“You were hard, too, you know.”
“Thanks for the tip, professor.”
“Sorry if I’m trying to lighten the mood a little.”
“Lighten the mood a little? Bro, you shouldn’t even be bringing that up again. You’re supposed to pretend like it never happened.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, seriously. It was the scariest fucking moment of my life.”
“Oh, and it had no effect on me at all, Kayden.”
That’s right,my inner voice said.He had a big fat boner, and so did you, but you actually wanted him to put it in you. That’s the difference. Why don’t you tell him about that part?
My eyes fell shut, and I drew a deep breath. The idea scared me but not enough to chase it away. Nothing would stop me from confronting this. I’d told Kayden how we deal with problems on the farm, and I meant to keep with tradition.
“Look, I don’t see any point in talking about this,” he said. “We both already know what happened.”
“I already told you how common this?—”
He raised his hand to stop me. “And the more we talk about it, the harder it’ll be to forget it.”
“Six or seven people out of ten, Kayden. Six or seven.”
“Bullshit.”
“Isn’t that your answer to everything?”
“If I think something’s bullshit, you can bet your ass I’m calling it out.”
He wore a different smile now, one that said don’t-fuck-with-me. He gripped his stick again, advanced down the ice, and started shooting the array of pucks one by one into the empty net.
By now, you would know that I followed him. Well, Kayden also knew my little habits, and he turned around, flashing his fiercest look yet. His lips lifted past his gums, showing his teeth, like a dog ready to bite. I didn’t flinch, but that look alarmed me just the same.
“You really know how to push your luck, you know that, De Ruiter?”
“You look like you want to hit me.”
“Maybe I do.”
“Then why don’t you go for it?”
“Why don’t you get the fuck out of here before you get plowed? My fist has a mind of its own.”
“You won’t do it.”
He sucked in a deep breath. Maybe he wanted to scream. If I was driving him nuts, maybe I should consider it a mission accomplished. Kayden might not have expected the rational Canadian to have balls of steel. That was his problem.
“How do you know I won’t?”
“Because we kissed. Twice. And I gave you a hard-on.”
“Fuck off, bro. You were the one with the hard-on.”
“We were both hard. Can we at least agree on that?”
I so wanted to make a crack about how we both could’ve put an eye out with our erections, but Kayden was nowhere close to a joking mood. I wouldn’t upset the apple cart to win this argument. Besides, his non-answer was all the answer I needed.
