37. Thirty-seven
Thirty-seven
Arne
O ur usually so chipper social media guy waited for us in his office, a solemn expression on his face.
“Who died?” Max asked him, one silky black eyebrow raised.
Finn folded his arms tightly before his chest. It looked like he was in a straight jacket as he perused us over his nerdy glasses. “Your reputation?”
With a sigh, he snatched the glasses off his face, and dug thumb and forefinger into his eyes. “Do you have any idea how massive the pile of shit is that we’re dealing with? Either of you?”
“Nope.” Raven leaned his backside against Finn’s desk, then slipped his arm around my back. Pulling me into his body, his hand came to rest on my hip. “All I know is that I am pissed at whoever did it. If I ever find out, I’ll give them a taste of the Night Raven.” Max’s voice had dropped dangerously low so it resembled a growl more than a human voice.
“Like hell you will,” our Gnoll social media manager shut him down with an incredulous stare. “You have the moral high ground here. You will not lower yourself to their level.”
He sat down at his computer, entered his password, and then turned his screen around so we could see.
Two windows filled the screen side by side. All the time, new messages popped up on the screen.
“This,” Finn pointed to the left window, “is your hashtag that I’m monitoring. The other is the team’s.”
“Sorry?” Max huffed. “ Our hashtag?”
Our social media manager shot him a close lipped grin. “Someone made a hashtag for you. Their first try was #ravengate, but our loyal fans shut them down pretty quickly.”
“Oh God.” I hid my face in my hand.
“What are they using now?” My boyfriend leaned in, only to laugh so hard tears spilled out of his eyes. “Oh fuck, that’s genius.”
“Do I want to know?”
The smile on Finn’s face widened. “#thewingertakesitall. Pretty brilliant, if you ask me.”
“Oh yes, he does.” Max slipped his arm around my shoulders, pulled me close, and kissed me squarely on the lips.
I had to admit it was pretty funny.
“The fans are outraged that this person filmed you. A few insist they knew it all along.”
“What about the people who are being dicks?”
“Not too many, but you always get a few.” Finn shrugged. “A few commented on your age gap, and on the whole captain/new player dynamic. And, uh.” He scratched the back of his neck.
“What?”
“Well, if you go on ArgoS you will see it, anyway. Uh, someone posted a video of you at an outdoor rink in Denmark. It’s grainy but it’s pretty obvious that it’s the two of you. There’s not much happening, but Arne, you have Max caged to the boards and look like you’re about to kiss him.”
Someone filmed us in Denmark? Shit.
“Oh damn.” Max chuckled weakly. “Well, the raven’s out of the cage now.” He caught my eye, then giggled. “I don’t give a flying fuck, Viking. Do you hear me?” His voice dropped for a moment, darkness rising in his eyes. Then Max winked, and it was gone.
“I hear you. You’re enjoying this a bit too much, though, Raven.”
Pursing his lips, he leaned in. “Nope. What I’m enjoying, Viking, is that I won’t have to hide my feelings anymore.”
Strong fingers cupped the back of my neck, then his lips were on mine, kissing me so deep my dick got hard.
Finn clearing his throat made him back out of the kiss, but not away from me. “I love you,” he breathed, then pecked my mouth again, before straightening up and focusing on Finn.
“What do we do?”
Our social media guy looked slightly flustered at Max’s PDA, and it took him a moment to get a grip on himself.
“Uh, so you should decide if you want to post a statement on our account, or if you just want to ignore it and pretend it never happened.”
“A statement.” Max took my hand. “But no excuses.” My head snapped around and our eyes met, clinging to each other. And I remembered our conversation from a few months ago. ‘I don’t want an excuse,’ I had said. ‘Same. Don’t need one either.’ I squeezed his fingers.
“Deal.” Finn gave us a gooey look, then grabbed his phone. “Stay like that for a moment.”
He unlocked it, pointed it at us, and took about a hundred pictures.
Then he pulled his screen around, opened a fresh note, and typed.