Page 26 of Unrivaled

Jesus.Grady turned his phone screen off and pushed it facedown against his thigh, suddenly furiously hard. Fortunately Coop was ignoring him, probably texting his wife. Fuck.

Grady bit his lip and chanced another look at his phone when it vibrated again, keeping the screen tilted carefully away from anyone else.

Wish u were here, Max had sent, followed by an angel emoji.

Grady wanted to throw himself out the bus window. He really needed his date tomorrow to go well. He had to be hard up for regular sex if he was fantasizing about running his fingers through the mess on Max’s belly and using it to open him up for Grady’s cock.

He took a deep breath through his nose, released it slowly, and counted to three.

Fuck it.

Rain check for next week?

If his date went well, he could always cancel.

MAX WASaware that sending the video was not a great look for him. He tried to tell himself he didn’t actually want on Grady’s dick that bad, but lying to himself wasn’t one of his strengths.

Besides, it worked, so Grady either didn’t notice that it reeked of desperation or didn’t care.

Grady didn’t sext, which was criminal, because Max knew he had an absolutely filthy mind hidden behind those intense frowny eyebrows.

But two days after Max sent the video, Grady sent something almost as interesting.

Did you sabotage my dating profile?

Not, like, actively. It was possible Max had exaggerated some of Grady’s characteristics or the things he’d look for in a partner, and maybe he’d steered him toward a disaster or two, but he had faith in Grady’s ability to fail at dating all by himself. Either way, this was going to be good. Max pulled his feet up on the couch.Only by being funnier than u could be irl.

For a few minutes, he was afraid Grady wasn’t going to elaborate. The three little dots flashed at him for ages.

Then Grady said,Do you actually take guys mini golfing?

Fuck, did Grady fuck up a slam-dunk date like mini golf? Max couldn’t wait to find out how.Ya what’s not to love? Nice walk, lots of bending over.Great for setting the mood.

Another pause. Then,And you don’t, like… piss them off?

An array of witty comebacks cycled through Max’s brain.Aww, babe, no, that’sourspecial thing, for example. But if he said something like that he ran the risk of, well, pissing Grady off, and then Grady might not tell him how he fucked up mini golf.

How would I piss them off, he sent.

Apparently I’m “too competitive” and it “isn’t fun.”

Max put the phone down on the table, pressed his face into a throw pillow, and howled with laughter. Fuck, he could imagine Grady’s wet-cat face. Had he lost at mini golf? Did he get cranky about it? Or was his date the one who couldn’t handle Grady beating him, and got progressively colder as the gap increased, while Grady struggled to figure out what he was doing wrong?

He couldn’t decide which was funnier.

Gru thought it was pretty funny too—or that was what Max gathered from his dog’s reaction to Max’s laughter. He yipped and wagged his stub of a tail and licked Max’s ear, which tickled and only made Max laugh harder. Apparently Gru didn’t want to be left out. Max let go of the pillow and tickled the dog instead, and Gru flopped over on his back and writhed in ecstasy while Max provided belly rubs.

Did u not tell him ur a professional athlete?he asked when he had custody of his thumbs again. Like, what did the guy expect? People like Max and Grady weren’t programmed to be gracious losers.

The whole thing was hilarious. Even if he now kind of wanted to throw down with Grady over mini golf.

Sadly, Grady remembered who he was talking to and stopped giving Max chirp material. But that was okay. He didn’t need it. The point of setting up Grady’s online dating account wasn’t for Grady to whine to Max about bad dates so Max could make fun of him, it was to get him frustrated with dating so he’d sleep with Max.

They’d already arranged their next meeting, so maybe the internet dating was redundant, but it wasn’t like Max could tell him to cut it out because it served its purpose. Just because he actually was that thirsty didn’t mean he had to admit it.

He spent the days before the next Firebirds game in his usual preseason routine, drawing in for enough games to get his body conditioned the way he liked it. When he wasn’t playing, he was eating, sleeping, working out, or doing yoga with El and suggesting silly nursery themes. So far she’d nixed Jurassic Park and Jumanji, because she had no vision. Max thought a giant T. rex would be a great addition to any baby’s room.

“It would scare away the monsters under the bed,” he argued.

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