Page 26

KAYDEN

O kay, I can’t tell the rest of this story without telling you about what happened the morning after. Erik stayed over at my place because, let’s face it, anybody would want to extend a hot evening with me.

When I drifted off, I slept like a rock the entire night.

Amazing for a guy who's never spent the entire night with another naked man in his bed before. Erik and I woke up at roughly the same time, but I slipped in and out of sleep. I wanted to ask if he was into morning sex or if I’d worn him out completely.

Hey, you can’t blame a guy for trying. The only thing that kept me from doing it was the clicking sound coming from downstairs, followed by a slam and a thud.

The front door had opened and closed, and a duffel bag had hit the floor.

“Oh shit!” I said. “My roommate’s home!”

Erik literally rolled right out of bed and landed on the floor in a big, naked heap. The thumping sound he made when he hit the floor sure didn’t help matters.

“Jesus, dude,” he said, “you told me he’d gone to Cleveland for the weekend.”

“I did, but he must’ve come back early. Quick, I’ve got to get you out of here. Move, would ya?”

“But I’m naked!”

“I don’t give a shit. Would you just shut up and do it!”

He gathered his clothes, but I pushed him out the door before he could put them on.

And then he paused like he seriously didn’t know what to do. You know, like the stress of the moment had caught up to him.

“I can’t go downstairs,” he whispered.

“Then go out through the bathroom.”

“But I can’t just?—”

“Shut up, would you? He’ll hear us.”

I pushed Erik into the bathroom and pointed to the window.

Outside was a second-floor deck that was normally accessed through an upstairs door, but only through my roommate’s bedroom.

Erik could climb out there easily enough.

In the meantime, I ran downstairs to stop my roommate, Joe, before he could find Erik.

“Bro, you’re home early,” I said.

“Yeah.”

“How come you didn’t tell me?”

And then I saw Erik through the window, climbing down from the door.

Well, actually, I saw his naked ass on display for the entire Westside as he climbed down from the roof.

He seemed to be trying to climb down a storm gutter that could give way at any second.

Instead of listening to my roommate, I couldn’t tear my eyes from the window.

“Okay, Dad,” Joe said. “Didn’t know I had to tell you about all my comings and goings.”

“You don’t. I’m just saying…”

“But I did send you a text saying I was on my way back. Didn’t you get it?”

My eyes fell shut a little, realizing I could’ve avoided this situation if I’d checked my phone. And I hadn’t read my texts because I’d spent the entire night in bed with Erik De Ruiter, who was going to fall off the roof naked if he wasn’t careful.

So far, Joe hadn’t glanced over his shoulder to look. Could he see the panic in my eyes? I wasn’t sure. If he hadn’t noticed anything, no freaking way would I let on.

“You have a hot weekend or something?” my roommate asked.

“No!”

He backstepped, raising his hands halfway in a semi-surrender.

I paused, cleared my throat, and tried answering him again like a calm, rational, and normal human being.

“I mean, no, I haven’t,” I said. “What makes you ask?”

“Well, it sounded like someone was upstairs with you just now.”

“Oh, noooooo, no. I didn’t have anyone upstairs. You must be hearing things, bro.”

“And I just heard a thud that sounded like someone falling out of bed?”

“No, that was just clumsy me.”

“And then there’s the fact that you’re naked.”

I looked down, and realized he was right. In my haste to get Erik out of the house, I’d forgotten to get dressed!

Oh yeah, I must’ve looked like a complete idiot in that moment. But I wouldn’t draw more attention to my nakedness. Instead, I would treat it as normal, so I strolled into the kitchen and started loading the dishwasher, acting like nothing strange was going on.

Anything to avoid admitting the truth.

“Seriously, Kayden?” he asked.

“What?”

“Your ass, bro. It’s bare. Actually, I’ve never seen you naked before at all. What gives?”

“Oh, don’t mind me. I’m used to it. Makes me feel like I’m hanging out with the guys. We do this in the locker room all the time.”

“Yeah, but…”

“And clothes are so constricting. You look overdressed, Joe. You ought to try this sometime.”

I glanced out the window and saw Erik in the backyard, stepping into his underwear. Then he put his pants on and donned his shirt in the sloppiest way possible. Then he tried to climb over the fence, getting stuck, and teetering back and forth, before going over the fence.

I heard a thud coming from outside, but Joe seemed not to have heard it because his eyes never left me.

“I hope you’re not looking to make a habit of doing stuff like this, bro,” he said.

“Why not? I live here, and I’ll strut around naked if I want to.”

“So what? I live here, too, and I’m totally not gay.”

Okay, that one hit me like a ton of bricks.

All it took was one single word, a term I hadn’t thought to apply to myself.

The word itself didn’t bother me. But it made me realize that if I kept up all this business with Erik, I would have to keep hiding things from people again and again.

