Chapter 11: Thad

Chapter 11

Thad

Damn, I needed that.

Technically, that was for Kelley, but as I lie on my back, covered in cum, trying to catch my breath, I have to admit I did this for me as well.

I wasn’t lying when I said I wouldn’t tell a soul and he can trust me, but I’m not conceited enough to think this was completely altruistic of me.

Again, damn. That’s the only word I can think as I begin to come down from what very well could be the best sex of my life.

Kelley was so hot, so uninhibited. He took what he wanted, asked for what he needed, yet was happy to exchange that power role. From pliant to dominant, he has it all locked up inside him, and I’m so happy he trusted me enough to share it with me.

And now, as he lies in my arms, I wait for regret to come. It doesn’t.

Have I possibly screwed my entire career for it? Yes. But there’s no way he’s telling anyone, and my lips are sealed.

Saying the phrase “Would you like fries with that?” a thousand times a day holds no appeal, and while there’s nothing wrong with being in fast food—hell, I probably couldn’t last a day without telling someone off for being rude to hospitality workers—I’ve always wanted more for myself. I wanted to be the guy who took care of his family after they spent so much time, money, and effort on me. I’d love to take that burden away from my parents, so I need to make sure this job sticks. It’s not going to be nearly as much as what I would’ve made in Major League Baseball, but it will still be more than I’d ever need. I will have enough to pay my parents back and let them finally retire. I’ll be able to keep my brother out of trouble. Hopefully.

So yes, even though Kelley just gave me the best sex I’ve ever had and I want to do it again, we probably shouldn’t. He’s broken his dry spell now, so we’re all good. I should get up and leave before Brady comes back. If he comes back. If he didn’t come back, then we’d?—

Hell, I just told myself not again, and I guess my brain—or, more likely, the brain in between my legs—is already trying to find loopholes to my own rule.

Though, we probably could stretch this thing out while we’re here in the middle of nowhere and Brady keeps disappearing on us.

“What’s your last name?” Kelley’s random question is random.

“Huh?”

“I don’t know your last name.”

“Do you need to know it? For, like, legal documents for the sexual harassment case you’ve decided to file?”

Kelley turns his head toward me, his warm brown eyes crinkling. “What?”

“It’s a really random thought after having sex with someone you shouldn’t have.”

“So you jumped to I’m going to sue you?” He rolls onto his side to face me properly. “You’re not having regrets, are you?”

“Definitely no. But I?—”

He presses a single finger to my lips. “That was perfect, and I in no way have any complaints. We both wanted that. It might have been unprofessional, but I don’t want you to worry about me ruining anything for you.”

“Ditto. I meant my word. I won’t tell anyone.”

“Weirdly, even though you’ve given me no real reason to, I trust you. ”

I relax. “It’s St. James.”

“Thad St. James. Sounds like an important name. You know, like, there should be a third or fourth attached to the end.”

“Especially when my full name is Theodore St. James the Seventeenth.”

“The seventeenth?”

“I’m joking. There’s no important number next to my name.”

“Ah. Thad the First.”

“Technically Theodore, but the first all the way. And despite what my uppity last name might imply, I’m not from a wealthy family.”

“Oh, I wasn’t meaning?—”

“I know.” I roll over to my side now so we’re facing each other. “It’s a thing with me. Growing up, people assumed we had money because of how much my parents sunk into my baseball career, but they worked hard for that. I worked hard to be everything they expected me to be, and … I failed them. So when other kids would come to my house and saw that we were more lower-middle class than the rich kid they expected me to be, it was as if I could see their disappointment. I don’t know if it was that they were planning to use me for my nonexistent money or if that’s the only reason they were friendly to me or what, but I learned to be up-front about it. Especially if people assume I’m important because of my last name.”

“I can relate. Sort of. My family had no money growing up, and I got where I did on scholarships and fundraisers, basically. Had a few girls in high school and college who tried to be my girlfriend in a very obvious way where they only wanted me because they knew I was future MLB material. It’s not exactly the same, but I do get it.”

“Oh yeah, had lots of those kinds of ‘friends’ in college too.”

