6. Addison

Callum seemedto know all the right things to say and do to keep my mind off of what had been plaguing me for weeks now.

It was nice to focus on something else. On someone else.

I”d been so focused on my own issues that I hadn”t turned my attention outward enough lately.

It hadn”t been a lie that I had been visiting my family a lot, but the truth was I was with them so much because the idea of being alone in my big house whileAriwas around again, gave me a full-body chill.

Callum nudged me.

Right when I was thinking about it too. He must have seen the look on my face or something because he kept saying something or poking me every time I thought of it again.

“You even watching this?” he asked.

“Yes.”

“There”s no way you”re watching, or you would be dying laughing right now. No human being can sit through that scene without being in tears.”

I looked at the TV. The movie was still playing, and yeah, it was at an amusing part, but Callum wasn”t exactly in stitches.

“What about you?” I demanded. “You”re not laughing.”

“Yeah, because I got distracted by how you weren”t watching.”

Chuckling, I grabbed the remote and rewound until the start of the ridiculous fight the stepbrothers were having.

Callum was right because this time, we both laughed so hard that there were tears in our eyes.

Sitting next to him in bed, pillows propped up behind us, laughing out loud, felt so fucking good. It was like I”d forgotten what happiness next to someone was even like.

Callum waslounged back, his hair down, grinning and joking around. He”d kept his t-shirt on, but he was in his boxers, his long legs stretched out on the white covers.

It was easy to pretend that I could put my arm around him and pull him in close.

Holding someone who was sweet and normal, would be a nice change. Not to mention we had so much in common.

I didn”t think I”d ever been into someone who not only played football but was a quarterback. Let alone someone on the same team as me.

It would be so easy for our lives to twine around each other. We could train together, fly to games, then come home and in the evenings, curl around each other on the couch watching movies... just like this.

It was such an inviting idea that I had to physically force myself to shift away a little bit. It was like a magnet was pulling me toward him.

The heat of his body was far too tempting.

For his part though, Callum didn”t seem to notice.

When the film was done, he got up to brush his teeth and throw away our leftovers.

I stretched out on the bed, listening to him move around in the washroom while I waited my turn. If we were in a relationship, I”d go in there with him, stand next to him at the sink. Smile when our eyes met...

When he was done, I got up, used the toilet, and brushed my teeth, somewhat amused by the fact that there was no way he was listening to me in here, thinking the same things I had been. I’d gotten so sentimental in my loneliness.

Sighing, I tried to push all the treacherous thoughts out of my head.

I was about to sleep in the bed next to him. I should probably stop fantasizing about being his boyfriend.

When I got back into the bedroom, Callum was already curled up under the covers with his bedside light turned off.

I shut mine off too and climbed in next to him.

To my surprise, there was enough room for us to not even touch each other when we were stretched out, but barely.

“Thanks for agreeing to let me stay here,” I said quietly.

Truthfully, the idea of being alone at that other hotel where no one I knew would be nearby in case something happened had made me feel sick.

“All good,” he told me, and then shifted around in the bed until he was facing me.

“You feeling better now?” he asked.

I smiled. I”d known he could tell I wasn”t right. It warmed my heart that he had cared enough to try to distract me all evening.

It had worked too.

I hadn”t been able to think straight for weeks now.

I”d had to go to the police twice over our few days off because Ari”s messages had been getting more frequent and more concerning, but they hadn”t been able to locate him.

Eventually, his parents had said he was out of town.

Even so, a cop car ended up parked in front of my house for two days before they”d thrown in the towel and told me I would be fine.

Truthfully, I had been. As usual, hearing from the police—albeit, through his parents—had made the messages dwindle.

“Honestly,” I said. “I feel better than I have in weeks.”

I reached out against my better judgment and my hand found his arm. I touched it, felt the heat of his skin for a moment on my palm, before forcing myself to pull back.

“Thank you.”

He didn’t say anything for a moment. In the darkness, I couldn’t see his face. My heart was pounding.

“Good,” he finally said. “Now get some rest. You’re going to need it for tomorrow.”

There was a commotion as he rolled around, getting comfortable and I found myself smiling into the darkness.

Even if he didn’t want me the way I wanted him, Callum was such a sweetheart. I was glad I was getting to know him.

I shut my eyes and for the first time in too long, drifted into a peaceful sleep.

In the early hours of the morning, I started to drift awake, feeling more rested, warm and cozy than I could ever remember feeling.

I moaned softly, pressing my face into something soft, arms tightening around a hot body. My cock was hard, wedged against a full, muscular ass.

Without thinking, I thrust gently against it, sighing in pleasure.

My hands started to roam, sliding down a taught abdomen to the loose waistband of thin boxers hiding a hard cock.

I stroked down the length and a shudder of desire rammed into me followed by what felt like an ice bucket of reality dousing me.

I froze cold, my eyes flying open just as Callum shifted in my arms.

Oh fuck.

I was wrapped around him like a damn octopus, glued to his back. Somehow, I”d gotten one arm under him, the other was around his waist, my hand resting on hisbig,harddick.

For a minute, I couldn’t move, unsure if he was awake or asleep as my body completely stopped working.

“Addison?” Callum suddenly asked, his voice sleepy and uncertain.

I jumped back like I”d been electrocuted, nearly throwing Callum out of bed while I did.

He let out a squeak, catching himself on the edge and sitting up by the time I was standing—and then I remembered I was hard in nothing but boxers and dropped back down onto the bed in hopes he hadn”t seen my erection. Which was hilarious considering that a second ago he had been feeling it rubbing against him.

“Oh, God. I—I am so sorry. I was asleep,” I stammered.

