He grabbed a pair of bright blue boxers from his locker and stepped into them before searching in his duffel bag for his favorite T-shirt. He didn’t care how ratty it was; tonight he wanted to wear it. Needed it, to be honest. It comforted him, as corny as that sounded. He found it at the bottom and yanked it out, smiling. It was pretty worn, but didn’t have any tears, and because it had been washed so many times, it was the softest piece of clothing he owned. He pulled it over his head and felt the gray fabric stretch around his shoulders and arms. There wasn’t anything special about this shirt per se. The front boasted a worn-out graphic of a baseball, nothing spectacular. No, it wasn’t the shirt itself that was special. It was the memories that came with it.
He remembered the day his mother gave him this shirt, six years ago on his eighteenth birthday. It was the last thing she had ever given him. Three short months later, the cancer had come fast and hard, devastating her body until she could no longer fight.
Caleb shook his head. He didn’t need these thoughts in his head right now. He bent over to step into his jeans.
Someone gasped behind him.
He turned, his jeans pulled halfway up his thighs. Caleb drew a sharp breath as he took in the sexy blond man staring wide-eyed at him. Fuck! His body began to react and he yanked up his jeans as fast as he could, quickly pulling up the zipper.
But he couldn’t tear his gaze away from the deep chocolate eyes. The same shiver he felt earlier in the day raced down his spine, and his cock thickened. Soon, it would be obvious he had a hard-on.
“Lucas, over here,” Coach Newberry called.
Caleb’s gut clenched. This was the announcer?
He slid his gaze to his locker as Lucas turned toward Coach Newberry. “Yes, sir.”
Caleb didn’t watch him as the man crossed the locker room. He didn’t watch as the man’s sexy little ass pressed against the tight denim of his jeans. And he definitely didn’t watch the man run his fingers through his short, spikey hair.
Fuck. He was in trouble. Big trouble.
“Guys,” Coach called.
Caleb put on his socks and shoes, then started to close his locker when he spied the slip of paper Juan had given him. He shoved it into his pocket before moving to the section in the locker room they called the “meeting area.”
Rows of folding chairs faced the large wall with a gigantic screen and a white board hanging to its left. More chairs lined the right wall and Lucas sat in one of those. Caleb ambled over, trying to act as nonchalant as possible—had he ever tried to be nonchalant in his life?—and took a seat on the end of the first row.
With Lucas close enough to touch, Caleb fought the urge to do just that. He couldn’t keep himself from staring, though. The beautiful man with the silky and spikey blond hair also had blond eyebrows arching ever so slightly over those chocolate brown eyes, a perky nose, and delicate, creamy skin. He had those high cheekbones that people always talked about, and his cheeks dipped in a little, like he was sucking them in, but Caleb knew he wasn’t. God, he was model-beautiful. His rosy pink lips pouted just a little. Caleb wanted to bite those lips and see if they tasted as sweet as they looked.
Lucas darted out his tongue and wet his lips, and Caleb nearly groaned out loud. His rock-hard cock pressed uncomfortably against his zipper. He knew he would have to do something about it soon.
“Hey, you okay, man?” Brandon asked as he sat next to him and slapped his leg. “You look a little flushed.”
Caleb tried to compose himself and hoped he didn’t need to wipe any drool from his lips. He turned to face his friend. “I’m fine. Just a little stressed, I guess.”
Brandon seemed to buy that and nodded understanding.
Caleb’s gaze darted back to Lucas and his breath hitched when he caught the man staring back. A deep blush spread across Lucas’ face—cute—and the corners of Caleb’s mouth quirked up.
Coach Newberry stepped in front, along with the manager and Coach Ibarra.
“Guys, I’m not going to beat around the bush,” Newberry began and sighed. “Today was rough. You started out bad and got worse.”
Everyone nodded. There was no denying it.
“Listen, guys, I understand we have bad days, but you guys made it even worse with this attitude.”
Some of the guys bristled, but Caleb knew the coach was right. His own attitude had sucked. Caleb always felt that if you couldn’t acknowledge what you’d done, you couldn’t work through it, so he worked hard to be self-aware. To understand how his actions or inactions contributed to a situation. But, it was still difficult to hear that you were an ass, no matter if you knew it already or not.
