Fallon
I really didn’t want to be here. In fact, all morning I’d debated texting Patrick and canceling. How was I supposed to work with the man who’d taken my virginity but didn’t know it?
In high school I’d always been too afraid to hook up, though I’d known guys who did. Rory had told me not to rush, that I should wait until I cared about the person before I had sex.
Dev had known I was gay, had come out to me after he’d graduated and signed his contract with the Kings. He’d said he wanted me to have someone I could talk to who understood what I was going through. I admired him so much. It was Dev, not my parents, who’d given me the sex talk, teaching me about protection and not to go wild simply because I was living on my own. We’d had long conversations about respecting myself as a gay man. How I deserved to live a free and open life. Ironic, coming from a man who’d hidden who he was, but he’d made the choice to follow his dream. Plus, he had Brody.
“I want you to be happy, Fallon. I’m always available if you need me—I don’t care if we’re in the postseason or what. It’s what Rory would’ve expected of me. Just promise me you’ll be safe. I don’t like the thought of you out there, all alone. That can lead to bad decisions with worse consequences.”
For my twenty-first birthday, Dev had bought me a membership to an exclusive sex club.
“It sounds weird, but these people have at least been vetted. I know you’re going to have sex, but I don’t like thinking you might end up in trouble because you’ll meet someone who might hurt you. The world is filled with strange people who are looking to take advantage of someone innocent.”
“Hey,” I protested, laughing. “I’m a city guy. I know what’s what.”
But Dev didn’t find it funny. “I worry about you, Fallon.”
And then I’d met Patrick. It was a first time I’d never forget that had turned into an affair to remember. Nights of incredible, heart-stealing passion with a man who’d brought me to a paradise I hadn’t known existed and had never reached again. He’d made me feel wanted, and though we’d been anonymous, I’d had a connection with him. How could I not, when he’d been the first person inside me?
Our months together had woven a bond between us, and despite knowing it was foolish, I’d fallen hard for him. It had gone so far beyond sex—he’d made me laugh, and we’d shared similar world views. I’d thought long about it and had decided that maybe it was time to take it to the next level, see if he wanted to leave Intensity and make things work in the real world. With his hints of asking if I was staying in California and his job prospects, I’d believed he was thinking the same.
We made love as had become our custom and fell asleep for a little while. I awoke before him and used the bathroom, then returned to the bed, thinking it might be a good time to have that talk. The sex that night had been hard and desperate, and his mask had loosened in his sleep, slipping to the side. His face revealed, I froze, my heart skipping a beat.
I knew him. Hell, everyone in Southern California who followed college football knew that face. Patrick Sloane, superstar quarterback of the Laguna University Sea Lions. His team had won the Rose Bowl, and he was headed for the pros.
Holy shit. My brain could barely process this. Patrick Sloane was into guys? No question about it as my ass was sore and bruises had already begun to spring up over my hips and thighs where he’d gripped me hard. Patrick “Trick” Sloane had fucked me like his life depended on it.
It made sense he’d come to a place where his identity would be protected. It saddened and upset me that people had to hide who they were. I got dressed and studied the sleeping man, all muscle and beauty stretched out on the bed, committing him to memory. I fled, tears sliding down my cheeks, knowing it had been the last time he’d touched me, heartbroken that it had to end this way.
I’d spent the rest of the night sleepless and empty, feeling as though I’d left part of myself—the best part—in that room with Patrick Sloane.
In the intervening years, I’d had lovers but never love. Seeing how Dev and Brody completed each other, how they went through so much to be together and fought for their relationship despite their hardships, I didn’t want indiscriminate sex with someone I’d never see again. I wanted that fairy tale. An all-encompassing, forever love. I wanted to lose my breath every time he walked into the room. I wanted my lips to tingle and my balls to ache. I wanted not to be able to keep my hands off him and for him to give me those special looks reserved only for me. I wanted laughter over inside jokes and feet tangled under blankets. I wanted…Dammit.I wanted the man I’d left sleeping in bed, dark hair spread on the pillow. The only man who’d made me come alive.
The man I could never have.
Now here we were, a decade later, and by some strange twist of fate we’d been thrown together again. I figured I’d see how the lunch went, and if I still had reservations, tell him I’d decided to go with another offer. He had no idea who I was, so it wouldn’t be a problem.
“Sit, please,” he said, pointing to the couch. Instead, I sat in the club chair. “Can I ask you something?”
I clasped my hands. “Yeah, of course.”
“Why do I get the feeling you don’t like me?” His lips quirked. “I always joke that people need to know me before they hate me.”
“I don’t dislike you. I don’t even know you.”
Except how your dick feels in my ass.I mentally slapped myself.Shut up, Fallon.
His eyes warmed. “I hear a ‘but.’ Talk to me,” he urged. “Maybe I can make it right.”
Damn the man’s charm. Despite everything, I responded with a smile. “I’m naturally cautious, that’s all. Why don’t you tell me what you see the job entailing?”
“I made a list. Let me get my phone.”
Funnily, that made me feel better. Knowing he’d taken the time to think about my job meant he wasn’t all flash and about the party life, like I’d read. Because yeah, I’d done my homework on him as well.
His dark brows pulled together, Patrick studied the screen. “Okay. Obviously, someone to answer my fan mail and manage my social media, but I wanna make sure I see everything that comes in from the kids. Especially the ones who are sick. I’m a sponsor for Hearts and Hands, so that’s really important to me.”
“Oh, wow, I didn’t know…I saw that when—”