He stared at me for a second, his eyes groggy with sleep, his expression unreadable in the dim morning glow from the gap in the curtains.

Finally, he nodded.

“Okay,” he said, like that was it.

“Cool. Okay. Right.”

I clamped my mouth shut.

If he wanted to brush it off, that was certainly the best thing to do.

“I’m going to go take a shower,” I said.

He nodded and I beelined for the washroom.

Despite the size of the rest of the room, the washroom and shower were nice enough, with big glass doors and a waterfall shower head.

I shut my eyes under the spray and tried to calm my racing heart and get back into the headspace I needed to be in.

We were having our first game of the season today. I needed to be ready. What had happened there had been a total accident.

A very nice accident that was going to fuel my fantasies for weeks, but that didn”t matter.

I just hoped that Callum would be normal with me. Luckily when I came out and got dressed, he didn”t show any unease about what had happened. He went about the morning like normal, with a touch of nervous energy enveloping him about the game.

By the time we were at the stadium, there were already so many people there. There were both teams, the coaches, media, the stadium staff, and people in seats who had come early to watch the warm-ups.

Everything else went from my mind as we began to practice.

One of my strengths had always been focus. When I was on the field, everything else melted away. Especially when it was game time. The energy was high, everyone was in top shape. We were going to kill it today.

There was something about when the cameras turned on. It was “show time” and I didn”t want to disappoint.

“Alright, time to come in,” Coach said into my earpiece. “The game starts in one hour.”

I walked back with the team, heading for our changing rooms.

Coach was already starting to talk as I went to the locker to grab my extra towel.

As soon as I rubbed it over my face, my phone, sitting on the bottom shelf, lit up. I glanced down, reading the message before the screen went black.

Looking good out there, baby.

My heart seized. For a moment I couldn”t breathe.

Hand shaking, I reached for my phone, flicking it open just as another message came through.

I”ll be watching from my seat. Break a leg.

It was like being dunked in cold water for the second time that day. God, what I wouldn”t give to rewind to waking up spooning Callum. That was the type of shock I could handle.

Ari was here. In Jacksonville. He”d bought a fucking plane ticket to watch me—the guy he wasn”t supposed to come anywhere near—play football.

He was out there.

I scrolled back through the messages he”d been sending, the vague, underlying threats were like shadows creeping through his words.

“Addison!”

I nearly dropped my phone.

“Come on man, this isn”t the time to be checking in with your girlfriend.”

Cheeks heating, I shoved my phone back into my locker and slammed it shut.

“What”s our first play?” Coach Oliveira quizzed me, his jaw set in annoyance.

I went over it, dialling back in with ease because I”d spent countless hours going over the details, often even replaying them in my head before falling asleep at night.

Satisfied, he turned his heated attention from me back to the rest of the team.

“We”re in great shape for this,” he said. “Our prospects are good, but don”t let that get to your head. Remain focused…”

Despite myself, his words faded.

I couldn”t bring my full attention back to him.

Ari was obsessed with me. He still called me Baby and Sweetheart, and I had a freaking restraining order against him. That screamed psychopath. What if he did something while I was out in the open? What if I got hurt?

Or worse, what if one of the other guys on the field did?

Could he have a gun?

I should talk to someone. Now. Before the game.

But what would that mean? Security sweeping the thousands in the audience? Cancelling the game because of a threat?

All because of a vague message that might have been sent just to freak me out?

Speech done, everyone started to move around, some stretching, others chatting.

“You okay?”

I looked over to find Callum standing next to me.

He looked good in our clean, white uniform, the gold accents so pretty against his brown skin.

His helmet was hooked under an arm. He was ready to go play his first NFL game even though he knew he wouldn”t be playing and bless his heart, he still looked nervous.

Suddenly, I wanted to hug him so badly.

“No.”

The word just tumbled out of my mouth and instantly, I was desperate to tell him. Maybe he could figure out what I should do.

But as I stood there, looking into his soulful brown eyes, the words dried up on my lips.

Ari was my ex-lover. He was a guy.

I glanced around.

None of the team knew I was gay. I hadn”t come out publicly. I didn”t want to be forced out now.

“What”s wrong?” Callum asked.

I swallowed, wondering how to phrase it, or if I even should.

“I think there”s someone in the audience,” I finally forced. “A stalker.”

His brows drew together.

“What?”

Everyone was starting to file out now. I had to get it together to go play, but my heart was racing. The seriousness of Callum”s expression made it feel more real.

“Who?” he asked.

“Come on guys,” Coach shouted at the last of us stragglers.

I swallowed and started walking, but Callum came with me, shooting me looks, obviously not ready to let me stop explaining this yet, but Coach Oliveira”s hand caught me by the bicep as I was passing.

Callum lingered for a moment and then regretfully kept walking because it was obvious the coach wanted a word with me.

“You seem distracted,” he said.

“Yeah,” I admitted. “Sorry.”

“You going to be able to go out there and focus?”

He was assessing me with those sharp eyes, searching for an answer beyond whatever my answer was going to be.

But if I didn”t play, if I let Ari get into my head like this, he would win. Ten years later, he would still be affecting my life.

And on top of that, everything would drop unexpectedly on Callum”s shoulders.

He wasn”t ready to play yet. He thought he was going to be watching today... I”d seen how nervous he was, even just doing that. Would he handle unexpectedly having the game on his shoulders?

I swallowed.

“I”m ready,” I said firmly.

Coach stared into my eyes and then after a moment, nodded and released me.

I couldn”t help noticing that he didn”t look very convinced.

I didn”t blame him. Neither was I.