Rebound (Seattle Steelheads #1)(41)

I loved that about us—nothing was a big deal. Seriously, nothing. I was running late and probably wouldn’t be up for much? No problem. He needed to bail because he could barely keep his eyes open? See you tomorrow. My jaw was a little tender from accidentally catching Grady’s elbow, and oral probably wasn’t happening? That was why God invented handjobs.

Geoff was ridiculously easygoing and unflappable. So that was what people meant when they said someone was a breath of fresh air. Everything about this thing we were doing was so easy it was alien to me. Sometimes I still jumped if he moved suddenly. Or if I was dozing off beside him and he shifted or rolled over. That wasn’t his fault, though. I didn’t feel unsafe with him at all. I was just…jumpy. I supposed that would take time to wear off.

It would also take time for me to stop cringing and expecting him to get mad at me when I jumped like that. Every time, I had this split second of absolutely certainty that he would roll his eyes and berate me for acting like he was going to smack me. Didn’t I trust him? Did I really think he would do that? When was I going to chill the fuck out already?

But he never said anything like that. Hell, he’d almost always apologize for startling me, and then wrap an arm around my shoulders until I relaxed. The other times, he was asleep and didn’t notice. That was fine by me.

So yeah. I was hooked. And he hadn’t brought up anal since the night I’d said I didn’t want it. I still kept expecting him to float the idea, especially when we were both wound up and turned on. That had been Nathan’s MO if there was something he wanted and I didn’t—figure out when I was most likely to let my guard down and start prodding me then. He’d been like a velociraptor testing the fence for weak spots, and once he found them, he exploited them. Okay, so that wasn’t the sexiest analogy in the world, but the sex we had wasn’t the sexiest either, so… Velociraptor. Fence. Nathan.

Not Geoff, though. If things kept going like this, and he wasn’t scared off by my schedule once the season started, I would be one happy man.

Lying beside him tonight, my body still thrumming from two long, incredible blowjobs, I smiled into the darkness. I was exhausted from him and from an intense practice this afternoon, and I felt amazing all over. There was a bruise on my hip that throbbed a little, but it didn’t bother me. It was from checking Wilson during a scrimmage yesterday. He’d laughed and called me an asshole, and I’d told him to quit skating like my grandma, and it had all been in good fun. No venom. No malice. No being punished by someone I was supposed to trust. The lingering tenderness was annoying, but not in a way that would make me lie awake all night thinking about it.

I closed my eyes and sighed happily. Yeah, I could have done without wasting so much of my life with Nathan, but at least waiting to dump him until recently had the silver lining of dropping Geoff into my world.

Eventually, I started to drift off. Between practice and Geoff, it was a wonder I’d stayed awake as long as I had, but that was what happened when my brain wouldn’t shut up. At least it was good stuff for once.

I must have finally fallen asleep because the shout jerked me awake. My eyes flew open, panic shooting through me, and I turned toward the sound just in time for an elbow to catch me in the chest.

I rolled away, sat up, and flicked on the light.

Everything stopped. Sitting up beside each other in bed, Geoff and I were both shaking and trying to catch our breath, but we were awake now.

I watched him. After a moment. He turned to me. Sweat beaded along the side of his face and darkened his salt and pepper hair.

“Sorry,” he whispered. “Figured this was bound to happen, but… Sorry. Jesus.”

“It’s okay.” I rubbed the place his elbow had smacked me, ignoring the way my heart pounded under it. He didn’t hit me. It was a nightmare, for fuck’s sake. He wasn’t even awake.

His gaze flicked to my hand. “What’s wrong?”

I immediately dropped my hand and my gaze. “Nothing. Nothing. We should, um, try to get some sleep before—”

He put his hand on my leg over the sheet, and I about jumped out of my skin.

“Hey, hey.” He eased his hand down again. “Relax.”

I winced. Shit. Bet he hadn’t bargained for this—wake up sweating and shaking from a nightmare, and then have to comfort me. He watched me, and horror dawned in his expression as his spine straightened. “Oh shit. Tell me I didn’t…” He swallowed. “Did I hit you?”

“Just… You know, your elbow. It was—”

“Jesus. I’m sorry.” He gathered me in his arms, and I closed my eyes as I leaned against him. Stroking my hair with an unsteady hand, he said, “I am so sorry, Asher.”

“You were asleep,” I said quietly.

“Still. I would never hurt you.”

The hair on my neck stood up. His words were eerily similar to a promise I’d believed in the past as I’d dabbed blood from the corner of my mouth or iced a fresh, throbbing bruise. I believed Geoff, though, and even the alarm bells in my head that screamed You believed Nathan too! weren’t enough to convince me not to. Geoff hadn’t even been conscious, for God’s sake.

“It wasn’t your fault.” I drew back and looked in his eyes. “Like I said, you were asleep. And we should probably get some sleep.”