Page 51 of Slew Foot (Scoring Chances #3)

He lay there sprawled on the floor and wiped at the drool on his chin, big hiccupping laughs escaping him.

It wasn’t funny that Mickey’s tinnitus was acting up or even that Tanner had caught them in the act but if you had asked Rafe if he could ever see himself in this situation, he’d have said hell no.

But here he was. And it was so stupid, it was funny.

“Don’t laugh,” Tanner protested, still covering his eyes. “I am scarred for life. No man should have to see two people going at it on his couch.”

“You hook up with couples all the time, you asshole!” Rafe protested between bouts of laughter.

“They’re not my best friends!”

“I can’t hear what either of you are saying,” Mickey grumbled. He lifted his hips, the pillow wobbling precariously on his lap as he slid his shorts up.

Rafe let out another big laugh, wiping at his eyes. Oh my God, what was his life even?

“Dude, I did not need to see you giving him head ,” Tanner said with a sniff.

“I wasn’t,” Rafe protested. “It’s called cockwarming .”

Tanner dropped his hand and squinted at him. “What the fuck?”

Rafe shrugged and shifted to a cross-legged position. “It’s not really a sex thing.”

Tanner stared at him. “But his cock was in your mouth .”

“Well yeah, but …”

“I don’t know what Tanner said but if he’s mad he walked in on us, tell him fuck you and it serves him right,” Mickey said with a scowl.

“I can hear you, Mickey,” Tanner pointed out before he looked at Rafe. “He doesn’t have to talk about me like I’m not here. And how does that serve me right?”

Mickey stood. “If he’s protesting that it isn’t fair, tell him this is payback for the time I walked in on him. And all of the times I’ve had to listen to him going at it with his latest hookup.”

It went on like that for a while, with Tanner and Mickey trying to argue while Mickey couldn’t hear anything he said and Rafe trying to translate in between the giggles before he finally gave up.

He stood and grabbed Mickey’s hand, steering him toward the bedroom.

“Where are you going!” Tanner protested.

“To take care of my boyfriend,” Rafe called back and gave him the finger over his shoulder. “Live with it!”

In their bedroom, they stretched out on the bed and Rafe picked up his phone. Sorry. I was too into what I was doing and totally missed Tanner coming back.

It’s fine. I missed it too, Mickey answered.

Yeah, but your ear?

That didn’t start until Tanner started making noise.

Oh.

That’s why he’s been gone so much lately, you know? Mickey said, passing the phone back.

Yeah?

Yeah. He told me that. Said he knew he was loud, and he didn’t want to make me feel worse.

That was nice, Rafe said.

Yeah it was. He’s still a dick though. I wasn’t aiming for payback but he totally deserves it after the shit I’ve seen and heard around here.

Rafe laughed.

Mickey reached up and cupped his cheek, pulling him in for a kiss.

So Rafe dropped his phone on the bed and forgot all about it for a while. He had a boyfriend to take care of.

The team was starting to rally.

Mickey had taken to watching the games on TV—sometimes on mute—and making notes for Rafe on his tablet. Rafe got this look on his face every time Mickey sent him the notes, but he read them and let Mickey talk to him about it.

“I want you to be able to play better,” Mickey argued one night when they were stretched out on the bed, talking.

“Dude, I want to play better too,” Rafe said. “But mostly I want you back. It doesn’t feel right without you there.”

“It doesn’t feel right to me either,” Mickey whispered. “Last week sucked when you were on the road.”

“Ugh, I know. I had to sleep alone .”

“It was nice to have it be quiet around here though,” Mickey said teasingly.

Rafe elbowed him. “That’s just because Tanner was gone.”

“Probably,” Mickey agreed. He leaned over and kissed Rafe’s bare shoulder.

“But seriously, you need to be able to do this. You need to be the kind of player I know you can be. Maybe we’ll always play our best hockey together, but it’s important for you to be able to play with the call-ups too.

Just think about me while you’re out there. ”

Rafe rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to fall in love with someone else just because we play together.”

“No, I know that ,” Mickey said with a small laugh.

“I didn’t mean think about me that way. I mean think about what I would tell you if I was on the ice with you.

You’re a great player, Rafe. You are. You don’t always trust yourself to know what the right play is.

But I think you have all of the pieces up there and if you trust yourself, you’ll blow everyone out of the water. ”

Rafe turned to face him, shifting until he sat cross-legged by Mickey’s knee. “Sometimes I think you don’t realize that either.”

“What?” Mickey said.

“Well, like … you’re all worried about how I play without you but what if it went the other way? What if I was the one who was out?”

