Page 6 of Touchdown

“I can deal with Brandon. What I can’t deal with is your face so early in the morning, so buzz off.”

Your fucking beautiful face. Luke Hardy looks even more sexy in the morning.

I brush past Luke and slam my bag down on the changing bench. Right, so I’m not arriving early ever again.

It seems Luke isn’t giving up that easily. He follows me into the changing room and opens his mouth with a determined air,but I turn around and walk out before he can say anything else. I go into the bathroom and shut myself into one of the cubicles, remaining there until one minute before practice starts.

Throughout practice, I can’t help but observe how Luke is with the other players. To my great annoyance, he seems like a really nice guy. I can’t find anything to fault with his behavior. It’s just his appearance that I take issue with.

Of course, I should have known that things wouldn’t be as simple as I had hoped.

After practice, Brandon corners me and Luke in the changing rooms. “My office, now. Both of you.”

Wonderful. I haven’t even thought of a good story yet, and now I’m going to have to pull something out of my ass.

We follow Brandon to his office, and I sit down, staring gloomily at my feet.

“Well? What is your problem, Cody? You’ve been nothing but hostile toward Luke ever since you met him. I don’t understand. You’ve been friendly with the rest of the team. Have you and Luke met before?”

I briefly consider lying, maybe saying that Luke was a one-night stand and he didn’t even bother to remember me, but I can’t do it.

I settle for a version of the truth. “I just don’t like him, okay? You don’t have to like everyone. I can work with him, but we’re not going to be friends.”

“That’s bullshit. This goes beyond just not connecting with someone. You’ve obviously got a problem, and you’re going to tell us what it is.”

“I don’t know what else to tell you.”

“Luke? What’s your say in all of this?”

“I honestly have no idea what’s going on. I’ve never met Cody before. I don’t know why he would decide to be so hostile towardme. Seriously, Cody, just tell us what the problem is and we can try to fix it.”

I can’t tell him that he’s too attractive for his own good. That’s hardly going to help me here. Admitting that I’m afraid I won’t be able to keep my cock in my pants around one of my teammates isnotwhat I want to be telling my new captain.

“I’ve already told you what the problem is. I don’t know what else I can say.”

Luke looks ready to hit something in frustration. Brandon is staring me down and I’m forced to break his gaze, looking once more at my shoes.

“Fine. I’ll leave this be for now, as long as the two of you can play together and leave your differences behind. But the moment your issues start affecting the game, I’m going to be forced to step in.”

“I won’t let them impact the game,” I promise. My career is important to me and I’m not going to let my baggage with Zack ruin that for me. He’s already taken too much from me.

“Then get out of here, both of you. I don’t want to see any nonsense from either of you.”

“You’re not getting it from me,” Luke mumbles resentfully. “I’m not the one with a problem here.”

My stomach twists guiltily. Luke doesn’t deserve this, but what else am I supposed to do? I have to protect my heart, and this is the only way I can see to do it.

As we exit Brandon’s office, Luke catches my arm, pulling me to a halt. “Look, Cody, I don’t know what your problem is, but we’re not enemies here. When you realize that, I’ll be here to talk.”

With that, he turns around and walks off.

I’m left staring after him, cursing the fact that he’s so decent. It would be easier if he was an ass, but no, he has to be sostupidly nice that it makes it very difficult to maintain hostility toward him.

I skip showering, electing to shower when I get home. I’m not sure if I can deal with the sight of Luke’s naked body right now.

Of course, I can’t resist taking my cock in hand while I’m in back home and in the shower. Thoughts of how Luke looked as he weaved effortlessly between players to take the ball today fill my mind, and in no time at all, I’m coming once more to the thought of Luke.

That hardly does anything to improve my mood, and I slouch out of the shower in low spirits. I could move teams again, of course, but I would be sabotaging my career by doing that. I really like the team—minus Luke—and this is a great opportunity for me.

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