Page 76 of Breaking the Ice
Gavin wanted to apologize, but would that only make it worse? Probably.
“In love with his hockey maybe,” Zach said hesitantly.
“Right. That’s what I meant,” Gavin said, even though that wasn’t true at all.
On the TV screen, Smith sent a gorgeous no-look pass through traffic, and the puck hit Celebrini’s tape like he’d beenborn and thendesignedto receive it, and a second later, the lamp lit.
“Okay, they’re good together,” Zach allowed. “Imagine how good together Mal and Ell are gonna be next year.”
“I don’t have to imagine it, I see it every day. The scouts in my inbox agree.”
“More of them?”
“It’s funny how Jones wasn’t on anyone’s radar when the season started.”
“Because Nichols played him wrong last year.”
“Or playing him with McCoy was the thing that unlocked his potential.” Part of Gavin worried that was true, because if that was the case, then the opposite could be true, too. With all the interest in Elliott, the chances of him going to Toronto to play with Malcolm were slim.
Not for the first time, he thought of whether he was doing Elliott a disservice by not forcing him to play without Malcolm.
“I know what you’re thinking over there.” Zach’s tone was soft but chiding. “There’s enough time to figure that out. And do you really want to deal with the fallout of that decision?”
“No,” Gavin said honestly.
Elliott was dramatic enough but when thwarted, Malcolm could be a total pain in the ass, too. And both of them together, riding his ass, if he separated them? Gavin wasn’t inviting that kind of pain to his already complicated enough life.
“Good. Me either.” Zach chuckled. “I have an early meeting tomorrow with my advisor at Koffee Klatch. You want me to bring you your regular?”
If Gavin was a better, stronger man, he’d say no. He’d say no to coffees, to shared breakfasts and lunches and dinners, especially to these phone calls. But he wasn’t betterorstronger.
“Yeah, that would be great. Thanks.”
“Of course,” Zach said.
Guilt pinged him. The same guilt that would evaporate in ten minutes, when he stripped off his clothes and let himself touch his half-hard cock, imagining the whole time it wasn’t his fist wrapped around it.
“You know you really don’t have to—”
“Iwantto,” Zach insisted.
And that was the whole problem, wasn’t it? He’d tried to make this easier, but he’d only made it harder. Because Zach didn’t even act angry with him. Disappointed, sometimes. Once in awhile, he’d catch Zach looking at him, pensive and regretful, but he never seemed pissed.
It would be easier if he got mad.
“Alright, well don’t let me stop you,” Gavin teased, tongue feeling thick in his mouth. He pushed away the compulsion to ask what else Zach wanted.
Because nothing was going to send mixed signals like turning these perfectly innocent, if somewhat intimate, phone calls into phone sex.
Even if Gavin wanted it so badly his fingers shook with it.
“You couldn’t, even if you tried,” Zach said seriously.
Gavinhadtried and look where that had gotten them. Back in the same space, Gavin’s back to the wall, cornered in a hard place. No relief in sight.
Well, alittlebit of relief.
The horn sounded on the game, and it ended.
