Chapter 12
VASILY
Though he’d rallied and the Orcas had won, Taylor was still wound up from tonight’s game.
He couldn’t sit still. When I took the seat beside him on the bus, he tensed up even more, fidgeting with the cap on his water bottle.
That wasn’t like him, but I could read between the lines.
I was always a mess after I’d had a bad game too; I got it.
“Tough night?” I asked.
He stared down at his hands and nodded. “Yeah. I… I just couldn’t think. Head wasn’t in the game.” Before I could respond to that, he turned to me. “You’re getting close—just a few more games, and you’re back on the Rainiers.”
I smiled, but only for a second. I was excited to get back to my own team, but returning to Seattle meant…
“Two weeks seemed so much longer than it turned out to be,” I whispered.
Taylor exhaled. “I know what you mean.”
I wasn’t sure what to make of that. Or of the ball of disappointment that had firmly set up shop in my chest, and pulled my attention every time I thought about how fast my time was winding down with this team.
With this teammate.
Fuck. That was a heavy thought.
There wasn’t much conversation after that.
We both scrolled our phones for a while.
We shot the shit with some of the guys sitting around us.
An hour or so into the drive, people started going quiet.
Someone was snoring a couple of rows up.
Someone else a few rows behind us. I eventually dropped off myself.
I awoke when the bus started decelerating. After years of catnaps on buses, I’d learned to snap awake as we were pulling into an airport or hotel, so I was instantly alert and ready to disembark.
We weren’t at the hotel, though—just a gas station somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Other guys started coming around, too, judging by the yawns and murmuring voices.
Beside me, Taylor was still sound asleep, arms folded loosely across his chest and his head resting against the window.
I stole the chance to drink in the sight of him.
He was cute anyway, but sleeping like this, all the tension from tonight was gone.
Hopefully it wouldn’t catch up with him when he woke up, but for now, his features were relaxed and his breathing was slow and easy.
I was mesmerized by the sight of him. The fan of his long lashes on his cheeks. The shape of his full, perfect lips. The curls of blond hair alongside his face.
Yet again, I had a flash of regret that we hadn’t hooked up that night at the club. I knew it would’ve ended in disaster, and I’d have regretted it even more than walking away, but still. I wished I knew what it was like to be with Taylor.
Every time I looked at him, there were fewer nerves and more “I want to know what it’s like with him.
” And there was a sense of urgency because we only had so much time.
Sure, we could still keep in touch and maybe even hook up after I went back to Seattle—we’d be living less than an hour apart—but we wouldn’t see each other all the time.
Would he forget he’d ever been interested in me?
Find someone else who knew what he was doing in bed and wasn’t on the road constantly?
I didn’t want to rush into something with anyone, but with time ticking down, I couldn’t help this desire—this need—to find out if there really was a spark between us.
My chance to just gaze at him and fantasize ended when the bus stopped and Taylor’s eyelids fluttered. I looked away before he could catch me staring, and he sat up beside me and stretched.
“Please tell me I slept the whole way and we’re there,” he grumbled.
“Sorry,” I said with a laugh. “Rest stop.”
He was adorably grumpy as he muttered something and scowled.
I chuckled. “Come on. Let’s go stretch our legs.”
“Uh.” He tapped the window with his knuckle. “Do you see the white stuff on the ground? And falling from the sky?”
“Um. Yes?”
“That means it’s cold out there.”
“Very good, Wils.” I nodded slowly. “You’ve been learning your weather.”
He rolled his eyes and smacked my arm. “Fuck you.”
God, I wish.
Despite his grumbling, he did get off the bus with the rest of us. And he was right—it was fucking cold out. The pavement was slick, too, so we all had to pick our way across to the small all-night convenience store.
We all made it in and out with no incidents, though for some of the guys, it wasn’t for lack of trying.
“Boys, I swear to God,” Coach groused. “One of you breaks his neck, you’ll be bag skating in your body cast.”
The response to that had been laughter… and not even a little bit more caution from the guys who were trying to see who could slide the farthest on the glassy pavement.
I just laughed, shook my head, and continued onto the bus with a hot cup of coffee. Decaf, of course, since I still needed to sleep, but I wanted something warm.
Taylor had already reclaimed his seat, and he too was sipping coffee. He flashed me a quick smile as I sat down, but then his gaze darted away from mine.
