Roughing the Kicker (Austin Troopers)

Chapter Seven

A quick shower. Fortunately, Kristen didn’t protest and didn’t find the request strange. In the bathroom, Rye turned on the water and stripped out of his clothes. He stared down at his dick, which was completely flaccid. No surprise. Lately, it didn’t respond to Kristen’s flirting, or her touch, at all.

Fortunately, there were certain memories that never failed to get Rye turned on, and as he stepped under the stream of water, he let his mind go back to his college years. He was dating Kristen back then, but this particular memory had nothing to do with her.

Rye was lying on his bed, attempting to study for his history exam when Max returned to the room. His hair was wet, and he wore only a towel wrapped around his waist. He’d obviously just come from a shower in the shared bath in their dormitory.

“You going out tonight?” Max asked.

Rye shook his head. “Nah. Gotta study.” He was about to return his focus to the war for Texas’ independence when Max abruptly dropped his towel to the floor.

“Yeah. I should probably do the same.” Max made no move to pick up the towel, instead standing there in the middle of the room, stark naked. “Maybe I’ll stay in, too.”

Rye saw guys naked all the time in the locker room and thought nothing of it. Now, though, he found his eyes lingering on his roommate’s naked body. Probably lingering too long, as Max caught him looking.

“You like what you see or something?”

“What? No.” What kind of question was that? Everyone knew he and Kristen were inseparable, and the sex they had was great. “Kinda surprised you aren’t putting any clothes on, though.”

“I will in a minute,” Max said. He moved to Rye’s bed and sat down on the edge, making Rye sit up, too. “There’s something I’ve been thinking about.”

“What’s that?” Rye asked.

“Have you ever kissed a guy before, Rye?”

What the hell? “Huh? Of course not.”

“You should try it sometime.”

“Forget it, man. I have Kris.”

“And she’s hot,” Mas said. “Still, it can be good to open your mind to other possibilities.”

“Like kissing a guy? No thanks.”

“You sure? Because I bet you’d like it.” The next thing Rye knew, Max scooted closer to him on the bed and leaned in and kissed him.

As Max’s lips met his, Rye’s first instinct was to push him away. Except as his roommate’s lips brushed over his own a second time, something stirred inside Rye. Maybe he did like it, at least a little bit.

That scared the hell of him, and he tried to pull away. “Jesus, Max, what are you doing?”

“Something I’ve wanted to do for a long time. I think you have, too.” Max moved in to kiss him again, and this time Rye met him halfway. It was wrong. So wrong. But damned if it didn’t feel good.

While Kristen’s lips were soft and luscious, Max’s were rougher, more chapped. Rye didn’t mind, though, and as Max pushed at Rye’s lips with his tongue, Rye welcomed him. He was aware of his heart rate accelerated as the kiss deepened. He was aware of something else, too, something that scared him even more.

“Oh, God,” Max murmured, his breath hot against Rye’s mouth. As Max pulled away, Rye noticed his roommate’s cock was hard, and Rye couldn’t stop staring at it. “Now you’ve done it. You got me hard, Rye.” Max put his hand on his penis and began to stroke himself.

Rye knew he should look away, but he couldn’t. Nor could he ignore his own growing arousal.

“I know you like what you see now,” Max said, directing his eyes to the obvious bulge in Rye’s shorts. “I bet you want to touch it, don’t you?”

Rye was about to shake his head, but Max reached over and grabbed his hand, directing it to his cock. “That’s right,” his roommate said. “Touch me, stroke me. Like you’ve wanted to do for a long time.”

Rye wanted to deny it, but he knew he couldn’t deny that he wanted to do it now, so he closed his hand around Max’s cock and stroked him.

“That’s it. That’s it,” Max encouraged. “God, Ryeland. That feels so good. Please, don’t stop.”

It felt good to Rye, too, so he kept up his motion until finally Max let out a guttural moan and spilled his juices all over Rye’s hand and bed.

