Page 39 of Trick Play (Playing the Field #4)

CHAPTER

THIRTY-EIGHT

Zeke

Now

I know those legs.

I know those ass cheeks peeking out from that lace skirt.

I know the curve of those glitter-coated shoulders and the sway of that back.

I know that lingerie set because I’ve held it between my hands and contemplated ripping it to shreds to get to the body beneath.

I know that lavender-colored hair. He’d left it that color longer than usual, specifically for me. Because he knows I love it.

I love him . This dancer who has just stripped from an elegant robe to expose a body I know nearly as well as my own.

Suddenly, it all makes sense.

“ Micah ,” I gasp in shock, breathless with desire and pleading for him to turn around.

The alluring music continues, but Micah freezes like an angelic statue. Solid stone and immovable, carved by the heavens. I could care less about the song, the club, or the man who was supposed to be here but sent Micah in his stead.

Which, I realize, Frankie did to reveal the secret. Because this is the secret. How I hadn’t already put it together, I don’t know. He has a pole in his bedroom, for fuck’s sake. From Frankie, he’d said, which made sense when I knew Frankie worked here. I didn’t put it together then. I didn’t put it together when Micah blew up at me for thinking stripping was a necessity rather than an enjoyment. Not when I saw him literally give my teammate a lap dance. Not when his body went from petite and supple to strong and lean.

I must be the most unobservant motherfucker to ever exist.

Micah’s shoulders tense, but he doesn’t turn to face me. And when he breathes, “Zeke?” he doesn’t even look at me. He sounds as if he wishes I was anyone other than the name he calls.

“Holy fuck, Micah.” Apparently, I’ve forgotten most words. I’ve been reduced to a slackened jaw, curses, and his name. “ Micah .”

One moment, he’s facing away from me, and the next, he’s spun to grab his robe from the floor, quickly slipping it on, covering every inch of skin except for his head and neck. “I—I have to go,” he says in a rush before literally rushing toward the curtain at the entrance of the room.

He’s almost through it when I catch him with a gentle arm around his waist, hauling him back inside. “No, wait?—”

“Let me go!” he cries, and I listen, of course.

I place him carefully on the ground, acknowledging the severe height of his heels before retreating completely, hands raised in surrender despite him not being able to see with his back to me. “I’m sorry for grabbing you. Just please don’t?—”

“Mickey!” A low voice shouts what must be his stage name from just outside the heavy curtain. I imagine it belongs to the giant security guard who was standing watch at the entrance of the hallway. “You okay?”

There isn’t a lot of space between us. Micah’s back is only inches away from my chest, and I’m panting over his shoulder as I try to make sense of it all. He must be just as shocked as I am because I can practically feel his body vibrating with tremors—the kind he gets when he’s overwhelmed and wants to climb something—and he doesn’t say a word in response to the guard.

“We’re all right,” I call to him, sounding suspicious as fuck even to my own ears.

It’s no surprise when the guy shoulders through the curtain to stare at us. “Mickey?”

“We know each other,” I explain as I place a comforting hand on Micah’s shoulder, the same place I’ve kissed a thousand times before. “We weren’t expecting to run into each other here, so it’s just a shock.”

“I really need to hear this from Mickey, and you need to get your hand off him before I make you.”

I remove my hand but pause when I catch a glimpse of the necklace glinting against Micah’s tan skin. It’s the one I gave him on the cruise, and I can’t help but think it means something that he’s wearing it here while he . . .

Micah is a stripper. He dances and takes his clothes off for other guys and . . .

My dick twitches in my pants.

Holy fuck, why does that turn me on so much?

Well, I’ve always liked watching him and Frankie put on a show at a nightclub, and him giving my teammate a lap dance was hot, too. This isn’t news to me. I’ve known for a while that I enjoy seeing other people lust after my man. Finding out he does it for a living?

I can’t help the soft groan that slips from my throat. Subtly shifting closer, I let the man I’ve slept with countless times feel what the idea of him working here has done to me in only a few minutes. The thought that this might be an everyday occurrence —that I could come here and watch him tease men every night? I’m getting close to busting in my pants.

