Page 19

19

Caleb

I ’m mostly quiet the entire bus ride to Michigan, and when we finally get there, there’s a knot in my throat as I stare at my old home rink.

During warm-ups, a few of my buddies skate up to the red line and call me over, bumping fists with me and all that shit. They seem thrilled to see me, which I get—I’m a fucking delight.

Though, as expected, not everyone’s so happy to see me. Luca, the guy I used to hook up with, glowers at me as he skates by. He’s a petty guy, but so am I, and I grin wide and lift my glove at him. Luca can’t see it, but I’m flipping him off.

I can’t let anyone know that he’s making me antsy, so I plaster on a fake smile that would rival Nick’s.

“You seem to be in a good mood,” Rhys tells me when we get into position for the face-off.

“Yup.” When I direct my attention to our opponents, I see that Luca’s opposite Nick. “Oh, shit, good for you!” I yell out at him. “I see you got your old spot back when I left!”

“Fuck off, Jennings!”

“Knock it off,” Rhys tells me, and I grin wickedly at him.

Nick locks eyes with me. He smiles, and I can’t help but smirk back at him. In typical Nick fashion, he doesn’t wipe his smile off, even when he turns to Luca.

“What are you smiling about?” Luca snipes at him, and I resist the urge to lunge at him.

Ironically, I was the one annoyed by Nick’s habits not long ago.

I’m not sure if Nick replies to him—I think he ignores him completely. And since I know how irritating Nick’s nonchalance can be, I can’t help but snicker as I get into position for the face-off.

As soon as the puck drops, my adrenaline spikes.

Our dear captain Rhys, despite how I talk shit about him whenever I can, is actually pretty good. He wins the face-off and we’re off to a great start even if we’re against a team—my old team!—that was last year’s champions.

We’re able to keep up, mostly because Nick and Rhys’s chemistry is amazing. Maybe my uncle was onto something forcing me to be their linemate, because I do well playing alongside them too.

By the third period, the score’s 3-2 in our favor, and I can tell that it’s getting on my old team’s nerves. They’re struggling, and I’m fucking proud of us for giving them so much trouble. Luca’s face turns red when Vega blocks another one of his shots, and the other guys have turned quiet.

My mood shifts quickly, though, when I have the puck and somebody checks me into the boards way harder than necessary. I scowl when I realize it’s Luca, and then they’re able to take the puck away and get it right past Vega and into the net.

Fuck.

Luca gives me a shit-eating grin, and for the first time tonight, anger courses through me.

Nick nudges me. “You okay?”

I don’t know what kind of fucking magic this guy has over me, but the fight leaves me immediately.

There’s a bark of laughter in front of us, and I realize Luca’s watching. I must have been smiling way too softly at Nick or some shit, because Luca immediately picks up on it.

The dipshit doesn’t even hesitate. With a sneer, he says, “No fucking way. Seriously? You really move fast, don’t you, Caleb?”

I lift my eyebrows. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Luca grins at Nick, who looks lost. “You know he’ll drop you as soon as he gets what he wants, right?”

Nick’s shoulders stiffen. Without waiting for a response, Luca skates away, laughing loudly.

I’m going to kill Luca.

“I’m guessing he’s the guy you mentioned before,” Nick murmurs to me, too low for anyone else to hear.

“Yep,” I say dryly.

Poor Nick. After that, Luca targets him any chance he gets, and I see him mumbling something at Nick a few times. Nick doesn’t bother responding, though he’s lost his smile, and his jaw’s clenched. Fuck.

Whatever Luca’s saying, I can see it’s getting to Nick.

Nick, who almost never makes a mistake, fumbles with the puck and Luca easily takes it from him.

“What happened?” asks Rhys. He seems bewildered, shooting Nick a look.

“Sorry,” grunts Nick.

With only a few minutes left on the clock, we’re tied, and the pressure on everyone’s evident. My mood drops even more when, during another stoppage in play, Luca’s mumbling something to Nick again.

Irritation consumes me. Skating up to them, I shout, “Stop talking to him!”

Luca grins widely. “Just telling him the truth about you, babe.”

“Shut your fucking mouth.”

“Caleb.” Nick attempts to separate us.

“Please,” Luca scoffs. He lowers his voice so that only Nick and I can hear. “You loved my fucking mouth when it was wrapped around your cock.”

I blink at him, caught off-guard. His words stun me enough that I don’t even notice Nick pull away from me.

Rhys yells Nick’s name just as Nick drops his stick and shakes his gloves off, and next thing I know, Nick throws a punch at Luca.

