Page 27 of Offside Play (Love The Game #1)

Jude

S omehow, impossibly, my new teammates had instantly gelled not only with me but with Cody.

I’d even go as far as to say some of them liked him better than me.

For a man who’d been so guarded and closed off when I’d first met him, it was almost unbelievable.

Unbelievable in the best way. Fuck. Every time I looked at him with my new friends, it made me ache for what I could have, if only he didn’t have to leave at the end of the summer.

Like now. We’d only just arrived at Jordan and Theo’s house for a BBQ, and Jordan was already pulling Cody away from me, dragging him over to the patio table, where a laptop was open, with a— What the fuck? Was that a PowerPoint presentation on the screen?

“Listen, Clements. We need to have a talk about your flights. If you’re gonna make this long-distance relationship with our boy Jude work, you need to start planning.”

Cody blinked at him. He was probably too stunned to speak, because I knew I was.

“Bloody hell.” Grant rolled his eyes as he loaded burgers onto the BBQ. “Here we go again. How do you put up with him, Theo?”

Theo shrugged. “He has his uses.”

“I’m a man of many talents,” Jordan said, giving Grant the finger with one hand and tapping on the screen with the other.

“Look at this chart. This is your carbon footprint per flight, and look, here—” He hit the arrow key to switch to the next slide.

“—I’ve calculated how much it would be if you flew over every time you got a break. ”

“Fucking hell,” Cody muttered, rubbing his hand over his face. I came up next to him, sliding my arm around his waist, and glared at Jordan like a good boyfriend should.

Stop calling him your boyfriend, Jude, even if all your teammates think you’re in a relationship . It’s only going to make it harder when he leaves .

Jordan smirked at my glare. “This applies to you, too, if you fly to him. So why don’t you stop glaring at me and be grateful for the fact you have such a kind, generous friend looking out for you like this?”

“Kind and generous? More like arrogant and wanker-ish.” Reuben swooped in, grabbing a handful of crisps from the bowl next to the laptop. He ducked out of range of Jordan’s attempted punch, laughing. “Nah, you’re alright. You grow on people. Like fungus.”

“Fuck off.”

“Love you, too.”

They blew a kiss at each other, and Cody snorted. “I heard the Brits were eccentric, but hanging out with you guys…”

“You love us,” Jordan said. “It’s okay to admit it.”

Cody just shook his head, his mouth set in a flat line, but I could see the humour in his eyes.

“Anyway, back to making your relationship more environmentally friendly. Have you heard about carbon offsetting? It’s easy to do. Look at this slide…”

After an unexpected crash course in carbon offsetting, which took place over the course of sixteen different slides, we finally managed to escape.

I ended up stretched out on the grass next to my team captain, beer in hand. “Thanks for making me feel so welcome. And Cody, too. I was— Uh, I guess I was worried about how he’d get on with everyone.”

It wasn’t my place to talk about his struggles back in Canada, but Grant nodded. “I could tell he was wary when he first met us, but I could also tell that he was trying his hardest.” He paused, glancing over at Cody, before turning back to me. “He was making an effort for you, you know.”

On some level, I did know that, but to have someone else realise the same thing and say it aloud… “Yeah,” I said hoarsely. “He’s trying. Or he was. I don’t think he needs to try now, does he? Everyone likes him.”

“Yeah. He’s a good bloke. Down to earth.

He takes their teasing in the spirit it’s meant.

” He jerked his head towards the patio table, where I could hear Reuben asking Cody to explain why hockey players were always losing their teeth, baring his own bright white set.

“Some people wouldn’t understand their banter as love language, but Cody—he gets it.

He fit in right away, just like you did.

And I’m not talking about the team. I’m talking about our core friendship group.

It was me, Theo, Reuben, Ainsley, and Lars.

Then Jordan came along, and now you two. We’re lucky to have you both.”

Fuck . I gulped down half my beer, too overcome to speak. When I recovered, I admitted the truth. “He does fit in. It feels like he belongs. With us. With me. I wish more than anything that he didn’t have to leave.”

Back at the flat, I closed the front door behind us, shutting out the world. It was just me and the man I wanted more than anything in the world.

“Cody. Can we just…” I licked my lips, suddenly nervous. “I know our friends have been calling you my boyfriend. Would it be so bad if we were really boyfriends?”

A muscle ticked in his jaw as he stared at me silently.

Moving closer, I reached up, curling my fingers around his nape. “You can deny it as much as you want, but it doesn’t change the truth. You’re mine.”

“Jude…” His voice was low and rough.

“These feelings aren’t gonna go away. Not for me, and I’m pretty sure they’re not for you, either.”

