Page 88 of Mine

I laughed as we took his order and a few things he was going to need at least until tomorrow.

We stayedwith Webber until we got kicked out at midnight. Visiting hours ended at 8, they were gracious enough to let us stay with him, but they stressed he needed to rest.

After he had eaten, he seemed better, but I wasn’t fond of leaving him alone. We even offered to stay again, but his last dose of pain medicine made him drowsy.

I was dead on my feet when we walked into my apartment. It was quiet, and I kind of expected Valencia to be awake, except she was in the middle of my bed surrounded by pillows. Her phone was in her hand and her glasses were still on.

Her curly hair was spread around her with pieces of blue framing her. She looked serene, soft and sensual. My chest warmed at the sight of her, tugging at something I didn’t understand. It was something that I had run away from for years or never thought I would have. Panic clawed at me and my breathing got a little faster and shallower.

Ro immediately got into bed, taking off her glasses and then pulling her phone from her hand. He plugged it in with the extra charger she brought to my house, placed her glasses on the nightstand, removed the pillow she was hugging and slid in right next to her.

This was not what I wanted. This was supposed to be easy, sex and more sex. We only did this to win, and we had been winning. Ro and I had gotten over whatever was holding us backand we were in sync. These feelings were not good. This wasn’t supposed to happen.

“Hunt?” Ro’s voice brought me out of my spiral and I flinched when I noticed how close he was to me. “Are you ok? What's wrong? Does your shoulder hurt?”

His voice was full of concern as he cupped my face.

“What's going on in that head of yours?” he asked. When I didn’t respond, he asked, “Do… Do you need us to leave?”

He clenched his jaw on his last question like he didn’t want to ask, but he forced himself anyway.

“I don’t know what I need,” I said truthfully.

I had no clue what I wanted and why I was freaking out.

“Let me take Lenny and we can?—”

“That's not what I need,” I said quickly, because the thought of them leaving made me more anxious. “I think Webber’s situation made me realize that my time is ending.”

It wasn’t a lie, but it wasn’t the entire truth either.

“Hunt, you've got years if you want,” he said, as tension fell from his shoulders.

“Yeah, it's just I might need to face reality soon,” I said, taking my shirt off so he didn’t see my face. “The MRI is freaking me out a bit.”

“Are you ok?” Valencia’s voice was thick with sleepiness.

“Yeah, we are coming to bed,” I said, shucking off my pants to sleep in my boxer briefs.

“Ok.” She laid back down.

Ro waited for me to get into bed, climbing in behind me. Ro spooned me as I turned Valencia around to spoon her. The anxiety that had been toying with me all night finally eased enough that I could take a deep breath.

“We are here, Hunt,” Ro said softly. I almost didn’t hear him. “We are here for whatever you need.”

That’s what scared me. This wasn’t just about me anymore; this contract was turning into something that I didn't know if I would be able to give them. For the years I had been in the BDSM lifestyle, but hurting them made my stomach sour. Contracts didn’t last forever, even if I wanted this one to.

28

Romeo

Something had not been right with Hunter these past few weeks. Valencia had picked up on it, but Hunter had given her some bullshit excuse. He didn’t tell her about his shoulder and the MRI, but he said Webber’s injury had spooked him a little.

At first, I believed him, but lately it felt like it was more. We had started seeing less and less of him, which had tipped off Valencia enough for her to say something and the last two days we had stayed at his house and mine. I was getting tired of this, and tonight while Valencia had to get on a live, I was going to get to the bottom of what was going on with Hunter.

We won another game, and it felt damn good since we had lost the last two games. Watson had been bumped up to our line, but we didn’t work as well, so Coach put Bennett in. We worked a lot better with Bennett and even though we still needed a lot of practice, we were doing good.

Webber offered some advice to Bennett the last time we saw him. We went to his house once or twice a week to check in on him. His surgery had gone well, but the doctor said his healing time might be difficult since his patella had shattered. We werehopeful he would be back next season. He was in the stands today, cheering us on, even though we told him to stay home.

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