Page 30 of First Puck

I held the shirt up in the air, like I was trying it out against him, even though I’d already made my decision.

“Look, man, you’re representing us. You’re representing theteam. You can’t go out looking like an 80s pop star. What if one of the guys catches you? You’ll be branded as the ‘fire-shirt guy’ for the rest of your life.”

I sighed as I dropped the shirt to my side.

He was still hunched over, all awkward-like. I stepped in close, twisting my lips as I ran my eyes over his chest.

“Aren’t you going to remember this for ages, too?” He smiled wryly.

“Yeah, fair enough, but it’s different with me. I’m just going to make fun of you forever. But I’ve got so much else I can tease you with that it’ll fade into the background, unlike that fucking shirt.”

He chuckled, his shoulders relaxing, his expression lightening.

It finally felt like things were normal again.

Until I ruined it like a moron when I placed my palm flat against his stomach to see what we were really dealing with. Because he couldn’t beallmuscle.

He sucked in his stomach with a small gasp. My eyes shot to his, and he was looking at me with that scared expression again.

My heart suddenly clenched as the heat of his skin blended with mine. I could suddenly feel him breathing, feel his muscles shifting, feel how hard and soft he was all over.

“What are you doing, Brad?” he asked, his eyelids fluttering.

I wasn’t going to tell him I wanted to pat down his whole body to check and see what his date would be getting when she took him back to hers. Or, I assumed hers, because he would have told me if he was bringing a girl to our house to fuck. He definitely would have told me. Just like he told me he was going on a date.

I quickly scrabbled around for some excuse. “You have to get used to people touching you, man. How are you going to get laid like this?”

“I…er…” The red that flushed his cheeks grew even worse. If someone hit on him and he reacted like that, he was going to be like honey for a bear. They wouldn’t let him go.

I shifted my hand to run the backs of my nails over the ridges of his abs, rising and falling over each one until I reached the curve of his chest. I was suddenly caught by the way light hairs scattered across his pecs, bending under my fingernails as I stroked him.

I couldn’t remember ever looking at someone so closely.

Alex drew in a shuddering breath as I swept over his breastbone, and I followed the way his throat bobbed.

Distracted by his wash of soft skin and the heat that was building up inside me at the sight of it, my fingers nudged his nipple.

It was a total accident, but a low moan echoed from the back of his throat.

And we both froze.

My gaze shot to his, my stomach jumping at the sight of him shaking under me. And that weird nervous feeling hopped around me again.

Because it totally took me back to it. To the thing I tried not to think about for ages. The thing that had driven me so fucking crazy last summer that I only managed to stop thinking about it after I’d jerked off enough to fill a fucking bucket.

But I could do it now. Just nudge his nipple again and see if I could wind him up. See how he might react. Because if I could take it further, then…

“Brad?” he whispered, his eyes like dinner plates.

Pulling in a slow breath, I shook the thoughts away.

I wasn’t going to give Alex a blow job when he was about to go on a date.

I wasn’t going to suck him off, full stop.

But, hell, the way he started trembling and how he gasped as I moved my hand away to the line of his pec. It would be so easy to drop to my knees and rip off those criminal cut-offs and take care of him for real.

If he was going on a date, it’d be the last thing he wanted.

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