“THE room’s ready.” Adam slid an arm around Bo’s slim shoulders and dropped a kiss to his brow. “Do you want to leave our stuff with the concierge and have them deliver it, or should we drop it off ourselves and check out our digs for the night?”
Bo wiggled against Adam’s side, beaming up at him with a twinkle in his eye. “If we go to an empty hotel room now, we’ll never make it to dinner.”
Adam guffawed and drew Bo closer. He sealed their lips for a far-too-brief kiss, ever cognizant of their public locale. Bo had a point. The past month had flown by in a blur of heavy-hitting exercise, comatose sleep, and Bo. Even with all the extra energy he burned during his intense training camp workouts, he was never at a loss when it came time to get his man naked.
And that’s exactly what he was, even if Bo didn’t want to call it that. Adam had broached the “boyfriend” subject a few weeks prior and been shot down. Nicely, and with amazing conciliatory sex afterward, but shot down nonetheless. Hell, he would’ve been happy wrangling any sort of commitment out of Bo, but he’d held strong.
Bo insisted they couldn’t date while he worked for Adam. When Adam made the mistake of suggesting he didn’t need to work, Bo came up with a hundred reasons why he did. Which Adam respected. Bo didn’t want to risk his and Lulu’s financial freedom on something as unreliable as a romantic relationship. Instead, he aimed to keep Adam at a distance and assure their relationship remained at least somewhat professional.
Unfortunately, Adam’s heart was less inclined to follow such a prudent path. He couldn’t pinpoint exactly when, but at some point, he’d fallen in love. Hard. And how could he not? Bo was everything he’d never known he needed and more. The thought of losing him terrified Adam. Far more than the idea of losing his upcoming title defense.
Retirement used to be the only thing that could scare the Beast. Now he quivered in his boots thinking about an empty bed. Not because Bo was the best lay he’d ever had—which he was, by a long shot—but because he’d grown to depend on Bo’s closeness at night. He relied on his smiles to brighten his days, his laughter to carry him through the tough times, and his stubborn mothering to keep him going.
Where would he be if Bo left?
“Earth to Adam.” Bo waved a hand in Adam’s face, his brow popped in question. “You okay, baby?”
To hell with the public. Adam crushed his mouth over Bo’s, drinking every ounce of unquestioned courage and strength he offered. Now wasn’t the time to worry about Bo leaving. For now, that wasn’t a concern. The man he loved might not feel free to love him in return, but he wasn’t going anywhere. Of that much, he was sure.
When Adam finally let Bo go, he planted one final kiss on the tip of his nose. “I’m doing great. You ready?”
Bo nodded, reaching out a hand to thread their fingers together. “Lead the way, oh great surprise-bearer.”
Adam brought their linked hands to his lips and brushed a kiss over their joined knuckles. Bo had asked for him to plan a night out. Something special to celebrate Lulu passing her first semester of school and Adam making it three-quarters of the way through his training camp. Something he’d promised to let Adam pay for without grumping or groaning.
Which meant Adam had gone all out. He’d gotten them the Presidential Suite at the Bellagio—something Bo had yet to discover, as they hadn’t made it to the room—as well as VIP tickets to Cirque du Soleil’s O, housed at the Bellagio’s main theater. They even had reservations at Michael Mina, also on site. He didn’t want to waste a bunch of time walking or cabbing it up and down the Strip. He wanted their night to be special, but he also wanted time to get Bo naked and enjoy all the soft, flat surfaces in their suite.
By the time they’d finished dinner and the show, Adam buzzed with excitement. Thus far, the evening had gone off without a hitch. The dinner had been superb and the show magical. Not the standard result following one of his surprise attempts, but he wasn’t about to complain.
As they made their way to the elevator to begin the next leg of their celebration, a couple of tipsy women stumbled into their path. Adam grabbed for Bo to keep him from tripping, but the women crowded their space and forced the two apart.
“Holy friggin’ hell, Brittany, I told you it was him!” A coppery-haired pixie squealed and clapped her hands together before latching on to Adam’s forearm. Her lavender claws dug into his skin. “I am such a fan, Mr. Littrell. Like, possibly your biggest. The girls and me? We have tickets to your big fight in a few weeks. We’re, like, so friggin’ excited to watch you kick that guy’s butt.”
Adam caught Bo’s gaze. He looked dazed but amused. He tipped his chin in encouragement, and Adam nodded his understanding. The Beast didn’t belong outside the ring. If he wanted to interact with his fans, he damn well could. “That’s great. I hope it’s a good show.”
