Page 10

Brad

“ A lright, strip,” I said, dropping his hand and making a beeline for my drawers. “And the first thing we’re doing is shredding that shirt, because oh my God.”

It took ages to wash the gel out of his hair, and my hands were still kind of sticky. But I managed to get him cleaned up and then dragged him to my room for the finishing touches.

He wouldn’t tell me where he was going, so I’d make sure he had at least twenty minutes to get there.

“Brad, my date starts soon. I can’t just strip.” He rubbed his elbow as he stood in the middle of my room.

I waved off his words. “You’ve got at least twenty minutes. Just sit back and let me work my sexy magic. You want to look good for your first date, don’t you?” I asked over my shoulder as I searched through my drawers for something that would be passable.

I was so glad we weren’t in front of a mirror when I washed his hair and he told me it wasn’t just his first date with this girl, but it was his first date ever .

Because there was a heavy rock in my chest that felt insanely wrong, and it wasn’t leaving no matter how much I told it to fuck off.

“I do want to look good,” Alex said softly. “I really do. I just don’t want to mess it up.”

And thank fuck I was leaning over the drawers so he didn’t see the ugly pulse of jealousy that gut-punched me out of fucking nowhere.

My hand paused on a green shirt I thought would spruce him up a bit. But the sick feeling in my stomach combined with the gross ball of wrongness in my chest had my hand clenching around the shirt. It was telling me to leave it and choose the blandest, most boring clothes anyone had ever seen. Even though I didn’t really own anything like that.

I stared at the messily folded shirts, trying to figure out where all this shit was coming from.

I mean, it wasn’t like I didn’t get annoyed from time to time. But Alex didn’t mind if I was out all night or invited a girl over. He just went off and did his own thing. So, why was it bothering me?

I wouldn’t be such a dickhead to tell him not to go on a date with someone because I didn’t like the idea of him getting a girlfriend. I mean, if he started dating someone, would he actually want to hang out with me anymore?

“Brad?” Alex’s gentle voice cut through my dumbass thoughts. Of course, Alex was always going to be there. He was my best friend. We were going to be together until the end.

“Sorry, yeah,” I grabbed the green shirt, suddenly not caring whether he looked good and more that he was prepared for whatever situation he could get himself into.

I spun on one foot, pressing my lips together at the sight of his bare chest.

He was sculpted as fuck, and it was pretty much a crime to put a shirt over it, especially that piece of trash he’d been wearing.

If he walked into a restaurant bare-chested like that, he’d get hit on immediately—by guys and girls. So I had to dress him in something that might put people off, but not in a fire shirt kind of way. Anyone stripping him before they fucked would be over the moon to find that piece of art underneath.

I held the shirt up in the air, like I was trying it out against him, even though I’d already made my decision.

“Look, man, you’re representing us. You’re representing the team . You can’t go out looking like an 80s pop star. What if one of the guys catches you? You’ll be branded as the ‘fire-shirt guy’ for the rest of your life.”

I sighed as I dropped the shirt to my side.

He was still hunched over, all awkward-like. I stepped in close, twisting my lips as I ran my eyes over his chest.

“Aren’t you going to remember this for ages, too?” He smiled wryly.

“Yeah, fair enough, but it’s different with me. I’m just going to make fun of you forever. But I’ve got so much else I can tease you with that it’ll fade into the background, unlike that fucking shirt.”

He chuckled, his shoulders relaxing, his expression lightening.

It finally felt like things were normal again.

Until I ruined it like a moron when I placed my palm flat against his stomach to see what we were really dealing with. Because he couldn’t be all muscle.

He sucked in his stomach with a small gasp. My eyes shot to his, and he was looking at me with that scared expression again.

My heart suddenly clenched as the heat of his skin blended with mine. I could suddenly feel him breathing, feel his muscles shifting, feel how hard and soft he was all over.

“What are you doing, Brad?” he asked, his eyelids fluttering.

I wasn’t going to tell him I wanted to pat down his whole body to check and see what his date would be getting when she took him back to hers. Or, I assumed hers, because he would have told me if he was bringing a girl to our house to fuck. He definitely would have told me. Just like he told me he was going on a date.

I quickly scrabbled around for some excuse. “You have to get used to people touching you, man. How are you going to get laid like this?”

“I…er…” The red that flushed his cheeks grew even worse. If someone hit on him and he reacted like that, he was going to be like honey for a bear. They wouldn’t let him go.

I shifted my hand to run the backs of my nails over the ridges of his abs, rising and falling over each one until I reached the curve of his chest. I was suddenly caught by the way light hairs scattered across his pecs, bending under my fingernails as I stroked him.

I couldn’t remember ever looking at someone so closely.

