Unrivaled, page 25
“Oh good,” Baller said when he noticed Max standing there. “I thought the shower might have defeated you.”
Max tossed his towel in the laundry bin. “I’m a Fish now, remember? Water can’t hurt me.”
Baller beamed. “That’s the spirit.”
When Max had pulled on a pair of boxers and a T-shirt, Baller discarded his book and patted the wood next to him. “Sit down for a minute so I can be nosy.”
Figures. “Is that why I rate special attention?”
“Yes. My foot’s broken and I’m super bored. I need something to occupy me.”
At least he was honest about Max being his pet project. Max sat. “I’m going to assume this isn’t about hockey.”
“It could be,” Baller said with feigned offense. Then, “Okay, but it isn’t. I’m definitely here to get the dirty on your thing with my boy Grades.”
Max knew Grady must’ve told him something, or he would’ve had no reason to text Hedgie about it.
But Grady wouldn’t appreciate him telling Baller anything he didn’t know, so he wasn’t about to spill his guts. Well, I was in love with him, but he broke my heart, and then he apologized and we got back together, and now I’m low-key freaking out that it’ll fall apart again now that we’re in the same place was not something you laid on a guy you’d met that morning. Especially when he’d called the man in question “my boy.”
“No comment,” Max said.
“Hmm,” said Baller. He took out his phone, thumbed around on it for a moment, cranked up the volume, and said, “Do me a favor and watch this.”
Before Max could object, Baller thrust his phone into Max’s hands.
The video must have been taken in the Condors’ locker room. Grady was wearing a sweaty team-branded T-shirt, looking intently at the reporter asking the questions. Max missed the first one, but the second came through the speakers clearly.
“How do you feel about rekindling that rivalry now that Max has been traded to the Piranhas?”
Rekindling. What a word choice.
Grady blinked at the reporter in obvious confusion. “I thought he was going to Miami.”
Then Max got to watch realization dawn on Grady’s face when the reporter said, “They flipped him to Anaheim an hour ago.”
Grady rubbed his fingers over his stubble, but it didn’t hide the smile, which crept all the way up to his eyes and made the skin at the corners crinkle. It was such an obviously besotted expression that Max couldn’t help smiling in return.
Then Grady shook his head and said, “Guess he missed my pretty face,” like he hoped it was true.
Max was going to melt onto the floor.
The video ended, but Max didn’t move until Baller cleared his throat.
“So,” he said cheerfully, “still no comment?”
Max put the phone down on the bench. He brought one hand to his mouth.
Baller patted his thigh. “Wanna find out if he’s home?”
Yes. Wait. “You know where he lives?”
“I went to his housewarming party.”
Grady Armstrong had invited a rival team player to his house? Max’s Grady? Okay, so Max had also been to Grady’s house, but he hadn’t been invited.
He desperately wanted to be invited. No—he wanted to know he didn’t need an invitation.
The shortest way to get there from here was to see Grady now, in person, before he lost his nerve.
Preferably while the memory of Grady’s smiling, helplessly in love face was fresh in his mind.
“Yeah,” Max said. “Yeah, yes, I do.”
Baller grinned. “Cool. I’ll call our driver.”
HEY ARE you home?
Grady finished his wipe-down of the kitchen counters and tossed the paper towel in the trash. Over the past three hours, he’d obsessively cleaned every surface in the house. Not because they were dirty—he’d had the place professionally cleaned before he took possession—but because he needed something to do. Max hadn’t answered his text from last night.
Max suggested they reschedule their date. It had taken everything Grady had not to share his Google Calendar and tell Max to pick the earliest time that worked for him.
Instead he’d said, I’m free tomorrow and the next day. Flying out the day after, back on Sunday night. When works for you?
He hadn’t gotten a reply, hence the cleaning binge.
And now Baller wanted his attention for something. He wished the message had come from Max.
Grady sighed. The house was as clean as it could get. Maybe Baller could provide a new distraction. Yes. Why?
