Page 49 of Your Pace or Mine (Running for the Romance #1)
Darius
D arius barely registered the rest of the event after his brief interrogation.
He’d been so nervous about what Jamie would think that he’d barely slept for days trying to make sure everything was perfect.
The smile Jamie’d sent him when the questioning had finally finished had told him everything would work out, though.
A reception kicked off following the press questions, and Darius pushed his way past his friends and the journalists vying for a soundbite. He was trying to reach Jamie, who was at the back of the room by the canapés.
Jackson had been a giddy ball of energy the whole time and was the hardest to shake, but a whispered explanation about grand gestures had him helping clear a path until they were blocked by the person Darius least wanted to speak to.
“Coach Anders,” Darius said, straightening instinctively.
“Hewitt,” the coach replied, his tone measured. He paused, then sighed. “It appears I may owe you an apology. I made a lot of assumptions about you. About your values, your… attitude. I was wrong.”
Darius raised an eyebrow. “You never even took the time to speak to me.”
Anders winced but nodded. “Yes. And that was unfair, it was never about you, it wasn’t personal.”
Darius crossed his arms. “It certainly felt personal when you overlooked me from the team and publicly stated I’d never run on it.”
Anders winced. “I judged you based on what I know of your father, assumed you were cut from the same cloth and allowed my previous experiences with upper-class athletes to colour my opinion of you. But my relationship with your father is not… it should have no bearing on my ability to work with you. I can see now how much courage it took for you to be here today, to speak up for your partner despite what the press has been saying. Hell, even to stand up to me. You’ve got my respect, Darius, and my support. ”
Darius felt a small sense of relief washing over him. He didn’t think they would ever truly get along, but it would make his life a lot easier not to have the head coach at his throat every practice. “Thank you, Coach. That means a lot.”
“Keep your phone close the next few days, Hewitt. You’ll probably be getting an important call.”
As Anders walked away, Jamie appeared at Darius’s side, a small smile on his lips.
“You know how to make a scene, don’t you?” Jamie teased, passing him a cup of some sort of sparkling juice.
Darius chuckled. “I learned from the best.”
They stood next to each other in silence for a moment, sipping out of plastic cups.
“Well, for what it’s worth,” Jamie said, breaking the silence, “I’m proud of you, and you’re everything to me too. These last few weeks, without talking to you or seeing you, it felt like part of me was missing.”
“I’m so sorry, Jamie.”
“Stop apologising, we’re fine. We’re going to be better than okay, remember?” Jamie laughed and kissed him softly on the cheek.
Darius sighed in equal parts relief and adoration, then pulled Jamie closer into a deep kiss. With Jamie in his arms, he felt like anything was possible.
Jackson cheered obnoxiously as he stacked a plate full of mini sausage rolls.
Then, Darius ran with it, completely uncharacteristically dipping Jamie into the most drama-filled cinematic kiss he could think of.
Jamie laughed into his mouth as he lifted him back to his feet, their foreheads bent together in silent understanding.
He hadn’t planned to kiss Jamie quite so dramatically, in front of everyone, but in that moment, something inside Darius had snapped.
The joy of the day, the energy and passion of the people around him, finally feeling like he was doing something good—it had all swept him up.
The potential of an Olympic call-up was great, but this right here was everything he needed.
Finally back home after a day of far too many people, Darius had Jamie all to himself again. They chatted while they sipped tea in Darius’s kitchen, finding every possible excuse to touch each other. A brush of shoulders, knees knocking together. Hands intertwining.
As they were tidying up, things took a more heated turn. Darius lifted Jamie onto the counter as he passionately kissed him, allowing his hands to wander all over his body. He slid his hand along the waistband of Jamie’s jeans. Jamie flinched slightly, drawing attention to a fresh tattoo.
“This is new,” Darius said, running his fingers more softly over the numbers on Jamie’s hip.
Jamie groaned. “It’s cringe, isn’t it?”
Darius laughed. “It’s a little cliché, but nothing about you could ever be cringe.”
Jamie grinned, kissing him deeply as he hooked his ankles around Darius’s back, pulling him in even closer to him. Just as Jamie pulled his shirt over his head, Darius’s phone started buzzing.
Darius dropped his head onto Jamie’s shoulder. “For fuck’s sake,” he murmured. He pulled it out of his pocket, an unknown number. He went to ignore it.
“Don’t ignore it!” Jamie shouted. “It could be about the Olympics.”
Darius sighed and swiped up to answer. The conversation was brief and to the point. Jamie was watching him intently as he spoke with an assistant from the Athletics Association, verbally accepting his place on the Olympic team.
Jamie must have been able to see it on his face because a small teasing smile spread over his mouth, and when Darius ended the call, he draped himself on him. “So, does this mean I can tell people I’m dating an Olympian? Because that would get me so much clout at uni.”
Darius groaned, but the corner of his mouth quirked up. “You’re ridiculous, you know that?”
“Yeah,” Jamie said, grinning. “But you love it.”
Darius shook his head, but his hand trailed over the tattoo on Jamie’s hip, lingering there as he looked deep into Jamie’s eyes. “Yeah,” Darius murmured, his voice soft. “I do.”
Jamie’s breath hitched as Darius leaned in closer, kissing the shell of his ear.
“I love you, Jamie,” Darius said softly. “I think I have ever since you nearly collapsed when you first tried to run alongside me.”
“Hey! I did alright in the end! I even finished my first marathon,” Jamie protested.
Darius smiled. “But not your last.”
“No, definitely not my last. You can bet on that,” Jamie replied. “And for the record, I love you too.”