He growled, slanting his mouth over mine and claiming me with a hard, biting kiss. Pressing me into the wall, he devoured me with his mouth until we were both breathless and panting, and my dick was like an iron bar in my shorts.

“Fine. Have it your way, you infuriating, fucking asshole.”

I drew back so I could see his eyes. “Was that your growly way of saying yes to being my boyfriend?”

“Fuck you,” he snarled, kissing me again, and I took that to mean that he was on board.

My boyfriend . For real.

“Bedroom,” I gasped against his mouth.

He didn’t even bother with a verbal reply, dragging me down the hallway as we both tried to divest each other of our clothes as quickly as possible.

We didn’t even make it to the bed. We only got as far as the lounge before Cody was pulling me down onto the huge, soft rug, and we were going at each other with hands and teeth and tongues. My cock throbbed against his erection as our bodies ground together, all fucking hot and hard and frantic.

Fuuuuck. I needed him. Right now.

I made a grab for the lube we’d left lying under the coffee table, throwing it towards Cody. He stilled, staring at the half-empty bottle.

“Cody?”

His gaze slid to mine, and his eyes were so fucking dark. “I want you to fuck me.”

My dick jerked, and I groaned. “Shit, Cody. Are you sure?” While we’d discussed the fact that he liked to top and bottom, we’d only fucked with him topping me so far. That was mostly because I loved the feel of his dick in my ass, and he’d never indicated otherwise. But if he wanted this?—

“I’m very fucking sure.”

“Yeah. Fuck, yeah.” Crawling over to him, I kissed him again, then dipped my head to mouth at his jaw, relishing the scratch of his thick stubble against my oversensitive lips.

He groaned, pressing the lube into my hand, and I wasted no time in slicking up my fingers.

Dipping my finger down to his rim, I tugged his lower lip between my teeth, biting down lightly.

When I released him, I met his dark gaze, his eyes almost black with lust. He wanted this just as badly as I did.

“ Jude .”

The way he ground out my name gave me fucking goosebumps. “Yeah. I know. I’m gonna make this so good for you.”

I kissed him as I opened him up, slowly and carefully. By the time I’d worked my way up to three fingers, his dick was dripping precum all over the ridges of his stomach, and his breath was coming in pants.

“Fuck. Me,” he ground out, moving onto his hands and knees. Fucking hell, what a sight he was. The broad lines of his back, decorated in ink, his gorgeous, muscular ass, those powerful thighs tensing as he held himself in place?—

“You’re so fucking hot,” I rasped, lining my cock up with his hole and pushing inside as slowly as I could manage, until I was buried balls-deep in his tight heat.

“Fuck, Jude. Move.” He arched back against me, and I did as he wanted, pulling back and then rolling my hips forwards. His groans and grunts and pants as I fucked him harder and harder were like a powerful aphrodisiac, and I knew I wasn’t going to be able to last.

I shifted, aiming for his prostate, and after a couple of missed thrusts, he let out a string of muttered swear words, his cock jerking beneath us, and I focused on hitting that spot over and over again.

“Fuckfuckfuck,” I panted. Digging my fingers into his sweat-slicked skin, I curled my body over his, snapping my hips forwards, and sank my teeth into his shoulder. His legs stiffened, and he growled out my name, his body trembling beneath me as rope after rope of cum shot from his untouched dick.

I didn’t stand a chance. I shot like a fucking rocket, straight over the edge, my vision whiting out as my dick pulsed inside him, filling him with my cum. We collapsed to the floor, gasping for breath, and lay there, completely spent.

When he shifted, muttering about the wet patch, I moved off him, groaning as my whole body protested.

“I think you broke me.”

He climbed to his feet, stretching his arms above his head, and shot me a smirk. “You didn’t have to fuck me that hard.”

“I didn’t? Because I seem to remember you were all, ‘fuck me harder, boyfriend.’”

“That was all in your head.” Moving past me, he swatted my ass, making me jump and let out a shriek that I was glad none of my teammates were around to hear. He laughed, so free and easy, swatting me again, before he glanced down at the floor with a grimace. “I think we need a new rug.”

We need a new rug.

We .

It took me a minute to form words, and when I spoke, I knew he could hear the shake in my voice. “Yeah, probably. Come here.” I tugged him to me, and he came without resistance, wrapping his arms around me as he slid his mouth over mine in a slow, lazy kiss.

When we broke apart, he dipped his head to my ear. “Let’s shower and clean up, then go to bed.” He paused, brushing a soft kiss over my skin, and then breathed one final word. “ Boyfriend .”