Uplifting Sports Romance: College Gay Bundle

By Jaylen Florian

Three compelling novelettes featuring talented college athletes developing their attractions and feelings for other vigorous men. 

Each young man must strip away his inhibitions and apprehensions to realize his full potential to authentically love the person he desires.

Book 1: Baseball Star's Gift: Intimate Awakening

Darius, an ambitious gay drama student with smoldering good looks, studies Brett, the down-to-earth and straightforward captain of the college baseball team, to perfect his upcoming theatrical role as a sports star.  However, their relationship evolves beyond a simple interview and afternoon together. As their complicated friendship begins to flourish with affection, the men are unprepared for the shocking revelations and consequences. 

Book 2: Uncovering Machismo

The naked bike ride event on the summer solstice, brazenly and colorfully celebrating enlightenment and fertility with nude body painting, brings divergent college sport stars together.  Giovanni, a straight wrestling champion, is reeling from an unexpected defeat and a brutal disgrace. Pablo, a gay goalkeeper on the university's soccer team, may be able to share shrewd insights and profoundly help Giovanni, but he has secrets of his own.

Book 3: Antonio's Mask

Antonio expects nothing less from himself than absolute devotion to his senior year of collegiate football. If he continues excelling on the field, he has a solid chance for a pro career.  Beyond sports, individual self-discovery is truly the very last thing on his mind. But Antonio is challenged by his attraction to other young men. Confused and in denial, he hides his feelings for his hunky and handsome teammates, including his best friend Joe and his roommate Kelvin. 

These three works of passionate fiction, comprising Jaylen Florian's Uplifting Sports Romance series (totaling more than 31,000 words), feature gay, bisexual, and straight characters and contain mature romantic and intimate themes. Join these sincere and sexy men as they overcome their challenges to personal growth and finally discover love and intimacy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jaylen Florian
• Release date: Jan 10, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386135197

Book preview

Baseball Star's Gift: Intimate Awakening

Uplifting Sports Romance , Volume 1

Jaylen Florian

THIS IS A WORK OF FICTION.  Similarities to real people, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

Baseball Star's Gift: Intimate Awakening

First Edition.  January 2, 2017

Copyright (c) 2017 Jaylen Florian.

Written by Jaylen Florian

Chapter 1

Darius Antonio lifted a cottonwood sapling from the wagon with gloved hands, careful not to snap off any of its fragile branches, while his partner for the day's work, Brett Magan, worked on scooping out enough soil from the earth to give the tree a permanent home.  The cottonwood, a very fast-growing tree, was already Brett and Darius's height, and it would certainly soar another six feet taller by the end of the year.  Its flat-stemmed leafs were thriving, growing large, and shimmering in every breeze sweeping up the incline of the small hill near the southern tip of their college campus.

Brett's blue boxers peeked below the hems of his red athletic shorts, which could barely contain the muscular buttocks and upper thighs developed from years of squatting and sprinting as he excelled in playing shortstop.  Brett's old white t-shirt, frayed and stained, was moistening with patches of sweat even though they had only been planting trees for twenty minutes.  With Brett's back to him, Darius let his eyes gander up and down the legs and torso of the man working the shovel in front of him.  When Brett completed the hole for the sapling, he stepped aside so Darius could set it in. 

I think you dig me, Brett said with a smirk, leaning his body weight onto the shovel handle, propped upright in the ground.

Darius squatted down and retrieved a rock that had fallen inside the freshly-carved hole, maneuvering to keep his pristine tennis shoes from getting dirty.  Are you going to tell lame jokes with puns all afternoon? Darius asked, a few moments after being startled by the comment.

Brett noticed the hesitation, and perhaps the guilty look, followed by Darius's flushing and uncomfortable deflection.  Count on it, buddy.  You wanted to learn about me for your upcoming project, so wisecracks and gags come with the territory.

Fair enough, Darius said.  But don't expect me to laugh every time.

Brett and Darius were among forty students and faculty members planting trees that day on a slope separating the marsh from the collegiate baseball stadium.  It was part of an effort to improve the campus and separate the facility from the muddy land lingering behind hit.  The group of volunteers were divided into pairs to most efficiently dig and plant, in a steady rhythm, the abundant truckloads of young trees ready for their future locations.  Only a few puffy clouds floated through the sky, none of them capable of providing much protection from the sun, but hearty gusts of wind kept most of the participants cool enough to remain outdoors for the entirety of the task.

What is it about me that you need to study? Brett asked.  My appearance?  The way I talk, what I say, how I move, or something else?

All of that, Darius answered.  My performance will be authentic only if I resemble someone who is, believably, a baseball star.  So that's body language mostly, including gestures and how you express confidence and bravado.  But I will be speaking lines too on stage and I can use your tone and language patterns.

They covered the cottonwood's roots with stirred earth and Darius pulled their wagon several feet forward to their next location.  The designated spots for the trees were identified with X markings made with white spray chalk.  Near the center of the bullseye, Brett began plunging into the earth, flinging sweat with each swing of his arms. 

What did you say the play or show is exactly? Brett asked.

