Page 64 of Brace and Chase

I get choked up and try not to show it, but the blush burning my cheeks can’t be hidden from anyone. I raise my own glass of Coke, though, and smile at Bear with gratitude pouring out of me.

I feel Nikolay lean in once everyone’s taken a drink and they’re no longer focused on me.

“I like the blush,” he whispers.

His words only make me blush harder.

“What are you looking at,you creepy old man?” I demand when I’ve had enough of feeling Nikolay’s intense stare on me.

“Creepy old man?” he demands, clearly offended. I look up from my lava cake to the other side of our room in Tampa and give him the flat stare he deserves.

“I refuse to use your ridiculous nickname, and Santa Clausisa creepy old man who breaks into people’s houses and eats their food. I thought it was only fitting.”

He matches my blank face for five seconds, and then he bursts out laughing. Like a full-body laugh that has the edges of my mouth tipping up despite my sullen mood.

“So you’re in a bad mood, huh?”

I’m still taken aback by the easygoingness of him now that he doesn’t hate me. A mere week ago we were about to beat the crap out of each other during practice and now we’re laughing together.

“I’m just surprised you’re ordering that plate of sugar when we’re supposed to be staying in tip-top shape to try and get back on the ice.”

“Don’t food-shame me, Nikolay,” I tell him and go backto my cake, which is the only thing making me feel better at the moment—besides Nikolay’s laugh, but I’m just going to keep ignoring that. “And of course I’m in a bad mood. We lost against Miami, a team thatsucks, only three hours ago, Nikolay. And Laney didn’t look like he wanted to put us on the iceonce. For fuck’s sake we just lost the number two spot in our division. If we don’t get back to winning fucking games we’re not even going to make the playoffs.”

Something in my tone must clue him in—maybe it was the unhinged screeching—because he walks over and pulls out the other chair at the tiny table in our room and loses all the humor bullshit. He leans in a little and places both hands, palms down and fingers spread out a little, on top of the table.

“We’re going to get our spots on the ice back, sweetheart.”

I can tell he meant for my nickname to sound condescending but instead it comes out tender—another thing I couldn’t have imagined coming from him a week ago—and that’s not helping my focus.

Even if we do get back on the ice, if I can’t stop thinking about kissing Nikolay again, what good could I possibly be for the team? The team I now finally feel a part of?

I don’t want to let them down.I won’t.

So yeah, I continue eating my feelings without shame. And Nikolay lets me, giving me some much needed silence for the rest of the night.

There are no smart remarks when we get in a quickpractice on the ice in the morning, and he doesn’t even tell me “I told you so” when Laney announces he’s putting us back in that night when we play against Tampa.

“Make sure you get some rest,” he tells us, a warning clear in his tone.

We both nod like bobbleheads and follow his instructions to a T, only... when Nikolay peels off his shirt when we get back to our room, and I can’t unglue my eyes from his back—the one rippling with muscles—my mind conjures up the image of him taking offmyshirt, undoing my pants and...

Another cold shower then.

Thankfully, I know he can be asleep in no time at all when it comes to napping, so I jack off in the shower with the memory of our kiss fueling every ounce of horniness in my body.

He’s still asleep when I come out, just as expected, but unexpectedly, a deep sense of loss fills me as I see him in the other bed.

How can I want to just be close to him so much?

How can the three feet that separate us feel so immense?

Most importantly, how in the fuck am I going to play the best hockey of my career with him right next to me?

TWENTY-TWO

SANTA

“Line two, thirty seconds,”Laney calls out, and our whole line stands from the bench at the same time. The game against Tampa started less than two minutes ago, and of course our first line started us off like it always does.

---