Chapter 23
TWENTY-THREE
SKYLAR
As a child, Skylar never thought he would be happy doing anything other than hockey. The prospect of not making the NHL felt like life or death to him.
Now, for this too-short week, he was waking up in Adam’s bed and learning how to bartend, and for the first time in his life, he could imagine a life without hockey.
He still wanted the NHL. He wanted at least ten years of playing NHL hockey.
“You look cute in the little apron,” Grace told him, snapping Skylar back to reality. He was standing behind the bar watching Adam walk out the back door to accept the delivery from their beer supplier.
“Har har,” Skylar said, knowing Grace was giving him shit. After watching the way Grace teased Adam, Skylar knew that being on the receiving end of it himself was a compliment.
“Hey, I know you only have a couple more days here, but I wanted to say thank you,” Grace said, the snarky smile she usually wore melting into earnestness. She and Adam had that in common. It was disconcerting sometimes.
“I’m happy to work for free whenever,” Skylar said. He knew he wasn’t taking anyone’s hours or anything. He was basically decoration.
“I mean with Adam.” She nodded toward the back door.
“I have been trying for years to help him find something that gives his life…purpose or something, outside this bar. I’ll take the credit for getting him into climbing, but I can’t take credit for the way you’ve turned him around.
The Adam you know is happy, and that’s because of you. ”
“Gracie, don’t make me cry,” Skylar said, pulling her into a hug. Adam always said her hair smelled purple, and he was right.
“This is still trouble,” Adam said, catching them mid heart-to-heart, as he finished up the delivery.
“I was telling Skylar what an accomplished pizza chef he’s become.”
“Maybe I could be promoted to head pizza chef?”
Adam laughed. “For the next three days, you’re head pizza chef. Don’t let the power go to your head.”
Grace shot Skylar a look like See?? Happy! He’s smiling! Knowing that he was part of making that smile was everything to Skylar.
They were getting into a routine in the evenings of cooking together, watching something on TV, having sex, and going to bed, and Skylar was getting attached to it.
“What are the chances that I can pack you up in my suitcase and bring you back with me?” Skylar asked as Adam manned the stove.
He was making his signature dish—the chicken he’d made Skylar the night he’d shown up on his doorstep looking like a hot mess.
It was Skylar’s favorite meal. It tasted like love.
“Wish you could,” Adam said, setting his spatula down for a moment so he could pin Skylar to the cabinets, both hands on Skylar’s hips. He kissed Skylar, long and intense, until they were both half hard and panting. Skylar melted for any moment when Adam made him feel like his.
“I’m going to get the bar sorted out,” Adam said when he finally pulled away from Skylar. “And then I’m going to come up to Minnesota, and we’ll find a place together. And you’ll never have to be alone for a single second.”
“You know the way to my heart,” Skylar joked. It wasn’t a joke. He could tell by the way Adam’s eyes softened that he knew it wasn’t a joke either.
“Do you know how I know everything is going to work out okay?” Adam asked, leveling the weight of his intensity at Skylar.
“How?”
“I know it’s all going to be fine because I love you.”
Those three words caught Skylar so off guard that he didn’t respond right away. He couldn’t. He wanted to tell Adam every single feeling in his chest, but they were all competing and none of them won.
“Maybe I should have waited for a romantic moment. But I promised myself that I’d tell you before you left, so you’d know, and I wouldn’t have to tell you over the phone or something.”
“I love you too,” Skylar finally got out. “Adam, I love you.”
Adam’s eyes got misty for a moment before he crashed their lips together. Skylar could feel the love Adam was pouring into that kiss, like he wanted to make sure Skylar’s body knew how he felt just as much as his brain did.
“Fuck, the chicken,” Adam said, pulling the pan off the stove.
Adam didn’t set timers. He watched the clock, which Skylar didn’t understand on any level.
Skylar darted into the bedroom for lube, grateful for the tiny apartment because he felt like he was in a sex emergency.
