So, yeah. Good thing.
Too bad taking the edge off with his own hand late last night—twice—hadn’t done any good. He still wanted Tay like he wanted a higher paycheck—badly. Underneath him, on top of him, from behind, bent over the arm of the couch, sweat-slicked skin moving against sweat-slicked skin, teeth nipping, hands grasping, pants and groans and moans.
Hot and filthy sex. The kind that went on all night, left them sore but energized, ready to take on the damn world, ready for anything.
Blowing out a shaky breath, he sat to hide his semi from Calder, running two fingers under the collar of his T-shirt and pulling it away from his heated skin.
“Nothing to say?”
Dakota measured out the powdered sugar into a bowl and added premeasured butter. “I don’t know what you want me to say.”
“How about ‘Yes, Calder, you’re right, as always. I do want to jump his bones into kingdom come.’”
“It was nothing.”
“That was not nothing. The tension was so thick you might as well’ve been naked already.”
Dakota turned on the electric mixer. “I can’t hear you,” he yelled over the whirring, gesturing to one ear with his free hand.
The smirk on Calder’s face said he wasn’t fooled, the smug asshole.
Thing was, it really was nothing. They hadn’t kissed; they’d barely touched. Therefore, it was nothing.
Unbidden, an image of Tay sampling his scotch popped into his head, the way he’d placed his lips over the outline of Dakota’s on the glass, a pseudo-kiss. It had been hot as sin, and even now, Dakota’s heart raced.
It wasn’t as hot, however, as Tay’s blatant interest. There was no mistaking that Tay was attracted to him too. He’d made that abundantly clear in the way he smiled at Dakota, the banter and the flirting, that confident tilt of the lips that said I want you and I’m not gonna hide it. The way he fucking drank Dakota’s scotch, Jesus. There was nothing shy or bumbling about him. Dakota had always been attracted to confidence.
Shit. He was in a lot of trouble.
Turning off the mixer, he tested the icing’s consistency, then added the vanilla and the milk.
“Would it be so bad to let someone in?”
He turned the mixer back on. “Sorry, what?”
Calder rolled his eyes.
When Dakota next turned the machine off, Calder said, “Tell me about him.”
Dakota reached for the mixer again; Calder placed a hand over his. “We both know it’s done.”
Sighing, he separated the icing into three separate bowls to add flavor and food coloring. He left the fourth bowl aside to make cream cheese icing later, once his stick of cream cheese was sufficiently softened.
“Are you going to see him again?” Calder asked, breaking into a container of jujubes Dakota had pulled out but didn’t intend to use.
“I’m seeing him in a few hours,” Dakota deflected. “So are you. For family skate.”
“Don’t be dense,” Calder said around a jujube. “Are you worried ’cause of his age? He’s what? Early twenties?”
“Twenty-three. And no. The age gap doesn’t bother me. Tay’s not a kid.” Dakota knew how much dedication and perseverance and commitment went into playing professional hockey—he’d watched his brother do it. No one who didn’t have a good work ethic or who didn’t take themselves seriously made it to the NHL.
“So you are going to see him again.”
“I . . .” Yes? Please? Sighing, Dakota pulled the beaters out of the mixer and passed one to Calder, setting the other aside for Andy. “Probably not. I wouldn’t have time for dating anyway. Andy and this—” He waved at the contents of the table. “—take up all of my time. And with his schedule? He probably travels as much as Fiona.” His ex-wife was on a business trip as they spoke. “I’m not bringing someone into Andy’s life who won’t stick around.”
Calder licked one tine of the beater. “Who said anything about dating?”
Dakota looked up from where he’d been squishing his bar of cream cheese to test its softness. “Huh.”
Would Tay go for a no-strings-attached kind of thing? Probably. He was young. What twenty-three-year-old was looking for something permanent?
February sucked and nothing could convince Tay otherwise.
First, it was gloomy and wet and couldn’t decide if it wanted to be freeze-your-nipples-off cold or first-signs-of-spring warm.
Second, the looming trade deadline cast a pall over the entire team. Those without a no-trade or no-movement clause in their contract could be traded anytime; nobody wanted it to be them.
Finally, school hit its midterm peak. He’d bet good money that his professors and TAs had held a party before the start of the semester, toasting to how brilliant they were for scheduling their students’ midterm exams, assignments, and labs for the same ten-day period. Fuckers, all of them.
And due to the hands-on nature of his program, very few classes were offered via distance education. Which meant he stuck to two classes per semester, instead of the required four for full-time students, and made up the missed classes during the summer term.
It wasn’t ideal, and he tended to miss more than one class per semester. Hell, sometimes he missed a full week if the team was on the road. But he handed all of his assignments in on time and made an effort to give his professors and TAs a heads-up in advance if he’d miss class. He’d even sat in on tutorials via video conference.
His grades were suffering with the lack of in-person instruction, but . . . at least he was passing? He’d never been an A student anyway, and science especially had never come easy.
What didn’t suck about February? The sight of Dakota Cotton stepping onto the ice in dark blue jeans and a fitted black leather jacket open over a long-sleeved T-shirt a shade of gray that was almost black. It was very casual Friday, and that jacket lent him an air of mysterious bad boy. Wearing his kid-sized jersey that matched Tay’s—except Tay’s wasn’t signed—and a helmet, Andy held one of Dakota’s hands, tiny skates on his feet. On Andy’s other side was Calder.
Calder was attractive in his own right. The same height as Dakota, he was more ruggedly handsome to Dakota’s classic good looks. The cousins shared the same narrow face, high forehead, straight hairline, long nose, and angled jawline. The same ears too, as well as hair color. But where Dakota was just-stepped-out-of-a-magazine elegance, Calder was let’s-get-our-hands-dirty. Sexy in an outdoorsy, craggy-featured kind of way.
He did absolutely nothing for Tay.
Breaking away from a couple of his teammates who were preparing to separate the teenagers into groups for a scrimmage on one end of the rink, Tay skated over to Dakota. As he approached, Dakota’s gaze swept Tay up and down, eyes heating. His smile made Tay’s blood pump hotter.
So. He hadn’t imagined last night. Goodie.
With the both of them in skates, they were the same height, giving Tay a tickling thrill again at the knowledge. He’d dated strictly women since graduating high school, mostly for fear of being outed, partly because he hadn’t met a man in a long time who hit all of his buttons like Dakota did. Tall, check. Confident, check. Well-dressed, check, even though Tay hadn’t actually known that was a button for him until last night. Sense of humor, check. Willing to flirt with Tay in a coatroom, check.