Sooner or later, they would put two and two together.

Instead of confessing anything, I continued to stroll around the main floor, naked as the day I was born, like nothing at all bad happened.

Of course, it didn’t help that I found Erik’s shoes at the door. I scooped them up and took them to my room before my roommate could ask any more questions.

When all this started, I wouldn’t have expected to be the one getting fucked…literally. Now that it’d happened, I couldn’t believe that I’d loved it.

And that I wanted it to happen again.

You know as well as I do that Erik wouldn’t make that easy. That seemed obvious enough.

Case in point, he met me on the ice before our teammates had arrived for practice. As you know, being co-captains meant we needed to be out there before anyone else. It also offered us the shred of privacy we badly needed.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

“What are you sorry for?”

“Fucking you.”

I suppressed a laugh but couldn’t stop a smirk from appearing on my face. Only a Canadian farm boy would actually apologize for the epic fucking he’d given me. Next, he would punish himself for being multi-orgasmic.

“You don’t have to be sorry about that,” I said. “It was fucking awesome.”

“But I lost control.”

“Yeah, you sure let loose. I loved it.”

“But I shouldn’t have let that happen. I’m supposed to be restrained and disciplined. It was just that amazing dinner, how incredible you looked, and something I saw in your eyes…”

“You know you won’t go to jail for not analyzing everything to death, right?”

“No, I’ll go to jail for getting into a stupid bar fight. Oh wait, you’ve already beaten me to it.”

I flashed him another small smile. Only a guy who’d fucked me like Erik had could get away with comments like that.

“You don’t understand,” he said. “I told you we weren’t going to do anything like that again until we’d at least gone on a first date.”

“Yeah, I know you did.”

“And then I lost control. I caved in because I’m human and can fight my own urges only so much. I guess what I’m saying is that I don’t mean to be a tease.”

“A tease? Wait, are you saying you’re gonna start withholding sex now?”

I fake-gasped, clutching my heart, and trying hard not to laugh.

“I don’t owe you sex, dude, but if you want to call it withholding sex, then go right ahead. That’s just until we’ve had a first date.”

“Newsflash, Erik, we did have one. Where the hell were you?”

He paused like he didn’t know what the heck I was talking about.

“The whole reason I had you over to my place was so we could be alone,” I said, “and in an atmosphere more perfect than you’ll ever get in public. I made sure you had a romantic, homemade meal with wine and even a candle.”

“I hadn’t thought of it that way.”

“Wait a second, I went to all that trouble, and it never once occurred to you that maybe I had something else in mind?”

“I figured you were hoping for sex.”

“Well…yeah, I definitely thought of that. But I knew you wanted a first date before we went at it like a couple of jackrabbits again.”

“Lovely.”

“I just wanted to make sure I gave you something nice.”

“It was definitely nice. You really threw me off guard. It was like you’d suddenly turned into a sweet, thoughtful human being.”

“I’ll pretend you didn’t say that.”

“Why, because I’ve got a point?”

“No, because anyone who knows how to use their dick like you do deserves some slack.”

He couldn’t help smiling. Good to see he took some pride in his sexual prowess.

“Look,” I said, “if you don’t believe me…”

“I believe you, dude. I believe you. And thank you. I really appreciate it.”

I leaned in and kissed him. For the first time, I did it casually and not in a fit of passion.

I didn’t even glance around to see if anyone could see us.

It felt normal. I felt a little tense after, though, knowing I was drawing ever closer to the point of no return.

I’d almost crossed that line when Joe had nearly caught us together.

I’m sure he knew the story I’d given him was bullshit, but he wouldn’t have guessed I had had sex with a guy.

But that could all change one day. You know, if Erik and I kept this up?

I would have to explain everything, which wouldn’t be easy.

“We need to go on a real date,” he said.

“That dinner wasn’t real enough for you?”

“It was very sweet and special, sure. I just think we need to have a normal one…in public.”

“You’re lucky you’re so good in bed, bro.”

He smiled.

“Why are you so hellbent on us being seen in public together?”

“Because I want us to have hot, steamy, mind-blowing, illegal in thirty-eight states kind of sex again. Absolutely, I do. But I’m not going to lose control of myself again like I did at your house.

The only way I’ll ever be able to do that is if we really are together—and that means starting with a real, in-public first date. ”

I paused, knowing the consequences, but I also knew that I couldn’t deny Erik what he wanted.

It was just sex, right? I could’ve gotten that from anyplace I wanted. Only I realized that wasn’t true anymore. Erik De Ruiter was the exception to the rule. He was the only person, man or woman, to offer something so amazing.

And he knew it. Of course he did. And he knew I would ultimately go along with anything he wanted. Why else would he do everything in his power to drive me crazy?