Page 17 of The Fullback
CHAPTER FIVE
Hunter
Crystal clear waterlapped against the edge of the boat, the colour so vivid and sparkling it was almost unreal. The sky was the same, cloudless and bright, and when I gazed out into the horizon the two seemed to blend into each other, making it difficult to know where one ended and the other began.
If I looked for too long, it started to give me a headache.
In the distance, the island of Ibiza emerged from the ocean, its outline the only thing breaking up the non-existent line between the sky and sea for miles. From here, I couldn’t see any details of the Old Town or the port or the hills beyond. It was a far-off speck we’d return to at some point, where we’d be lured in by the bright lights like a siren song.
Despite my wish for sun, I was glad there was an awning across the deck that gave us a space to stretch out in the shade. Bailey had already turned pink, even though I’d nagged him endlessly about remembering to put sun cream on. If he burned, I’d never hear the end of it. And I’d forever be mad at myself for not pinning him down and slathering him in it.
I was big enough that it wouldn’t be easy for him to tip me off and run away.
Maybe he wouldn’t want to either.
Maybe it would lead to other things… things we still hadn’t talked about but that loomed over us like a herd of fucking elephants.
It had been two weeks since our last hookup with Aiden. Two weeks since he’d fucked me and made me realise more than one thing about myself. Two weeks since Bailey had let me try sucking his cock and had come all over me.
And in those two fucking weeks, neither of us had said a bloody thing about it.
We’d even tried picking up other people at clubs—men and women—and while they’d all been fine, every one of them had left me feeling kind of empty. Bailey hadn’t kissed me, hadn’t touched me… fuck, he’d barely said a word to me throughout any of them.
Had I done something wrong? Had I crossed some line?
Well, yeah, I had done. We both had. But if he had a problem with that, why the hell hadn’t he said anything? He was a grown-ass man. If there was something wrong, he needed to talk to me.
Not that I had ever been good at that either. I was the first one to admit I wasn’t good at talking about shit, but I never wanted to bother Bailey. He’d done enough for me over the years. He didn’t need to deal with any more of my shit.
“Want to go swimming?” Bailey asked, appearing from below deck in the tiniest pair of swim shorts I’d ever seen. Fucking hell. I could see every inch of his dick through them, and I had to tear my eyes away before he caught me staring. Now I’d had his dick in my mouth once, I really wanted to try it again. And do it better next time.
Like actually suck him instead of doing… whatever the fuck I’d tried to do.
“Sure,” I said, swinging my legs off the edge of the sun bed. I hadn’t really been doing much. Mostly trying to avoid doomscrolling through my phone. I’d been served up a whole bunch of fitness influencers recently, and I was trying to find a way to get away from their content without having to go through and block a million people. Because I knew if I ended up on their pages, trying to block them, I’d end up getting lost in a rabbit hole of routines, hacks, and food ideas. And then my brain would start comparing everything I’d done since the end of the season to those videos, and I’d immediately start spiralling.
That was not how I wanted to spend my holiday.
And I wasn’t going to inflict that on Bailey either.
“Did you put more sun cream on?” I asked as I put my sunglasses down and stretched.
Bailey shrugged, giving me a withering look. “I’m going in the water. I don’t need it.”
“Yes, you fucking do!”
“I’ll be fine. I put some on earlier.”
“Jesus Christ, you’re an arsehole,” I said, reaching out to grab his wrist and pulling him towards me. Bailey yelped in shock as I dragged him into my arms, putting one around his chest to hold him in place while I tried to bend down to grab the sun cream. It wasn’t working and he slipped out of my arms with a laugh. “Oi, come here, dickhead!”
“Seriously, I’m fine!”
“Don’t make me tackle you.”
“You’ll have to catch me first.”
We stared at each other for a second, waiting for the other to move first. Then Bailey winked and dashed towards the edge of the boat, jumping off the side and cannonballing into the water, sending spray into the air.
“Twat,” I muttered fondly as I strode over to the side and watched as he came up for air, pushing his wet hair off his facewith one hand. There was a shit-eating grin on his face and I rolled my eyes. “Seriously? All this over sun cream? Are you fucking twelve?”