Adam was draining the pasta when he made it back to the kitchen, and as soon as he set the pot down, Skylar shoved the lube into his hand.
“Fuck me immediately,” Skylar said, still half hard from the kiss Adam gave him. Adam was rocking a semi as well.
They would have sweet, lovemaking sex eventually, but in that moment, Skylar needed to be bent over the kitchen counter.
It was also nice to learn that Adam’s signature dish was just as good cold.
All-Star break went too quickly. Skylar could have had months down in Iowa with Adam, pretending hockey didn’t exist and waking up tangled in Adam’s sheets, and it wouldn’t have been enough time.
Being within easy hangout distance from his best friend, when his boyfriend was busy with bar stuff, was an excellent bonus.
Instead, he had under a week. The next morning, he had to report back to the practice facility, to no doubt be run ragged in an effort to kill any relaxation they had experienced. They would officially be in the push for the playoffs. Things were about to get serious.
But they weren’t serious yet. Skylar was planning to leave late to squeeze out every last moment he had with Adam. The man he loved. The man who loved him.
They’d spent the week having sex all over the apartment, but Adam had dragged him into the bedroom that night for round two. They’d fooled around on the couch while “watching TV,” then took a shower since they had made a mess. Now, Adam had Skylar on his stomach as he ate him out achingly slow.
If he hadn’t come as recently as they had, Skylar would be dying. There’s no way he would have lasted this long. As it stood, Skylar was rock hard, rutting against the sheets as Adam laved his tongue over his hole, teasing around the rim and giving him gentle prodding thrusts in.
Skylar whimpered, and Adam pulled away just far enough to speak. His soft beard nearly tickled.
“You sound like heaven,” he said, his hands holding Skylar open. Adam was unabashedly obsessed with Skylar’s ass, and as his best asset, Skylar was happy to indulge Adam’s whims.
“I can’t come like this,” Skylar complained, hands fisting in the sheets as he squirmed.
“Good. You’re not supposed to.”
“More,” Skylar begged, wanting to get fucked more than anything. He’d fucked Adam that morning. Rightfully, it was his turn.
“All right, darling. I’ll have some mercy on you.” He smacked one more kiss over Skylar’s hole and let him flip over.
Adam let his eyes rake over Skylar’s naked body as he wiped his mouth off on the sheet. There weren’t a ton of conveniences this apartment allowed, but it had its own washer and dryer, and they were getting a workout this week.
Adam had a wirier build than Skylar, long muscles built at the climbing gym.
He had a dark dusting of chest hair from his clavicle all the way down to the nest of hair at the base of his cock.
Skylar had been on the receiving end of the power his thighs and glutes could produce, and fuck, he could not believe that Adam was going to rail him, and then he would have to get out of bed and leave.
All he could do in the moment was enjoy it.
“Adam,” Skylar whined, wanting everything right now.
“It’s okay, love. I’m going to give you everything you want.”
Adam stretched himself over Skylar, trailing kisses up his neck, pausing only to nip at his jaw, before descending on his lips. No one had ever kissed Skylar the way Adam did. So thoroughly and desperately, like he needed Skylar’s kisses specifically, and no one else’s would do.
However, Skylar knew for a fact that Adam could kiss him at the same time as he fucked him, so there were no excuses for Adam’s cock not being inside him now.
Skylar cupped Adam’s cheeks in his hands, cooling the kiss down. “You said you’d give me what I want.”
“You’re right, baby.” Adam found the lube, coating himself thoroughly. Adam had done a good job opening him up with his tongue, so he didn’t bother with anything more than a bit of perfunctory fingering, making sure there was lube where lube needed to be.
When Adam finally slid into him, one hand pushing his thigh up to his chest, Skylar felt whole. Sex had never felt that way before Adam. It had been fun and pleasurable, but it had never had the weight of desperation that clung to both of them as Adam slowly started rocking into him.
