CHAPTER SEVEN
Tanner hummed to himself on the elevator ride up to his hotel room that evening.
He’d had a blast with practice and scrimmages today, then gone to Dustin Fowler’s house for a pool party he and his adorable husband, Charlie Monaghan, had hosted.
They had the sickest house, with an indoor pool on the lower level that overlooked a yard with a small ice-skating rink.
Tanner had asked Dustin if he practiced on it and Dustin had laughed and said that it was mostly Charlie’s, although they went out there together as often as they could when Dustin was home. Since Charlie was a former Olympic medalist figure skater, that made sense.
So for several hours, Tanner had enjoyed the gorgeous pool, the great food, and hanging out with his fellow Team USA teammates.
Charlie was at least as much of a flirt as Tanner was, and he had found him delightful. Charlie was sort of … sparkly in every way and Tanner’d had a blast lobbing flirty comments back and forth as quickly as the guys playing table tennis nearby.
Thankfully, Dustin had found it very funny.
Tanner’s mood was high now as he stepped off the hotel elevator and into the hall on his floor. Tanner patted his pockets, momentarily panicked when he couldn’t find a key card, then remembered he’d stuck them in his wallet for safekeeping.
He dug that out of his backpack, which he’d nearly left at Dustin and Charlie’s, but Charlie had come trotting up in his super tall heels to hand it over just before the rideshare pulled away.
As Tanner pulled out his card, he suddenly remembered that he still had Leif’s key in his wallet too. He should probably drop it off while he was thinking about it or he’d forget that too. It was pretty late, so Leif should be back from whatever the Nordic team captains had organized.
Tanner walked over to Leif’s room and rapped on the door. He waited for a few moments, expecting to hear an annoyed huff and the sound of Leif stomping toward the door.
But there was no answer.
Unlike last night, he couldn’t hear anyone moving around inside at all.
Curious, Tanner tapped the card against the reader. The little green lights lit up and a split second later, the door unlocked.
Huh, so he had stolen Leif’s card last night. Oops.
“Dude, you good? I’m coming in to return your key card!” Tanner warned as he twisted the handle and pushed the door open. But no one answered and the room was empty when he stepped inside. Dark too, so he flipped on the light switch by the door.
He’d planned to just set the card on the dresser and leave, but it hit him that maybe this was the perfect opportunity to get to know Leif a little better.
He was the complete opposite of an open book.
He was a book that was locked in a trunk with chains around it that had been dropped into the ocean.
Not that Tanner was planning to snoop or anything. He just wanted to see the way Leif lived when he was on the road.
So Tanner wandered around Leif’s room for a moment, laughing to himself that literally everything was neat and perfect. “Nerd,” he whispered.
The bed was made—which okay, maybe that was housekeeping’s work, but he’d bet Leif made his own bed every morning at home too—and absolutely nothing was out of place.
Tanner peeked into the closet to see all of Leif’s clothes hanging neatly, his shoes lined up on the floor and his suitcase tucked in one corner.
A quick glance at the drawers showed he’d unpacked everything too.
Meanwhile, Tanner was living out of his suitcase, just pulling shit out as he needed it.
He clicked on the light beside the bed and laughed that the few items on Leif’s nightstands and desk were lined up like little soldiers.
When Tanner wandered into the bathroom, even that was spotless.
Unlike in Tanner’s room, none of his toiletries were spread out on the counter or spilling into the sink.
“Oh my God,” Tanner muttered to himself as he turned out the light and stepped out of the bathroom. “How does he live like this?”
Even Mickey—one of his closest friends and roommate back in Boston—wasn’t this anal on road trips.
Which officially made Leif the single most uptight person Tanner had ever met. Shocker.
Tanner wandered over to the bed again, smiling when he thought about last night. Uptight in some ways or not, Leif was killer in the sack. It had been a while since anyone had dicked Tanner down that good.
Tanner shivered when he thought about the feel of Leif’s fingers in his mouth and his dick in his ass and gah. It had been good. Like, really fucking good.
Tanner was flexible in every sense of the word. He liked women, he liked men, he liked nonbinary and gender-nonconforming people. He just liked … sex with fun, consenting humans. And he’d had a lot of it in a lot of different ways.
But even he had to admit that had been a hell of an orgasm.
Tanner had teased Leif about his stamina earlier, but that was just for fun. He’d had zero complaints when Leif drilled him through the mattress.