I didn't say yet.  I will tell you, of course.  However, I would rather wait so that I can learn about you first, without you being influenced by what the play is about.  There was a plea in Darius's voice.  Is that okay?

Brett stopped and looked over his broad shoulder to address Darius, squinting and flashing a hint of a mischievous grin.  Is there really a play?

Yes.

Is it really about a baseball player?

Of course it is! Darius responded.  I thought the drama department already submitted a formal paper to you.  That letter, requesting your willingness to let me accompany you for research, is proof of that, isn't it?

Yeah, I saw all of that, but I didn't read any of it, Brett admitted.

You doubt the request was legitimate?

No, I believe you.

Thank you.  I thought for a second there we had a misunderstanding.

It's fine.  I just had those questions.

Can I call you Brett?

Try not to be so shy.  I have already agreed to help you.  Ask me whatever you want.  But keep in mind that you probably want to stay several feet away from me.  I haven't showered in a couple of days.

I already noticed that, Darius said.

Sorry, buddy, I have my routines I believe in and I stick to them.

It's not a bad smell to me, Darius replied, then fumbled to clarify.  I mean, you are not gross or anything.  I think you just smell like a guy.  A real guy, like a ballplayer.

Real?  Brett laughed and grabbed his crotch, lifting himself with an exaggerated upward motion.  Well, yeah, this is all real.  But I imagine your stuff is too. Brett gestured towards the crotch in Darius's denim jeans. 

You think that is producing your scent? Darius asked, slightly reddening again.

Maybe.  Or this is the real stuff you're smelling?  Brett lifted his arm and smelled his pit.  I won't wear deodorant.

Not ever?

No, it is just not for me.  Never again.

Darius hoisted another sapling out of their wagon.  Why not?

It gives me a rash.  I figure it this way.  No one is required to stand within four feet of me.  If they do, then they will have to deal with me as I really am.  That's simply how I see it, buddy.

You mentioned just now about a showering routine, Darius says.  Will you share what that routine is with me?

Brett explained that he finds habits that work and bring him success, and then repeats them.  He played baseball most of his life.  Now he was the captain of the college baseball team and his pre-game and post-game behaviors, as well as superstitions, were evolved from many years of trial and error.  Brett told him that during baseball season he only takes full showers and trims his beard on the nights after his games.  He could not explain a logical reason for this and Darius realized that logical reasoning was not likely the basis for much of Brett's choices. 

With the proverbial ice broken, Darius steered their conversation to learning everything he could about Brett's other routines, goals, and accomplishments, on and off the field.  They spoke easily, Brett answered honestly, and the two men successfully planted dozens of trees over the course of almost three hours.

That was the last one, Brett said as he threw the shovel into the empty wagon. 

Both men's shirts were drenched in sweat and their brows glistened from the hard work.  Darius peeled off his gloves, folded them, and placed them in the corner of the wagon.  They returned all of their equipment to the organizers of the day's tree-planting efforts and cleaned their hands with wet towelettes issued by other volunteers.  Darius stammered when it was time for the men to separate. 

Brett, thank you for letting me join you today.  I worried it would be awkward, but I've learned a good deal from you already.

I hope it helps your portrayal.  And I hope your play is a success.

I appreciate your support, Darius said.

Have you ever been to a baseball game before?

No.  But I have tickets to your weekend game.

Give them away, Darius, or sell them.  I will get you two premium seats, on the first row if I can, as long as you pledge to stay the entire game.

Darius breaks into a wide smile.  I definitely will remain until the end.  Thank you very much.

There are questions you should have run by me today.  You didn't ask me about how we psyche out the other team.  Or about the signals and codes between players, or between coaches and players.

I want to learn all of this.  Can we schedule more time together?

Okay, I'll tell you on the way to my apartment, Brett said.  But you need to order us large, deep-dish pizzas to be delivered.  Mine has to have extra tomato sauce and triple toppings of black olives.  Deal?

Yes, my pleasure.

Chapter 2

Darius finished half of his veggie lover's pizza as Brett stuffed his last bite in his mouth and washed it down with a sports drink.

How can you stay so fit if you devour an entire pizza? Darius asked.

I burn so many calories I need five meals per day or I get grumpy, Brett answered. 

If I leave the remaining half of my pizza here, will you eat it?

Yep.  Thank you.

Minutes earlier, at Brett's urging, both men had taken off their sweat-soaked shirts after arriving at the garden apartment and hung them to dry on the shower rod in the bathroom.  They had also completed their discussion of baseball, as well as the topic of Brett's playing the field style of dating women, by the time the pizza delivery person had arrived. 

Sitting casually across from Darius with his knees wide apart, Brett folded his hands over his stomach.  Darius could see far up his Brett's legs, past the gaps in his shorts and boxers, to dark glimpses of the covert mounds of flesh deep inside.

What's going on with your eyes? Brett inquired.

Darius, caught peeking, looked up instantly and jerked his body into a shifted position.  I'm sorry.  My eyes just fell down there.

One is hazel, and much lighter, Brett said, ignoring the apology and not correcting Darius's assumption about what he