Page 43 of The Forever Vault

I saw him smile as he noticed my jockstrap straining.

“Glad to see that still works,” Cam said, before freezing. “Shit. I didn’t mean to-”

“It’s okay, Cam. It was funny. And you’ll be better than glad to see it work later.” I leaned down to whisper, “I’m gonna lay on my bed tonight and watch you ride me.”

“You’re up for that?” he asked, pulling my pants up for me.

“What does it look like to you?” I eyed my dick. “Plus, I don’t need both hands for you to do that.”

That finally got him to smile, and he helped me out of my shirt. I was just going to change back after the press conference anyway, so we skipped the team shirt and just put the jacket on over the sling. It was a pain, literally, to dress and undress with it, and the doctor had said the less movement the better. Cam gathered everything together, stuffed it in the garment bag, and we rejoined the team.

“Fuck, that was intensely erotic,” Ezra blurted.

I couldn’t help but laugh. “So you were watching?”

“What else was I supposed to do?”

“Do you feel the same, Luke? Any worse?” Woodward asked.

“About the same. Still getting used to only using one arm for everything. Nice to have help.”

“Cam makes a good nurse,” Ezra continued.

“His experience with the Thunder will certainly help me.”

“I’m not quite a physical therapist yet,” Cam added.

But before we could get into a discussion of Cam’s future any further, the press coordinator knocked and told us it was time.

I heard the chatter stop as soon as Cam entered the room behind me. Since the conference was about us, Cam and I flanked Coach in the center of the dais. He got straight to the point, but it was clear after the third question that the press still didn’t believe it despite Cam’s presence and Coach’s pronouncement.

I stood up and started to unzip my jacket. Cam knew what I was trying to do and came over to help me out of the jacket. It was annoying, but as the saying goes, seeing is believing. And of course, it clicked as soon as the room saw my sling. Not quite what I had in mind for today, standing shirtless on a dais getting photographed with my sling, but here we were.

The first few questions we couldn’t even answer without the MRI results, and once that became clear, the press turned to my feelings instead and the impact of the injury on Cam and I’s relationship. After years of this kind of stuff, I had learned not to roll my eyes. It helped that Cam was on the ball with answers, knowing which questions I absolutely did not want to answer, and letting me take the ones that didn’t make me want to leave the room.

After about thirty minutes of focusing on me and Cam, Coach steered the reporters back to the team and Ezra, Miles and Preston got their first taste of the Olympic spotlight. Orion got a few, considering he was also here with his boyfriend, and it was Austin’s first Olympics.

Their situation reminded me of Brisbane, except Cam and I were hiding our relationship back then, which was a little bit of a difference. After all these years, I was happy to know it wasn’t sneaking around that made it special for us.

* * *

“So, did you call your mom this morning? I’m guessing you didn’t want her to find out from the news.”

Cam and I finally had privacy and were enjoying a quick lunch at a café outside of the village.

“Yeah, I called.”

“How was it?”

I wanted to say, ‘Like it always is,’ but I knew Cam was just being supportive. “She was sorry, shocked…didn’t really know what to say. I told her not to come. I hope that’s okay with you, but I didn’t feel like dealing with her right now.”

“And your dad?”

“He texted.”

Cam nodded.

“I’ll be happy to see your mom,” I said.