Page 68 of Fever Dream
“So not a walk …?”
“We’re walking,” I protest, illustrating my point as we step onto the elevator. He chuffs a laugh but doesn’t reply and we make our way to my floor in silence.
I lead him to my room, and he steps inside, all the way to the large window and the darkened view of the city. The Swan Rivercurves like a velvet ribbon below us, the inky surface reflecting the streetlights while the city skyline rises in glass towers of golds and silvers.
I follow, pulling him against my chest and resting my chin on his shoulder. He leans into my touch, head resting against mine.
“Don’t push me away,” I murmur in his ear.
He lets out a low sigh. “I don’t mean to, Harry. I just don’t think I’m good company sometimes.”
“I’m not just here for the good times, Casey,” I tell him, tightening my hold on him. I feel his breath hitch at my words, right before he relaxes in closer, folding himself into my arms.
He lets me hold him for a while, just a gentle stroke of his arm in the otherwise silent room. At length he swivels in my arms so we’re facing each other, his expression sad but not so helpless as before.
“I don’t think I feel like sex tonight, H,” he sighs softly.
“I didn’t bring you back here for sex, sweet,” I chuff, reaching out to run my fingers through his hair.
“No?” he asks, chasing my fingers for more.
“No. I want to cuddle you and hold you and make sure everything’s okay up here,” I tell him, clutching his head between my hands. “I don’t want you up in your head all night thinking you don’t have support.”
The smile he exhales is sweet and soft and makes me feel all sorts of feelings as he looks back at me. “You’re kind of amazing, Harrison Thornfield.”
“I also have a spa in my bathroom,” I pose, grateful for the unexpected upgrade the Fever fronted.
“I noticed,” he replies, lips tugging up at the sides.
“It’s big enough for two.”
“Inoticed.”
He smiles as I slide my hand down his arm to twine his fingers through mine. I give him a tug, and he comes easilyas I drag his arm over my shoulder and lead him towards my bathroom. He waits patiently while I run the water, and then we wait a little longer because this tub really is huge and it’s taking ages to fill.
Eventually the water level is deep enough, and I help Casey out of his clothes, dropping them on the floor at his feet. He waits until I’ve shucked my clothes and then we step into the water together. I sit and he shifts into the space between my legs, back resting against my front, head on my chest.
He feels like he was made to fit me like this, made just for me. It’s a feeling I recognise but I push it down because it’s too fast, too soon, too crazy to be feeling things like this. Not about a professional athlete who will always have to hide our relationship if it ever develops into one. Not about someone on the other side of the planet from home who comes with a twelve-month expiry date.
But I shove those thoughts aside and just let myself enjoy him, enjoy this feeling of having him like this and getting to be the one who helps him process his feelings after a tough day at the office.
I wash his body all over, massaging him gently as I toy with him and leave us both hard in the water but we both just ignore it as he smiles against my chest.
Afterwards I dry him off with a towel, something I seem to have made a habit of when we share hotel rooms together. And then we climb under the sheets, and he snuggles his warm, naked body into me. He doesn’t fall asleep straight away, looking back at me with those big, open blue-green eyes.
“No one’s ever been able to silence the critics in my head,” Casey murmurs, voice soft. “No one except you.”
My heart gives a loud, resounding thud in my chest as I squeeze those beautiful words inside there and try not to show how much they mean to me. I don’t think I am capable of speechright now. Instead, I slide closer, pulling him into me and he drifts off to sleep, safe in my arms.
CHAPTER 25
harrison
The Fever are due to play Elsternwood Dragons this Saturday night. The media interest is expected but I don’t think anyone anticipated quite the level of enthusiasm over the mouthwatering prospect of Casey Calloway going up against his former side. Luck shines down on us because the game is at home for the Fever.
The press is camped out at the Fever’s training grounds every day that week, clamouring for a comment from Casey or any other teammate if they can’t get to him, and trying to find increasingly innovative ways onto the oval. Mick Brabham opens the grounds for team training on Wednesday and the clamour for Casey is comical.
It’s the kind of scenes I’ve witnessed in the English Premier League in the past, but I thought Australians were supposed to be more chill about the whole celebrity thing. At least, that’s been my experience so far but there’s just something about Casey that sends even sober minded people into a frenzy.
