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Lee rolled onto his side, eyes warm. “Don’t worry about it, yeah? It’s nice not to be alone after a match like that. Reminds me of when my sisters would sneak into my bed because they’d had a bad dream—mostly Shelly ‘cause Kira was too cool for that kind of shit even when she was four.”
“I’mtoo cool for that shit,” Alex told him, and the corners of Lee’s mouth quirked.
“Yet here you are.”
“Yet here I am,” Alex agreed.
With a chuckle, Lee twisted his upper body to reach for the lamp on the bedside table. And if Alex’s focus snagged on where a trail of dark hair disappeared into the waistband of Lee’s briefs? Well, no one had to know.
“Night,” Alex murmured into the sudden darkness that flooded the room.
“To a brand new day,” Lee replied, and yeah, amen to that. A brand new day when Alex would finally tell Lee—really, he would. First thing in the morning, no more excuses.
Just … not tonight.
7
All mornings were evil, but some mornings were more evil than others.
Today was a particularly evil one—Lee didn’t need to even open his eyes to make that call. Maybe it was because the alarm had cut right into a deep sleep phase, or maybe it was because yesterday’s match had encased his bones in lead. Either way?No.
The alarm shut off. Ah, blessed silence.
“Lee.”
He grumbled and rolled away from the annoying voice.
“Lee.”
“Piss off.”
“I know the passcode to your Kindle,” Alex chirped, laughter tucked into his tone. “And I’m not afraid to use it.”
Like Lee cared. At this point, the only reason he refused to share his reading habits with Alex was because a man needed to maintain some air of mystery. “And I repeat, piss off.”
“Now that’s not very nice.” A few seconds later, the mattress shifted as Alex got up and, by the sounds of it, ducked into the bathroom. Running water, Alex spitting some toothpaste into the sink, then the sound of his bare feet padding back into the main room and towards the window. Lee slid one eye open to check on him—just in time to get a brutal dose of sunshine when Alex threw the curtains wide open. For a moment, Lee blinked at Alex’s lean silhouette, light flowing around his figure.
With a groan, Lee sat up. “Why do you hate me?”
“Iadoreyou.” Alex’s voice was drenched in sugar. “You are the yin to my yang, the butter to my toast, the Romeo to my Juliet.”
Lee fought a smile. “Meaning we’re obsessed with each other and will die at the end of the story?”
“But oh, the poems they’ll write about us!” Alex fanned himself with a hand, eyes dancing with impish humour. He exuded energy, his bare chest tapering down to a narrow waist, muscular thighs that Lee wanted to bite.
It was too early for this. Lee rubbed a hand down his face. “What time is it?”
“Six twenty.”
“And why, pray tell, did you set your alarm for six twenty?” Given the circumstances, Lee considered his tone remarkably polite. “We were up past midnight and breakfast isn’t until eight. Right now, we’re probably the only two idiots in this hotel who are awake, staff exempted.”
“That’s kind of the point.” For a split second, a crack appeared in Alex’s cheerful facade, granting Lee a momentary impression of something nervous hanging around him. Right—there was something Alex had wanted to tell Lee.
“Oh,fine.” Lee heaved a dramatic sigh. “Let me just splash some water on my face so I feel a little more human, yeah?”
“‘Course.” Alex turned away when Lee rolled out of bed, as though he wanted to avoid meeting Lee’s eyes. He’d said it was nothing bad though.
“I’ll be just a minute.” With that, Lee closed the door to pee, wash his hands, and brush his teeth. The mirror showed that he’d worked up a solid tan from the Spanish sun, and unlike some of his teammates, his Italian heritage let him circumvent the lobster stage.
