I aimed a finger at him to underscore my point.
“Oh, come on,” he said. “You did not.”
“Hey, if you can finish my sentences, then I can finish yours.”
He smiled, shook his head, and increased the speed on his treadmill.
I really did know Erik as well as he knew me. That meant I knew this conversation wasn’t over just because he’d fallen silent for a second—or an hour. He would always strike back just when you thought it was safe and in the most annoying way possible.
When we stepped off the treadmills, we grabbed a couple of towels and mopped our faces before heading to the shower. Much more of staring at his ass without peeling those shorts off would have driven me insane.
When he stepped out of those shorts, baring his ass, my mouth drooped open a little as if seeing it for the first time. My chest heaved, and I felt tense all over. Part of me wanted to take him right there and then.
My eyes practically glued themselves to his backside as I followed him into the shower. We stood under neighboring nozzles. The showers being as dead as the gym left us free to examine one another’s naked bodies and cop cheap feels of our asses.
“The way I see it,” he said, “the truth is going to come out sooner or later. We might as well do it on our own terms.”
“Yeah, well…”
I realized at that exact moment that I had no argument left. Nothing good anyway. I might as well have said, “Yeah, well, I don’t like it,”and looked less stupid.
“You know Coach Hardison might have something to say about it,” I said.
“It’s not his business.”
“But it’s his team. Anything that distracts this hockey team from its one and only goalishis business.”
Erik didn’t shake his head this time. He knew how the team operated but would disagree with me anyway. Of course he would. He was Erik De Ruiter. On the other hand, I saw what little point he did have. We were allowed to have personal lives.
“What’s he going to do?” Erik asked. “Cut us from the team? I think not.”
“Don’t get too cozy, baby—uh, I mean bro.”
Erik cracked a smile. Dammit to hell.
“No one on our team’s untouchable. He’s made that point pretty clear, and I don’t think he was joking.”
“We’re his team captains, and we’re deep into the playoffs now. It’s so totally not happening.”
“I don’t think we should test that theory.”
“Really?”
“No, I actually have some common sense.”
As I watched water roll down Erik’s naked body, that insatiable hunger returned, and I could resist for only so long. With no one else in the gym or showers, we couldn’t let opportunity pass us by. I shuffled over to Erik and stood under his nozzle with him, our chests touching.
“There enough water for both of us?” I asked.
“You know there always is.”
Our lips met. We kissed with open mouths as water rained over our heads and our hard cocks brushed against one another’s legs. That was enough to make the conversation stop, but I was smart enough to know it wouldn’t vanish forever.
29
ERIK
For the record, I did not snooze while Kayden was bench pressing four hundred pounds like he said. He just lost control of the barbell so quickly that I couldn’t react in time. Okay, I had a bit of a brain fart. Happy now? Yeah, yeah, yeah, I’ve got to be quick on my toes for safety’s sake. Look at the other side of the coin, though. I told him from the start that four hundred pounds was way too much to try and bench. Stick to three hundred. But Kayden didn’t listen. He had to be a hero and an Olympic strongman. Big freaking surprise.
