It was impossible for Cam to hold back his cackle. “Oh, sure.”
“He was very reassured by this.”
“Can I worship for the way you fuck me into the mattress?” Cam wondered.
Dawson’s fingers stroked up his arm, all the way up to his shoulder, tracing the tendon of his neck. “Not gonna stop you.”
“So he’s not gonna like . . .freak out on me?”
“On you? Nah. But, rook, he was always going to freak out onme. That’s why I told him. I didn’t want to hide it—hideyou—like some dirty secret. This way he knows and he knows the score and it won’t be an issue later, if he pulls his head out of Levi’s ass and realizes what’s going on.”
“Am I supposed to be blowing you up for that, too?” Cam wondered.
Dawson made a faux-outraged sound. “I don’t know how Aidan ever thought that you had any kind of hero worship going.”
“I do,” Cam said. Because hehad. But it was more than that, now. He knew it. He’d known it, even before he kissed Dawson last night. They were friends—more, too, but Cam shied away from identifying exactly what thatmorewas. It was fine and plenty enough for now that he knew themoreexisted. And more than enough that they were lying here, like this.
“You’re cute,” Dawson said drowsily. “You wanna go to bed?”
Cam did. But he also knew he’d be regretting it tomorrow if they did what he’d suggested earlier. Running was already going to be a bit of a challenge.
But if he said he wasn’t interested in round two, would Dawson leave? Cam didn’t really want Dawson to leave.
“Uh, yeah. Yeah, we can do that.” Maybe he could suggest he give Dawson a blowjob to stick around.
But then Dawson was crawling over Cam’s body, still naked, and offering him a hand to help him up.
“I know what you said,” Dawson said, “but uh, we can just . . .sleep? If you want. Or I could go back—”
“No, don’t go,” Cam said, and for a second he had a bad moment that he’d said too much, but Dawson’s expression softened. “And yeah, I’m good with that. Let’s just go to bed.”
Dawson smiled. Slung an arm around Cam’s shoulders. “Bed it is,” he said. “You got a toothbrush for me, rook?”
Nobody would ever know, because he wasnotgoing to be telling Dawson that he’d popped down to the corner drugstore to pick up a handful of brand-new toothbrushes just in case he worked up the nerve to ask Dawson to come over. Just in case heworked up that nerve and about ten more—Dawson coming over and then Dawson actuallywantingto stay.
But he shouldn’t have worried, because Dawson was the one who’d texted. Dawson who’d invited himself over. Dawson himself suggesting that he wanted to stay.
“Yeah,” Cam said. “I got one for you, Daws.”
Dawson smiled, unexpectedly soft and sweet, and Cam let go of another bit of the worry he’d been carrying around all day. Itwasn’tjust him.
He wasn’t alone in this.
Chapter 13
“Rookwasalittleslow today, but faster than yesterday,” Marty said knowingly, tilting his head towards where Cam had just wrapped up his jog around the edge of the field with Joey.
Dawson looked up from where he was stretching. Tried not to flush.
Yesterday, after practice Nate had noticed the marks littering Cam’s torso and had made a few joking comments and then Mo had joined in.
Aidan had shot both of them a look, but the damage had been done, and everyone in the room—and then probably everyone in the building—knew that the rookie had been hooking up. Not with Dawson necessarily, but anyone who had been paying any kind of attention probably knew it was him.
And Marty was too observant, and had been doing this for way too long, to not guess the truth.
Dawson had assumed that he might’ve dodged the inevitable yesterday, but now Marty was giving him the kind of look that spoke volumes about how he hadn’t escaped at all.
“Are you gonna lecture me about this like Aidan did?” Dawson wondered.
