Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 58150 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 291(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 58150 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 291(@200wpm)___ 233(@250wpm)___ 194(@300wpm)
A shy smile twists at Wade’s lips. “Okay.”
“Okay?” I ask.
“I’m cool with the baby thing,” he clarifies. “It’s your life, you’re giving me more opportunities than staying in Tennessee will, and I’m not going to take that for granted.”
I narrow my eyes. “But you felt the need to test our loyalty by saying no first?”
He brings his hand up and pinches his thumb and forefinger together. “A little?”
“Fair enough.” I turn to Noah. “So, we’re really doing this.”
His blue-green eyes glimmer. “We’re doing this.”
“And you have a plane to catch,” Wade says.
Noah squeezes my hand. “Yeah, we do.”
We hang up with Wade, a weight lifted off my shoulders, but Noah still looks panicked.
“What’s wrong?”
Noah stares up at me. “This really is going to be our final play now.”
I shake my head. “Nah. This is just the beginning of our second half.” My big romantic label is scoffed at.
“Jock talk.” Noah stands in a flurry, that overexcited puppy thing happening again. “Whatever we’re calling it, it’s going to be totally epic.”
Yeah. Epic.
The beginning of the rest of our lives.
II
MADDOX AND DAMON
Chapter Ten
DAMON
I stare out at the tarmac from the private charter lounge at LAX, my phone to my ear. I’m already freaking out. Not about this vacation, which is long overdue, but what’s going to happen at work while I’m gone. “I’ll have my phone on the whole time. Call me if you have any questions, any concerns, any—”
“Boss,” my assistant says, her voice still bubbly even though I’m being neurotic as hell and she has to be over it already.
We haven’t even left the States yet. It’s been one flight. New York to L.A.
I almost don’t want to get on the next leg of the trip, but I have to. It’s the first break I’m getting from the firm since I was given my full-time job. That was four years ago.
“I can handle it,” Carly says.
I know she can. She’s a competent undergrad, studying her way up like I did. It’s why I hired her. She reminded me of … well, me. That, and nine out of every ten employees in this field are men. Straight men. Carly was as qualified and eager as the others I interviewed, so I wanted to give her a chance that others in this industry might not.
This vacation came at the perfect moment where classes are out for the summer, so she can take on this responsibility. And there are plenty of other seasoned agents there to help her out if she gets stuck.
“It’s going to be okay,” I say.
“I know,” Carly says.
“I wasn’t talking to you.”
“Talking to yourself is the first sign of insanity.”
I huff a laugh. “Oh, I was already there years ago. Call me if you need anything. Like, anything. I’m expecting a deal for Soren to come through, and he’ll be with me, so—”
“Stop stressing. It’s all good. I’ll keep you in the loop. Now, go get some sun.”
“I will. Right after this gazillion-hour-long trip.”
Why do Matt and Noah do this to themselves every year? Why not Hawaii? Bermuda? Somewhere so much friggin’ closer.
“Have fun with that,” she sings and ends the call.
Everything will be fine, I tell myself again. Unless one of my players gets arrested or pushed out of any closets, Carly can handle it. And let’s face it, my most “problematic” clients are coming on this “final play” with me.
I have to laugh at Noah for inviting us all on this trip. Now that he and Matt are taking in Matt’s youngest brother, he seems to think his social life is somehow over for the next few years.
Then again, the thought of running around after a fifteen-year-old during a rebellious phase does sound exhausting. Though, the impression I get of Wade is he’s got a good head on his shoulders. According to Matt, anyway. We haven’t met the kid yet.
Maddox’s arms wrap around me from behind, and his lips land on the back of my neck. “Everything okay?”
“Perfect.”
“Please don’t tell me one of your players got a DUI or something and you’re going back to New York.”
I spin in his arms. “Nothing like that. Just me being anal about everything.”
Maddox snorts. “Which is funny, because you don’t do that.”
With any other guy, I’d assume that’s a jab at my lack of versatility, but I know it’s not with Maddox. He literally finds it amusing.
It’s still funny to me that it’s the “straight” guy who understands my lack of desire to bottom most. I have offered, but he has always said he won’t make me do anything in the bedroom that doesn’t get me off, and the same goes for him. If he doesn’t like something, I don’t make him do it.
And anytime I say I feel guilty for not reciprocating, Maddox takes off all his clothes and rides my dick until my vision blurs and he falls apart for me. Sometimes I say it just because I know it’ll lead to sex.