Page 47 of Unrivaled

He pushed open the door to the least-used trainers’ room—the Firebirds’ arena was old, and this one had a faulty lock—and went inside.

“Finally.” Max sat on the padded table, swinging his feet. He was still wearing his cooldown gear; he’d hung his suit beside the door. Probably smart, but Grady didn’t feel like giving him credit. “I was starting to think you were gonna stand me up.”

“Thought about it,” Grady said shortly.

Max blinked and his eyes went wide. Then he raised his brows. “Do we have a problem?”

What “we”?“Ihave a problem. You have a decision to make. Are we gonna fuck around, or are you going to run your mouth about it when we’re working?”

Max flushed. Grady could see him fluffing himself up like a rooster trying to look bigger and tougher than he was. “Hey, if you can’t take it—”

“I can take it. But I won’t.” Grady never should’ve let things get this far. “What happens between us off the ice stays off the ice, or it doesn’t happen. Sex with you’s not good enough to fuck up hockey for.”

He expected Max to try to argue, to get angry or defensive or simply leave. Instead he looked at Grady for a long moment and visibly backed down. His expression seemed almost quizzical, like he didn’t understand why Grady was upset or he didn’t believe it. But eventually his forehead creased in a frown and he nodded. “All right. I crossed a line. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Given their history, Grady shouldn’t believe him. He did, though. Which made it awkward to be standing there in the training room with Max, who he wasn’t friends with and wasn’t angry with anymore. Being annoyed with Max had never stopped Grady from wanting to fuck him, but actual anger did.

God, how didnothaving sex make this more awkward?

Grady cleared his throat. “Good. Well. Now that’s settled….”

Max shook his head. “No, wait, I need clarification. Is it just sex that’s off-limits? Or, like, anything personal that I know about you because we’re having sex? Do I get to chirp you for losingAmerican Ninja Warrior?”

“I was the one who finished first by the rules we established. Besides, youcheated,” Grady said before he could stop himself.

“I came prepared,” Max countered. “The question stands. I need to know where the line is so I don’t cross it.”

Part of Grady wanted to tell him that if Max couldn’t put the effort into figuring it out himself, Grady wasn’t going to do it for him. But that seemed like a bad faith stance. Max was trying.

Grady didn’t care if Max chirped him about losingAmerican Ninja Warrior. Sure, someone might realize they’d gone to a gym together if they looked into that, but the risk was small compared to the actual fucking around they were doing. He wouldn’t care if Max talked smack about Grady’s shitty dates either. Even Grady thought he deserved any mockery he got. So what else was off-limits? “No sex stuff,” he reiterated. “No personal stuff either, like about my family.”

“I wouldn’t,” Max said. “Jesus. What the fuck?”

“I don’t just mean my parents. There’s my sister too. If we keep sleeping together, you might learn things.” Jess called him all the time, and either sex made Grady say things he wouldn’t or postorgasmic Max was too easy to talk to. Either way, Grady would spill something private sooner or later.

Max nodded. “Okay. That’s fair.” He offered a wry half-smile. “Sorry for killing the mood.”

Grady snorted in spite of himself. Time to offer… not a whole olive branch, but maybe a dirty martini. “I mean, trainers’ rooms don’t exactly set the mood either.”

“Poor ambience didn’t stop us in the basement in Toronto.”

Unfortunately, that was true. Before Grady could admit it, Max changed the subject. “But look… let me make it up to you. Late dinner on me?”

“Your bus is going to leave in, like, ten minutes.”

Max shrugged. “So I’ll take an Uber home.”

All the way back to Newark?

But Gradywashungry, now that Max mentioned it. “All right,” Grady said. “You need a restaurant recommendation?”

“Nah.” Max grinned at him. “Let me get dressed. You good to drive?”

MAX HADalways known his mouth would get him in trouble one day. It was kind of what it did.

But if someone had told him he’d be biting his tongue because he went too far chirping Grady Armstrong and Grady threatened to stop having sex with him, he’d have laughed in their face. And that wasn’t even the whole truth. He was mad at himself because Grady had beenangrywith him, not annoyed.

Max made his living getting other players to react emotionally instead of with their brains. But even though it was his job, he didn’t actually want to make Grady angry. At least, he didn’t want Grady to be angry withhim.

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