Page 19 of Spite Crush

I wanted to do a lot of things, ranging from bolting like a rabbit out the door to dragging his scrawny ass to bed and fucking him until sunrise.

“You know,” he continued, a small smile spreading over his lips. “For someone who runs their mouth a lot, you don’t have much to say tonight.”

“I’m scared,” I admitted.

“Of scrawny little me?” Kellen let the grin spread over his face as he stood up. “I’m not that scary.” Heclimbed into my lap, his legs straddling my thighs as he slid his hands up my chest. “What are you afraid of, Zak?”

“I’m afraid of people finding out.” I swallowed thickly and watched as Kellen’s gaze drifted to my throat. “I’m afraid of losing my team. Losing my career. Becoming a public spectacle.”

“You’re already a spectacle,” he murmured as he traced his fingers lightly over my jaw.

“You know what I mean,” I snapped.

“I do,” he whispered, not rising to the bait in my tone. “But Zak…who’s going to tell?”

He leaned closer, moving slowly as if giving me time to push him away, but I couldn’t. I wanted to kiss him. Maybe more than I’d ever wanted anything before.

“Is that a phone vibrating in your pocket or are you just really excited about this?” Kellen whispered, his face so close to mine that his breath ghosted over my lips.

“Shit,” I hissed as he climbed off of me and I jumped to my feet. I’dbeen so focused on him that I hadn’t even noticed the buzzing of my phone. “What?”

“Where are you?” Josh asked.

“I stopped to get a drink somewhere quiet,” I said, purposely not meeting Kellen’s gaze. “Why?”

“Would you mind tripling up tonight?” he asked, and I could hear the grin in his tone.

“Seriously?” I forced my tone to sound like a whine, but honestly…this might have been the best thing that could have happened.

“Come on man,” he pleaded.

“Fine,” I barked. “But you owe me.”

I disconnected and dropped my phone on the desk before looking back at Kellen.

“Everything okay?” he asked.

“It would appear that I’m roomless for the night,” I said, forcing my feet to take a step toward him. “You wouldn’t happen to have any idea about where I could stay, do you?”

It was as if the final barrier had just been removed. If Josh wasn’t expecting me back, then no one had to know where I was. Or what I was doing. Not that I’d have to explain myself to anyone anyway. But such was life in the public eye. You never knew who was paying attention to what.

“I don’t know.” Kellen moved forward as well, stopping with about an inch of air between our chests. “How do you feel about blanket forts?”

Chapter Nine

~Kellen~

I hadn’t expected the big, bad, Zak Dempsey to be so shy. In fact, I’d kind of expected him to walk in, lock the door and throw me around like a rag doll for an hour before stalking out without a word spoken between us.

But if I were being totally honest, I liked this better.

I liked talking to him. Appreciated his honesty about his reservations,his fears. It was as if we were starting something. A friendship maybe.

I wasn’t so naïve as to think it would be anything more than that. The man was deeper in the closet than an access panel.

But it could be something.

“Take your shirt off,” I demanded.

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