The reply came through two minutes later. Special delivery.
The doorbell rang.
Grady’s phone clattered to the ground. He left it where it landed and went to the door.
Max stood on his front step, hands in his pockets, shoulders hunched. Out of the corner of his eye, Grady barely registered an SUV in the driveway. The person in the passenger seat waved jauntily as it backed out.
Grady ignored it. His heart thudded in his chest. “Hi,” he said stupidly.
Max said, “I love you too.”
Grady’s brain shut off like his phone when he left it in the sun. He’d been desperate to hear Max say that for weeks and now he couldn’t speak in return. He didn’t even know what to do with his hands.
At least Max was smiling. Actually he looked kind of… giddy. Tired too, punchy maybe. He’d forgotten sunglasses, so he was squinting against the sun, his blue eyes sparkling.
He looked so fucking good Grady could hardly stand it.
“Are you gonna invite me in?” Max asked finally. The twitch of his mouth said he might be about to laugh.
Fuck it, he could laugh at Grady all he liked, especially if he was going to do it in Grady’s house.
Grady laughed too, and then he had Max in his arms, kissing him. It felt like a pass connecting right before a goal. Grady let the electricity of it buzz through him, spark over his skin. Max felt warm and right and alive under his hands, and he clung to Grady’s shoulders.
Of course that was when Grady’s words came back. “I love you.” He spoke the words between kisses, against Max’s mouth.
Max curled his fingers into the back of Grady’s shirt. Somehow they got the door closed.
Only now Grady’s stupid mouth didn’t want to stop talking. “I should’ve given you the benefit of the doubt. I overreacted and I hurt you and I’m sorry—”
Max took pity on him and put a finger to Grady’s lips. His eyes were bright and his cheeks were flushed, and he was wearing just the hint of his old shit-eating smirk. “I forgive you. Now take me to bed.”
Grady’s body obeyed and started to walk Max into the bedroom even as he teased, “Are you sure, because I had a little more groveling planned—”
Max’s laugh whispered against Grady’s mouth, and then their lips met again. Grady got his hands on Max’s hips and pulled him close.
They’d wasted so much time. Grady wouldn’t waste another second.
All the times they slept together, Grady couldn’t remember Max being so sweet or so quiet. His rib cage hitched under Grady’s hands. When Grady pulled back to look at him, kneeling between his thighs, he took in the bruises on Max’s body and the desperation in his eyes and thought, Okay.
It had been a fraught couple of months. Yesterday Max had been traded twice in a handful of hours. Maybe he needed someone to be gentle with him.
It didn’t look like anyone had been gentle with him in a long time.
So Grady kissed him, and touched him, and held him, softly, in a way he’d never dared. He peeled away all their layers until they were bare.
They laced their fingers together. Max’s calf hooked around his ass. The fingers of his opposite hand burned against Grady’s hip as he aligned their bodies so they could slide their erections together.
But the tenderness remained. The steadily quickening beat of Max’s heart stuttered in the space between their chests. Grady let go of Max’s hand and slid his fingers into his hair, like that could tether him, like he could ground Max here in California, in his new home.
Finally Grady’s arm slipped on the sheet. Max made a sudden sharp sound into Grady’s mouth as his hair pulled, and then they were tumbling over the edge, messy and intimate and clinging to each other.
Grady kept kissing him, but the ache in his shoulders from supporting his weight forced him to move onto his side.
After a few more minutes, Max exhaled heavily through his nose and opened his eyes. “Can’t believe I’ve been in California for, like, twelve hours and I need a second shower already. There’s a drought on, you know.”
Grady gave him a small smile. “Would it make you feel any better if I told you I have a gray-water reclamation system?”
Max laughed and sat up, pulling Grady with him. “Of course you do. Come on, we can conserve water together.”
Their shower amounted to a quick warm rinse and some more kissing, which Grady wouldn’t complain about.