“Fuck you!” Luca yells, staggering backwards. He retaliates immediately, and everything that happens next is utter chaos.

When I finally snap out of it, Luca’s gotten a good hit back at Nick. I’m about to lunge at Luca when Schultz gets to me first and blocks my path.

And for the first time in his life, Nick gets thrown out of a game.

***

So, we ended up losing, and my uncle’s livid.

Rhys keeps trying to get an explanation out of Nick, asking him what Luca did to provoke that. Our captain only backs off when we’re getting on the bus and Nick pulls his headphones on.

The entire trip to the hotel we’re staying at tonight, I keep glancing back at Nick. He’s seated a few rows behind me and is leaning back with his eyes shut. While Luca looked way worse than him, there’s a cut on Nick’s eyebrow and a bruise forming on his cheekbone. Yikes.

Nick’s quiet and surly even when we get to the lobby and the equipment manager hands out our keycards. He moves quick too, because before I realize it, he’s already leaving. I just see a glimpse of him as the elevator doors close.

Ugh. I loosen my tie and walk up to Rhys. “Morgan.”

He eyes me suspiciously. “What?”

“Let’s swap rooms.”

“Huh? No way. What’s wrong with Vega?”

“Nothing, I barely know the guy. I want to room with Nick.”

“Why?”

“Uh. I’m superstitious?”

Rhys’s mouth twitches as if he’s trying to hold back a laugh. “Care explaining?”

“First match we lose this season, and it just so happens you messed up last night’s sleeping arrangements. Literally the only thing that changed in Nick’s routine, and he’s out there punching people for the first time in his life.”

“You’re saying Nick got kicked out because I slept beside him?”

“Exactly. Never do that again.”

“You realize I’ve crashed in his room countless of times and we’ve always roomed together on away games, right?” He throws back his head and laughs, then reaches into his pocket and slams his keycard into my chest. “Whatever. Give me your keycard.”

“Sweet. Thanks.”

“Make sure he gets up in the morning. He’ll miss the bus if you don’t tell him to move.” He turns away and mumbles, “You’re both so obvious.”

Not sure what he means by that, and I don’t care.

When I get to the room, Nick’s lying on the bed closer to the windows. He hasn’t even changed out of his suit. He’s glaring at the ceiling as if it committed a crime against him, and when he spots me enter, Nick sits up and pulls his headphones off.

“Where’s Rhys?” he asks.

“I swapped rooms with him.”

“Seriously?”

“What, you’re not happy?”

Nick gives me a blank look that I can’t decipher, then he shrugs and drops back on his pillow. I place my bag by the foot of the unoccupied bed, put away my suit jacket and tie, and walk over to him, looming over his face and grinning. He looks so cute with his dark hair spread around him, and the pout that he can’t seem to put away.

The wound on his eyebrow doesn’t look too bad, but up this close, I can see that the bruise on his cheekbone looks even worse than I thought. I brush my fingers against the side of his face, and he winces despite how light my touch is.

“You fought for me,” I tease. “You got kicked out for the first time for me.”

“ Because of you,” he mumbles. Nick narrows his eyes at me and doesn’t move, even when I sit down on the bed next to him and put a hand flat on his chest. “I don’t know what got into me. I’ve been losing my temper too much lately.”

“Because of me?”

“You seem to be the common denominator, yeah.”

I let my hand slip inside his suit jacket, fingers drifting against his chest and down to his stomach. His abs flex under my touch and I can feel it despite his shirt acting like a barrier, but other than that, he doesn’t give me any other reaction.

Seeing him this quiet and upset and remembering how he got thrown out of a game for me, stirs something in me.

We haven’t kissed since last night or even talked about it, and I should be confused as fuck, but… I’m not. I lean down over him, close my eyes, and knock my forehead against his. His breath hitches and he puts a palm on my waist, simply letting it rest there.

And when I brush my lips against his, I feel him smile against me, which was what I hoped for. Then he returns my kiss and tightens his grip against my shirt. I don’t think I’ve ever kissed anyone so gently before.

Yeah, kissing feels nice, but it’s always felt like a means to an end for me. I like it because it leads to fucking, and I’ve never really been into the habit of kissing anyone just so they’d smile.

What’s gotten into me? Even last night, when Nick looked dejected because he thought Rhys’s presence annoyed me, his face fell, so I kissed him to cheer him up, despite his best friend being there.

My brain’s working overtime about this.

I sit up and study him. “Are you pissed at me?”