Alex drew in a shuddering breath as I swept over his breastbone, and I followed the way his throat bobbed.

Distracted by his wash of soft skin and the heat that was building up inside me at the sight of it, my fingers nudged his nipple.

It was a total accident, but a low moan echoed from the back of his throat.

And we both froze.

My gaze shot to his, my stomach jumping at the sight of him shaking under me. And that weird nervous feeling hopped around me again.

Because it totally took me back to it. To the thing I tried not to think about for ages. The thing that had driven me so fucking crazy last summer that I only managed to stop thinking about it after I’d jerked off enough to fill a fucking bucket.

But I could do it now. Just nudge his nipple again and see if I could wind him up. See how he might react. Because if I could take it further, then…

“Brad?” he whispered, his eyes like dinner plates.

Pulling in a slow breath, I shook the thoughts away.

I wasn’t going to give Alex a blow job when he was about to go on a date.

I wasn’t going to suck him off, full stop.

But, hell, the way he started trembling and how he gasped as I moved my hand away to the line of his pec. It would be so easy to drop to my knees and rip off those criminal cut-offs and take care of him for real.

If he was going on a date, it’d be the last thing he wanted.

Probably.

And I wasn’t going to spoil his very first date ever in the entire world just because I was horny.

“You’re blushing again,” I murmured.

“Well, you keep touching my chest,” he replied huskily, sending sparks bouncing through my veins, dancing straight down to my cock.

“Yeah, but, it’s like, for science or whatever.”

He gave me one of his looks, the one that said he wasn’t buying my bullshit. But why else did I keep running my hand over his rock-hard chest?

I pressed my thumb harder against his pec, fighting the urge to sweep his nipple again.

“I just can’t believe you’re so solid, man. Seriously, she’s going to use you like a pommel horse when you fuck her tonight.”

He stilled, every single muscle in his body totally freezing as he blushed. I thought he was red before, but I'd sent him into a nuclear meltdown.

He groaned, and I kind of didn’t want it to be just because I was teasing him, so I burst out laughing. Laughing was way better than showing him how much that sound affected me.

“Sorry,” he said as he scrunched up his face. “It’s just embarrassing.”

“You’ve got to stop apologizing. It’s only going to make it more awkward.”

I just wanted to hug him again, and now would definitely be the least weird time to do it. When he was shirtless and I was winding myself up over him.

To be honest, I didn’t want his date to see that side of him. None of the guys on the team got to see it. Or, at least, I thought they didn’t. Not until I saw him simpering for Lance.

And that thought brought me slamming back to reality.

I shoved the shirt at him and a pair of slacks I’d swiped from the closet beside the drawers.

“Look, change into these. I’ll look away, I promise!”

He nodded shyly at me and I twirled around.

I stepped back and went straight to the drawers as if I was digging out another shirt. I basically stuck my head inside them like I could hide from him or something.

If I could stamp down the weird need my dick was stirring up, I’d be hitting it like a whack-a-mole.

I didn’t want him to think I was a freak last summer after I sucked him off. I thought I was totally crazy for wanting to see him even more fucked up. I wanted him to lose his fucking mind because he needed my dick so badly, and I thought if I told him that, he would get even angrier than he had been for those months after it happened.

I was the one who hit on him back then, and he looked so upset when I came back from jerking off in the bathroom that I thought I was going to lose him.

So, obviously, I made it a hundred times worse by getting pissed off with myself and taking it out on him by calling him the freak instead of admitting it was me.

But I swore I dealt with all that shit when we came to college. A bit of dick sucking couldn’t get in the way of our friendship.

But now the question was coming up again. Was it just that I wanted to get my dick wet, or was it that I actually hated the idea that he was going to hook up with someone else? Even though I was a massive fucking hypocrite, because I loved getting laid more than a lazy Sunday morning.

“I’m done,” he said after ages of rustling.

I turned back around, annoyed that the clothes hadn’t really done anything to get rid of his sexiness, though they were a little tight on his chest—and his nipples.

I moved in close to adjust his collar, patting his chest proudly. Not because I wanted to check again how thick his pecs were, but because I was taking care of him, like a real friend would.

“There, what do you think?” I asked.

Alex looked down at himself, his face blank. He twisted himself left and right, getting a feel for it before he lifted the cuff to his nose.

“It, um… It smells of you.”

“Is that a bad thing?” I asked, my brows shooting up in surprise.

“No!” he said suddenly. “No, it’s fine! I was just saying…”

His blush kept getting stronger and stronger. I never knew he’d be so excited to go on a date.

I mean, if it was his first, I had to make sure he looked like a sex god. But, like, y’know… not too sexy. He didn’t want women drooling all over him like they did with me.

If I gave him one of my V-necked tees, I’m pretty sure he’d make the room go wild with his chest and abs.