The other coaches got in on the speech, and before Caleb knew it, thirty minutes had passed. Thirty minutes of being told they sucked. Yeah, that was just what he needed to hear ‘cause he didn’t already feel bad enough. At least the lecture helped him with his boner problem. His dick gave up on the whole idea of sex and shriveled as the coaches droned on.
“Okay, men,” Newberry said. “That’s it. I expect better. Now, if you can all pull yourselves together, I’ve got someone to introduce.” He waved over Lucas.
The guy blushed as he moved to stand with the coach.
Hmm, not a fan of the spotlight.
Caleb drank him in, and hardened again. He shifted slightly in his seat, looking for a more comfortable position. It didn’t help. This guy was sexy as hell.
* * * *
Newberry clapped his shoulder, and Lucas flinched. His eyes widened and he took a deep breath and tried to steady his nerves.
“You guys may have noticed that we have a new sports announcer,” Newberry began, his large hand still gripping Lucas’ shoulder. “Let’s welcome him and let him tell us a little about himself.”
As Newberry stepped away, leaving him standing alone in front of a room full of sexy men, all eyes on him, Lucas forced himself to breathe. He could do this. His gaze darted around the room, landing on Caleb. Number thirteen. It had been hard to keep his eyes off him for all nine innings. Caleb held his gaze and Lucas calmed a little. Odd.
He cleared his throat and forced himself to look at the entire team. Why was it he could talk freely behind a microphone, but put him in front of people and he almost forgot his own name?
“Um, yes. My name is Lucas. Lucas Landry,” he said, pausing to glance at Caleb again. “I started with KRVH News and Sports Radio yesterday. And, well, I was actually hired for news, not sports.” He surveyed the room, and it seemed they were all listening. “I…I wasn’t expecting this. When I arrived at the office yesterday, I was informed that the previous announcer was leaving and they needed someone right away.”
“What happened to Al?” a player asked.
Before Lucas could answer, another guy in the back raised his hand.
“Hi,” he hollered as he rose from his chair. “I’m Jamie Vance. The Mascot.”
“You might have seen him hopping around out there, looking like Peter Rabbit,” another guy called. Snickers and laughter followed.
“Hey, I don’t mind being the rabbit,” Jamie announced, smiling. “Gives me a chance to work on my hip-hop moves.”
Lucas smiled as the other guys groaned. The kid was funny.
“Oh, God, Jamie. That was bad.”
“Lame.”
“Whatever.” Jamie smiled and gazed at the players. “You’re all just jealous of my moves and my…great hare.” He ran his long fingers through his shaggy brown hair before retaking his seat.
Silence fell over the room as his words sunk in, then one by one, men began laughing. The guy next to Jamie tousled the kid’s hair, eliciting a yelp from him.
Lucas glanced at Caleb and his breath caught in his throat when he caught sight of the blinding smile. He froze for a moment and could only smile back, not even caring everyone could see him.
Laughter filled the room again, and Lucas realized that the stress and bad mood from the game had mostly run its course. His gazed sta
yed glued on Caleb as the merriment finally began to die.
“What about it?” Caleb asked quietly, his icy blue eyes boring into him.
Lucas furrowed his brow, trying to figure out what Caleb was asking.
“About Al?” Caleb reminded him.
“Oh, what happened to Al?” He swept his gaze over the team again, noting all eyes were once again on him. He cleared his throat. “Um, yeah, well apparently, Al met some woman online and gave notice. He’s moving to Utah.”
Everyone seemed a little shocked.
“You telling us that Al left us for some pussy?” Frank asked.
“Shut up, Frank,” someone called. “Even old guys can get it up sometimes.”
“Yeah, just ask Coach Ibarra!”
More snickers and laughter filled the room.