“Did we …” Kelley mock gasps. “Just figure out we have more in common than our love of baseball? No. What?”

I love his playful side. “We probably have a hell of a lot in common. It’s why I resented you. You know, what does he have that I don’t have? Why was he lucky enough to be blessed with enough talent to take him all the way when I wasn’t?”

I can tell he’s about to cut me off with the way his brow scrunches and lips part.

“And I’m not saying you didn’t work for it. I know you did. But there has to be something about natural ability that got you across that line. I pushed myself to breaking point to make it, and then there came a time where I had to admit I don’t have what it takes.”

“I’m sorry,” Kelley says softly.

“You have nothing to be sorry for. It’s not like you kneecapped me with a baseball bat to take my spot in the majors.”

“I would never Tonya Harding someone.”

I laugh. “Neither would I. Mainly because I know there were way too many people ahead of me. That would be a lot of kneecapping, and who has time for that?”

“What does it say about me that your laziness for violence based off of the amount of effort needed is comforting?”

“That maybe sex has made your self-preservation instincts weak?”

His eyes light up at that. “Hey, it’s usually the opposite. I call this a win.”

I reach for him and run my hand down his back, stopping at the curve of his spine. “I’d say this was more than a win. I’d say it was a home run at the bottom of the ninth with all the bases loaded.”

“Mmm, talk dirty to me,” he deadpans.

Okay, I’ll hand it to him, Kelley never came across as this playful guy before.He really knows how to be himself when he lets go. When his anxiety is not gnawing at him.

“You’re funner than I thought you were,” I admit.

“I could say the same. Because what we just did would be considered fun.” Kelley rolls closer to me, almost closing the small gap between our naked bodies. “And you know what they say about fun needing to repeat itself.”

“Actually, I don’t think I know that saying at all.”

“You know, anything worth doing should be done all the time.” Kelley inches closer, his lips tantalizingly close to mine, and as much as I’m telling myself to pull away, I don’t think there’s a force in the world strong enough to make me do it.

As if proving me wrong, the main door to the cabin opens, and there it is. The force is scary enough to make me pull away and jump a mile high. Brady’s back.

“Shit,” I say under my breath and practically fall to the ground as I roll off the bed and try to scrounge for my clothes.

Kelley gets up, too, and throws on his pajamas.

We stare at each other, breathing heavily, neither of us sure on how to explain this away.

He breaks first, shoving me toward his window. “I’ll tell him I was napping while you … you were…”

“Taking a walk barefoot and without a jacket? Do you think he’ll believe I went for a walk because hypothermia sounds fun?”

“Is there any excuse under the sun to explain us naked in here other than we had sex?”

“Anything. We got locked outside and needed to share body heat when we managed to get back in. We were sticking our asses out the window to sun our assholes because it’s therapeutic. There has to be something.”

“Those … are not things. He’d see right through those.”

He’s right, but ugh. I really don’t want to go out there when all I have on me is jeans and a base-layer shirt. “Can you at least give me a pair of socks so I don’t get immediate frostbite?”

“Kelley?” Brady calls out. “Thad?”

“Go, go,” Kelley whisper-yells. “I’ll distract him.”

Before he reaches the door, Kelley throws me a pair of his thick socks. They’ll help, but not much.

I somehow need to get out of here and around the other side of the cabin without being seen so I can sneak back inside through Brady’s and my bedroom window and pretend I’d been there the whole time. My feet shouldn’t freeze that quickly. Hopefully.

As soon as I’m finished wrangling with the socks, I unlatch the window as quietly as I can and push it open. Noise in this place travels so easily, and it wouldn’t surprise me if Brady already heard everything we’ve been whispering back and forth, but on the small chance that he hasn’t, I have to be careful getting out of here. There’s a bit of a drop to the ground because the cabin is on stilts. There’s no way to jump out of here gracefully, but at least the snow should help break my fall.

As soon as I jump, I realize I’m wrong. Not snow. Ice. It’s fucking ice, and now that I’ve possibly broken my ankles and fallen to my side, my clothes are wet, I’m in pain, and I still have to get around to my bedroom without being caught.

“What was that?” Brady asks loudly.

