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That was—wait, what? Was this some kind of test? Like, if Alex said he minded, he’d come across as … something. Socially awkward, maybe. Weird about meaningless physical proximity when showering with teammates was a normal occurrence. Why would Lee want to test him, though? Also, Alex needed to say somethingnow.
“I can grab the bedding from my room,” he said.
Maybe it was the right answer because Lee gave him a small, sweet smile. “Yeah, all right.”
Yet neither of them made a move just yet. Lee let his gaze sweep across the beach, and Alex did the same—the dark sand dotted here and there with torches and a few last stragglers, the DJ having eased into slow, hypnotic beats that blended in with the rhythm of the sea.
“Let’s go?” Alex asked quietly, and Lee’s attention drifted back to him almost lazily, the smile still tucked into the corners of Lee’s mouth.
“Let’s go,” he replied just as quietly.
Temporary insanity.
Maybe.
Or maybe it wasn’t. Maybe the hopeful twist in Lee’s gut had been right and Alex’s demonstrative ease with Marco did mean something, and the roundabout way Alex had suggested that he and Lee share a room did, too.
It’d be a terrible idea, though. Hooking up with Alex based on the rush of their win and the imaginary buzz of non-alcoholic beer. Truly,trulyterrible. Their friendship, if that, remained fragile at best, and throwing sex into the mix could easily make it implode.
So, yes. A terrible idea.
Too bad that didn’t seem to matter at all when Alex knocked and Lee’s traitorous heart skipped a beat.
He pulled the door open and Alex slipped past him into the room, a pillow and a sheet bundled up in his arms. After glancing up and down the corridor to find it empty, Lee closed the door and turned. Alex was spreading his sheet out on the side of the bed that Lee had cleared for him, stripped down to a T-shirt and a pair of boxers, and Lee felt a tad awkward still wearing the clothes Alex had ordered for him some days ago. They fit Lee nicely according to both Alex and Lee’s own assessment of himself in the mirror, but they were tighter than what he would have chosen for himself.
Jeff’s brother seemed to have appreciated the look. Maybe Alex had too—Lee resembling a bit more the boys Alex would have hung out with at Harrow School.
“You already brushed your teeth?” Lee asked, lingering near the door.
“I’m all done, yeah.” Alex pulled off his T-shirt and dropped it by the side of the bed like it was any other night, the two of them on their respective sides of the same room. When he slid under the sheet, Lee switched off the overhead light, leaving only the warm glow of a bedside lamp.
What now?
Slowly, on quiet feet, he rounded the bed and sat down on his side before he started on the buttons of his shirt. Behind him, Alex heaved a dramatic sigh. “And thus ends the one time I see you in clothes that actually flatter you.”
Lee turned his upper body, letting the corners of his own mouth tip up in response to Alex’s smirk. “Why do you care, anyway?”
“I like to improve the aesthetics of my surroundings,” Alex said grandly. “Call it community service.”
“You’re so full of shit,” Lee told him, and maybe it came out a hint too fond because Alex’s smirk softened into a gentle smile.
“Hey.” The protest lacked heat. A moment later, Alex crossed his arms behind his head, biceps distractingly on display, the sheet pooling somewhere around his waist. “It’s kind of nice not to be alone after the day we’ve had. I mean, Jeff’s got his brother and Oliver’s got his wife, and we’ve at least got each other, you know?”
Humour coloured Alex’s words, and it wasn’t anything tangible, didn’t exactly constitute Alex making his opening move, but it left the door ajar for Lee to get a foot in. Facing away from Alex, he finished unbuttoning the shirt and slid it off his shoulders, careful to keep his voice neutral. “So how come you’re single—thought I saw some pictures of you with a girl a while back?”
Alex’s answer was delayed by half a second. “Grace? Yeah, we broke it off some months ago. Things just fizzled, you know.”
Lee got up to drape the shirt over the back of a chair, glancing over his shoulder at Alex before he started undoing his jeans. “And you haven’t dated since?”
“No. Didn't seem to be much of a point.”
“How come?” Lee folded the jeans and placed them on the chair as well, then turned to face Alex in just a pair of boxer briefs. He thought he saw Alex's attention dip for a blink of an eye, but it was too quick for Lee to be certain that he wasn't just seeing what he wanted to see.
Alex shifted slightly. “Well, there are a couple of women my parents want me to meet, so…”
“Your parents want you to meet some women?” Lee repeated blankly, pausing by the side of the bed.
“Not like an arranged marriage,” Alex hurried to say. “Just … to consider whether there might be something there. Eventually.”