I didn’t say anything. Neither did he. The whole time our teammates were settling back onto the bus and the bus was pulling back onto the highway, we drank in silence.
All around us, people started dozing off again. The bus was silent except for the engine and the road noise.
I was still awake. So was Taylor. Our drinks were long since empty, and we’d resorted to scrolling our phones.
Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, though, I lost my cell service. The bus had WiFi, but it wasn’t working so great either. Eventually, I gave up and pocketed my phone. A few minutes later, so did Taylor.
If we were smart, we’d nap again. We still had several hours left on the road, and if we slept tomorrow, we’d fuck up our sleep schedules. But I was still awake. Taylor was still awake. Mile after mile, we sat in silence while our teammates slept around us.
It was probably four or five in the morning when Taylor twisted a little to face me. “Can I confess something really stupid?”
Caught off guard, I raised my eyebrows. “Uh. Sure?”
He stared down at his hands. Then he faced me, and when he spoke, his voice was so soft it barely reached me. “The reason I couldn’t play for shit tonight?” He exhaled and dropped his gaze again, shaking his head. “My… mind was not on hockey.”
“What was it on?”
He looked at me again, his expression pointed as if to say “put the pieces together, Vasily.”
But what pieces was I supposed to put together? I couldn’t read his mind. I had no idea what he?—
Last night. Jerking off in my room while I thought about all the things I wanted to do with him. While I thought about his smile and his laugh and the way we’d looked at me while we’d talked on the bus and…
I gulped.
So did Taylor.
When I swept my tongue across my lips, his breath hitched.
He dropped his gaze and shifted in his seat. “I… Look, I won’t lie—I was into you when we met at the club, and I’m still…” He trailed off, biting his lip.
“Oh,” I whispered, my heart absolutely slamming against my ribs. “I… I was too. Back then.” I swallowed. “And now.”
Taylor’s eyes snapped up to meet mine. “Really?”
I nodded. “Yeah.”
We held each other’s gazes for a long moment. I had no idea what to say. He didn’t seem to know either.
Finally, he broke the silence: “Would it be weird if I said I wanted to see you after you go back to Seattle?” He paused. “I mean, like… outside of hockey? One-on-one?”
My heart pounded impossibly harder. “One-on-one? Like…”
“You know exactly what I mean,” he whispered, and fuck me, I did know what he meant.
“Like…” I pushed out a ragged breath. “Picking up where we left off at the club.”
His Adam’s apple jumped, and he nodded.
Oh. Hell.
I could barely find my breath, but I managed to whisper, “I, uh… It wouldn’t be weird. I’d… I’d like that too.”
His eyebrows jumped. “Yeah?”
I nodded. Then I laughed softly as my face heated. “Like I said, though,” I whispered. “I’ve only been with one person. Never touched anyone else.”
Internally, I was bracing for the reminder of my inexperience to make him tense up and back off, or for him to laugh at me.
And yet, somehow, I wasn’t at all surprised when his eyes flicked to my lips, and he smiled. In the darkness, his hand slid over my thigh.
Goose bumps broke out all over my body. Shit. This wasn’t the first time we’d touched, but there was something decisive about it. Something that said we weren’t just talking anymore.
“Vasily,” he whispered.
I realized then that I’d closed my eyes, and I opened them meet his.
He sat up a bit, craning his neck, and looked around the bus.
He must’ve been satisfied that everyone around us was either asleep or not paying attention to us, because…
Fuck. I’d always thought my ex was a good kisser, but it turned out that, was just because he was all I’d ever known.
Taylor was…
Oh my God.
The first time he’d kissed me on the dancefloor, I’d been too overwhelmed by the moment to savor what it really felt like.
This time, I was still overwhelmed, but I zeroed right in on how perfect and sexy this was.
I was instantly hooked on the way his lips moved with mine.
How assertive and confident he was, but so gentle and explorative too.
Then warmth of his hand on my cheek melted my damn spine, and the soft rush of his cool breath across my skin made me shiver.
When his lips left mine, I chased them, stealing another light kiss before we both came up for air.
He touched his forehead to mine as his breath came out in a gentle huff. “Holy shit.”
“Yeah.” I swallowed. “Kind of… Kind of what I thought.”
He drew back a little to meet my eyes. Then he paused to look around again, probably making sure no one had noticed us. I did the same, and no, no one was looking our way. If any of the guys who were still awake knew anything was going on in this row, they weren’t letting on.