Total pages in book: 84
Estimated words: 83109 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83109 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 332(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
“Swearing, Dex,” Coach mutters.
Tripp stares at me with the cutest stunned look on his face.
Cameras go off.
Questions get yelled across the room.
Then my husband clears his throat and suddenly breaks eye contact and leans toward his mic to say, “This press conference is over.”
I watch as he shoves out of his seat, then crosses to me and pulls me up with him. His hand closes over mine, and he doesn’t stop walking until we’re out into the hall, where he pushes me into the wall and kisses me.
I grunt into his mouth as my eyes fall closed and I ball my fists in his shirt. I cling to him so tight, I swear I’ll never let him go again, and while he hasn’t said the words, he doesn’t need to. This kiss is everything. I can’t believe how close I was to losing this.
“I want to keep you,” I say between kisses.
“Did you mean it?” Tripp asks. “Or was it another lie to try to keep us both here?”
“That I’m in love with you? One hundred percent.”
Tripp’s eyes flutter closed. “You have no idea how long I’ve craved to hear you say that.”
“I tell you I love you all the time.”
“Yeah, that you love me like a brother.”
“After all the orgasms we’ve given each other, I hope it’s not brotherly.”
Tripp shoves me. “I mean it. I never …” He shakes his head and looks down at the ground. “I’ve been in love with you since the day I moved to Vegas.”
“You have?”
“Why do you think the Collective guys always run interference when we’re together? Why do you think Oskar lied and said he was my boyfriend? They’ve been trying to protect my feelings for years because I’ve been hopelessly and pathetically in love with you from the beginning.”
I can’t believe what I’m hearing. “You never said anything.”
“I knew it would change things between us, and I would have rather had your friendship and suffered a little pining than not have you at all.”
“I wish …” I wish I knew what to say to that. “I wish I’d known sooner. Maybe I would have woken up and realized how I really felt. Because I don’t think this is a new thing.”
Tripp hangs his head. “I didn’t think it was a possibility. I’ve played that scenario over in my head a million times, and in each one, it ruined our friendship.” He lets out a laugh. “The funniest part is probably that Anton knew before either of us.”
“He what?”
“When we were away, he said that given the right circumstances, you could realize you’re in love with me too. I didn’t believe him, but—”
“He was right. He was so right. When you suggested getting a divorce, you ripped my heart out.”
“I didn’t mean to do that, but to me, outside of the legal crap, marriage is only a word. We could still get divorced, and I wouldn’t care, so long as I have you in my life.”
“Well, what I just did might have gotten one of us traded.”
“If we—the two biggest commitment-phobes in the league—can make a marriage work, we can get through anything.”
A throat clears beside us, and we both turn to see Graham standing there. Tripp’s hold on me tightens.
“I’m sorry,” I say. “I couldn’t keep lying.”
“Would have been nice to know that before you went out there.”
“I don’t know if you know this about me, but I don’t exactly think things through.” And even with the trade burning a hole in my gut, the lie is out. I have Tripp. And I’ve never felt so much relief.
Tripp tugs me closer. “What now?”
“Now, we wait and see what the blowback from this is.”
Thirty
TRIPP
With Dex’s mouth on mine, his naked body under me while I straddle his lap, the press conference is all but forgotten. I rotate my hips, taking his cock deeper.
As soon as we got home, we knew we had to take advantage of the situation before everything blows up. None of that taking our time bullshit from earlier today.
Dex said he loves me—that he’s in love with me.
I never thought this would happen. I never let myself think about it, because the possibility of my straight best friend falling for me was so minuscule, I didn’t want to hurt myself by entertaining the idea. I’d fantasized about hooking up with him, sure. But even in my fantasies, he never actually fell in love with me.
I moan into his mouth before breaking away and trailing my lips down his neck. Dex’s big arms surround me and hold me tight while I move up and down on his dick.
He buries his head in the crook of my shoulder and nips at my skin. “I could stay like this forever.”
My breath is shaky as I say, “As much as I’d love that, you know our phones are going to start going off any minute.”