Page 13 of Heartbreak Hockey

Someone had taken his fucking sunshine and sent it hurtling into the ocean, extinguishing his light forever and now we shared The Darkness.

“Well, aren’t you gonna to finish hitting on me? Or maybe you’ve decided to find someone your own age?”

“Hey, I’m not that old.”

“You’ve got to be pushing forty, Gramps.”

Mouthy little shit. I’d show him gramps. “Maybe I’ll take you over my knee and spank your ass here in the pub. After all, perfectly acceptable for an old-timer like me. What we did in my day and all that.”

Yes, I was being a sarcastic fuck, but spanking for discipline is a thing of mine, which I don’t practice often these days because of my no relationships rule—you’ve really got to be in a relationship for the way I like to do things. Or have a situationship set up like I used to have with my friend Bobby.

But that young man set off all my instincts.

I wasn’t supposed to grab him around the waist and press him to me tightly enough to mold him to my body, but I did. It’s not even what he said that triggered this thing in me I have. It was his energy. The way he said what he said.

Like a dare.

I put guys like that in their place and they love every fucking minute of it.

He was like me—I know my own kind.

“That was naughty,” I said into his ear, keeping my voice low and husky. I felt another shiver. I was on the right track, which was perfect because our tracks were lining up.

“G-Guess I can let you have me for a night,” he said, sinking into me like we were the polar ends of magnets finally joined together after hovering above the other for too long.

The need for him hit me suddenly and I wanted to watch my cock disappear in and out of his ass with my hands gripped around the curve of his hips. I’d smack his ass and enjoy the strained whimper, while I hammered him with my cock.

“Excuse me, young man. Is this old guy bothering you? I can have him removed.”

“Fuck off, Ari,” I said only moving my lips far enough away from the prey I’d captured so I didn’t break his eardrum.

“Fucking another college student, Merc?”

“No. He’s twenty-four,” I said though I didn’t know for sure. “Wait, you’re not in college, are you?”

He scoffed a laugh. “I’d never be able to sit still in college and good guess. I’m twenty-four. Want to see my ID?”

“He can’t sit still. What do you want?” I shrugged at my brother.

My brother was eye-fucking my bed toy for the night, and it reminded me that he and his partner were looking for a third. He’s also very aware of my one-night-only policy so his window shopping is just plain efficient since I’ll perform a capture and release if he gives the signal that what I’ve found could work out better for him.

But that night something roiled forth. My fingers curled around the young man’s jacket, and it would not have escaped Ari’s notice. I also braced myself against the polished-copper bar top enough that I could pull him against me and inhale more leather scent.

I kept picturing how good he would look on the back of my bike. His dirty-blond hair whipping at the bottom of his helmet and his haunted eyes boring into the back of me. His wide frame would of course mesh with mine and he’d hold tight because while he was trying to come off as tough, he lived one thread away from breaking apart. He wanted someone to hold onto.

I’ve always been able to smell that kind of vulnerability in the air.

The smug smile from Ari told me he had caught on, but we’re siblings through and through and I’d just made him pay for office hours. He was going to get his payback.

“Tell me his name and I’ll leave without texting Bea that you’re having a sleepover with blond Harry Styles.”

Jackass. If he did that, I was going to have to sit through Bea’s lecture on life and love and soulmates and how I don’t need to continue to fuck my way through all the men in Vancouver and the surrounding tri-cities.

The leather-clad man coughed, and I swear I heard him say …whack? Stack? No.Jack.

“Jack. It’s Jack,” I told my shithead brother.

“Yep,” Jack said. “Name’s Jack.”