Page 35 of Tempting the Teammate
He shook his head as I released him. “Nobody who matters.” He shrugged and tucked his hands into his pockets. “I…I was with a few guys last year, but it didn’t feel like it mattered that some stranger knew.”
A wave of jealousy swept over me.Tell me their names, I wanted to growl, then caught myself being ridiculous and let it pass. As if I hadn’t been texting him photos while chatting with girls. As if he hadn’t been my wingman for years, keeping me company while I flirted around and left him holding my beer.
“Your family,” I said.
He shrugged. “I never thought about telling them. Didn’t seem like it mattered.”
“And me?” I asked.
He smiled sadly and moved over to his desk. He picked up the can of beer and drank from it, then set it back down. “I couldn’t tell you, Griff.”
“But we…” I blinked, feeling the warmth of his lips still lingering on mine. “We just kissed. You wanted that, right?”
He laughed then. His eyes gleamed with joy as he looked over my face. “Are you kidding me? Yes, Griff. I wanted it.” He licked his lips, then shook his head. “This is silly. How long have you…?”
“Dunno,” I admitted. “Seven or eight…days.”
He threw his head back and laughed aloud. “Oh, the life of torment.”
I stuck a finger into his ribcage. “Don’t laugh. It was hell.” My other hand moved over to grab a fistful of his hoodie, and I pulled him close to me until our bodies touched. “I thought I was gonna lose you, Andrei.” I stared at him and the unfiltered, untamed excitement in his eyes. “I thought it was over for us, and I just…I couldn’t live with that.”
His gaze moved over my lips, rising along the bridge of my nose, flicking to my heated cheeks, and finally meeting my eyes. “What happened seven or eight days ago?”
I looked away in a sudden sweep of shame, then forced myself to look into his eyes. “A few weeks back, I read some of the stories.”
He sucked his teeth. “Bad idea.”
“It was your idea,” I said, pulling him a little closer until I could feel his leg between mine. My grip on his hoodie loosened, and I opened my palm, pressing it flat against his chest. “I’d never thought of you that way. Never. But when I saw how people fantasized about you, about us, I…” I sighed, struggling to find the right words. And when I couldn’t find a better way to say it, I just used the simplest ones. “You turn me on, Andrei. It’s crazy and hella scary, but you do.” My hands pressed against his chest harder as if I wanted to feel his heartbeat beneath the layers of clothes. “I didn’t think you felt the same way. Maybe I should have seen it, but I never did. And when I realized what you do to me whenever you’re around…” I shook my head, losing the rest of what I meant to say.
It was pointless.
These were only words on the wind.
What mattered—truly and completely—was that we had kissed just a few minutes earlier. We had kissed with freedom and desire.
“I didn’t think I’d ever hear these words,” Andrei said softly. “You…you’re straight.”
A single bark of laughter broke out of me.
“I mean, I get it, but youwerestraight since I met you,” Andrei said.
“And last week, when you were out, I went to shower and found your boxers in the laundry basket,” I admitted, my face burning hotter than ever. “And some devil possessed me, and I pressed them against my nose. Fuck, you’re cringing. Don’t do that. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”
“I’m, er, not cringing,” Andrei said, his eyelids drooping a little and his lips parting. “You sniffed my boxers?”
Embarrassment opened like a bottomless pit in my stomach. But I wasn’t going to kiss him again while lying by omission. “I did.”
“And?” A whisper, if even that.
“And I…came. Hard.”
Andrei’s eyes closed, and he swayed a little closer to me, his leg moving deeper between mine, his chest pressing against mine, and his hands moving to the sides of my waist. “That’s…”
I prepared myself to hear the scolding I deserved.
“…incredibly hot,” Andrei said. “I never did that. Never dared. But fuck, I had opportunities, and it crossed my mind.”
“You don’t need to ask for permission,” I said.
