Page 29 of Coaching Prince Charming

“It was…” His voice trailed in favor of a particularly affectionate kiss on my left eye just as I closed it.

“It was,” I agreed. I struggled to find the right word to say, but the tightness with which we held one another spoke loudly enough. It said clearly just how pleased we both were. It had been incredible. It felt right in all the ways. And it was good enough for us to risk so much. Or perhaps the risk was just another spice.

When we turned around so that Nate lay on his back and I sprawled over him, I ran my fingers up and down his body. Even soft, his dick was big. Mine was even smaller.

“You really didn’t mind my…” I stopped, finding it suddenly hard to say it. “Some guys…”

“Some guys are assholes,” Nate said with more heart in it than I’d expected. He was otherwise appearing pretty drowsy in that irresistible laziness that set in after all the passion. “And if you point me to them, I’ll break their noses.”

It wasn’t surprising that his words turned me on. It was somewhere deep in my chest that the sensation unfolded.

“And I, uh…” He turned to look into my eyes. “I prefer your size. I think it’s hot.” The redness rose in his cheeks.

I laughed out loud. “You’re really struggling with the fact that I’m me.”

He shook his head. “It’s not like that.” Still, he pondered on it for a short while. “I know you’re not the same Carter I used to know. But this is still a dangerous game we’re playing.”

I folded my lips and licked them. “Nobody needs to know.”

He gave me a gentle look that said no secret was ever kept secret forever. But if anyone could keep a secret, it was Nate Partridge. I knew that from all the years when I didn’t know he was gay.

Still, he said nothing to dispel the magic of the moment. We both knew it was time for me to leave, but I wanted to cling to him forever. And since I couldn’t get forever, I chose to cling to him for another heartbeat.

And another.

We lay there in silence, naked, in the mess that we made and didn’t regret. His gentle caressing of my arm and the side of my rib cage made me coil against him until a few minutes passed.

“This isn’t the last time, is it?” I asked, knowing I had to get up. It felt like leaving a happy home forever.

“No,” Nate said. “I really don’t think it is.” What he didn’t say was that it would make no difference whether it was or wasn’t. We had breached the codes and broken trusts for the sake of the most beautiful night of my life.

I hoped he would agree that it was all worth it.

NINE

Nate

Dana Prince visited me in my dreams. Even when I jerked awake, covered in sweat in a hotel bed, I could see him clearly. I could see his hard features and penetrating gaze. He hadn’t said a word to me, but he didn’t need to. All he had to say to me had already crossed my mind.

My heart pounded like I’d run a marathon as I got out of bed and dragged myself to the bathroom. Scalding water stung my skin and loosened the knots in my muscles. The bathroom filled with suffocating steam as I scrubbed my body in the shower. I wasn’t gentle about it, either. I rubbed my fingers and dragged my fingernails over the reddening skin, my lips suddenly flashing with pain and the taste of blood on my tongue alerting me that I was biting myself too hard.

I stepped out of the shower and held a balled towel on my mouth where I’d split my lip. It throbbed painfully, spreading the metallic flavor into my mouth until the bleeding slowed and stopped.

When I looked into the steam-fogged mirror, I found my blurry shape. Tall, broad, defined by a lifetime of exercise. Attractive to a college freshman. Attracted to him, too.

My heart sped for a short time, stumbling every so often, and I held my breath. When a wave of trembling passed through my hands, I used the towel to wipe the hot water off my body. By then, the mirror was drying, clearing my reflection for me bit by bit.

Last night flashed before my eyes in the briefest of moments, but the memory unfolded in the back of my mind slowly, thoroughly, with every irresistible detail living so vividly in my brain. His perfect, youthful body, his innocent eagerness, his big eyes full of gratitude and, unmistakably, lust. I could have spent the night simply watching him.

A pang of guilt squeezed my heart.

Dana’s son had quit the Titans and marched into my room. And I broke every rule I lived by. I severed my oldest friendship without giving it a second thought. I tore down the walls that had been my last defense. Not that I had been defending myself from Carter. It was precisely the opposite. I had tried to protect him from myself.

A youthful infatuation with someone like me was nothing new. I’d had hordes of fans who’d once called me a heartthrob. And I had never given in to using my celebrity status and their fogged vision of me as a way to get laid. Never.

I rubbed my eyes and face and stared at the mirror. The guy on the other side looked tired but not as ancient as I had thought. Not as lifeless.

Am I really feeding off a college freshman to feel young again? The thought made me wince, and I left the mirror and the bathroom behind. Naked and with wet hair, I walked through my hotel suite until I’d made too many circles in the living room and had to sit. I dropped my tired body into the armchair and looked at the sofa.

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