Page 34

CHAPTER 34

KENO

I creep up to the door and peek through the crack. When Etna doesn’t move, I push it open a little further. He’s fast asleep. This man can sleep at the drop of a hat unless we’re on a plane. We went for a run earlier and he almost always wants to nap after.

It’s been a tense couple of days since he got hit on the ice. Tense for me. It’s not that I don’t believe he’s pain free and feels fine now. I do. I don’t think he’d lie to me about anything, but not about that, especially.

Hockey is hard on the body. We all know that. We know there’s a chance we’ll have knee and hip problems, back and shoulder problems for the rest of our lives, beginning at a young age. That’s the risk we take playing a full-contact sport like hockey.

We also know we risk further injury by lying about being hurt. It doesn’t matter what sport you play. No one wants their career to end because of an injury. That’s why we’re probably the healthiest people in the country. We pay a lot of attention to our bodies.

Still. I keep seeing him sitting on the bench in pain and not being able to do anything about it. I’m careful with how close I get to Etna during hockey related anything while simultaneously trying not to be obvious that I’m keeping distance between us. The team’s been really good about our relationship. No one’s said anything mean. But we’re trying to make sure we’re respectful of any PDA at all.

Which is a fine line because I think we touched a lot more before we got together.

I take a breath and back out of the room, shutting the door behind me. It clicks quietly and I shove open the second bedroom door where there are totes of bedding and pillows and accessories we didn’t load into the moving containers yet.

Our days in this house, on this lake, are running out. I keep thinking about all the memories we’ve made here, and I don’t want them to end yet. I’m not that great at thinking of sweet things to do. How do you make meaningful memories? By all accounts, this is our first house together.

Maybe Etna’s is too, but we spent most of our time here. The things we bought together were for this house. This is our first house, even if both our names aren’t on the title.

Our boat will be loaded on the day of our closing, which is scheduled for a couple weeks from now. Inconveniently, right before we head to our three away-game streak. Conveniently, Edna will be here to oversee moving, reception of furniture, and house decorating. She also gets what she wants this way—we’ll be out of the house for a few days.

Making as little noise as I can, I bring the totes of blankets and pillows out back and dump them onto the pontoon boat. I add more and more until the end of the boat is as cushy as a bed. I add the cooler of ice with drinks and, of course, some lube and a condom. We’ve yet to use a condom, but I think having one available is a safety net. We keep them around just in case we want to try it out one day.

Once I put the totes back in the spare bedroom like nothing happened, I make a few sandwiches and put some snacks in a bag in the fridge to grab when my man wakes up from his nap. Then I drop onto my chair and pick up my tablet.

We’ve decided to write our own vows. Which means I’ve been researching vows. Not to copy what other people have written but to get an idea of what people are vowing. In front of other people. One of my favorites is one of the old Celtic vows that is far more progressive than the world we live in today. In a very poetic way, it says ‘ I am not your possession, and you cannot command me, I give myself to you freely while we both wish it .’ But even better is the first line of the next verse—‘ I pledge to you that yours will be the name I cry aloud in the night .’ Right there. In their wedding vows that they repeat in front of everyone.

I may have made a note.

While I scroll, I see an ad for wedding gifts for groomsmen and click on it. I scroll a while there, not seeing anything exciting and new. Everything is a little clichéd and expected. I don’t need to be original, but I don’t want to give a gift just for the sake of giving a gift.

Another ad catches my attention, and I’m led further off course down a rabbit hole of first looks. You know, when the groom sees the bride all alone in a surprise first reveal of her in her wedding dress without the big audience? We can’t do that since we’ve both seen each other’s suits. Which is fine.

Then the research changes and I’m looking at guys surprising the grooms in wedding dresses as a joke before the bride does. That’s when I get an idea and start searching for second-hand wedding dresses.

“Hey.”

I jump when Etna steps into the room. His hair is standing every which way, making me grin. He rarely lets it get this long, and I have to say, I’m totally digging it. “Hey.”

“What’re you up to?”

I tap the button on my tablet a couple times as he comes closer so that my screen pulls up the other browser. The one where I’m searching for honeymoon destinations. Etna sits on the edge of the chair and leans over me.

“Find anything good?”

“So many things,” I say. “So many places! I just don’t know which to choose.”

“Weren’t we going to talk to a travel agent?” Etna asks, yawning.

