Page 124 of The Home Game

“Sounds good.” Matty pecked Antoni on the lips and shifted away.

Antoni shivered at the sight of Matty kneeling there, his cock still wet from coming inside him. Fuck that was hot. Okay, maybe round three wasn’t as far off as he’d thought.

Matty smirked like he could see exactly what Antoni was thinking but he gently slapped Antoni’s thigh, then got off the bed with an athletic grace that amazed Antoni a little.

He was really looking forward to actually watching Matty on the ice.

Not to mention everything else he could do with his body.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

A while later, Matty lay in the crook of Antoni’s arm, eyes closed, smiling at the feeling of Antoni’s fingers gently dragging through his hair as he read aloud.

A yawn caught Matty by surprise and he tried to muffle it but Antoni paused, laughing. “Am I boring you?”

“No! I like this story!” Matty protested. “Just getting sleepy.”

“Yeah, it’s late,” Antoni agreed, pulling his hand away to tuck a bookmark between the pages of the hardcover. “And it was an eventful day.”

“It was. Good though.” Matty craned his neck to look Antoni. “I hope so, anyway.”

Antoni brushed his fingers across Matty’s jaw. “It was good. The wedding was—was different than I expected. I felt a little strange about it at first, but I think this will be good.”

“At least we know our sex lives won’t be a problem,” Matty pointed out.

Antoni laughed, his gaze warm and his lips curled up a little in a smile. “No, definitely not. I think we have that part covered.”

“And we’re good at looking out for the kids together.”

“We are.”

“I think we get along the rest of the time too.”

“We do.” Antoni’s face was soft. “I have to say, you’ve been the perfect fake husband so far.”

“Well, it’s only been like six hours so I haven’t had much time to screw it up. I’ll just have to keep giving it 110 percent,” Matty said, grinning.

“You’re not gonna screw it up.” Antoni said, then chuckled, shifting to set the book on the nightstand. “Honestly, I’ve never understood that phrase when athletes use it in interviews though. What does that even mean? No one can do more than 100 percent.”

“Sometimes it feels like it,” Matty said with a shrug. “You’re a runner and you work out regularly. You must have had those moments where you know you’ve squeezed out a little extra effort. Maybe it’s not for long but for a few seconds you’ve pushed past where you thought your limits were.”

“Hmm. Okay, I can understand that. I’ve definitely done that in my running or weightlifting. But Matty, you don’t have to push past your limits for me when it comes to this—this marriage, right?” There was a weird, serious note in Antoni’s voice so Matty shifted so he could look him in the eye.

“I know that. But I’m gonna do my best for you and the kids.”

“I know you will. I wouldn’t have agreed to this otherwise, and really, I don’t think you’re capable of anything else.” Antoni reached out and put a hand on Matty’s chest. “You have such a big heart. That much was obvious from the second we met.”

“I guess I don’t know how to be any other way.”

“Good. Because I don’t want you to change. But I also don’t want you to get hurt by any of this.”

Matty swallowed a little thickly, because while he’d always wanted to find someone who cared about him getting hurt and wanted him to know he didn’t need to change, he definitely hadn’t found that with Courtney.

She’d acted like what Matty did was never good enough. Who he was wasn’t good enough. And he’d tried and tried and it was never enough.

Antoni made him feel like he was enough. At first, Matty was pretty sure Antoni had thought he was a little too much, but only because Antoni hadn’t understood why Matty wanted to do those things for him and the kids.

Why he wanted to make their lives easier.

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