Page 35 of Offside Play (Love The Game #1)

Cody

B rayden’s voice came through the laptop speakers as I entered the living area, ducking out of sight of the screen. “How’s the ankle doing?”

Jude glanced down at where his foot was propped up on a pile of cushions, rotating his ankle experimentally.

“Good. I should be back in training the day after tomorrow.” He paused, leaning closer to the screen. “Hey, where are you? That doesn’t look like Calgary.”

“Discovering my cowboy side,” he said, and my brows rose.

“Discovering your cowboy side or discovering cowboys?” Jude glanced over at me, and I knew exactly what was going through his mind.

No cowboy role play , I mouthed, smirking as he shot me a mock-glare.

“Both. Kinda. It’s complicated,” Brayden responded with a sigh, and I could see Jude nod.

“I know that feeling. You know where I am if you need to talk.”

“Thanks. I might take you up on that another time. Enough about me, though. Why do I have a feeling you called to discuss something more than your injury update and house news?”

“Uh. Yeah.” Jude drummed his fingers on his thighs, biting down on his lip. “It’s about Cody.”

“Cody, as in Cody Clements? My teammate Cody Clements?”

“Yeah. Uh…surprise! He’s here.”

Even though I couldn’t see Brayden’s face, I could feel the shock and confusion radiating from the screen. “What do you mean, here? In England?”

“Yeah. Or if you wanna be exact, he’s here in the room with me.” He glanced up at me, and I shook my head. I wasn’t sure my former teammate was ready to process the sight of me in his little brother’s flat.

“What the hell?”

Jude exhaled sharply. “Fuck it. I’ll just say it. We’re together. We’ve been together since my first night in Calgary. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but it was complicated.”

“You. And Cody Clements. The man who hates everyone?”

“He doesn’t hate everyone.” My boyfriend bristled, and it warmed me all over. “He loves me, for a start. And I love him. More than anything in the world. More than football.”

“ Love ? Whoa. You’re going to have to give me some time to process this. It’s…it’s a lot. My teammate is banging my little brother.”

Jude sighed. “I know. But we’re together. I’m surprised you haven’t heard about it in the media. We kind of got outed, accidentally, during the match where I was injured. I was hoping I could tell you sooner, but you weren’t answering my calls.”

He’d panicked about his brother finding out before he had a chance to tell him himself, especially when I’d received a string of texts from Petrov and Davis right before the PR statement was released to confirm our relationship status.

I smirked, picturing the shock on their faces when they found out I was in a relationship with Brayden Nielson’s brother.

“Sorry. You know I needed some time to process everything, and I kept forgetting about my phone,” Brayden said.

“So you’re together. Still struggling to get my head around that, by the way.

I can’t believe you were sneaking around right under my nose, and I had no idea. What happens when he goes home?”

“He’s staying here. Permanently. He’s got a coaching job with Cheltenham Storm. Working with the youth team and assisting the coaches in the main team.” Jude beamed at me, and I couldn’t help returning his smile.

I moved around the coffee table, coming up behind the sofa so I could see the screen. Brayden sighed when he saw me.

“So it is true, after all. Be good to my brother, Clements. Don’t break his heart.”

Wrapping my arms around Jude’s shoulders from behind, I brushed a soft kiss over my boyfriend’s cheek as I responded to his brother. “He’s the most important thing in the world to me, and I have no intention of ever hurting him.”

Brayden’s jaw dropped. “Who are you, and what have you done with the Clements I know?”

“He’s gone for good.”

“No,” Jude corrected, bringing his hand up to squeeze my arm. “He’s still here. I’m just lucky enough to see another side of him.”

Because Jude was still healing from his injury, I’d been taking every chance I could to help him out, looking after him as much as he’d let me.

After we wrapped up the call with Brayden, I carried him into the bathroom, ignoring his protests that he was nearly as tall as me and I was going to drop him.

While the tub filled, I held him close, brushing soft kisses over his lips as I did my best to show him just how much he meant to me. The things he'd said to his brother?—

“The bath’s getting a bit full.”

I blinked, my gaze shooting to the brimming tub. “Shit.” Carefully moving my boyfriend aside, I turned off the taps and then attempted to talk him into getting into the bath without me.

Eventually, after several long minutes of Jude trying out an array of begging expressions that he thought would make me change my mind, and me growling back at him, I managed to persuade him to lie back in the tub.

Alone. Seated at the side of the bath, I ran my fingers through his hair, watching with satisfaction as his eyes fell closed and his breathing evened out.

“Mmm. This is nice. Why don’t you get in here with me?”

“Jude. We’ve discussed this. Extensively. You barely fit inside. There’s no room for us both.”

“We’re doing it at the Painswick house, then. I wanna christen the whole place, and that includes the tub.”

“I’m down with that.” I trailed my fingers down his body, watching with interest as his cock rose beneath the water. My own dick was hardening in my shorts, and I pulled my hand back—reluctantly, not wanting to risk anything that might cause him to hurt himself.

