Page 32

STEFANOS

I t’s not one more day.

When Alexei sees the doctor, she tells him he needs to lay off physical activity for at least another week.

Feeling bad about him giving me blow jobs, (and me giving him nothing in return save blue balls), we mostly cuddle in his bed and when he starts getting back to some gentle practice, he’s tired and falls asleep really quickly.

I don’t want him in my room again before I figure out a way to tell him I’m horror boy.

Yes, it sucks lying to him. But if I come out with it now, it could ruin everything.

So I get acquainted with his bed. The striped bedding I recognize now from his pictures.

Everything becoming so obvious, to the point where I start to think maybe he knows too and he’s just pretending like I am.

If that was the case, things would be so much easier.

That’s why Meg wasn’t mad at Tom right? Because she kinda knew for a while herself.

But if he has no idea at all, then it’s going to feel like a huge betrayal.

The day after Alexei returns to practice, the team play Harvard in an important game.

I’m still not 100% certain why it’s important.

Alexei tried to explain the ECAC and standings and points and play-offs to me, and I was listening.

But it was like calculus. It made sense to a point, but I had a hard time placing it in context.

(I may be a music nerd, but I never said I was STEM smart).

All I know, is that it’s important. He’s only just got back to practice and now he has to captain the team in a game that means something big.

I cook Baba’s keftedes – or a version of them at least – for when Alexei gets back from his first practice.

He loved the beef and radish soup, and when Alice heard I’d made it for him, she grinned at me like a proud parent.

But I also know he loved my dad’s cooking, and it means something to me to share that with someone, the way it meant something for Alice to share her mom’s comfort food with me.

I’m nervous about what mood he’ll be in when he walks through the door. Even if he tries to hide his disappointment or anger, or whatever negative emotion he may be feeling, I’ll be able to tell something is wrong.

He puts his key in the door just as I’m turning the heat down on the meatballs.

“Something smells good in here.” He says.

He looks alert and… happy? Or is that just nervous energy?

“It’s Baba’s keftedes, or my version anyway.”

He crosses the room and puts his arms around me. He smells a little different. Maybe because he hasn’t been cooped up in the house today.

“How was practice?”

“It was so good to be back doing something.”

He pulls away and looks down into my face. “Not that I didn’t love hanging out here with you.”

“I know, shush.” I slap my hand over his mouth and I can tell he’s smiling by how his eyes crinkle.

“Dinner’s ready now, are you hungry?”

“Yes. You need to stop taking care of me so well.”

“Why?”

“Because I’ll get used to it.”

“I don’t think you’ll ever take it for granted.”

“No, you’re right, I won’t.”

I feel like Baba, watching him eat my food and zeroing in on the most miniscule reactions. “Mm, this is really good, just like your dad’s.”

My whole body feels like it’s glowing with the compliment.

“How come you never considered taking over the family business?”

I snort. “No way. I love my dad’s cooking and the restaurant can be fun, but I could never work there full-time, it’s just not my thing. And I’ve always had the violin. How about you? Didn’t your dad ever want you to take over the store?”

He keeps looking down at his plate when he talks. “As soon as he saw I was good at hockey, that was the focus. The store keeps us afloat, but hockey can give us a completely different life.”

“Or working in a bank.”

“Exactly.”

“Or working in hockey in some other capacity.”

“Yup.”

“Have you heard anything from the internships you applied for yet?”

“Not yet. But people have started hearing back from the bank ones, so I think I’ll get something from them pretty soon.”

“What will you do if you get accepted by J.P. Morgan or someone like that?"

He shrugs. “I’ll have a little time to think about it. I won’t have to accept right away. Though most people probably will.”

“That doesn’t matter though, right?”

“Right.”

I don’t know what I want. If he works at some fancy bank, he’ll be here, or in the city, close to me and my family and Queens and everything I’m used to.

But if he gets the Vancouver one that he really wants, then he’ll move away.

For eight whole weeks. And they might offer him a full-time position.

And then he’ll move to Canada. And what am I gonna do?

It’s probably hard to get a long-term visa to live in Canada as an out-of-work musician.

And I can’t ask my parents to pay for a grad degree so I can keep on studying.

Canadian universities are probably really expensive for non-citizens.

“Hey, what’s up?” he asks.

“Nothing, I was just thinking.”

“Thinking about what?”

