Page 171 of Studs Up
A dreamy smile spread across his face. His thumb stroked mine, and warm tingles spread through my body.
“I want to play,” he said. “I want to go in there and fight for my job. But if he cuts me, it would be okay.”
“It would fucking not.”
“Nolan, I’ve never lived for anything else but the game. And I never would have if you hadn’t kissed me back in that hotel room. Soccer isn’t everything. I have you, and there’s a whole world out there I haven’t seen.”
His world had been so small, and it suddenly opened up into an explosion of possibilities and opportunities.
“You could play with another team,” I suggested, putting every bit of effort into not sounding like I hated the idea.
“You want to play for any other team?” he countered.
“Fuck no,” I said.
“That’s what I thought,” he said. “I couldn’t imagine playing anywhere else. I don’t want to live anywhere else.”
It was settled. It was all or nothing in there.
“So, if this goes sideways, where would we go?”
“We?” He blinked like he hadn’t heard me properly.
“I wasn’t fucking around when I said I wasn’t going to step on a field without you.”
“You’d really retire if I couldn’t play?”
“Where you go, I go.”
His smile was a mix of contentment and sadness. I knew he didn’t want that for me. Even if he couldn’t play, but it would hurt him, and that would crush me, and no trophy in the world was worth hurting the man I loved.
“You know,” I said, leaning over the consul with a seductive rumble in my voice. “We could go now, anywhere you want.”
“Wow, you really don’t want to go in there, do you?”
I shook my head. He laughed and squeezed my hand.
He leaned until his nose brushed mine, and my breath caught.
“Let’s go in there and hear what they have to say, and if you behave yourself,” he kissed my nose. “I’ll give you road head on the way home.”
I scowled. “Fine.”
I let him go, and we got out of the car.
“This is going to fucking suck,” I muttered and reached for his hand. We rode the elevator, and the closer we got to the top, the more rigid Holden’s body became, and the tighter he squeezed my hand.
Frank was waiting for us when the doors opened.
“Everyone’s here,” he said with a nervous lift in his heels. “You okay?”
Holden swallowed and then nodded.
“I’m on your side here, okay?” Then Frank looked me up and down. “Yours too, I guess.”
“I’m honored,” I said dryly.
Everything was forest green and gold in the offices of the Portland Rovers. We followed Frank through the offices until he led us to a large conference room full of people.