Skylar pulled him back into a kiss, their mouths melting together as their bodies moved as one. Adam shifted slightly, hitting Skylar right where he needed it, ripping a moan from his throat. Adam always knew exactly what he needed, which Skylar supposed was the benefit of fucking an older man.
Adam took it slow so they could both savor it. Skylar wanted to bottle this, to uncork the little container of it on nights when he was lonely.
Their kiss melted into shared, panting breaths until Adam tucked his face into Skylar’s neck, trembling as he continued to thrust into him.
“Hey,” Skylar said, “come back.”
Adam’s eyes were wet when he pulled back, and Skylar’s heart broke.
“I don’t want to leave,” Skylar said, trying so hard to let Adam know how badly he wanted him. How badly he wanted to stay.
“I know, baby. Doesn’t change the fact that you have to.”
Skylar nodded and wrapped a leg around Adam’s waist. “Then give me something to remember.”
This is what Skylar had always dreamed of as the reward he’d get when he finally made it to the show.
Finding a love that felt like an anchor.
That felt like flying. These days of playing house with Adam were fueling the dreams he had of buying him a house in Minnesota.
Decorating it together, to reflect the life they shared, the way Jackson and Ryan had.
Adam’s sweet, slow lovemaking vanished, his hips chasing an orgasm. He took one of Skylar’s hands and wrapped it around his own cock, and Skylar stroked himself quickly, trying to commit to memory the way Adam’s face looked when he was right on the edge of pleasure.
Skylar came, spilling between them, as Adam stole one more kiss from him. He could feel the pulses of Adam’s orgasm when it hit as he ground his hips against Skylar’s ass, riding it out.
With no more gas in the tank, he collapsed on top of Skylar, who wrapped his arms around Adam’s shoulders.
“We are really good at that,” Skylar said, happy to gloat. He’d never been shy about assessing the skills he was good at, and fuck, having sex with Adam was pretty high up there.
“We are,” Adam agreed, sucking a kiss to Skylar’s collarbone that he’d be able to take home with him.
Adam slowly slid out of him, but Skylar wouldn’t let him roll away.
Neither of them made a move until nearly ten thirty.
It was a three-hour drive, and Skylar knew he had to get on the road, if for nothing else than to be somewhat polite to Jackson and Ryan.
He’d stayed with them for long enough that he didn’t feel like he had to tiptoe around them anymore, but he wanted to get back before Ryan went to sleep.
“I hate my job,” Skylar complained.
“No, you don’t,” Adam said, kissing him on the cheek.
Skylar sighed. “No, I don’t. You know what I mean.”
“I do. Let’s get you up and going. No sense in making you more miserable tomorrow morning than you have to be.”
Skylar hit the bathroom quickly as Adam started packing his suitcase for him. It was brutal; it was cruel; it was life.
Adam walked him down to his vehicle, which he’d been parking next to Adam’s in the Heathens lot all week. Adam put his suitcase in his back seat and gave him a Red Bull he’d stolen from the bar for the road.
“You know what makes this almost bearable?” Adam asked, pushing Skylar up against his SUV. Skylar wrapped his arms around Adam’s shoulders.
“What?”
“It’s temporary. This isn’t forever. I’m going to get things figured out down here, and I’ll be up in Minnesota with you in no time.”
“Okay,” Skylar said, nodding. Temporary. Adam was coming up to Minnesota because Adam was his.
“I love you so much.”
“I love you,” Skylar said.
“Drive safe. Call me when you get there.”
“Okay. Do I have to go?”
“Yeah, baby. You have to go get your dream, okay?”
“Fine.” Skylar pouted, even though he was excited to get back on the ice with his team the next day.
“Distance makes the heart grow fonder,” Adam reminded him.
“My heart is already plenty fond.”
He got into his SUV, rolling down his window to give Adam one more kiss, and then he headed north.