Rye snapped his eyes open. His hand was clasped around his penis, which was now fully erect. He quickly turned the water off. No jerking off in the shower now. Kristen expected him to make love to her, and he couldn’t lose his hard on until he’d satisfied her.

If he needed to, he’d think about Max some more. Or maybe Cutter.

He toweled off quickly and stepped into the bedroom, where Kristen waited for him.

Her eyes landed on his erection, and she smiled. “That’s more like it. You had me a little worried last night.”

~&~

“How’s the food?” Kristen asked later, as they sat at the table eating dinner and drinking wine. “Is it okay?”

“It’s delicious, babe. Really.” Rye wanted to reassure her. He knew Kristen had gone to a lot of effort to fix a nice dinner for them. She was trying, and he needed to try to.

“Okay.” She looked at him uncertainly. “You’re kind of quiet, that’s all.”

He was, because he knew after dinner that Kristen would want to have sex again, and Rye wasn’t sure he was up for it. Or rather, that he could get up for it. And he couldn’t stall by saying he wanted to shower again so he could spend a few minutes alone while he fantasized about touching and kissing a man.

“Sorry. I’m kind of lost in my thoughts tonight.” He took another bite of the eggplant parmesan. It was one of his favorite meals, and he did appreciate Kristen’s effort and thoughtfulness in making it for him.

“About us? And what happened yesterday?” she asked. “I promise I’m going to see about treatment, baby.”

He waved his hand. “I know you will. It’s not about that. I’m preoccupied with the game coming up.”

“Denver, right?”

Rye nodded. “Yeah. The defending champs. It’ll be a tough game.”

“You always play well there, though.”

“True. I love the thin, mile high air.” He smiled. “It can make kicks soar.” He always told Coach J that his comfort range in Denver’s high altitude was a good five yards longer than in any other stadium, even the closed-roof ones where he didn’t have to worry about weather conditions.

“You’ll be fine,” Kristen said.

“I hope so. We’ve got the playoffs on the line,” he said. “Besides, I always want to be the best. You know that.” He reached for the bottle of wine and topped off his glass. “Do you want a little more?”

After a second, she shook her head. “No, I’m good. Thanks.” Rye suspected she wanted another glass but was holding back in an effort to keep the peace and make amends for the previous night.

“I want to be the best, too,” she continued. “That’s why the past year has been so hard with the shoots not coming as often as I’d like.”

“I know.” Rye reached across the table and touched her hand. “That’ll change. The jobs will come. It’s only a matter of finding the right ones,” he said. “You’re still the most beautiful woman in the world.”

“You mean that?”

“Yes.” It wasn’t a complete lie. She was still a stunningly beautiful woman. The fact that he no longer desired her the way he once had did nothing to change that.

“Thanks, baby. It helps hearing that. I love you so much.”

Rye nodded. “I love you, too, Kris. That hasn’t changed.”

They finished dinner, and Rye helped her clean up the kitchen, something he hadn’t done in years. He didn’t have too. That’s what they had a cleaning service for. Graciela prepared the meals, leaving detailed instructions on how to reheat them, and the cleaning service picked up after them. It had become an easy, posh lifestyle.

“Kind of feels like old times a little bit, doesn’t it?” Kristen asked. “Before we could afford to hire people to do these things for us?”

“It does, yeah,” Rye said. “This nice, though.” It might do them both some good to recall the way things used to be and try to get back to that a little bit. “Thanks again for dinner.”

“My pleasure.” Kristen finished loading the dishwasher and turned it on. “Are you ready to go back upstairs and pick up where we left off?”

Yeah. There it was. The moment Rye dreaded. He was in no way ready, but he couldn’t say that. “Maybe a little later. I’ve got some film to watch first.” It was a convenient lie, but one she Kristen usually believed. He gave her a kiss on the cheek. “Love you.”

He could only hope that would be enough to reassure her for the rest of the night.