Page 73 of Sweat

We’re up 5-0 by the half, and Coach brings Rowan out after a solid hour of playing time. He’s still sweating while he pumps the guys up to clinch the win, radiating an intensity that goes straight to my dick. As badly as I want Coach to put me in, there’s nowhere I’d rather be when Rowan whips his shirt off, hikes up the legs of his shorts and plants himself on the bench right beside me. Wedged up so close to my side that I can feel his body heat through my fresh-out-the-package jersey.

Ignoring the crowd and our teammates and the blistering August sun, I look beside me, and time slows. A droplet of sweat rolls down the slope of Rowan’s nose. Rivulets flow down the side of his face, and a glistening sheen covers his lean body like a sugary glaze I want to taste. His eyes meet mine, dark and glinting in the sun. His blazing hand clasps my knee as a smirk crawls across his clean shaven face.

“How’d I look out there?” he asks.

I can’t answer honestly. Not here. I can’t tell him he looked like a walking wet dream. Can’t tell him my arms are folded on my lap because seeing him so capable, confident, andhothas me fully erect. I can’t tell him he’s the most stunning person I’ve seen in the flesh.

“Great,” I say, the word coming out like a low hiccup from all the butterflies swarming in my gut.

He exhales a chuckle before taking his hand back and turning his focus back to the field. It hurts just to keep myself from snatching that hand and pressing it onto my aching boner. It hurts not to press my lips to his and taste the way his sweat mixes with the sweetness of his tongue.

As lucky as I feel to have Rowan in my life, I can’t help but want more. I want all of him all the time. I don’t just want to be his. I want him to be mine.

We win 6-1, and by we, I mean the guys who actually played. In the locker room after, Rowan promises me “we” are going to get me off the bench.

We. Tommy and Rowan. Rowan and Tommy.

“Hey, butt buddy!” Levi’s obnoxious voice bounces off the locker room walls as he pops up behind me and slaps his hand so hard on my back, I flinch. “Lunch at Walker’s Tavern. You in?”

And there’s the reason I need to quit staring at Rowan with heart-eyes all the damn time.Tysonis hokey, but at least it isn’tbutt buddy.Clearly, the team thinks Rowan and I spend too much time together. At worst, they think I’m some sort of submissive pet. It’s only when I’m hard and we’re alone that I don’t mind the thought of being Rowan’s pet.

“Don’t call him that.” Rowan challenges Levi with that hard stare.

Levi sticks his hands up in surrender. “Relax, Cap. I’m just playing with the kid.”

Since I told Rowan about Erica, he’s also been noticeably more defensive when the guys tease me. Can’t say I mind, but I also don’t want to be the reason team morale slips. I still think about what Eve told me at that party while she was high. That half the guys on the team secretly hate Rowan. She also said there’s a rumor going around Rowan is gay, and I know for a fact Rowan still isn’t ready to accept that part of himself.

Trying to make light of Levi’s humor, I send a half smile up to him and say, “Don’t think I burned enough calories today to warrant tavern food.”

“Eh, don’t worry, dude. It’s the first match of the season. You’ll get some playing time before too long.” Levi pats my shoulder gently this time. “And then, you’ll be drowning inso much pussy, you won’t have time to follow Cap around like a little puppy dog.”

“Shut the fuck up, man,” Rowan spits before slamming his locker hard enough to draw the attention of half the starters. The hardness inside him shines from his eyes like lasers, not just to Levi, but to everyone bearing witness. “Tommy’s off-limits. That goes for everyone. Maybe if you all trained as much as him, we’d have gotten more than one goal in the second half.”

As sexy as Rowan is when he’s defending me, the tension he brings to the locker room has my anxiety heightened.

Levi breaks it with one of his smug chortles, clapping Rowan on the shoulder. “No need to go all mama dog on me. Tommy knows I’m his number one fan. You in for Walker’s?”

“Can’t. Going to Olive Garden with my family.”

“Olive Garden? That’s bleak, bro, but I fuck with those breadsticks.”

As soon as Levi is gone for the showers and everyone else is back to paying attention to anything other than us, Rowan asks me, “Hungry? You can come along, if you want.”

“That’d be cool?” I ask, filling with hopeful jitters. I’d much rather pull Rowan into a shower and devour him, but the fact he’s inviting me around his family again feels like a good sign. Then again, he might be asking only because I already told him I’ve got a shift today. “Can’t anyway. Gotta work.”

But then Rowan asks if I want to come over tonight to watch film from the game.

“I can come over after dinner.”

“Stay the night?” he asks, a slight sneakiness to his tone.

Hell yes.

He picks me up at half to eight and we don’t make it a mile down the highway before my hand is sneaking up the legof Rowan’s cotton shorts. He spreads his knees just for me, smirking at the road ahead while I knead the pale, soft part of his thigh. My fingers find Rowan’s coarse pubic hair, and I cradle his balls in my hand, lifting and compressing them.

“Commando, huh?” I ask Rowan’s profile.

“No point in putting underwear on just to pick your ass up and take you to my bed.”

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