At least, I hope it was loudly, otherwise there’s no chance of him not hearing us already. My uncoordinated jump slash fall was louder than us though. So … still have to push through, I guess.

“Oh, did you hear something?” Kelley could use some acting classes.

I can’t go around the front of the cabin because if I go that way, I have to walk past the front porch and down the side that has the sliding doors on the back deck, so I have to sneak down the other side and past the kitchen windows. They’re smaller and easier to avoid detection.

With it being snowy and icy and wearing socks means my footsteps are silent, which is a bonus. I don’t even dare look inside as I sneak past the kitchen, and it’s only when I get to my bedroom window that I slow down to peek inside. The room is empty, but that’s when I run into my next challenge.

The window is latched from the inside.

Options run through my head. I can’t smash the window. There’s no point in that because of the noise. Then there’s the issue of actually pulling myself up to climb through the window once it’s open. It’s not impossible, but quietly? Yeah, I don’t have that much faith.

Okay, so here’s the plan. This is what I’ll do.

I’ll walk up to the sliding doors and get Kelley or Brady to let me in, where I’ll explain that I was in my room and I thought I heard a bear. So I went to the window to see and then started to worry about bears breaking in and if they can climb through the window, so I thought I’d try to see if I could climb through even though bears are like three times my size, but that’s not the point. If I couldn’t climb through it, then a bear wouldn’t. But it turns out my parkour skills are not great, and instead of climbing in and out, I fell, and that’s why I’m outside. In the snow. With hardly any clothes on.

Honestly, who wouldn’t believe that story?

All right. Here I go. I can do this.

I turn and walk up to the back deck, my heart hammering, but when I get to the sliding glass door, Brady and Kelley are on the couch, deep in conversation.

Brady’s back is to me, and Kelley barely acknowledges me, but he does run his arm along the back of the couch and summons me by waving me in.

Cautiously, I open the door, and Brady turns to look at me, but it’s as if he’s looking right through me.

“Where have you been?” It’s not an accusation, more a cordial question he doesn’t care to have the answer to.

Because as soon as I start my amazing, brilliant bear story, all I get out is, “I thought I heard a bear,” and he’s cutting me off.

“Oh, cool.” He turns toward the TV. “What are you watching?”

That was … easy. A waste of a perfectly good story, but okay.

Also, the screen is off. Does he not realize the TV isn’t even on?

I point to Brady and mouth to Kelley, “Is he okay?”

Kelley does a subtle shake of his head. “What do you want to watch?” Kelley asks.

“Whatever you want.”

There’s something down about Brady’s tone, and his attitude is all … off. If those guys he was with hurt him, I’m gonna be pissed.

“I’m going to go, uh, get changed,” I say.

“Okay.” Brady’s still staring blankly at the off TV.

“I’ll make hot cocoa.” Kelley stands, and instead of going to my bedroom, I follow him into the kitchen.

My feet are freezing, so I take off the wet socks, letting my feet sink into the heated flooring. “What’s his deal?”

“I don’t know. It’s almost like he’s here, but he’s not really here. Do you think something …”

“Something happened with those older guys? I’ll kill them.” I turn to prepare to leave the cabin and give those fucks a piece of my mind when Kelley stops me.

“You can’t go to them, or Brady will know we know.”

At this point, I don’t care. I’m growing kind of protective of my colleague. “Can I go yell at them, at least?”

Kelley smiles. “No, and we don’t even know if that’s what’s wrong.”

“True, but what else could it be?”

“Why don’t we find out?”

“You mean … ask? That seems too easy.”

“Hey, I got you to open up with cocoa?—”

“That I made,” I point out.

“It’s not who makes it, it’s what’s in it. It’s like truth serum.”

“Sounds scientifically legit too.”

Kelley nods. “Just think, the sooner we get the info out of him, and if it does have to do with the two guys, we can fix it, he can go out again, and then we can …” He glances into the living room and then back at me. “Finish what we started.”

“Funny. I remember already finishing. Hard.”

“We still have another week here.” Kelley blinks up at me, and I give in. Just like that.

“I’ll help you make the cocoa.”