He shakes his head.

“Then what?”

“I don’t know,” he mumbles. “Quick question. Am I going to run into more of your ex-boyfriends?”

“Not an ex-boyfriend. Luca was more like a… disgruntled ex-situationship. We fooled around a bit, but it ended badly, and he never really got over it, especially when our coach gave me his spot on first line.”

“You have a lot of those?”

“A lot of what?”

“Disgruntled ex-situationships.” He rolls the term on his tongue as if he thinks it’s ridiculous.

“Why? Are you jealous again?”

“Caleb,” he warns.

I grin at him and let my hand drift even lower, towards his belt, and his throat bobs when I fiddle with the buckle. Nick’s eyes turn dark, and his stare falls to my mouth.

“No,” I tell him. “Luca's a head case and that won’t happen again, and I’m sorry that happened.”

His lips part when I graze my hand downward, brushing my knuckles against the front of his pants. When he doesn’t push me away, I take that as permission to lightly palm him, and he hardens underneath my touch. My heart lunges at the knowledge that even when he’s clearly pissed, despite denying it, he still wants me this much.

Nick bites his lip and groans when I add more pressure against his cock, but then he grasps me by the wrist, and I stop moving.

“One more question,” he bites out, and I resist rolling my eyes because I honestly just want to get his pants off. I put my hand on his thigh, waiting.

I can do without the interrogation, especially since talking about past hookups is really killing the vibe. But… it’s clear that Nick really needs this.

“Am I going to end up like Luca?” he asks.

“Huh? What’s that mean?”

“Nothing.”

“Hey.”

He lets out a loud exhale and closes his eyes. “He said that you get bored easily and then throw people away and that there’s an entire list of guys before me.”

The insinuation that he even remotely believes that kind of annoys me. And, maybe, hurts my damn feelings. I school my expression, though. “No. I haven’t had a serious boyfriend in years but it’s not for lack of trying, I just haven’t clicked that way with anyone in a while. I don’t get bored and throw anyone away. Luca and I weren’t on the same page, and all those other guys he’s hinting at? Completely casual.”

Nick stares at me. “You only do casual.”

“Well, mostly, but like I said, I haven’t had a boyfriend because there’s nobody I’ve clicked with that much. Take Luca, for example. We would’ve stabbed each other if we even tried to take things further.” I huff a laugh, attempting to disguise how his questions are pinching at my chest. Teasingly, I ask, “What, you think I’m a manwhore?”

“Of course not.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

His lower lip juts out. “I’m possessive.”

This time around, my laugh’s genuine. “Nicky...”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean to insult you, and I know this… uh, whatever this is… between us is new and all, and I don’t want to be a creep and pressure you into anything. Because I’m not doing that. The things he said messed with my mind is all.”

“I get it.” I hold his gaze, and Nick’s expression finally softens. “For what it’s worth, I really like you, which surprises the hell out of me, because you’re annoyingly high strung. Though, weirdly, it’s kind of growing on me. We can give this a shot, if you’d like. We don’t even have to put a label on it… yet.”

“Even if we don’t put a label on it, I don’t share, Caleb. If we’re doing this, you can’t be fooling around with anyone else.”

Goddamn. The hardness in his voice makes my dick twitch. “What, you want to be exclusive?”

Nick chews on his cheek. “I… um. Yes, at least as long as we’re fooling around. Casual but… exclusive?”

“Okay.”

He smiles. “Also, I like it when you’re honest. It’s sweet.”

“As if you’re ever honest.” I smirk. “And don’t expect me to be this sappy all the time. This is taking a lot out of me.”

He laughs and reaches up, putting his hand in my hair and tugging me down to him. The moment our lips meet, the tension in me fizzles out, and everything seems right again.

“I still can’t believe you got into a fight,” I murmur against his lips.

“What he said was uncalled for.”

“My prince charming,” I tease, and Nick bites down on my lip in retaliation. The slight pain stuns me, and I laugh in surprise, then Nick pulls me even closer and nibbles at the spot he bit.

“I may have a bit of a jealousy problem. Never felt the need to act on it before, though. When he said what he said, I saw red at the thought of you… doing things with him.”

“You’re possessive and it’s hot,” I say, and his cheeks flare

Grinning, I pull away and climb down his body. His eyes darken and his throat bobs when I nudge his legs apart and get between his knees, undoing his belt.

Not tearing my gaze away from him, I say, “I’m going to suck you off, Nicky. Tell me I can.”

Nick sucks in a breath, then he nods once.