Caught off Guard

Contents Copyright Chapter One Chapter Two Chapter Three Chapter Four Chapter Five Chapter Six Chapter Seven Chapter Eight Chapter Nine Chapter Ten Chapter Eleven Chapter Twelve Chapter Thirteen Chapter Fourteen Chapter Fifteen Chapter Sixteen Chapter Seventeen Chapter Eighteen Chapter Nineteen Chapter Twenty Chapter Twenty-One Chapter Twenty-Two Chapter Twenty-Three Chapter Twenty-Four Chapter Twenty-Five Chapter Twenty-Six Chapter Twenty-Seven Chapter Twenty-Eight Chapter Twenty-Nine Chapter Thirty Chapter Thirty-One Chapter Thirty-Two Chapter Thirty-Three Chapter Thirty-Four Chapter Thirty-Five Chapter Thirty-Six Chapter Thirty-Seven Chapter Thirty-Eight Chapter Thirty-Nine Guide Contents Start of Content Copyright © 2023 Catherine Cloud Cover Design © 2023 Karolina Polasz Editor: Laura Burge / literarylaura.com All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review. This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or are reused in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is purely coincidental. CHAPTER ONE SOMETHING’S NOT RIGHT. Matthias can’t put his finger on it, but there’s something weird about the bed he’s in. He’s not exactly motivated to find out what it is, though. His head hurts too much. He knows from experience that opening his eyes right now would be a huge mistake, so he keeps them closed and tries to ignore that he really needs to go to the bathroom and that his stomach is in the early stages of a hissy fit. He just wants to go back to sleep. Until he realizes that someone is breathing next to him. Technically, this is a normal thing—people breathe. Except he has his own hotel room and nobody else should be breathing. Did one of the guys accidentally follow him into his room and fall asleep? Okay, he has to open his eyes and find out so he can chirp him for the rest of his life. Unfortunately, opening his eyes really is a mistake. And not just because the sun is offensively bright and making his headache ten times worse. This is not his hotel room. This is not a hotel room at all. He’s in a bedroom in someone’s house, wrapped in soft, dark bedsheets. There are artsy national park posters on the walls and two small plants on the windowsill and a leather armchair in the corner. Matthias takes a deep breath, his stomach going into full tantrum mode, and slowly turns his head. Part of him already knows, part of him remembers last night, even though his brain is still fighting to block out the memories. “Oh no,” Matthias whispers. He’s in bed with a naked guy. Matthias is also naked. They’re both naked. Matthias might be able to deal with this—after all, this isn’t the first time he’s been naked in a bed with another naked guy. But this naked guy is Casey Wallace. Las Vegas Vipers superstar goalie Casey Wallace, the kind of goalie Matthias wishes he could be… but that’s beside the point. Matthias is naked and in bed with Casey Wallace. He had sex with Casey Wallace. He remembers having sex with Casey Wallace. The more he stares at Casey Wallace’s very naked ass, the more he remembers. Matthias went out drinking with the guys last night. They ended up at some club. They’re in Vegas, and that’s the kind of thing that happens in Vegas. At least when you’re here for fun. He doesn’t do this during the season, but in November when the team was in town for a game, some of the guys decided they’d come back once the season was over. When they didn’t make it past the second round, they booked their flight two hours after they were done with their exit interviews and Matthias decided to tag along. Six of them hopped on a plane, checked into the New York, New York hotel and two hours later, Matthias was getting shit-faced with the boys. He can’t even say that he deserved to get shit-faced with the boys, because he spent the entirety of both their playoff rounds sitting on the bench, catching exactly one stray puck that might have otherwise broken a trainer’s nose. That’s the grand total of his accomplishments. He was mostly drowning himself in alcohol so he wouldn’t drown in self-pity instead. He was drinking something out of a guitar-shaped cup. He got refills. Many, many refills. He remembers wandering down the Strip with the guys sometime around midnight. He remembers wandering into some club, and running into a bunch of Vipers players, who’d gotten eliminated from the playoffs one day before them. They bought each other drinks. He kissed Casey Wallace. He sincerely wishes he could remember how he ended up kissing Casey Wallace, but it was dark and there were these weird curtains and Casey’s hands were definitely on his ass when they kissed and Casey asked him if he wanted to come home with him and, boy, did Matthias want to. Most of the time, he doesn’t sleep with guys. It’s not feasible. He’s bi and he’s never had trouble meeting girls, but that doesn’t mean it never happens. Occasionally, a situation like this one arises, but it’s for the best if this doesn’t get out. For both of them. Matthias might sneak out if it was someone else, but he needs to make sure that they’re on the same page here. And then he’ll fuck off. Quickly. He sits up, pulls at the sheets so he’s not sitting here with his dick out, and clears his throat. “Casey?” Casey doesn’t stir. He’s lying on his stomach, completely dead to the world. “Shit, okay,” Matthias mumbles. He carefully reaches out with one finger and gives Casey’s arm a poke. “Ex—excuse me?” Casey grunts, blinking at him. Matthias can actually pinpoint the moment Casey realizes who’s in his bed. And maybe also