran drills together. And it just grew and grew. When I was with you, it felt so fucking right.”
“Bennie, no,” Theo gritted out.
I removed my hands from his face to take one of his hands in mine. I then brought it to my heart. “This belongs to Vivian, but it also belongs to you.”
As he stared intently into my eyes, I sucked in a ragged breath. “For me…for us , please have the courage to be who you are.”
With a tiny shake of his head, he slung me away. After throwing open the door, he stalked out of the room. At the sound of his feet pounding down the hall, I knew he wouldn’t be coming back.
And because of that, I didn’t know if I could go back to what I had with Vivian and the guys.