“We were. We will. But I feel like we should have the basic choices made, right? Like hot or cold? Foreign or domestic? Tropical or forest or desert? We don’t even have those questions answered.”

He sighs.

I click off my tablet and push him to his feet. “Come on. I have something for you.”

Etna gives me a half smile. A smile that I’ve only seen in recent months. It makes my stomach flip dangerously. It’s so damn cute.

Stopping in the kitchen, I pull the bag of food from the fridge then take his hand to lead him out back. I have the key to the slider door in my pocket and lock it behind us. We’re working our way out of winter, so though it’s only six o’clock, the sun is well on its way down. The sky is a pretty mix of watercolor blues that bleed together.

“You want a waterbed, huh?” Etna asks, grinning.

“I thought we could watch the sunset and admire the stars. We only have a short time left on the lake.”

He steps onto the boat and then turns to offer me his hand. I place mine in his, wondering if we always did this. Did we always ‘help’ each other onto the boat, even when it’s not necessary?

I set the bag inside the cooler and head to the wheel. The key to the back door has the keys to the outside goods—the shed and the boat—on the same key ring. It seemed the most logical way to do things. Since we need the key to run the boat, we’re unlikely to lose the key to the house.

I don’t move us far from the docks. Closer to the center of the lake, where Etna drops the anchor, then I cut the engine once the anchor is set. We crawl onto my makeshift bed together to watch the sky. With the sun going down, the temperature drops. It’s not a dramatic drop, but it’s enough to get cold since there’s no humidity in the air to hold in the heat.

“I have an idea,” Etna says after a few minutes. “What if we stay somewhat local for our honeymoon? We can go to the Grand Canyon and do all the things—tours and hiking and camping and whatever. We’ll still get an agent to plan it all, but there’s no reason it needs to be a huge trip and I think putting so much pressure on this first big trip together is only causing unnecessary stress.”

I close my eyes. “Yeah. I love that idea.”

“Good. We’ll start asking around for travel agents tomorrow and see what we come up with.” Etna rolls on top of me. “Did you see the calendar today?”

Grinning, I shrug. “I see the calendar every day.”

My heart races. I know what’s on the calendar today. Etna’s ass is mine.

“Want to fuck on the boat?”

I shiver in anticipation. “Hell, yeah I do.”

With a wide smile, Etna comes down on me, his mouth sealing over mine. While we know we’re getting to sex and our dicks are already well on their way to fully hard, our kissing isn’t urgent. I love that no matter how turned on we are, we often slow down for some intimate kisses. Kisses that don’t need to be sexy. Kisses with a language all their own.

However, I think we’re both anxious, so our kisses are a little sloppy. Maybe even a little wet. When it sounds like we made a slurping sound, our kiss breaks, and we laugh.

“Just get undressed,” I tell him, shoving him away.

Etna backs off me and I watch as he pulls his shirt over his head. I grab his shorts and yank them down at the same time, revealing his perfectly hard dick. While he’s still trapped in his clothes, I lean forward and wrap my lips around his cockhead.

He inhales sharply, his hand going to the back of my head. “Fuck,” he mutters, his hips moving forward, giving me more of him. While I don’t mean for this to get heavy on the foreplay like this, I suck his cock for a while, listening to the way he moans and grinning as he pats my head like I’m a pet.

After he starts seriously leaking in my mouth, I pull off of him with a pop. “Turn around. Lean against the bench.”

Etna does, shedding his shorts as he moves. I grab the lube and move behind him, discarding my clothes as I do.

His little puckered hole is so… pink. Even in the setting sun. Pretty.

I snort internally. An asshole is not pretty. That’s just the horniness talking. I squirt some lube onto his ass crack and watch it slowly drip as I lube my fingers.

I’m not sure if I’m just far sluttier in the butt enjoyment area than he is or maybe I’m used to it by now, but Etna doesn’t enjoy diving right into two fingers like I do. Which is fine. I don’t mind working him open slowly. In fact, I really enjoy taking my time and making him feel good.

With my free hand, I spread his left ass cheek so I can see his hole. Watch it stretch around me as I slowly and gently work a second finger in. I glance up in time to see Etna bow his head. He takes a deep breath.

“Okay?” I ask.

He nods. “Yep. Hurry up. I want to feel your dick.”