“Wondering what you wanna do tonight.”

I never thought someone who looks like him could blush, but there he is, blushing.

“I’ve been cleared by the doctor to ‘exercise.’”

“You have a big game tomorrow, is there anything you’re not supposed to do the night before?”

He shakes his head, my stomach flipping. “As long as I get to sleep at a reasonable hour, I’m good.”

We wash the dishes side by side in a companionable silence before taking turns brushing our teeth.

I automatically go to his room now and get into his bed. The smell of his sheets becoming familiar. The pillows molding to the shape of my head.

When he lifts the sheets and climbs in beside me, the heat of his body engulfs me and I automatically move towards it. His arms finding me and pulling me in.

His mouth tastes like our toothpaste. His skin clean from his post-practice shower.

My heart pounds in my ears as we kiss and grind lazily, as if our bodies have gotten so used to nothing happening beyond a kiss that they’ve stopped hoping.

But Alexei’s been cleared and it’s safe for me to finally give him an orgasm. No pressure.

We peel each other out of our t-shirts, then the sweats we usually sleep in.

Kicking them off under the blanket. Alexei’s hands are warm when they find my waist and start sliding under the waistband of my underwear.

I sigh into his mouth and he grinds a little harder against me.

Feeling him hard for me gives me the confidence boost I need to slide my hand under his waistband and squeeze his ass, like I’ve wanted to since the moment I caught Alice ogling it.

He laughs softly into my mouth.

“Did you just squeeze my ass?”

“It’s such a great ass.”

He slides his hand around to my back and slips his fingers under the boxer briefs I’m wearing.

“Mm,” he hums as he gives my skinny ass a squeeze. “This is a great ass.”

“Liar.”

His head snaps back, like he’s been slapped.

“Don’t argue with me. You have a great ass okay?”

“Okay.”

He dots little kisses all over my face while he kneads the flesh of my ass-cheeks like he really is into it.

When his fingertips graze the crease, a pleasurable little shiver runs through me and he notices, because he lingers there.

He pulls my underwear down, my cock springing free, before pulling the blanket off us completely.

“Alexei, fuck.” I slide my hands up and down his sexy chest when he climbs between my legs. Sliding around to his back and coming back around to let my fingers trace the scar on his shoulder.

When I slip my hands under his waistband again, he lifts himself up on his elbows to let me pull his boxer briefs down.

It’s light enough in the bedroom that I can see everything. And when I pull his underwear off completely, I get my first real look at his fully naked body and it’s just as glorious as I thought it would be.

I guide his hips down so our skin brushes and his whole body shivers violently at the contact. I have to remind myself that this is the first time he’s really been naked with someone. He’s experiencing this all with fresh eyes.

His hips start moving instinctively and I kiss him as we rock slowly. The sensation of his bare cock against mine drives me crazy, and I have to stop myself from speeding up. Alexei has to be asleep at a reasonable hour, but we still have time, and I’m going to take it.

He looks down at me and brushes my hair behind my ear.

“How does that feel?” I ask.

His eyes are bright, his pupils huge.

“Amazing.”

“Good.”

I wrap my hand around us and we look down to see our heads rubbing together. Using my thumb to smear pre-cum over us both. Alexei’s cock leaks, more than just a bead, and I think I could make him come with a couple of strokes. But I don’t want to do that. I owe him a blow job, or a few.

“Lie on your back,” I say.

He does as I ask and climbs off me. I miss the contact of skin-on-skin, but I know I’ll get it back in a second.

I’ve never wanted to make someone feel good as much as I do right now as I slide down the bed between his legs and lick the base of his cock. I relish every little detail. His taste. His smell. His shape.

He moans the second I wrap my lips around his head. It’s the first completely unrestricted sound I’ve heard him make off the ice and I could get addicted to hearing him moan like that.

His taste floods my mouth. The tang of pre-cum on my tongue. The smell of his skin as I take him to the root. The brush of his pubic hair against my nose.

“Fuck, baby.”

I relish him calling me baby. Lap it up while I make him feel good. Feeling his legs tremble beneath me.

How many times did I look at those pictures he sent me as Kelsier38 and imagine doing this to him? And he’s so much better in real life than I could have ever imagined.

His fingers work in my hair, clenching as he tenses.

“Stop!”

I pull off and look up.

“Holy fuck you’re so fucking pretty.”

“Right back at you.”