A brunette with long spiral curls bounced in place beside the redhead still clinging to Adam’s arm. “We’ve got one of the two-bedroom suites for the night. It’s packed with booze, and Shaina and I love to share. Like, everything.” The woman, who Adam assumed to be Brittany, waggled her brows. She stroked a knuckle down his bicep. “Why don’t you join us? We could have so much fun.”
Being nice to a fan was one thing, but tolerating sexual proposals while the man he loved stood only a few feet away was a whole other beast. Rather than slipping into the grumpy asshole he was used to showing the world to get out of their offer, Adam reached around Shaina, grabbed Bo’s wrist, and tugged him against his side. “Sorry, ladies, but I’m already taken.” With that, he swept a hand behind Bo’s back and bent him into an exaggerated kiss.
The two women squealed and giggled. Shaina slapped her palms to her cheeks. “Oh my friggin’ hell, that was the most romantic thing I’ve ever seen.”
Brittany sighed and clutched at her friend’s arm. “Yeah, if I hadn’t already been crushin’ on you, it would be over after that. Why are all the good ones gay or taken?”
“Or both, apparently.” Shaina grinned.
Adam tucked Bo under his arm and returned the woman’s smile. “Why don’t you ladies give me your names? If you can make it a bit early, I’ll make sure there are some meet-and-greet passes waiting for you after the weigh-in.”
It took a few minutes to coordinate, because no one had a pen handy, but Bo finally suggested he put their names in his phone. They took a couple of selfies, and Adam promised to sign something at the weigh-in. Then they were off to find some other poor soul to lure to their hotel room. With any luck, the next one they tried to snare would at the very least be straight, and at the most, not hopelessly in love.
Bo clung to Adam as the elevator carried them to the thirty-third floor of the Spa Tower. “Oh my gosh. Tell me you didn’t blow a bunch of money on a superexpensive hotel room.” His eyes bugged as the numbers kept climbing. “We aren’t going to the penthouse, are we?”
“You didn’t think I’d mess around with a cheap room when I had a free pass to do as I pleased without complaint, did you? Come on. You know me better’n that.” Adam gave Bo’s shoulders a squeeze as the elevator dumped them onto the top floor. The landing that greeted them was contemporary and stylish, yet warm and masculine. Dark wood molding paired with chrome accents and leather in soft cream.
He led Bo down the hall, swiped their room key, and hip bumped the door open. He motioned for Bo to go first and grinned when his gasp strangled into a squeak. “Go on, babe. This is the entryway. There’s plenty more where this came from.”
“But….” Bo stepped forward, his head swiveling back and forth as he took in the nearly twenty-foot-high walls of water on either side of the foyer. They poured into a small pool separating the foyer from the rest of the suite, crossable only by a walkway suspended above the tranquil basin. “There’s a bridge. Adam, there’s a bridge. Over water. Inside a hotel room. Our hotel room.”
Chuckling, Adam nudged Bo on. “Go big or go home. You said celebratory. This feels celebratory, doesn’t it?”
“Ah, to say the least.” Bo swallowed. “I guess it’s a good thing we have something pretty big to celebrate, huh?”
Adam let the door close behind them and placed a hand at the small of Bo’s back to keep him moving. “I’m so proud of Lulu. I know this has been a rough semester for her. She’s still planning on another visit over break, right?”
“Oh, yeah, I mean, yes. It has. And she is. But that’s not what we’re really celebrating.” Bo whistled as he took in the main living area of the suite. “This’ll actually work quite nice for the, ah, festivities ahead.”
“Oh, I’ve got quite the festivities planned.” Adam wrapped his arms around Bo’s waist from behind and rested his cheek on the top of his head. “But what are we celebrating if it isn’t Lulu’s success?”
Bo twisted in Adam’s arms until he could snake his own around Adam’s middle. “Something I’m guessing you’ll be as excited about as I am.” He smirked and dug into the back pocket of his jeans, extracting a couple of folded-up pieces of paper. “We got our results.”
“Oh fuck.” Adam’s stomach did a flip. He snatched the papers out of Bo’s hand but didn’t read them. Instead, he read Bo’s face. It provided the answer he’d been hoping for since they’d gone to the clinic together earlier that week. “We’re both negative?”
“Yep.” Bo flashed an overly toothy grin. “I left the condoms at home and packed the big bottle of lube with all that extra space.”
Adam groaned. It wasn’t the idea of going bareback for the first time that had his knees going weak, but the fact he’d be inside Bo. Really inside him. Skin to skin. They’d be one, if only for that brief period. How could Bo not feel his love when they were that close? He might choose to ignore it, but he’d feel it. Deep down, he wouldn’t be able to deny it.
And once Bo opened himself to the truth? He’d realize he felt the same way. He had to. They were too perfect together for anything other than forever. Adam just had to sit back and wait. Someday, Bo would be his as much as he was already Bo’s.