Max’s fingers tickled against Grady’s stomach as he smoothed them through the slick mess they’d left there, until the glob of come washed down the drain. His eyes were dark and calculating as he did the same to his own abs. He must’ve known what Grady was thinking, because he smirked. “You should do me raw next time.”
Grady’s breath whooshed out like Max had boarded him. “Your pillow talk is something else.”
It was all very lighthearted and silly until Max snatched away Grady’s towel and his eyes went to Grady’s tattoo.
He ran his thumb over the ink in the bowl of Grady’s hip. Goose bumps prickled up Grady’s spine. “What’s this?”
The giddiness settled into a bone-deep happiness, edged with embarrassment. “That was my forfeit.”
Max sat on the edge of the bathtub and pulled Grady closer to get a better look at the design. He traced his fingertips over the linework, the two handles, the jagged teeth of the jaw of the lobster cracker. Grady’s skin jumped under his touch. It tickled. “This is what you got when you lost the bet?”
“I don’t know if I lost,” Grady said, echoing Max’s words from months ago. “Doesn’t feel like I lost. Feels like I got exactly what I wanted.”
“Hmm.” Max raised his eyes to Grady’s. “Kinda risky. Might not have worked out between us. Then what?”
It still might not, Grady thought. But they both wanted it to. That was good enough for now. “Then I would have learned a very painful lesson. Physically and emotionally.”
“One you were going to carry around on your skin forever.”
What did that matter? It was under the skin that counted, and Max had already left his mark there. Grady shrugged.
“I love you, you know,” Max said finally. He brushed a kiss over Grady’s tattoo. “In case it wasn’t obvious.”
Grady did know. Hearing it again still made him feel like his heart was made of feathers. “I know.” Unlike Grady, Max had always been pretty good about showing it. It had just taken Grady ages to believe what he’d seen.
He was starting to think they should forget the whole staying clean thing and go back to bed, when Max’s stomach growled so loudly it echoed in the bathroom.
Max’s face scrunched into a laugh that he hid against Grady’s hip.
Grady pulled him to his feet. “Subtle hint?”
Max smiled ruefully. He still looked tired, but the sadness around his eyes had faded. “I slept through breakfast.”
“How?” He shook his head. “And then you went and did a full practice. I’d better feed you before you keel over. Baller will kill me.”
They decamped to the kitchen, where Max took a seat at the island while Grady threw together some omelets. “What’s his deal, anyway?”
An excellent question. “Baller?” Grady shook his head. It wasn’t just that Baller was an incurable romantic and the league’s biggest busybody. He wanted his friends to live happily ever after, and if that meant meddling in their love lives, that was what he’d do. “He thinks he’s everyone’s fairy godfather.”
Max snickered. “Aren’t you older than he is?”
“Four months,” Grady confirmed. “He says it’s because he became an Old Married at a young age.”
“I’d buy it.”
Grady plated the omelets and sat down next to Max with their knees touching, and Max ate like he’d never seen food before. Grady let him go at it for several minutes. “How the fuck did you sleep past breakfast if you’re this hungry?”
Max looked up from his plate, sheepish. “Software glitch. Apparently putting my phone on Do Not Disturb also killed my alarm.”
That explained why Max never texted him back. “Why did you put your phone on Do Not Disturb?”
He pushed a bite of omelet to the side of his plate. “I got overwhelmed reading all the goodbye texts.”
Poor Max.
Grady nudged his ankle in support. He left it there until the meal was finished.
“WE SHOULD probably talk more,” Max said in bed later. He was eye level with Grady’s tattoo, dancing his fingertips over the ink. Despite the fact that it was obviously a joke, it was beautiful. Max was going to leave a hickey on it next time. “But first—did you deliberately get this on this hip so it would line up with Larry when we fuck doggy style?”
“I can neither confirm nor deny,” Grady rumbled, which meant he absolutely had.
Max smiled and raised his head. “You romantic asshole.”
