Then I indulged in one of my most pleasurable activities. Blowing off steam.
I ran through my favorites.
Sometimes they were nameless, faceless guys.
Sometimes they were guys I’d checked out online. This time, there was no question. I pictured Declan, imagining his voice all rumbly, sexy.
How would he sound if he said, I want to take you to bed?
I wouldn’t say no to him. I bet he knew things. I bet he could teach me.
I’d want to get to know all about number eighteen. How those lips tasted. How that body felt. What those hands could do.
I went full fantasy, picturing a locker room, empty and echoing, and me under the water like this, rinsing off the day.
I heard footsteps.
As I slid the soap down my chest, I turned. The man himself had sauntered in, towel hooked low around his waist, revealing his chiseled abs, his V-cut, the tantalizing preview of his happy trail. He walked right past me, flashing me a sly grin. He tossed the towel on a hook, strode into the shower across from me.
I shuddered, my breath coming faster as I stroked.
My fist flew. The fantasy jumped ahead several levels as I imagined a wide-open stall, water streaming down Declan’s muscular body. He took his thick shaft in his hand and stroked nice and slow without looking away from me.
His eyes never looked away, smoldering, as if he wanted to touch me, suck me, fuck me, just as much as I wanted him.
“Fuck,” I moaned, and in seconds, I blew, coming hard in my hand to him just like I’d done countless times before.
A few months later, I got the call. The Cougars wanted me at spring training. And I had a hell of a shot at making the roster, Haven told me.
Yes!
My greatest dream was there for the taking.
Time for me to play better than my best.
That also meant I was going to come face to face with the man I’d been harmlessly crushing on for the last few years.
The solution?
Crush the motherfucking crush.
Erase it from my mind.
Forget I’d ever fantasized about a teammate.
Focus, pure focus.
That was what I needed to do as I got on the plane and flew to Arizona for spring training.
And that was what I tried to do that first week—get him out of my mind.
But that morning when the position players arrived, and I turned the corner in the corridor, all that focus flew from my brain.
Epilogue
Now
Grant
There he is. In the flesh. Gorgeous, confident, with a megawatt grin.
The struggle is real. My skin sizzles. My heart jackhammers. I’m a foot away from a man I admire, a man I’ve imagined fucking.
And it’s going to be so damn hard to put this crush back in the box.
Once we start talking, I’m even more attracted to Declan Steele than I ever thought possible, and that’s going to be a massive problem…