Page 19 of Coaching Prince Charming

“That doesn’t stop every good-looking person on the planet from making a ton of money on OnlyFans,” Ron said with the same old smile. “And it shouldn’t stop you.”

I just shook my head. There was no reasoning with him. My roommate was a stubborn young man.

“And if it’s stage fright, then I think you have to try it. Don’t let your fear hold you back,” he said.

“I’ll think about it,” I sighed.

“Do you promise?” he asked.

I nodded, crossing my heart with my left hand and lifting the can with my right.

Ron wore a little smile while he watched me. The silence rang loudly in my ears, and the heat climbed into my face when I remembered kissing Nate. Fuck. It had felt so good to touch his torso and his lips.

“Are you still thinking?” Ron asked.

“Oh my God, fine!” His eyes widened with surprise just as my heart leaped. Was I actually doing this? “Fine. I’ll do it. Just stop pestering.”

“Yay! I’m so glad you said yes. I booked you for quarter past nine on Tuesday. After my karaoke disaster, as I promised. I expect a small crowd, so that shouldn’t worry you.” He set his beer on the soccer table and crossed his arms, his chest rising with pride. “When you’re rich and famous, I’ll expect a cut for talent discovery.”

“You did what?” I gaped.

He shrugged guilelessly. “You heard me. Five percent.”

While Ron laughed and joked, I shook my head in disbelief. Did he really have faith in me? It felt like nobody else did. He had no reason to care. He had nothing to win by supporting a foolish fantasy. And yet, he did it because he was nice.

It reminded me of Nate standing up for me. He’d had no reason to care about me back then. He could have just agreed with Dad about my prospects, and that would have been the end of it.

My heart throbbed when Nate’s face floated before my eyes. I didn’t give a fuck about the ethics or the formal relationship between us. Hell, I didn’t even care what Dad would say.

I played a few chords on my guitar, then found a tune to follow. B minor, A minor, D minor. My tunes had nothing happy in them tonight, but Ron still closed his eyes and listened like he was hearing the music of heaven. It was strange to see someone without an agenda supporting me. Mostly, Dad supported whatever would bring our name the most glory, and Coach Partridge, in that capacity, wanted the Titans to advance, for which I was just another tool. Beckett wanted to land on a good team after college, which was helped by having solid captaining experience with a winning team. Not Ron, though. He just wanted me to do something nice for myself.

Later, when we both returned to our room, I felt a little better. There were emotions I kept tightly bottled, of course, but I could hold the lid on them a while longer. I wasn’t a total mess.

“Ron,” I said quietly from my bed. Across the room, my friend stirred. “Thanks for tonight.”

“You’re welcome, Carter,” he said simply.

It was such an innocent thing to say that my lips dragged down. I wanted Nate to be that person in my life. He had been once, so why couldn’t we have that again? That and more.

Humiliation was the only thing stopping me from sinking into deep sleep with Nate’s image before my eyes. Instead, I stared at the ceiling, wondering how I would ever look at him again.

Even in rejecting me, he had played that responsible, caring role. He didn’t want me feeling like shit because of the mistake I’d made.

I wanted there to be a way for me to hate him. If he could do just one wrong thing, that would make everything right. I could grip it and hold on to it. I could milk it with spite for the rest of my life. If only he’d done something wrong.

But Nate was incapable of that. He just had to be the knight in that goddamn shining armor.

Somehow, I fell asleep that night. I fell deep and didn’t wake until late in the morning, missing the alarm that normally got me to exercise at an ungodly hour for the chance of seeing Nate. I probably wouldn’t have woken up had it not been for the dream. It was a wild thriller of a dream, fading abruptly as I regained my consciousness.

I groped after traces, vividly seeing Nate’s slick lips, teeth closing around the lower one, his deep purr ringing in my ears when he commanded me to kneel for him. I could recall the softness of his hand on my cheek and the firmness with which he gripped the hair on the back of my head. And I could remember the longing I felt in the moments before I pulled his pants down. The excitement at seeing what he was hiding was the very thing that woke me up.

Pain and pressure in my underwear made me hold my breath. Glancing across the room, I realized I was all alone. My erection throbbed as I pressed my palm against the tip of my hard cock, pushing it away by a few inches. The trouble was, I wasn’t horny at all now that I was awake, but my dick wasn’t getting the message. In fact, I was mostly embarrassed.

If I had hoped to wake up with a clearer head, that was just wishful thinking. If anything, I was more embarrassed in daylight. The prospect of seeing Nate at the gym kept me in my bed until half past nine, and the idea that I would have to speak to him tonight at practice kept my guts tied into knots. I couldn’t eat anything today. Everything I tried eating smelled bad and made me gag. So I avoided everyone and everything until the moment we all gathered in the locker room. There, I felt weak from not eating.

Sweat broke over me as I pressed my back against the wall in the back of the room, expecting Nate to walk in at any moment. Restlessly, I dragged my palms over my upper legs, and my gaze went everywhere where I wouldn’t catch another person’s eyes.

If I could just sneak out before Nate arrived, everything would be fine.

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