Thad laughed, surprised. “My what?”
“Your …you. All of that.” Graham waved a hand. “I’m sure I can handle a penis. It’syouI’m not sure what to do about.”
Thad laughed again and bit back the urge to ask Graham if he’d like to handle his penis.
Because this really, really wasn’t the time or place for that and for once in his life he was going to act like a fucking mature adult man in his forties or die trying.
He cleared his throat again. “What do you want to do about me?”
“That’s the problem. I don’t fucking know.” Graham gripped the steering wheel, his jaw tightening.
Thad felt a weird ache because he wanted to slide a hand along Graham’s broad shoulders, feel the warmth of his skin through his snug white shirt, and pull him close.
He wanted to comfort Graham, reassure him he was fine and that they’d figure this out together. But they weren’t together and there were so many reasons why they couldn’t be.
Why they made no sense.
“I can’t …” Graham’s voice broke. “Dude, this is theworstfucking timing for this. I’m with Madison.”
“Yeah. You said that already,” Thad said flatly.
“And this season I have got to get my shit together. I’m supposed to be a leader for this team, and I didn’t do enough last season. I need to dobetterthis year.”
“I get that.”
“Andfuck, my mom’s got this … she’s up for district attorney and there’s an election in November, so she’s gotta make sure everything looks good. And like …”
“Dating a guy wouldn’t look good.”
Graham glanced over. “What? No. I don’t think that’s an issue. My parents are good with gay people.”
“Okay. So, what’s the prob—” Thad stopped abruptly. “Oh. Doesn’t look good to have her little boy dating an ex-con, I’d bet.”
He couldn’t quite hide the bitterness in his voice.
“Yeah.” Graham looked and sounded uncomfortable. “They wouldn’t hold anythingagainstyou. It’s that …”
“From a PR perspective, it’s not ideal,” Thad said cooly.
And he didn’t know why he’d thought otherwise because he’d always known Graham was way,wayfucking out of his league. But he still didn’t like the feeling in the pit of his stomach right now. The hollow ache and the twist of hurt.
“Right,” Graham whispered. “And I know all that, but I can’tstopthinking about you.”
Thad closed his eyes, letting his head fall back against the sumptuous leather headrest. “Right.”
Because that wasn’t going to fuck him up at all to know that.
“I don’t know what to do.”
“Nothing has to change,” Thad pointed out, looking over at him again. “We can still be friends.”
“Can we? Because it doesn’t really feel like it anymore. I’m not imagining this tension, am I?” Graham gestured between them.
Thad laughed hollowly. “No. You’re not imagining it.”
“So what the fuck happens now?”
Some part of Thad, the part that liked to poke at something until he caused a reaction, was tempted to lean over andwhisper something filthy in Graham’s ear. To nose his way along Graham’s neck and jaw while he got a hand on his fly. To see how little it took to get Graham hard, then unzip his jeans and take his cock out.
