Page 26 of First Puck

Trapping him against the barrier, Alex’s cheeks between his hands and staring deep into his eyes. I caught them just as Lance bent in toward him, and Alex’s lips parted.

They were both dressed casual, so they must have changed when I was in the showers.

The door slammed behind me as I strode toward them, but they were totally lost in a bubble of their own and didn’t hear it.

“What about here?” Lance said, just loud enough for me to hear him. His thumb swept across Alex’s cheek. “Can I touch it like this?”

Did I imagine the way Alex trembled? Or how he drew in a sharp breath and Lance leaned even closer and—

“Hey!” I shouted as I strode toward them without thinking, my voice bouncing around the rink. “What are you doing?”

My heart kicked into overdrive, that weird feeling getting all messed up inside me.

I sliced through their dreamy bubble as Alex’s head snapped towards me.

He sucked in a harsh breath as he got that scared look again, the one I seriously hated that made me feel guilty as shit.

He suddenly leaped back from Lance, nearly tipping over, and Lance reached out, slipping a hand around Alex’s waist to steady him.

“It was an eyelash!” Alex cut in quickly, pushing Lance’s hand away as he stepped toward me. “I had an eyelash in my eye.”

I didn’t get why he looked so freaked out by it.

“It’s fine, man, you know I’d have done the same for you.” I shrugged.

Except I wouldn’t have looked like I was about to kiss Alex so fiercely I’d leave him breathless as I swiped the damn thing from his eye.

That was the thing, though—Alex wasn’t interested in anyone. He’d talked about people he thought were hot, but he’d never actually dated anyone.

But from the way Lance was smirking behind him, it was obvious something was going on—and that my best friend, the one and only, was lying to me.

Obviously, I totally wasn’t bothered. I mean, first of all, Alex would have told me if he liked dudes. Second of all, Alex had way better taste than choosing someone like Lance Austin. That guy had man whore written all over him, and we all knew he hooked up with at least three different people every week.

“You coming for a shower, or what?” I said one hundred percent casually and not awkwardly at all. Though I was close to grabbing Alex and carting him so far away from Lance that they couldn’t even think of touching each other again for a million years.

I wasn’t giving the game away by narrowing my eyes like the suspicious bastard I was. I didn’t like anyone hanging around Alex who wasn’t Brad-approved, and Lance had been on thin ice for too long, anyway. I’d just grill Alex about it when we got home.

“Sure,” Lance said, pushing himself off the barrier.

Instead of walking toward me, and on to the locker rooms, he turned back to Alex. “So, how about that coffee tomorrow?”

Alex looked up at him. All that shit about being worried I was misunderstanding or whatever just vanished as Lance quirked a brow. I felt like I’d faded into the background as Alex gave him a shy smile.

“Yeah, that would be really nice. I—”

“Actually,” I cut him off as I took hold of Alex’s arm. “We have plans tomorrow.” I super-casually stepped in front of Alex, so I was basically guarding him.

Lance’s attention spun to me, and his lips morphed into a lazy smirk laced with amusement.

It would probably be too much if I wrapped my arms around Alex and hissed at Lance like a pissed-off cat, but he needed to back off.

“Alright,” he shrugged, looking back to Alex, “what about the weekend?”

“Nope,” I answered straight away. “We’re busy this weekend, too.” I didn’t want Lance cozying up to Alex like that until I knew what the hell was going on. They spent enough time together around the house. I wasn’t letting them go off and do secret stuff or whatever. Because the way Lance said ‘coffee’ made it sound like he was going to drag Alex to his bedroom for another kind of hot drink.

Lance reached out for him again, but I tugged Alex back.

“Brad,” Alex’s voice was soft behind me, but I didn’t want to back down.

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