Always Only You by Chloe Liese (z-lib.org).epub

Playlist: “Lovely,” Billie Eilish, Khalid
AFTER THE GAME, REN BEGGED OFF DINNER WITH THE TEAM. ROB IMPLIED IT
was because of a massive headache, but I have a suspicion Ren’s absence has a
lot more to do with what happened when 27 launched himself at Ren and ate ice
instead of landing a blow.
I shouldn’t be doing this, but I am. I walk the soft carpeted hallway of the
hotel, straight toward Ren’s room. He’s always booked right by me, and it’s
maddening. Every time I hear him turn on the shower, opening and shutting his
hotel dresser drawers—because Ren’s that guy who unpacks his suitcase tidily
for a two-night stay—I have to try not to picture him walking around his room,
gloriously naked, with that Viking sledgehammer between his legs, which I’m
now shockingly acquainted with after the yoga and shower-towel debacles.
Knocking softly, I wait. Ren opens the door and squints at me. He’s holding
a massive ice pack to his head and looks unsteady on his feet.
“How was I supposed to know the guy only has one nut?” Ren mutters.
I shrug. “You couldn’t have known. Just a bad coincidence. Not like he
didn’t deserve it, though.”
Turning, Ren leaves the door open and backtracks to his bed, dropping on it
with a groan. “It was just an off-the-cuff Renaissance swear. Just a bunch of old
words thrown together.”
“One of which was eunuch,” I say pointedly.
Ren lifts his palm like, so what? “I’ve cursed hockey players using worse
Shakespeare than that for ten years now, and never once has it created a
problem.” Ren sighs, sounding exhausted. “I have to get my frustration off my
chest somehow. I don’t fight. I don’t take the bait. I don’t say nasty things about
their mother or call them homophobic slurs. Elizabethan oaths are how I hold on
to a little shred of dignity.”