Page 62 of Scoring Position

But his dad just smiled at Ryan—genuinely—and thanked him, and if he looked at Nico speculatively after that, it was nothing Nico couldn’t sublimate with a generous helping of Glühwein.

Nico opened his gift from his parents next—tickets to see his favorite band in Berlin over the summer—and then insisted his mother open hers. Nico had gotten her an intricate Imperial egg in blue and red and gold that, when carefully opened, held a pair of diamond earrings.

His mother loved it so much she got teary-eyed, which embarrassed Nico, but all the hugging and exclaiming and modeling the earrings made a good cover for Ryan opening the gift Nico had gottenhim—a portable white noise machine, a T-shirt with chess pieces picked out and labeled in white, except the queen, which was rainbow and labeled withme, and a year’s premium subscription to Chess.com so he could practice and finally beat his sister.

Or literally anyone.

Eventually the presents had all been unwrapped and conversation from his parents trailed off into yawns. The mulled wine made Nico feel downright tactile; he and Ryan were both sitting cross-legged on the floor like children after a fight with balls of wrapping paper, and their knees were just touching. Nico was hyperaware of it; he could feel the heat radiating from Ryan’s body, and he wanted….

Well, things he had become accustomed to getting.

Finally his parents excused themselves to go to bed, and Ryan and Nico set to work making the den presentable.

They had just finished loading the dishwasher and turned it on when Nico pushed Ryan up against the counter and kissed him.

Ryan’s mouth was warm and wet and tasted like wine and cinnamon, and he opened his mouth for Nico’s kiss with a low, quiet groan that Nico felt in every nerve ending. He slipped his hands under the hem of Nico’s shirt and teased his thumbs over the sensitive skin on Nico’s hips, and he swore when Nico broke the kiss to find out what he’d do if Nico bit at the hinge of his jaw.

Grind his erection right into Nico’s, it turned out.

Nico hissed in pleasure when Ryan fisted his hands in his hair, but the pleasure was short-lived. “Nico—fuck, Nico, we can’t.”

They absolutely could. Last night had proven that. But Nico reluctantly pulled his mouth away from Ryan’s skin and looked into his eyes, blinking the obvious question.

A door closed somewhere in the house, and then came the sound of water running.

“Your parents,” Ryan said. “Unless you want them to hear us?”

Of course Nico didn’twantthem to overhear; that was gross. But he was an adult, and an adult could have sex in his own house.

This particular adult didn’t want to answer questions from his dad about it later, though.

Nico licked his lips. “We can be quiet.”

Ryan laughed and leaned his head against Nico’s shoulder. “Youcan be quiet, maybe,” he said, which was a fair point.

“We could go back downstairs.”

Ryan groaned and leaned their heads together. “Let’s not push our luck. I saw the way your dad looked at me when he saw those coveralls.”

Nico sighed. He probably had a point. “Okay. Rain date?”

Ryan snorted softly. “Rain check,” he corrected. “And you better believe I’m cashing it.”

RYAN PLUGGEDin the white noise machine and stared at the ceiling.

He wanted acuddle.

This was not a casual adult arrangement. This was not friends with benefits. This was not sex to blow off steam. This was not even kid-stuff boyfriends.

This was an insidious, deep and abiding…fondness. Ryan had tried to be vigilant, tried to be careful, but Nico had gotten under his skin. He just… kept Ryan on his toes. When Ryan first arrived, he’d expected a sulky, foundering, inexperienced kid struggling to deal with the pressure of the NHL or a spoiled brat who’d never had to put in the work before. He’d found a deeply committed, mature athlete who couldn’t get out of his head, couldn’t get past the hang-ups imposed on him by another generation of hockey player. Off the ice, he expected Nico to be aloof, prickly, conceited the way guys could be when they’d been told all their lives they were better than everyone else. He’d missed the mark there too. If Nico was aloof, it was because, deep down, he believed he was only valued for what he could bring to the game.

He hadn’t expected Nico’s sweetness or his sense of humor.

And Ryan had far overestimated his own ability to deal with any of it. Sure, he knew he was going to get his heart broken. He just hadn’t expected to fall this hard, this fast.

After months of walking on eggshells whenever Nico spoke to his dad, Ryan had expected a train wreck. But now, after a surprisingly pleasant holiday, after watching Nico smile fondly with his whole body as his mother dabbed her eyes at his gift, he learned what it would be like to have Nico love him.

It was particularly cruel to realize how badly Ryan wanted that just as he began to understand that having it, then losing it, would destroy him.

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