“I mean, according to my boss, that’s what happened,” Lucas confirmed. “Anyway, they asked me to fill in for now.” He felt the blush creep up his neck. What he had to say next was embarrassing and he was pretty sure they would be less than kind about it. “So, um, yeah. You might have noticed today that I…I know very little about baseball. I was lucky to have some help in the press box today, but I need a crash course in the game.”
Silence blanketed the room. For about ten seconds.
“What the hell, man?”
“How are you going to report a freakin’ game?”
“Are you shitting us?”
Lucas felt his face redden and he stared at the ground.
“I’ll do it,” a husky voice offered.
His head whipped up. Caleb was staring directly at him, making him feel exposed as the man’s gaze deliberately dropped to his lips, then back up to his eyes. What the hell? Was Caleb teasing him? Great. All he needed was some straight jock to start messing with him.
Lucas bit his lower lip. Think, he yelled inside his head. You can’t spend time with him. He’s too hot. And he’s a jock. Historically, he and jocks had never gotten along too well. But they were all jocks and he had to learn from someone.
“Thanks, Dodson,” Coach Newberry said, breaking into Lucas’ thoughts. “Touch base with Lucas and then go home. That last goes for everyone. Go home, get some rest. Be ready for the game tomorrow evening. I want you all here ready to work hard with a good attitude. We’re not off to the best start in our series with the Lions.”
The manager stepped in front again. “I expect my players to follow curfew, stay away from alcohol, and get rested. Now go!”
Lucas watched as the men began talking and standing at the same time, pure chaos. His eyes scanned for Caleb, surely somewhere in the crowd, but he couldn’t find him. He sighed. Looked like he’d have to try and talk with him tomorrow.
When someone tapped his shoulder, he nearly jumped out of his skin and whirled around.
“Whoa,” Caleb said, hands up, palms out, “I didn’t mean any harm. I come in peace. Wow, you’re skittish, huh?”
Lucas felt the blood drain from his face as he searched his brain for something to say. Anything. Really, anything at all!
“Sorry,” he said, not wanting to look Caleb in the eye.
“Hey, I’m sorry, man. I won’t do that again. Promise.” Caleb crossed his heart and smiled.
Fuck. That smile did things to him. Lucas sensed trouble in his future.
“So, you want to start tonight?”
Lucas froze. “Um, tonight? Start tonight?”
“Yeah. Unless you have something you need to do. I mean, we have a game tomorrow and you were a little hard on us out there today. You definitely need some tutoring.”
“Hard on you?” Lucas asked incredulously as he looked around the now-empty locker room. “You think I was hard on you?”
Caleb nodded.
Lucas threw up his arms in defeat. “For your information, this was one of the worst days of my life. I hate baseball. I hate sports in general. And I really hate jocks!” He knew he was losing his cool, but damn, he hated having some stupid jock think he was an idiot and was hard on the team because he just didn’t understand the game. “For your information, I was hard on you guys because you kept dropping the damn ball! You let the Lions destroy you!”
Caleb stared at him for a minute with those soft blue eyes. He looked…confused.
“What?” he barked at Caleb, exasperated.
“How can you hate baseball?”
Lucas stared at him. “That’s what you heard?” He rolled his eyes and pushed past Caleb. “I’ve got to get going. We can start tomorrow,” he huffed as he strode across the locker room and out the door.
* * * *
Caleb watched him leave and his lips twitched into a smile. Lucas was a firecracker. All that passion rolled up in that tight body. Damn! It was going to be hard to stay away from that. God, I’m an idiot. How the hell was he going to play it straight around Lucas? His cock was hard as marble and all he wanted to do was kiss those sweet, angry lips.
Tomorrow was going to be one hell of a day.
“Tomorrow?” His voice echoed in the empty locker room. “Shit. I don’t have his number,” he said as he grabbed his bag and ran to the exit.
He reached the parking lot and came to a stop as soon as he saw Lucas coming his way, head down, muttering. Caleb was pretty sure he heard the word “jocks.”
“Hey,” Caleb called, hoping he didn’t startle him again.
Lucas stopped. “Shit!”
Caleb grinned. “Sorry. I wasn’t trying to scare you.”
“I’m not scared,” Lucas shot back. “I’m just…tired. It’s been a long day.”
