Page 88 of Floored By Love

“I’m okay, Luke. Scout’s honor,” he said, giving me another peck on the lips.

Normally, I wouldn’t have grabbed anything at what amounted to the biggest yard sale I’d ever seen, but with my parents cutting me off, I was going to take what I could. I hadn’t tried my credit card yet, but I wasn’t hopeful and I didn’t want to pass up this chance. Not that it was actually a sale. Everything was free.

I grabbed hoodies, running shorts, dri-fit shirts. They had everything. I even found some underwear - a pair of swanky Nike boxer briefs and a pair of cute Tommy Hilfiger briefs. I heard rumors from Shane that we were getting fancy watches this year, as well as the latest iPad in some duffel bag-palooza that had yet to happen.

I understood why companies did it - to get their name out there - but I had never truly appreciated how valued this stuff was. Most athletes struggled to finance an Olympic run, let alone have the ability to purchase all this merchandise, and I never even gave it an extra thought. Until now. It was not a situation I was looking forward to, but with Cam and Shane by my side, I kept telling myself it would be okay. Cam made it more than worthwhile.

“I’m running out of muscles to hold up these bags,” Cam said to me.

“I know what you mean.” My own arms were full.

“This is amazing!” Colton yelped, practically running up to us. “It’s better than my old stuff. I don’t even need the stuff from the cleaners.”

“We’re still getting it though, right?” Cam asked.

“Yeah, of course. I think Tyler actually signed up for delivery since it was included, so it should show up at the hotel when it’s ready.”

“Something important?” I asked.

Cam mumbled something, so I asked him to repeat it. “Something sentimental,” he said. I don’t know if embarrassed was the right word, but I knew not to push it, though it piqued my curiosity. Did he have a lucky jockstrap like me?

We found Alex and O looking at the shoes and we all ended up grabbing two pairs. It was a little ridiculous how much stuff we ended up coming away with, but I was happy Cam and Colton now had some clothes to wear that they chose. Though I did like seeing Cam in mine.

We headed to the transportation center in the village and only waited for the shuttle for a few minutes. Each van held up to twelve people, and being able to call it on demand was convenient.

“Do you still want to go shopping for some non-athletic clothes?” I asked the guys.

“If that’s okay, yeah,” Cam answered.

“I could live for weeks on what I just got back there, but I reckon I should get some jeans and a few non-muscle shirts,” Colton said.

“Isn’t every shirt for you a muscle shirt?” Cam quipped.

“Well, yeah.” Colton flexed his arms as if he needed to prove what all of us already knew. I was glad Cam and I were together again, but I was still struggling to push my insecurities over their jack-off session out of my head.

For selfish reasons, I convinced the guys to swing through Regent Street instead of Oxford for their clothes. I argued it was something new, but Cam could tell I had an ulterior motive. Unable to withstand his scrutiny, I caved. “There’s a toy store I want to see.”

“A toy store?” Cam asked.

“Like for kids?” Colton added.

“Yeah, it’s world famous. It’s the oldest and largest toy store in the world. Seven floors.”

“Seven floors of toys?” O chimed in.

I nodded. And that was enough to convince them to go.

Seven floors were enough to split the group up quickly, but Cam stayed by my side. We knew there was a lot of interest in Cam because of the fire, so he kept my hoodie from earlier to help him remain anonymous.

To my surprise, it worked. Considering he was the hottest man on the planet, I wasn’t sure why everyone wasn’t staring at him. You could see the muscles under his clothes. It wasn’t just because I knew what every inch of his body looked like naked. His jeans were that tight. Well, my jeans, hence the tightness.

“Will you stop staring,” he whisper-hissed. “You’re going to make me pop a boner, and from the feel of it, I don’t think your pants could handle it.”

I grabbed a plush bull from the mountain of stuffed animals, held it in front of my face, and mock-begged, “Please don’t be mad, Cam. You’re just too adora-bull.”

He turned to sweep his glacial blue eyes over my cute display. “Really?”

I made the bull nod.