I stepped back to take a proper look at him. With beige slacks, brown loafers, and a dull dark green dress shirt, he looked like a normal guy going for a normal dinner.

It was all good.

Apart from the ball in my chest that was getting harder to ignore the more we got into it. It was getting so big it was pulsing in my throat, like I was going to throw up if I let Alex leave.

Alex slumming around in jeans and a shirt was fine, but Alex all primped and polished made me want to lock up the house and make him play Xbox all night just so I had him to myself. I just hoped the girl he wouldn’t tell me the name of appreciated what she was getting.

“Hey, straighten your back,” I said. “You don’t want your date to see you hunched over.” I came in close, running my hand along his lower back as I made sure he stood tall and proud.

His shoulders went up around his ears as he looked at himself in the mirror in the door of my closet.

“Are you sure this is okay? It’s kind of fancy,” he asked, biting his fucking lip again. It would probably be too much to reach up and just tug it out of his teeth so he stopped winding me up.

“It really isn’t. Anyway, listen, you’re seriously hot. You’ve got to make sure she sees that.”

It was my own fault I inhaled. His scent wasn’t any different than usual—it was just that floral sweetness that was his mom’s laundry soap creeping over me.

And it was my own fucking fault that I leaned in closer, so my chest knocked against his arm.

He didn’t flinch away, but he definitely stiffened up again. Another shaky breath, another bob of his throat, and I was tempted to do something else to make him moan.

“Okay, sorry. Is it more like this?” He looked at me with determination as he straightened himself to his full height, his chin straight, his chest swelling as he took a deep breath.

Standing next to him, my chest pressed against his arm, I realized that I always looked up at him. Maybe it was just so natural that I never thought about it, but with him posing there like he was some supermodel, it was so obvious.

“Brad?” He tilted his head toward me. “Do I look okay?”

I blinked up at him. Freshly shaven smooth skin, the shirt I’d lent him defining his wide shoulders and hinting at his solid-as-fuck abs. But I wasn’t thinking about that, because I was too busy staring.

And the look he gave me, with those pretty eyes and his shy smile, the thought that he was going to be laying it on some girl tonight on his very first date, made me feel…

“Weird,” I murmured.

This time, he really did flinch. The light I’d been falling into seconds ago vanished as I totally fucked up again.

“Is it really that bad?” he asked, hurt blaring from him.

“No, shit, sorry, man.” I gripped his forearm, pulling him back to me. “I just meant it’s strange seeing you going on a date without me,” I said hurriedly, not even thinking about the words coming out of my mouth.

“Why would I take you with me?”

My lips parted as I balked. What was I meant to say? I was making shit up left, right, and center.

Why would he take me? Because we did everything together. Because I was always there for him. Because I was the one who gave him all his firsts.

“Because I’m your wingman, aren’t I?” I laughed as I slapped him on the back, and he gave me a shaky grin.

“I can’t take you everywhere I go,” he replied.

I kind of wanted him to, though. I wanted to make sure he was living up to his full potential. But whoever this mystery girl was, she was probably already thirsting for him like a dehydrated cat.

My best friend was just that sexy.

“Sure, you can. You just gotta call me and I’ll be right there.”

He gave me a look. I couldn’t figure out what he was thinking, which I seriously hated more than whatever party my negative feelings were having in my chest.

“I mean it, man. If she gets weird with you, just give me a call. I’ll come bail you out.”

I clapped him on the shoulder. “You’re good to go. You’re totally going to totally blow her away, especially when you smell like that. I have it on good record that my smell is like an aphrodisiac to all women.”

He quirked his brow, the side of his lip hitching, that feeling slipping into overdrive.

I needed to get rid of it, so I quickly threw my arms around him, dragging him close, loving his little exhale as his chest knocked against mine.

I just needed to give him a good luck charm before he went off. That was it.

He froze, like he always did whenever I held him, but my favorite part came next. Because, no matter how surprised he was when I hugged him, he always softened into me.

It took one…

Two….

Three…

And he let out a sigh.

Feeling him let go was the best thing in the world, because I was the only one he did it for. I always watched him when people touched him like I did, but he never relaxed like this for anyone but me.

“Thanks, Brad,” he said, my name gently against my neck, the warmth of his breath shooting tension straight down my spine. With my face pressed into his shoulder, he couldn’t see the way it twisted at the ongoing weirdness.

“I mean, thank you so much for helping. It really means a lot.”

“Of course, man.” I was muffled enough that he didn’t hear the crack in my voice. “Like I said, I can’t have you out there representing the team when you’re dressed up like a teenager at his first dance.”

His shoulders hunched as he cringed, and I burst out laughing, pulling back from him.

“Now, go out there and show her what a hockey player is really like.”