Dev hooked his arm in Momma’s and threw me a wink. His eyes danced.
“I’m gonna try, Theo. I’m gonna do my best.”
Chapter Six
Dev
One month later
“I could get very used to this, you know.”
Riding me, Brody peered from under the long strands of reddish-brown hair hanging in his face. He’d grown it out in the off-season, and I loved having something to hold on to.
“What? Me on top? Oh fuck, yeah. Right there. Harder.”
Pleasure washed over me, and I tabled the discussion as I chased my climax, thrusting up into Brody. I gripped his hips, digging my fingers into his pale skin. I liked seeing my marks on him. We were two big men, and our lovemaking was passionate, loud, and very physical. Each of us bore the evidence of the other’s touch.
Brody came a moment after me and rolled off, snuggling into my shoulder. The past month together had only cemented my feelings for him, the depths of which surprised even me. I’d never met a person I wanted more, not only physically, but emotionally. All the emptiness inside me vanished when we were together. I loved simply being with him. Sitting across the table in the morning, eating breakfast, then at the lake, fishing and swimming, watching him with his mother, and seeing all the good things he’d done for people, like showing up at the local day camp to play football with the kids and rebuilding the library after a storm destroyed the roof.
Brody Martin was the best man I’d ever met, and he was mine.
“Now what was it you were sayin’? Could get used to me on top?” His baby-blue eyes twinkled. “It’s pretty fuckin’ awesome, ain’t it?” He bit my earlobe. “I still feel you.”
I tightened my arm around him. “I do love that, but I meant just being with you. Living with you.” I rubbed our cheeks together. “I wish we could do it all year long.”
“Me too.” Sadness clouded Brody’s expression. “But I don’t see that happening unless we’re on the same team. Or when we retire.” He brushed the hair out of his eyes. “But that’s the plan, right? We finish playing, and we’ll be together. It’s okay.”
I wanted to snap,No, it’s not okay. We shouldn’t have to hide for a decade. Not anymore.But it would hurt Brody, and it wasn’t his fault. Or mine.
“Yeah. You and me, here or New York. I’d love to take you there and show you everything.”
“Not sure I could live in a place with so many people, but I’m dying to see it. Maybe one day when we play there.”
“Or…” I sat up, excitement brewing. “We could take a trip there. A few days away, just the two of us. I have to go to the city at some point to meet with my banker and sign stuff for the trusts my grandparents set up for me. Come with me.”
“That would be nice.”
“Let’s do it. I’ll have Fallon make all the arrangements. Poor guy’s been bored to tears with me down here and no schedule to keep me in line. I have him going through all my fan mail. His cousin Kelsie—they’re first cousins, but more like brother and sister—is doing all my social media with him, since I don’t have time to figure that stuff out.”
Brody nodded. “Yeah. Lizzie’s been great as well.”
“Have you told her about us?”
He shook his head. “No way. I mean, Ezra had her sign an NDA, but still…” He chewed his lip. “What about you?”
I dipped my head. “Yeah. Fallon is trustworthy. He’s like family—actually, better than mine, for sure. And he’d never say anything. His brother and I were close friends and went to school together in the city. I’ve known him longer than almost anyone.”
Fallon’s brother, Rory, had died in a car accident. At the funeral, Fallon had cried on my shoulder and told me his parents refused to accept he was gay and told him to leave their house. And because he was eighteen and considered an adult, they’d cut him off, not only emotionally, but financially as well, even going so far as to withdraw their payment for his college tuition. Afraid he might do something drastic, I’d paid all his expenses, and after he graduated, he’d come home from California to work for me. Aside from Brody, he was the only one I’d told about my sexuality.
“Make sure he schedules me in for some Devil time.”
I rolled on top of him. “You’re twenty-four-seven. Do you not want to go? You don’t seem too excited.”
“I do. It’s just…” Brody shifted away, and I grabbed his wrist.
“What is it? Tell me. No secrets.”
“I don’t belong there. I’m small town. Country.”