“Yeah, I know. Not the best for either of us, I guess.”
Lucas granted him a half-smile. “Agreed. I’m ready to drown my sorrows in some chocolate ice cream and go to bed.”
The image of Lucas in bed popped into Caleb’s head, and the intense heat that unfurled in his belly surprised him. His dick throbbed against his zipper, painfully at this point. “Chocolate ice cream, huh? I’m a mint chocolate chip guy myself,” he admitted, waggling his eyebrows.
Lucas laughed, and the sound crashed into Caleb. His heart raced and his skin heated. His balls ached and it took everything in him not to grab the man and kiss him senseless. He was sure Lucas was gay—he had always had pretty good gaydar—but he always had to be careful around town.
“Look, I forgot to give you my number,” Lucas said, offering him a piece of notepaper with a number on it.
“Thanks,” Caleb replied, taking it and stuffing it into his pocket alongside the other slip of paper Juan had given him earlier. “What time should I call tomorrow?”
“I’m up before the sun, so anytime would be fine.”
“Sounds good. Talk to you then.”
Lucas headed to his car. Caleb stood still for a minute, unable to tear his eyes from the man. Yes, he knew he was in deep. This season would definitely be interesting.
Chapter 2
The next morning, Caleb woke to find himself on his stomach, naked and sprawled across his king-size bed. His sheets and duvet were in a twisted mess and his dick was stiff and throbbing, pressed between the mattress and his stomach.
He flipped over and groaned. Last night he had lain in bed for hours thinking about Lucas. He couldn’t remember the last time a man filled his thoughts like this. Those incredibly warm brown eyes flashed in Caleb’s mind and he gave in to the fantasy.
He wrapped his fingers around his cock and felt the first beads of precum bubble out. His thumb swiped over his slit and he shuddered, closing his eyes and envisioning Lucas in his bed with him. With his bowl of ice cream. Licking the spoon.
He stroked himself slowly, letting the anticipation build. He wondered what Lucas would say if he knew Caleb was gay, too. Caleb pulled at his full balls and moaned. He grasped his cock again and moved faster, his hips thrusting upward as he jerked off. So much for taking his time; this was going to be a quick one.
With his release close, he gave in to the desire. “Mmm, yes, Lu
cas,” he whispered, “that’s it, baby.”
The fantasy of Lucas stroking him was all it took to push him over the edge. His orgasm came in waves, and he cried Lucas’ name as he rode it through, letting the colors pour over him, the blinding light flashing at him until he gasped. His cum painted his chest with several streaks until the last bit of his release dribbled out with a shudder.
Caleb lay still for a few minutes, letting himself come back down. He felt like a high school teenager, finishing as fast as he had.
He grabbed the shirt he had tossed onto the carpet when climbing into bed last night. After wiping his chest, he smiled. He looked forward to calling Lucas, and hoped he was up early like he’d mentioned last night. He swung his legs over the side of the bed and frowned at the disarray. It was time to face facts—he was a slob. There was no way he was going to let Lucas see this disaster. Something about him made Caleb want to put his best foot forward. He sighed and pulled himself up. Time to get busy. He had an apartment to clean and a hot man to call.
* * * *
Lucas had not slept well. After giving up around four in the morning, he got out of bed and decided to research baseball on the web. He was pulling out his hair within twenty minutes.
What the hell is a DH? And why are some people so against it?
He typed “DH” and “baseball” into the Google bar and the words “designated hitter” popped up.
What the hell? You can have someone hit the ball for you? Too bad I didn’t know about that in kindergarten, the one and only day I played T-ball.
He gave up and grabbed himself a couple of granola bars, then looked around his little studio rental. He had moved so quickly, he had yet to find a more permanent place. At least living at the extended-stay hotel would give him a chance to find out more about the area. On the plus side, it had a fridge and small stove. He wasn’t a bad cook and had a few of his own pots and pans still packed in a box. He stretched as he paced around his place. He still needed to get unpacked. He would be here at least a month or so. It was time to make himself a little more at home.
Caleb's Choice Page 2