A soft surface. That was what he needed.

Half an hour later, I was almost ready to put my plan into action…if he’d stop complaining about the fucking pillows.

“Cody. I’m fine. I don’t even need the pillows. My ankle’s pretty much back to normal now. It was just a sprain, anyway.”

“Just a sprain that made me lose my fucking mind.” I lowered myself onto the edge of the bed, rubbing my thumb over his calf. “I kept thinking about what would have happened if it had been worse.”

“But it wasn’t. I’m fine.”

“I know. But seeing you go down so hard, and then lying there, not moving…” Trailing off, I shook my head. “Then I had to go and make things even more difficult with my one-man pitch invasion.”

Jude grinned at me. “I loved your one-man pitch invasion, and so did the media. They ate that shit up. And if you think about it, it brought us together. Properly. I don’t mind suffering through an injury if I get a love confession out of it.”

My heart swelled in my chest. Fuck, I loved this man so much. “I wish you hadn’t been hurt, but you’re right. It did force me to confront the truth.”

“Yeah, and you got your own love confession, too.” He held out his hand, and I leaned into him, sliding my mouth against his.

“I love you.”

“I love you, too.” His voice was so soft as he smiled against my lips.

Straightening up, I studied him, taking in the way he was almost melting into the bed, relaxed and loose-limbed after his bath. “How are you feeling?”

“I told you, I’m fine. Seriously. You don’t have to worry.”

“No pain?” I checked.

“No. Not even a twinge.”

“Good.” My hand slid up his thigh, and I watched in satisfaction as his eyes darkened, his breath hitching as I drew closer to the growing bulge in his boxer briefs. “Because I’ve been thinking, and your ankle isn’t the only thing that needs attention.”

He laughed breathlessly. “Bloody hell. What a line, Mr. Smooth.”

“Shut your mouth, or I’ll stop.”

Clamping his hand over his mouth, he watched avidly as I lowered my head, kissing the tip of his cock through the fabric of his underwear. I grinned up at him, and he moaned, his hand falling from his mouth to grip my hair.

“You can’t look at me like that. I’ll come in about two seconds.”

“Will you? Maybe we should test that.”

I peeled off his underwear, taking care when I eased it over his ankle, and was rewarded by the sight of his fully hard cock, the head already glistening with precum.

My own cock was straining at my shorts, but it was easy to ignore my arousal when all I wanted was to make him feel good.

He moaned again, tugging at my hair when I positioned myself right above his erection and smirked up at him, before taking him into my mouth.

“Cody. Please .”

I hummed in response, making him gasp. When I took him deeper, my fingers sliding down to cup his balls and rub over his taint, he let out a strangled cry, his cock pulsing in my mouth as he shot his cum down my throat.

I swallowed around him, only easing back when he groaned, pulling at my hair.

“Fuck. Cody. Fuck. I told you it would only take two seconds.”

“It was more than two.” Not many more, but still.

“You don’t even know what you do to me when you look at me like that. It’s so fucking hot. Then your mouth. Fuck.” He tugged at my hair yet again and laughed breathlessly when I gave him a warning growl. “Come up here.”

I moved up to lie next to him, stilling his hand when he reached for my erection.

“Later. When your ankle’s properly healed.”

“Cody. At least let me give you a hand job.”

I shook my head. “You can give me one when you’re cleared to play again.”

“You’re so stubborn,” he muttered. “Fine. In that case, you can let me watch you get yourself off before we go to sleep.”

“Okay.” Leaning in, I brushed a kiss over his lips. “It might take me more than two seconds, but you were so fucking hot that I’m already close.”

“Mmm. You’re close just from sucking me off?” he said, as I shoved my shorts down and wrapped my hand around my aching cock.

“Yeah.” I began stroking my erection. “Sucking your dick.” My hand moved faster. “Having you come down my throat.” Jude slid his hand between my legs, lightly tugging my balls. “ Fuck . Hearing you—fuck—moan,” I gasped, my hips arching off the bed as I came all over my abs.

“Fuuuuck, Cody. It’s decided. You are, without a doubt, the hottest man in the world. How did I live for twenty-one years without you?”

How had I lived for twenty-four without him?

After I’d cleaned up and we were both under the covers, Jude curled up next to me, I thought about it again.

For twenty-four years, I’d been lonely, isolating myself from the world.

Just a few months ago, I’d been sitting alone in my Calgary apartment, convinced that no one would ever want me for me.

Now, I was here, in England, with a man who loved me with his whole heart, building a life I’d never imagined possible.

“Cody?” Jude’s voice was sleepy, murmured into my shoulder. “Are you still awake?”

“Yeah.”

“I just wanted to say I’m so glad you stayed.”

“Me too,” I said, and I meant it more than I’d ever meant anything in my life.