Now, Tanner shifted and realized he was getting hard just thinking about it. He slid a hand across the front of his trousers. Goddamn. Yes please, more of that, he thought wistfully.
Maybe he should just hang out here until Leif got back.
Leif would probably be a little annoyed, but that’d probably make him horny and they’d wind up making out and having sex and … yes, it was the perfect plan.
Tanner dropped his bag on the floor, unzipped his jacket and tossed it aside, then sat on the edge of Leif’s bed. He kicked off his boots, then scooted back, sprawling out in a starfish pose. Might as well entertain himself while he waited.
Tanner closed his eyes and pressed his palm to his hardening cock as he thought about Leif’s tongue in his mouth and the flex of his tight abs as he drove in and out. Even through the fabric the touch felt good and Tanner dragged his palm along his length, replaying memories of the night before.
But his T-shirt collar felt like it was choking him, so he sat up and stripped it off, tossing it aside before he lay down again. He idly touched himself through his clothes, toying with the head of his dick.
God, was Leif ever gonna come back? Tanner was getting bored here. Not that jerking off was ever boring … but it would be better with Leif here.
Tanner wondered if Leif would be up for some good old-fashioned frotting. It was kinda underrated, honestly. It would be super fucking hot to rub his cock all over Leif’s tight abs as they made out.
Ooh, and did Leif like to get fucked? Tanner had no idea if he was vers or strictly a top.
Just thinking about fucking him made Tanner’s cock ache, trapped beneath the fabric of his clothing, so he eased down the zipper, then slid his hand under his underwear before shoving both down to midthigh.
There, that was better.
With a happy sigh, Tanner shimmied to get more comfortable, closed his eyes, and let himself enjoy the moment.
Today, the Nordic Team had held meetings, workouts, a hard practice, recovery, more meetings, and finally a very late team dinner, so Leif was tired and looking forward to sleep by the time he reached his hotel room and dug out his key card.
He still couldn’t figure out where his spare had ended up.
He’d searched high and low for it this morning before he had to leave for breakfast and had nearly missed the bus to the practice facility in the process. He’d even checked under the desk.
He should probably go downstairs and ask someone at the front desk to deactivate it and make him a new one, but he was exhausted and the thought of taking a nice hot shower before bed was more tempting, so he waved his key card to be let into his room.
Strange though, he thought with a frown as he stepped inside. Surely the card hadn’t disappeared into thin air? How could he have lost it? That was totally out of character for him.
When the door closed behind him, Leif blinked, confused. Why were the lights on in his room? He’d shut them off when he’d left for dinner. Perhaps someone from housekeeping had come in to tidy up?
Though that was odd too, since his bed had already been made and fresh towels had been laid out long before he’d come back to change for dinner. Maybe the lights were on a timer or something?
But when Leif stepped farther into the room, he yelped at the sight of a half-naked man on his bed. A half-naked man who was … masturbating?
“The fuck?” Leif whispered, his heart racing as he glanced around, desperately wishing he had a hockey stick to swing at him if this went sideways.
How had the guy gotten in here? What kind of person broke into a hotel room to jerk off?
Leif cleared his throat and tried to sound threatening as he barked, “Hey! Who are you? What are you doing here?”
The guy lifted his head and smiled. “Oh, hey, Leif. You’re back.”
“Tanner?” Leif sputtered. “What the fuck are you doing?”
“Oh, just waiting for you,” Tanner said, still stroking, acting like it was totally normal for him to be in Leif’s room with his hand on his dick.
The pieces came together quickly in Leif’s head and fury rose in him so hot and fast it almost choked him. “Did you seriously steal my key card last night so you could break into my room and ‘surprise’ me?” he snapped.
“What?” Tanner’s eyes widened as he sat up, his hand falling away from his cock. “No! Of course not.”
“Then what. Are. You. Doing. In. Here?” Leif enunciated each word so Tanner couldn’t claim he didn’t understand.
“Oh, okay, well technically I did steal your key card,” Tanner said hastily. “But it was an accident.”
“How could it possibly be an accident?” Leif asked, yanking off his scarf and unbuttoning his jacket. He was boiling inside and the cashmere and wool didn’t help.
“Umm, well I’m not one-hundred-percent sure but I have a theory. You know when I grabbed my clothes off the dresser and everything fell on the floor?”
“Yes.” Leif set his scarf and jacket on the end of the bed and crossed his arms over his chest. “And?”