Page 48 of Scoring Eden

I underestimated how much deceiving him would weigh on me.

The door to the locker room clangs shut behind me, and I immediately undress. We’re all so desensitized to nudity at this point that Theo, who’s been lingering on my bench, doesn’t bat an eye when I approach with my balls swaying at his eye level. “Hey, man.”

He shakes out his shaggy brown hair and looks at me with a boyish smile. At twenty-three, he’s one of the youngest on the team but a damn prodigy in defense. I can barely get past him when we’re running drills against each other, and I’m the best striker on the team.

“Everything okay?”

He nods. “Just wanted to say it was really nice to meet Eden on Saturday. You guys seem really in love.”

Theo, as well-meaning as he is, could not be trusted with the truth about our relationship. It isn’t his fault. He just doesn’t always have the best control over his words, and I can’t risk him accidentally letting it slip to Coach or, God forbid, the Wicked Witch of Purview.

“Appreciate it.”

“Does she, um, have any friends or sisters that you could set me up with?” He looks down at his lap. “You guys just seem really happy, and Leo has Brynn, you know? It’d be kind of cool if I had someone too, and then we could all go on double dates. Or triple dates, whatever.”

I think of Aspen. She’s a year younger than him and single to my knowledge. But that little hellion would eat Theo alive and drain his bank account before he even had a chance to send her a Good morning, beautiful text, which he’s absolutely the sort of man to do.

He needs someone gentle and calm, something Aspen is the antithesis of. Where Theo is a spoon, Aspen is a damn machete.

“She’s got a sister, but I don’t think she’d be right for you.”

Theo wilts, tilting his head to one side. “Why?”

“She’s a handful, to put it lightly.”

He straightens, lighting back up. “That’s okay. I’m fine with boobs of all sizes. All bodies are beautiful.”

Huh?

I think back over what I said and stifle a chuckle. “Oh, dude, no. That’s not what I meant. I meant that she can be difficult to handle.”

“Oh.” He nods then shrugs. “I don’t mind that either.”

I clap him on the shoulder, my dick swinging with the movement. “Trust me on this one. Aspen is not the one for you.”

“Aspen,” he sighs. “That’s a pretty name.”

“Try Raya or something else instead.”

I leave him to it, heading for the showers to wash away the sweat Roman so kindly pointed out to me. I’m conditioning my hair—man buns require a lot of upkeep—when the man himself strides in and takes a shower beside mine.

“Hell no,” I tell him. “Get that monster dick away from me and go shower somewhere else.”

He glances down at his crotch with amusement. “Don’t be jealous, Alex.”

Jealous? It’s not as if I haven’t also been blessed in the cock department, but there comes an inch where the line is crossed from impressive to terrifying. And if I were a woman faced with the thing between his legs, I’d run for my life screaming.

“I’m quite satisfied with my own junk.”

One eyebrow quirks upward. “But is Eden, though?”

Water floods into my mouth and makes me splutter. “We haven’t slept together, asshole,” I tell him once I’ve recovered. “And we’re not going to.”

“That’s probably a good thing.”

“Why’s that?”

“It would complicate things. And from the looks of that photo on TMZ, the situation is already complicated enough.”