Armi lifted his chin. “Don’t apologize if that’s how you feel.”
“I don’t think you’re a patsy or that you’d say yes just to have someone.” He sank onto the bed and hung his head. “I-I shouldn’t have said that.”
“But you did. Why? It was hurtful.”
Hayden’s shoulders slumped, and he rubbed his face. “I—because I was jealous.”
Armi’s heart pounded so loudly, he could barely hear. “Of what?”
Finally Hayden met his eyes, and Armi’s breath caught at the combination of fear and lust glittering in those green depths. “That he would be with you and I couldn’t.”
“Who says so?”
Hayden shook his head. “We decided. Plus…” He shrugged.
“What? Plus what?”
Hayden huffed out a sigh. “You’re really gonna make me say it? For fuck’s sake, I was a cam boy, Armi. I was naked on camera for guys to jerk off to. I screwed online, shoved toys up my ass for people to get off.” He turned away. “I’m not the right guy for you.”
“Why?” Armi demanded.
“Are you kidding?” Hayden sputtered. “Imagine if—no, not if,whensomeone finds out because I’m sure they will, if we ever started seeing each other. You don’t need my name attached to yours and damaging the team’s reputation.”
“For something you did twenty years ago? That’s ridiculous. No one’s perfect.”
“This is beyond some stupid school prank.” Frustration poured off Hayden. “I’m trying to do the right thing here.”
Armi had always done the right thing. He’d tried to please his father, feigning interest in sports. He’d kept his sexuality quiet and stayed away, burying himself in his flowers, rather than have relationships. He tried to make his father love him.
And where had it gotten him? Nowhere. With no one by his side.
He was tired of being the outsider. The clumsy one. The nice one.
The plus one.
“The right thing would be following your heart.” He pulled Hayden up by his elbow and nuzzled into his neck.
Hayden shivered. “I can’t,” he whispered but swayed into him. “I lose control whenever you touch me.”
“Tough.” Armi bit his ear, and hearing Hayden moan, knowing he gave him pleasure, was the biggest fucking turn-on of his life. “Come on, Hayden. One step at a time. We have thewhole weekend together. Do you really want to spend it talking football?”
“You don’t play fair,” Hayden mumbled, but he didn’t pull away and Armi cheered.
“Haven’t you heard? I play to win now.”
Hayden ran his hands up and down Armi’s body. “What happened to that mild-mannered man I met in the club?”
“He didn’t have anything in his life he wanted badly enough.” Armi cupped his jaw. “Now he does.”
Hayden’s forehead touched his, the tips of their noses brushing, and Armi wondered how he was able to stand with his bones melting. “Just the weekend, then. We can have that.”
It was impossible to argue because the moment this man touched him, all thoughts faded away and he became a quivering bundle of need. “Please,” he murmured. “Please.”
Hayden undressed him, fingers brushing the bare skin above the waistband of his shorts, and he stepped out of his clothes, now fully naked.
“Fuck, you’re beautiful.” Hayden sank to his knees, and Armi cried out at the searing wet heat of Hayden’s mouth enveloping his cock. That velvety tongue was as wicked as Armi remembered, and he flung his head back as Hayden played with his balls but never stopped sucking him. His hips pumped wildly, and Hayden cupped his ass to slow him.
“God, Hayden, I can’t…” The beginnings of his orgasm tingled in his groin.