Mickey opened his mouth to protest but Rafe just looked at him. “You weren’t having a great season before I got here.”

Mickey deflated because, damn it, Rafe was right. “Maybe it’s not confidence for you, exactly,” Rafe said. “I don’t know. But I think you don’t trust the other guys you play with. You bark orders but you don’t really communicate.”

Mickey snapped his mouth shut. “ Schei?e, ” he whispered fervently because Rafe had nailed that one. Mickey might not like it, but it was accurate.

“Hey! I know what that one means,” Rafe joked.

Mickey smiled, but he was still thinking about what Rafe had said. “Well,” he finally said. “I guess I’ll have something to work on when I get back.”

“ When ?” Rafe asked hopefully.

Mickey shrugged. “I mean, I don’t feel any different than I did when the ringing and vertigo started but we have to have hope, don’t we?”

“Yeah,” Rafe said. “We do.”

Mickey leaned in and kissed him. As he set the tablet aside and gently pulled Rafe down over him, he felt okay. Not great, but okay.

Even if the world did go a little swimmy every time he changed direction and the good days were sometimes overshadowed by the terrible ones, he was learning how to cope with it.

He was learning to appreciate the good ones, or even the okay ones. He was learning to take advantage of them. Of stealing kisses and savoring the moments.

As he lay there, pinned between Rafe’s heavy body and the mattress, his tongue exploring Rafe’s mouth and his cock growing hard, he thought maybe this was going to be his new normal.

He thought of the STI test results he’d gotten—all clear, thankfully—and he wondered if it made sense to keep waiting for a miracle to happen before they took advantage of it. Maybe he should let Rafe ride him, maybe he shouldn’t wait for the magic day when he felt like himself again.

He slid a hand up Rafe’s back to grasp his neck, feeling when he went soft and pliant against Mickey except for the hard press of his cock against Mickey’s hip.

“Maybe …” he whispered.

“Mmm?” Rafe asked, lifting his head, his lips kiss-swollen and his hair mussed already.

On the other hand, Rafe had a point of holding out hope for something.

“Nothing,” Mickey said. “Just want to say I love you.”

Rafe beamed. “I love you too. Can I suck you off? Not cockwarming, but a blowjob?”

“You can, if you want,” Mickey said. “But maybe we keep doing this, but with a few less clothes and some lube?”

Rafe nodded eagerly. “Whatever you want.”

He means that , Mickey thought with a little pang in his chest as he rolled over, everything in his head swirling a little.

It was humbling to know how deeply Rafe trusted him. How eager he was to please.

Even as Mickey plucked the lube out of the drawer, pulled Rafe’s short shorts off, and pushed him down onto the bed, even as he stripped off his own clothing and pressed their bodies together, he thought of what he needed to do next.

How to balance living in the moment and being okay with whatever his future looked like, and fighting to be there for his team, for his career, for Rafe .

He wrapped a slick hand around Rafe’s cock as they lay side by side, kissing, and thought, I have to keep fighting. I have to.

Rafe’s dick was thick and hot in his hand and the sounds he made were so beautiful, the panting, desperate little whimpers with every stroke and the soft, eager cries when he teased at Rafe’s slit with his thumb.

“I love you,” he whispered as he finally brought Rafe to the edge, circling his fingers around Rafe’s cock and balls and choking off any chance of him coming.

Rafe let out a desperate little whine. “Mickey …”

“Be good for me,” he whispered, even as he could feel the ringing begin and the room start to spin.

Mickey froze, knowing he’d probably pushed it too far. Rafe was so close , Mickey could keep going, consequences be damned … but he also knew he was going to regret it if he did.

He sighed, releasing his hold on Rafe’s cock. He shuddered, a full body ripple that told Mickey he’d been right on the edge. Damn it.

“I don’t feel so great,” Mickey admitted, hating he had to say the words even though he knew they were the right ones. The smart ones.

Rafe reached up, taking his face in his hands while he spoke clearly, moving his mouth in a way that made it easy for Mickey to read.

“That’s okay. Let me take care of you.”

“Okay,” Mickey agreed, and it was maybe the hardest thing he’d ever done in his whole damn life.

But he rolled onto his back and let Rafe get a warm cloth to clean them both, then tuck him into bed.

“Thanks for telling me,” Rafe said, looming over him for a moment so Mickey could read his lips.

The ringing was so loud now. So overwhelming. It blocked out almost everything else.

“I love you,” Mickey said desperately, because right now, that was the only thing giving him hope.

Whatever happened, love was what he was holding on to.