Page 36 of Game Misconduct

“Oh, just waiting for you,” Tanner said, still stroking, acting like it was totally normal for him to be in Leif’s room with his hand on his dick.

The pieces came together quickly in Leif’s head and fury rose in him so hot and fast it almost choked him. “Did you seriously steal my key card last night so you couldbreak into my room and ‘surprise’ me?” he snapped.

“What?” Tanner’s eyes widened as he sat up, his hand falling away from his cock. “No! Of course not.”

“Then what. Are. You. Doing. In. Here?” Leif enunciated each word so Tanner couldn’t claim he didn’t understand.

“Oh, okay, welltechnicallyI did steal your key card,” Tanner said hastily. “But it was an accident.”

“How could it possibly be an accident?” Leif asked, yanking off his scarf and unbuttoning his jacket. He was boiling inside and the cashmere and wool didn’t help.

“Umm, well I’m not one-hundred-percent sure but I have a theory. You know when I grabbed my clothes off the dresser and everything fell on the floor?”

“Yes.” Leif set his scarf and jacket on the end of the bed and crossed his arms over his chest. “And?”

“Well, I think our stuff got all jumbled up together then. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.” Tanner looked and sounded surprisingly contrite.

Leif forced himself to take a deep breath. “So you accidentally stole my key card last night. Fine. You couldn’t have bothered to return it before then?”

“I tried knocking on your door last night!” Tanner protested. “You didn’t answer. I was going to text you, but I don’t have your number.”

“All you had to do was slide it under my door or drop it off at the front desk,” Leif pointed out.

Tanner grimaced. “I didn’t think about that.”

“Yet you just thought thatthiswas the way to do it?” Disbelieving, he waved a hand at Tanner, who still had his pants halfway down.

“Oh.” Tanner looked at his lap as if just now realizing that Leif was fully dressed and he wasn’t. “Uhh, shit. I can explain.”

“Try me.”

Tanner lifted his hips, tucked his still-hard cock into his underwear, then dragged his pants up to his hips. He didn’t do them up though.

“Okay, so, um, funny story.”

Leif suddenly noticed he had a beanie on and his hair looked … wet where it peeped out in damp little curls.

Ugh, given Tanner’s history, the wet hair probably means he probably blew off a team event to go hook up with someone,Leif thought sourly.Or maybe he hooked up with a teammate.Leif wondered who, then realized it didn’t matter.

HowdareTanner waltz in here after fucking someone, hoping Leif would take his sloppy seconds.

“Do you mind telling me this funny story?” he snapped.

“Oh, right.” Tanner looked surprised, like he hadn’t realized that he needed to do that part aloud. “So, I got back from a pool party at Dustin Fowler and Charlie Monaghan’s house and thought I’d see if you were back …”

A little of the tension in Leif’s shoulders eased.

Okay, so maybe he’d been wrong about the hookup but he still couldn’t get over his annoyance as Tanner described coming into Leif’s room, checking it out, and then deciding to jerk offon Leif’s bed.

“And it never once occurred to you that this was inappropriate?” Leif snapped. “Who breaks into someone’s room and masturbates in their bed? You, apparently!”

“Uhh.” Tanner got a sheepish look on his face. “Well, okay, I didn’t really think about itthatway. I just got caught up in the moment waiting for you to get back! I was thinking about last night and how hot it was and … I’m sorry.”

By the end, he looked almost miserable.

“Do you believe me?” Tanner asked, looking up at him with big dark eyes. There were little grooves between his brows that made him look worried. Like it actuallymatteredto him that Leif believed him. “That I’m genuinely sorry and I wasn’t trying to be weird? I made a mistake and I’ll own it. I feel bad now if I made you uncomfortable, or whatever.”

Leif sighed. Weirdly enough, he actuallydidbelieve it. Would a normal person do any of this? No. Had Tanner Clayton ever been normal a day in his life? Probably not. “Yeah, I believe you. Don’t ever do it again or I’m calling hotel security.” He pointed a finger at Tanner. “And give me my card and get out.”