Page 37 of Unrivaled

The part with actual cognitive ability wentoh no.

Then Max said, “Is that all you got?” and Grady lost his entire mind.

He switched his grip on Max’s wrist to his other hand and snapped his hips forward hard enough to fill the room with the slap of skin on skin. “Is this enough for you?” Grady rasped. He barely recognized his own voice.

Blessedly, Max seemed beyond words. He huffed out tiny, wrecked-sounding moans with every thrust, like Grady was fucking them out of him, but otherwise didn’t respond.

Grady wanted to take that for a yes too, but he needed to be sure. If Max wasn’t going to give verbal confirmation, Grady needed to see his face.

“Max,” Grady said.

Max moaned like a porn star but didn’t otherwise respond.

“Max—” That one slipped out unbidden. The tension in Grady’s body was coiling ever tighter, but he wasn’t going to come before Max did. That was a point of personal pride.

But if Max didn’t tell him anything—

Grady gave up trying to get his attention with his words, fisted his free hand in Max’s hair, and tugged his head back.

But he never got to ask anything, because the second Max turned his blotchy red face toward him, his whole body seized.

“Ohfuck,” Max said. His eyes squeezed closed and his mouth dropped open, and Grady couldfeelit when he came, clenching around his cock so tight Grady was helpless to do anything but bite his lip and follow him down.

He returned to himself breathing like he’d been bag skated, lying flat against Max’s back. At some point he’d let go of Max’s wrist and hair. It took him a moment to find the coordination to prop himself up on shaky arms and pull out of Max’s body so he could collapse next to him.

“Well,” Max said faintly, “I think we can rule out bad sex as a problem.”

Grady couldn’t make words, so he made a rude gesture instead. Of course sex wasn’t a problem. Having sex with someone he actuallyliked—that was the problem.

Maybe that wasn’t completely fair. Objectively, off the ice, Max wasn’t terrible.

Okay, he was, but Grady had developed a tolerance for it. They weren’tfriends, but Grady could be civil to people who weren’t his friends.

Which reminded him… he owed Max an apology.

Ugh.

Better get it over with now, while Max was still facedown on the mattress and not scrutinizing him. “I’m sorry I made the brain damage comment.”

Predictably, that made Max turn his head and look at him. He furrowed his brow in confusion. “What?”

“When you were doing the ring thing. I shouldn’t have made a joke about brain damage. We play a contact sport. We both know enough guys who have it to know that shit isn’t funny.”

“I didn’t think twice about it. I wasn’t offended.” Max tucked a hand under his cheek. For once his eyes looked serious. “You’re right, though—it’s not funny.”

Grady blew out a breath. “That’s why I don’t like losing control on the ice.” And why he hated it when Max got under his skin. It would be so easy to hurt someone because he got angry and made a bad hit.

Max tilted his head. “It’s a contact sport. No one gets here without knowing the risks.”

“Yeah. Including me.” Suddenly it was important that Max understood what Grady meant and why. “Including the risk that if I don’t pay attention, I could put someone through what I went through as a kid.” He’d never forget watching from home as a player had a heart attack on the ice, or the sinking sensation in his gut when a pileup happened and someone got a skate blade too close to the neck.

Grady’d never seen anyone die during a game, but it could happen.

Max absorbed that for a moment. For once he didn’t seem inclined to poke or prod or make fun. He was listening like he was really thinking about it. “Don’t take this the wrong way,” he said at last. “Because I mean, you’re right, and it… I get why you’d feel, um, strongly about that.” Everyone knew what happened to Grady’s parents. “But… you talked to someone about this stuff, right? Like… professionally.”

I’m talking to you, Grady thought. But that wasn’t what Max meant. And since he seemed sincere in his concern—rare, for him, and unnerving for Grady—Grady answered honestly. “Yeah.”

“Okay, good,” Max said. “In that case, I need to tell you that yousuckat pillow talk.”

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