I grin, dropping my eyes back to what I’m doing. I’m not going to hurry. In fact, I don’t even think he wants me to. He just doesn’t want me to ask how he’s doing.

I kiss his ass cheek, making him snort. Then I bite it, making Etna jump. He glares over his shoulder, and I smile cheekily at him, rubbing the spot I bit. He’s so sexy when he’s annoyed with me.

It’s a long time later before I think he’s ready. I have him moaning and rocking against my fingers. Four fingers!

“Want me to wear a condom?” I ask.

Etna shakes his head. “Nope. I want your bare cock, please.”

Laughing, I get on my knees and coat my dick with lube. I bring the bottle to his hole and squirt some inside him, which only makes a mess. Etna shudders and glares at me over his shoulder again.

“That’s not how that works,” he deadpans.

“I know. But I did see this syringe thing, not a needle but a needle-like tube, just for this purpose. Just throwing that out there.”

“Thanks for telling me that right now.”

“Sure,” I say and blanket my body over his. His hands are gripping the cushion of the bench tightly. I don’t possess magic aim like he does, so I have my dick in one hand but cover one of his hands with my other and press my mouth to his spine.

“Ready?”

Etna nods.

I press against his hole. My heart races. I can’t believe I’m doing this. With Etna. Taking a deep breath, I remind myself that I need to be the calm one right now. I won’t hurt this man.

My cockhead slips in and we both inhale. “Okay?” I ask.

Etna nods again. “Yep. I know you have more than that.”

I smile against his back, pressing more kisses to his skin as I slowly, so fucking slowly I might lose my mind, begin to push inside him with little rocks of my hips. His fingers tense around the cushion. He holds his breath and drops his forehead to the bench.

I can’t imagine \ constantly asking if he’s okay is going to help, so I stop moving and let him catch his breath. I continue to press soft kisses to his spine, his shoulder, his neck. Then let go of my dick and reach around for his.

He’s not as hard as he’d been. I slowly stroke him, trying to give him something else to think about. When his tension starts to relax, I restart my gentle rocks. I think it’s working until his hand suddenly presses against my hip and I back off.

His shoulders are stiff and he’s holding his breath. Nope. We’re not doing this tonight.

Just as carefully as I’d been pushing inside him, I take my dick out. “I’m sorry,” Etna says.

Frowning, I pull at him until he turns around and sits on his sexy ass. “Don’t do that,” I say and straddle his lap. Framing his face with my hands, I press my lips to his. “We don’t ever have to do this, Etna. You understand that, right?”

Etna sighs. “I want to. I can’t tell you how… incredible it feels to be a part of your body. I want to feel that. I want to share that with you.”

I reach for the lube again and make a mess as I ready my own hole haphazardly and then sloppily drop some onto his dick. We adjust so I can slide him inside me. I love that we have sex enough that I don’t need lengthy prep. Sometimes, like now, I don’t even want it much at all.

The feel of his cock sliding inside me, making room and pressing against all the fucking places, never ceases to make me catch my breath.

“This,” Etna says, his tongue sliding up my neck as I let my head fall back. “I want you to feel this, and I want to enjoy it like you do.”

I wrap my arms around his head as I sink to his root. “You understand not everyone likes to bottom, right?”

He nods. “I want to like it. I need to like it.”

I press a kiss to his head as I lift off him a couple of inches and slide back down. Etna and I groan together.

“I want that too,” I admit. “But I’m not going to be upset at all if this is what we do for the rest of our lives.”

Etna gives me a frustrated grunt. Grinning, I tangle my fingers in his hair and pull his face up. “We’ll try again, but we’re going to spend more time prepping your tight hole.”

“I don’t think it’s my hole that’s the problem,” he says, eyelids hooding.

I grin and press my lips to his. “I promise,” I murmur, “we’ll figure it out. But for now, I’m going to ride you until you bust a nut in me. Maybe we’ll make a baby this time.”

He snorts laughter. “You think so?”

Shrugging, I say, “I’m challenging science.”

With another kiss to his lips, I lean back, planting my hands on the blankets behind me so we’re in a V and his cock in my ass is the fulcrum. Adjusting my legs so my feet are against the bedding under us, I begin fucking myself on his dick. Etna’s hand moves to my cock, and he jerks me in time with my thrusts.

I close my eyes, letting the feeling of pleasure surge through me. Etna’s right. We need to make sure he has a chance to feel this. I want to make him feel this good.