“Bunny.” I lower my mouth to his ear and pitch my voice low and husky, letting him hear how turned on I am. “Respond to the nice security man. Do you want to stay here with me, or do you want to leave? Just know that I desperately want you to stay.”

Micah lets out a shaky exhale, and I know it isn’t because he’s scared to be in here with me. Now that he knows I’m not upset—quite the opposite, actually—he doesn’t have anything to worry about. “It’s okay, Key. He’s right. We were just surprised to run into each other.”

Key doesn’t seem impressed. “You said he touched you.”

“I said ‘let me go,’ but I . . . I got spooked, is all. I haven’t told very many people I work here, and I thought Zeke would be upset if he found out.”

I press tight against him, and years of intimacy between us has him instinctively relaxing his body against mine. “Which I’m not, by the way. I’m really, really not.”

My bunny shivers with delight.

“I’m sorry, Mickey,” Key says, mouth pursed in a way that says he really isn’t. “Policy suggests having you vacate the room.”

“I know the policy,” Micah mutters. “I said it’s fine.” With the way he’s pressing back into me, I imagine we’re very much more than fine.

This was his secret, and discovering it has only made me want him impossibly more. There’s nothing stopping us now; I can feel it with everything inside me. We’re going to be together. For real. Finally. After all these years. I can be with the man I love and who I know loves me. This is all I’ve wanted for so long. I’m nearly ready to say fuck it and take Micah right here in front of this security guard, who is only concerned for Micah’s welfare.

Key eyes our close proximity with displeasure. “I’m afraid I’m going to have to insist. We can take this up with Elvis if you want.” I assume he’s talking about another security guy, maybe the one with dark hair who sometimes can be seen standing on the side of the main stage.

“We can go,” I interject to tell Key, then murmur to Micah, “Come home with me, bunny.”

“Policy dictates that?—”

“Yes, yes, Key!” Micah erupts, sounding frustrated in the best kind of way. He’s slightly breathless, face flushed, and I swear his lace skirt is bulging slightly in the front. “Policy says Zeke leaves the club, and then I have to tell you and another guard that I feel safe leaving. Damn you for being good at your job and actually caring about us dancers. You’re the sweetest cockblock ever.”

At that, the stoic security guard actually cracks a smirk. “You know there are cameras in here. Would you have really fucked him if I hadn’t come in?”

“You could have sat at your post and enjoyed the show,” Micah fires back. The tension in the room dissipates, except for that sexual bit between Micah and me, and we squeeze through the curtain alongside Key. “You have to go first, and I’ll be out in a few minutes,” he tells me.

I pause in the hallway, turning to caress his face and tangle my fingers in his hair. Our eyes fall closed, foreheads resting against each other. “I know, I heard. I’ll wait for you.”

“You really don’t care?” he asks, sounding more vulnerable than ever before.

“I care too much, and my explanation for that is not appropriate to voice in public. You just have to trust me. I love you, and I think you’re sexy as fuck, and it’s so hot to think about you teasing other guys only to come home to me because I’m the only one who can give you what you need. God, Micah, I?—”

“You’re right,” Key cuts me off. “Not appropriate for public.”

“Sorry, Key,” Micah apologizes, and then I kiss the other man’s name right off his lips.

“Fuck,” I pant, breaking away. “Don’t make me wait too long.”

Key sighs. “I’m going to have to call my boss before I can let you leave, aren’t I, Mickey? It’s like your guy here has read the book on everything not to say when trying to convince us he isn’t a creepy stalker threatening your well-being, and he’s saying it all anyway.”

Micah laughs and shoves my stomach to make me move back. “Go. I’ll be out once I extinguish this dumpster fire.”

I smile at him, not wanting to leave now that I’ve got him where I want him. “I love you, Micah. I’m going to tell the whole world now, and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

The security guard groans loudly. “Dude, stop talking .”

But I only have ears for Micah, and I wait patiently until he kisses me, neither of us able to stop smiling, and says, “I love you, too.”