Grady snorted and wrapped his hand around Max’s upper arm. He tugged until Max crawled up the bed to lie down face-to-face. “You wanted to talk,” he said.
Not so much that he wanted to, but playoffs were coming. This wouldn’t have mattered so much when Grady played for the Firebirds, who had as much chance of making the playoffs as they did of winning the Nobel Peace Prize. But the Piranhas and the Condors were neck and neck for first place in the Pacific Division. They might play each other in the first or second round. Only one team could advance.
“Playoffs,” Max said.
Grady lifted Max’s hand and laced their fingers together. Apparently months of frustrated romantic tendencies had pushed to the surface now that the dam had broken. “Yeah. That’s going to be interesting.”
“One word for it.” Max pillowed his head on his other hand. He had a good understanding of his own strengths and failures. He could handle a playoff series loss to the Condors without torpedoing his relationship with Grady, but if he did something stupid or played badly and fell into a funk because of that, it would complicate matters.
On the other hand, Grady had never compartmentalized well. If the Condors lost to the Piranhas, Max anticipated a lot of sulking and bitterness.
But he wasn’t going to come out and say, Hey, babe, are you going to break up with me if my team eliminates yours? That would be a terrible way to restart their relationship. It wasn’t like Grady didn’t know what he was like.
So Max said diplomatically, “How are we going to handle that?”
“Badly?” Grady guessed.
Max smothered a laugh. Grady knew what he was like, all right. “I’m serious.”
“Oh, a role reversal,” Grady teased. “Really, I don’t know. It’ll be one day at a time. We’ll just have to….” He made a face as he trailed off.
“Communicate?” Max suggested wryly. “Not your strong suit.”
“God, this is going to be awful.”
“Hi, honey. I really love you a lot, but if you score on my team tonight, you’re not getting laid for a week.”
“I was thinking more along the lines of, you know, ‘I need space for a few days.’”
Max could handle that. And it seemed like Grady was willing to give it a try too. “A whole week does seem like kind of a stretch.”
“We’ll figure it out,” Grady promised.
Max wasn’t so sure, but he decided to believe anyway. There was no point borrowing trouble before he’d even played his first game in a Piranhas jersey. “It’s a plan.”
“Then there’s one more thing we should talk about.”
At Grady’s tone, Max narrowed his eyes. He sounded sheepish but also nervous, like this was the beginning of a different kind of confession.
Grady cleared his throat. “Uh, so yesterday in practice our beat reporter asked me about our rivalry….”
Max found himself grinning all over again as he remembered Grady’s smile. “Yeah, Baller showed me the video.”
With a groan, Grady turned his face into the pillow. “Of course he did.” He huffed out a breath. “Anyway, it’s kind of making the rounds online, so….”
“So?” What was he driving at?
When he spoke next, his words were muffled. “So it’s fueling a lot of wild speculation that I’m secretly madly in love with you.”
Oh. Max pursed his lips on a smile. “I mean, if it’s all over the internet, I think the secret’s out.”
Grady sighed and lifted his head again. “Just… this was supposed to be private. We agreed. And I fucked that up. So… I’m sorry again.”
What a doofus. “Oh yeah,” Max said. “I’m super upset that you’re so into me you can’t hide it in front of the media. How dare you.”
“You’re not mad?”
Max shrugged. It wasn’t Grady’s fault, and that video had made Max so stupidly happy that it seemed absurd to get upset. But it could make their professional lives interesting. “Not at you. If a reporter asks me what you’re like in bed, I’ll give them so much detail they’ll never be able to print any of it.”
Grady made a pained face. “Please don’t.”
“I’ll tell them about that bite mark you left on my—”
Grady clapped a hand over his mouth.
Max licked it.
“I should’ve seen that coming.” Grady wiped his hand on Max’s chest. “I figure PR’ll make the media check those questions, but my actual point was that my team knows now, so that’s weird.”
Well… yeah, Max could see how that might pose an issue. “Is it going to cause problems with the team if one of them lays a hit on me, you mean?”
