The Jock (The Team, #1)

by Tal Bauer

He kissed Wes as if he’d wanted to kiss him from the moment they’d met, the moment Wes had walked through the door and seen him in the slanted sunlight. And Wes held him tight, held him like he was precious and perfect and everything Wes had ever wanted. Because he was. In that moment, beneath the lights of the Eiffel Tower, Paris under his skin and inside his veins, Justin was everything he’d waited his whole life for.

I was coming to Paris to knock out a year of French, but now… You’ve taken everything over. I can’t think about anything except you. Even in class, I’m always sneaking looks at you. I want to hear your voice and see your eyes and watch you smile. I want to listen to you talk all day. French, English—hell, gibberish. I just want to hear your voice. Be around you. And I don’t know why. I mean, I do.” He fumbled. This was more than he ever spoke at once. “You’re… great.”

Say something. Say thank you. Say please stay. Say I love you. Say something.

“I love you,” he called after Justin. “I loved you in Paris, and I still love you. You’re everything to me. You’re the first thing I think of when I open my eyes in the morning. You’re in class with me, you’re on the field with me, you’re in the gym with me. I talk to you when I’m alone. When I’m driving in my truck. When I’m jogging or working out. You’re on my mind every minute of the day. And you’re the last thing I see every night. That photo…” He shoved his hands into the pockets of his jeans. “I love you, and I’m not ashamed of that.”

No one chooses what risks I take. No one decides for me what I think is worth it. You had no right to make that decision for me.” “But—” “No buts. If you wanted to end us because you wanted it to be over, fine. But if you ended us because you thought you were saving me…” He shook his head. “That’s my job. Respect me enough to let me weigh the risks and make the choice.”

Tu es mon plus grand amour.” You are the love of my life.

I can’t pinpoint when I fell in love with you,” he whispered. His fingers traced Wes’s heart, over his chest and down his side, then up his arm before starting the circuit again. “It was just there one day, inside me. I didn’t want to be without you. And then I couldn’t be without you. That’s when I knew you were the love of my life. You’d become a part of me, and my life was incomplete without you.” His lips brushed over Wes’s jaw, the stubble on his chin. “You’re it for me. Tu es mon plus grand amour.” You are the love of my life.