Page 37 of Price of Victory
His eyes widened slightly, and I watched him process the invitation, the implications of what I was suggesting. “Aiden…”
“What? You going to tell me you wouldn’t want to?”
“Of course I’ve been thinking about it. But…”
“But nothing.” I shifted closer, our bodies almost touching now. “I want you. Right now, tonight, tomorrow. Stop overthinking it.”
“This is crazy,” he said, but he wasn’t pulling away. If anything, he was leaning into me, his hands coming up to rest against my chest.
“Maybe. But it’s good crazy. Isn’t it?”
For a moment, we just stared at each other, the air between us crackling with tension and possibility. Then Rhett’s resolve seemed to crumble, and he pulled me down to meet his mouth with his own.
The kiss was desperate, hungry, full of all the want we’d been building up during practice. I pressed him harder against the lockers, drinking in the small sound he made when our bodies aligned. He tasted like mint toothpaste and something darker, more complex, and I couldn’t get enough.
When we broke apart, both of us breathing hard, his lips were swollen, and his cheeks were flushed. “We can’t do this here,” he said, but his hands were still gripping my shoulders like he couldn’t bear to let me go.
“Why not? There’s no one left.”
“Because…” He cut himself off, looking around the empty locker room as if to confirm we were truly alone. “Because what if someone comes back?”
“Then we’ll hear them coming and stop.” I traced my thumb along his jawline, feeling the slight roughness of stubble. “Live a little, Morrison.”
I could see the exact moment when his last bit of resistance crumbled. His eyes went dark with want, and he pulled me back down for another kiss, this one even more desperate than the last.
Despite the countless days of pent-up tension crackling between us, we didn’t rush it. I backed him toward the shower stalls with deliberate slowness, my mouth moving against his in a rhythm that made my pulse thunder in my ears. My hands found the lean planes of his chest, fingers spreading wide to feel the rapid beat of his heart beneath warm skin still damp from our earlier shower.
Each step backward was measured, calculated to build the anticipation that was already making my breath come short. When my palm flattened against his ribs, I felt him shiver despite the lingering heat from the locker room, and the small reaction sent tingles shooting straight through my nervous system.
The shower stall was impossibly cramped, barely wide enough for one person, let alone two, but the confined space only heightened every sensation. The white tiles reflected our movements back at us, multiplying the intimacy until it felt like we were surrounded by ourselves, by this moment that seemed to exist outside of time and consequence.
I reached behind him to turn the water back on, my arm brushing against his shoulder as I adjusted the temperature. The first drops were cold, making him gasp and arch into me, and I felt that small sound reverberate through my entire body. I fine-tuned the heat until steam began to rise around us, creating a cocoon of humidity that made the air thick and almost tangible.
When the hot spray finally hit us both, I watched with fascination as it ran down Rhett’s body in rivulets that caught the fluorescent light. The water traced the definition of his shoulders, pooled briefly in the hollow of his throat beforecontinuing its journey down his chest. I found myself following one particular droplet with my eyes as it navigated the lean muscle of his torso, disappeared for a moment behind the towel still wrapped around his waist, then reappeared to trace the length of his thigh.
“You’re staring,” he said, his voice rough with something between amusement and desire. There was no complaint in the words, just wonder at being looked at like he was something precious and rare.
“Can’t help it,” I replied, my own voice barely recognizable. “You’re beautiful.”
The words seemed to break something open in him. His hands, which had been resting hesitantly against my chest, suddenly gripped my shoulders with desperate need. He pulled me closer until there was no space left between us, until I could feel every line of his body against mine through the thin barrier of terrycloth that was rapidly becoming soaked through.
The sensation of our bodies aligning under the cascading water was overwhelming in the most perfect way. Every nerve ending in my body seemed to fire at once, sending waves of heat that had nothing to do with the shower and everything to do with the way he was looking at me. His brown eyes had gone dark with want, pupils dilated until only a thin ring of color remained.
I reached up to trace the line of his jaw with trembling fingers, feeling the slight roughness of stubble that had appeared there. The contrast between the soft skin of his throat and the more textured area along his jawline made me want to explore every inch of him, to catalog each different sensation my hands could discover.
When I leaned in to press my lips to the pulse point at his neck, I felt rather than heard the soft sound he made. The vibration traveled through his throat and into my mouth, and Ifound myself addicted to the taste of his skin, salt and soap and something uniquely him that made my head spin.
The steam was building around us now, turning the small space into something dreamlike and surreal. Every breath I took was saturated with humidity and the clean scent of his shampoo, making me feel like I was drowning in the best possible way.
I let my hands explore his shoulders, feeling the way the muscles moved beneath his skin when he reached up to thread his fingers through my damp hair. The touch sent shivers down my spine that had nothing to do with temperature and everything to do with the gentle way he was holding me, like I was something valuable that might break if handled too roughly.
“Aiden,” he whispered against my ear, and the sound of my name in his voice made my knees weak. There was something almost reverent in the way he said it, like he was testing the weight of the word on his tongue.
I responded by nipping gently at his earlobe, earning another one of those soft sounds that went straight to my core. The confined space meant that every movement, every touch, every breath was amplified. When he shifted against me, when his hands found the small of my back and pulled me closer, it felt like the most natural thing in the world and the most earth-shattering at the same time. His hard cock pressed against my leg, rubbing against me with his movement.
Rhett’s hand descended over the curve of my ass, grabbing me with force before he dragged his body against mine on his way down to his knees.
When he dropped, he lifted his gaze to mine, and his red lips parted with desperate desire. His hands worshiped my legs on their way up, moving over my knees and along my thighs until he wrapped the fingers of his right hand around my dick, stroking it once before it throbbed hard in his fist.
