Page 49 of Scoring Position

After a few lazy kisses, Nico shivered, and Ryan pulled away. “I’m gonna clean up. You want to get under the covers?”

Or, shit, should he ask? Nico might be planning to go back to his own room if he was worried about getting caught—

But Nico snorted and did as Ryan suggested. “Such a good boyfriend,” he teased, sounding sleep-warm and fond.

Oh God, Ryan was in trouble. Because Nico might be teasing him, butboyfriendwasn’t exactly far off the mark. They lived together. They were sleeping together. Most damningly, Ryan was in deep enough that if Nico wanted to call him that, Ryan certainly wouldn’t argue.

He tamped down on his own relentless stupidity while he washed up in the bathroom, and then he joined Nico in bed. Nico snuggled against him as though completely assured of his welcome, his arm over Ryan’s chest, knee against Ryan’s thigh. “I’ll go back to my room in a minute,” he mumbled into Ryan’s shoulder. “I know you have a sleep thing, I just….”

I just want to be close to you.Nico didn’t have to say it. Ryan knew. Just like he knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he was completely fucked.

THE FUEL’Sholiday party fell midway through December during a lull in the schedule. With a rare Saturday and Sunday off, the team booked out a restaurant for the evening.

It seemed absurd to Nico that only a few weeks ago he’d have been scraping for any excuse not to go, and today he was only stressing out because they were late.

“I know I put them in the wash,” Ryan muttered to himself as Nico watched him tear the laundry hamper apart. He felt slightly guilty. By mutual agreement, Ryan cooked and Nico did laundry. “But they’re not here. They’re not in my closet.”

Nico pawed through the basket of things he’d just folded but hadn’t yet put away. No sign of the jeans. “They’re not in here either.”

Ryan huffed. “Well if they’re not in my closet, and they’re not in the laundry, then where would they…?”

They lifted their heads at the same time and met each other’s gaze.

“Babe,” Ryan said a minute later, holding up the offending jeans, which he’d just unearthed from Nico’s dresser. He was smirking. “If you didn’t want me to put pants on, you could’ve just said so. You didn’t have to hide them.”

Nico rolled his eyes. “Your ass is notthatgreat.” Not that he’d had a chance to get too up close and personal with it, since so far neither of them had the patience to wait longer than it took to get a hand or mouth on the other’s dick. But he tugged Ryan in for a quick kiss anyway. “Come on, we’re going to be late.”

The event was open to staff and players as well as their partners. Which meant that Ryan and Nico would show up together and probably be ragged mercilessly—their tardy arrival must be the result of their inability to keep their hands to themselves. Sometimes Ryan got a little tense about all the teasing. Nico thought maybe he was still sensitive about the whole “getting traded to be Nico’s minder” thing. While he wasn’t exactly the type to volunteer details, he tried to shift the focus to himself when that happened.

But it turned out he’d worried for no reason. The party was in full swing when they entered, so no one paid them any attention except for Katja, who swooped in to tell them she and Misha had saved them seats.

“Drinks?” Ryan asked as Katja dragged Nico away.

He smiled back over his shoulder. “Yes, please!”

He took the seat next to Katja, leaving the one across from him for Ryan, since it was on the bar side of the table. He’d already made it over there and was talking to a blond woman with a stylish bob as they waited for their drinks.

Katja cleared her throat. “Can’t get enough?” she asked in Russian.

Nico snapped his attention away from Ryan. “Just making sure he doesn’t need help carrying it all.”

Misha looked like a big, sulky, hulking mountain, and he didn’t seem convinced. Ryan was going to be stuck next to him all night. Maybe they should move.

Fortunately Ryan arrived at the table with two beers and two shots of vodka before Misha could start. That must have bought him a little goodwill.

“Oh, now I see why Grouch keeps you around,” Granger teased as Ryan set down his bounty.

Nico picked up his beer bottle, smirking. “That’s not why,” he said, and half the table erupted in catcalls as he brought his beer to his lips.

Ryan flushed, but he didn’t look particularly bothered, and as Nico had predicted, the team dropped it after that and went back to their own conversations.

“You know who that is? Joanne?” Ryan nodded over his shoulder toward the bar, indicating the blond woman.

Misha turned to look. “Vorhees. Coach’s wife.”

Ryan whistled under his breath. “That explains why she needed two G&T’s.”

“I’ll drink to that,” Yorkie said from Nico’s other side. Everyone within a few places raised their glasses. “Cheers.”

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