For whatever reason, that was the statement that broke the dam on Niko’s control. His laughter cut through the tense silence, booming loudly as August stood motionless, his cheeks burning and his heart galloping in his chest.
“It’s not that I don’t want anyone to hear that I slept with a guy,” August insisted when Niko eventually stopped laughing to take a breath. “I’m just not the kind of person who broadcasts shit about my sex life.”
Niko held his hands up to stop him from explaining further. He was still chuckling, but he was trying to settle so he could talk seriously.
“Man, I know it’s not that. But you literally just said that you liked it when a guy came in your mouth—and that’s not something Cap should have to hear whilesleeping in the room across from us. No one would want to hear about their family member getting railed by a friend.”
Ohhhh shit. He’d forgotten that Callahan was in the room directly across from theirs.
Great.
“He better be fucking sleeping,” August muttered. “I will never look him in the eyes again if he brings it up tomorrow.”
“Neither will I,” said Niko. “Except it will be because I’ll start laughing so hard that they’ll have to sedate me.”
“Har, har.” August crossed the room to his bed and flopped onto his back, sighing loudly. It was late, and he was exhausted and feeling floatyin a nice wayfor the first time in weeks. “I’m going to sleep so well tonight.”
Niko snorted. “It was that good?”
August’s eyelids were heavy, so he shut them and got comfortable, smirking as memories began to flicker at the edge of his mind. Memories of Quinn on his hands and knees, back arched beautifully, and the skin on his ass turning red from the force of their bodies colliding.
“It wasperfect,” said August.
“And your head?”
Blissfully,wonderfully, quiet.
No pain. No whispers. No darkness creeping toward him.
“Perfect,” August echoed. “Wanna do it every night.”
He heard Niko give a mumbled answer, but August was already gone. This time when he slept, he didn’t have nightmares—he didn’t even dream. One moment, he was drifting in heavy comfort, like someone had thrown a warm, weighted blanket over him, and the next, his morning alarm was ringing.
August jerked his head, half-propped on his elbows, and eyes squeezed shut as he looked around for his phone. He had no idea where it was, and it must have been lying face down because there was no light in the room.
Niko’s groan told him that he was on his left, so August shuffled that way so he could locate the side table between them. He found his phone and shut off the alarm, turning the flashlight on to keep them both awake.
“Ohfuck,” Niko said, voice pitching into a whine. “I need at least two more hours of sleep before I’ll feel like a person again.”
August dropped his head onto his pillow and rolled his eyes. “That’s why adults invented coffee.”
“Gross.”
Niko could sometimes be a brat in the morning, and it looked like today was going to be one of those days.
With the thought of coffee and breakfast in mind, August got up and flicked the light on, stumbling to his bag so he could find clean clothes to wear. When he was dressed, his hair and teeth brushed, and his face shaved, he returned to the bedroom and found Niko snoring with a pillow over his head.
August grabbed it and smacked him, laughing when Niko sputtered and sat up, lookingmurderous.
“You fucking asshole, what are you doing?”
August tossed the pillow at him and went back to putting his shoes on. “How are you so punctual on practice and game days, but as soon as we need to catch a plane, bus or air balloon, you do everything you can to drag your feet?”
Niko flipped him two middle fingers. “I’m the Bigfoot’s star player. They’ll wait.”
“Jesus Christ.” August put on his coat and retrieved his backpack. Before he left, he made a point of grabbing Niko by the foot andyankinghim onto the floor. “Get your ass going before I tell them you’ll be late because you have a raging case of diarrhea.”
Thatgot Niko to cooperate. He was spluttering and cursing, but August solved the issue by leaving the room and closing the door behind him, cutting Niko off before he could get an intelligible word out. The kid was lucky August didn’t take the star player comment seriously—because Niko really wasn’t that kind of person—or he would have kicked his ass.
