Page 80 of Full Body Hit: Part 2
Auston froze. “Yeah?”
“Fuck. That was crazy last night, I can’t believe we fucked in a public bathroom.” Chase was giggling. He didn’t sound upset, but Auston’s heart lurched anyway.
“I, uhm…we should have probably talked about it before. Sorry I just jumped you.”
Chase raised his head, frowning. “Are you kidding? That was, like…the greatest sexual experience of mylife.”
Auston swallowed. Somehow, that didn’t make it any better, as if he were conning Chase into thinking that. “I’m glad you liked it, baby. But definitely…you know, I should have made sure it was something you really wanted beyond the moment.”
Chase sat up, and Auston had to breathe through the panic at the sudden distance. Jesus, what waswrongwith him? He needed to fucking chill.
“Okay…” Chase said. “But. I mean, we set the safe words.”
“Yeah, but we were already pretty much in the scene, so.”
Chase was full-on pouting. He shuffled forwards, hands cradling Auston’s face. “Are you okay?”
Auston swallowed. “Yeah. Just. Wanna make sureyou’reokay.”
“I’mtotallyokay. So if you’re still not feeling good, maybe it’s actually you who didn’t love what we did last night?” Chase’s expression fell by increments—his mouth, his eyebrows, the corners of his eyes.
“No, baby, I was…I was feeling it. It’s just something I wish I’d been more responsible about.”
Chase looked at him for a long moment, searching Auston’s face. “Do you trust me?” he asked eventually, voice light and soft.
“Yeah. ’Course I do.”
“Okay. I trust you too. I feel like that’s what made yesterday okay? We’re not strangers. We’ve been talking for months about this kind of stuff. And I know we didn’t cover this particular scenario, but…you know what I enjoy. I know what you enjoy. You’re not giving yourself enough credit—there is no way you would have attempted that if you didn’t know I wasliterallyasking for it.”
Auston huffed, but the crushing pressure on his chest lifted a little. Chase trusted him, even after the previous night.
Auston nodded. “Yeah. You’re right.”
“I promise that if we ever do anything I even slightly dislike, I’ll say yellow at a minimum, okay? So we can stop and check in.”
A little more relief washed through. “Okay. Yeah, that sounds good.”
After another beat of just watching Auston, Chase lay down again, draped over the Alpha’s chest. “I really did have such a good time. You were…so great.”
Auston rubbed Chase’s back, letting that sink in. He felt exhausted suddenly, but not exactly in a bad way—it was thefeeling of finishing a good shift, filled with lactic acid but happy about his performance.
“We still have an hour before we have to get ready for breakfast…let’s nap, huh?” Chase suggested.
Auston was already going under, the tension that had kept him captive all night draining away.
***
Auston was beginning to wonder if he was smart enough to begin a business venture or if being obsessed with only hockey for three decades had atrophied his brain to everything else.
Mark seemed to know what he was doing, though. He was in contact with people who were familiar with the corporate side of launching a youth program—how sponsorships worked, how to involve the local community, how it would integrate with local and national competitions.
They’d begin with something specific—sponsored summer camps that would draw attention, and then they’d expand into year-long programs if everything went well. Auston was excited. He found himself thinking about how to structure lessons—which skills were foundational, what stuff kids needed to know about hockey that wasn’t just the stuff to do on the ice.
Mark and Auston started attending some after-school lessons, watching how the teachers worked, taking notes. It had been a very long time since Auston had worked at developing skills that felt so new.
Auston liked his team, of course—he might be new to the Spirits, but he’d melded in well since he’d actually put effort into opening up. He couldn’t forget the fact that those bonds were temporary, though. Except Chase, he didn’t think he’d stay in contact with a lot of the guys—it was just how life went.
Mark, though—that relationship had both a history and a future. He felt settled when they were together—finally, something that wasn’t going to be suddenly ripped from under him.
