Chapter 2
Two
Caleb Lancaster wasn’t used to flirting with somebody while he was at a work event.
And this wasn’t just any work event. This was the fucking Olympics in South Korea.
While it seemed super safe to wander, he wasn’t sure how wise it was to go out and eat on the economy when he had so much training to do.
If he got a stomach upset from eating some crazy food, it was going to affect his performance in a few days.
But he didn’t want to go eat dinner with Hawk Montineau in the dining halls.
He wanted to go someplace where they could have a quiet, intimate little meal and where he could suss out whether he really thought Montineau was jonesing on him like he was on Hawk, or whether it was his imagination. Wishful thinking.
Caleb thought Hawk was like a jungle gym he wanted to climb on and do all sorts of athletic activities on. He was six-two of solid muscle, probably weighed in at two hundred and twenty-five pounds. And his butt, oh my God, his ass. Caleb just couldn’t even. Hockey butt was real.
And while an Olympics hookup was not in his plans for this year because he had intended to be all serious, it was something he could totally get behind now. Even if they just had sex a couple of times before he had to go start his prelim events, he would be perfectly happy.
So he waited in the courtyard at the dorms and tried not to pace. He should have given Hawk his phone number, but that had seemed too much like a planned hookup, like exchanging numbers so early in an acquaintance.
He took a deep, deep breath and wiped his hands on his soft fleece team jacket. He hadn’t put his gloves on yet, because the courtyard had patio heaters, and he was still nice and warm despite the dropping temp.
“Cal, man!” One of the slopestyle guys, Jamie Meyer, clapped him on the back. “Want to go have dinner?”
“Nah, thanks, bruh. I’m waiting on someone.”
“Jonesy? He can come too.”
Travis Jones was Caleb’s roommate on this trip, and he was a bazillion years older than him. Like maybe thirty-five.
“No.”
“Hermann?”
“No. Not a boarder.”
Jamie tilted his head. “Then who?”
“A hockey guy. I met him this morning, and I really liked talking to him.”
Jamie knew which way he swung, so that was cool to say to him.
“Aren’t those guys all, like, as old as Jonesy?”
“No!” He shook his head vehemently. “I looked him up. He’s twenty-three or four, maybe? Like three years older than me.”
“Oh. That’s less gross.” Jamie winked. “If you need an extraction, though, text me.”
He stared Jamie down. “I can’t imagine a scenario in which I’d want to get away from this guy.”
“That’s because you’re a skank.” Jamie waved a hand. “Hey, I have a single right now. My roomie doesn’t come in until after Opening Ceremonies. Guy from France. You want to take my room tonight in case you get lucky?”
“Fuck, yeah.” He dug out his key card. “Tower two. Room 2112.”
“Cool. I’m in three. It’s on the card pocket.”
“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”
“Yeah, tell that to Jonesy when he has to listen to me snore. Later.”
Jamie left just in time, because as soon as he walked away, Caleb glanced up and saw Hawk striding toward him.
“Hey, how you hanging?” God, Hawk looked good in his not-team-kit gear.
He was wearing a decent pair of shoes that seemed like they had good treads in case there was bad weather out there.
A pair of nice slacks. Caleb couldn’t tell what kind of shirt Hawk was wearing because he did have a coat pulled on over it, but damn, that coat made his shoulders appear impossibly broad.
“Good. You still want to go have food?” Hawk’s smile held a hint of nerves.
“God, yes.” He grinned, nudging Hawk with his elbow when he got in range. “I even looked up a couple of places. You do red meat?”
“Yeah.” Hawk walked along beside him, arm almost pressed to his.
“There’s like this steakhouse kind of place that does beef and a few other things. The owner is really nice, apparently, and he speaks some English, so…”
“It sounds like a great plan.” Hawk’s gray eyes gleamed with good humor, and his lips curved in a stunning smile.
Caleb kind of wanted to lick it—the smile, not the eyes.
God, he grossed himself out sometimes.
They chatted about the Olympic village, food, and not the weather while they walked, and the restaurant he’d wanted was full but not bursting, which he figured was a good thing. They still had a week before Opening Ceremonies, though, so the city hadn’t been completely overrun yet.
The smell of sizzling meat and spices filled the air when they sat, making his mouth water.
“American?” A middle-aged man with a kind smile came to stand by their table. “Canadian?”
“American,” Hawk murmured.
“You play what sport?”
They shared an amused glance. Even without their team stuff, they were clearly conspicuous. “Hockey.”
“Snowboarding.”
“Ah, welcome. I will explain the menu when you are ready. You like drinks?”
Ten minutes later they had drinks and a food order and were staring at each other over the small table. He got the feeling Hawk felt a bit too enclosed, because his shoulders were hunched a little, his hands in his lap.
Caleb leaned forward, staring into Hawk’s eyes. “Are you okay?”
“I am.” Hawk smiled, which lit up that lean, sharp-cheeked face. “This is nice.”
“Yeah? You were looking a little panicky.”
Hawk snorted, a sound that had Caleb laughing along. “I was thinking how now I had to think of clever shit to say, and I have to tell you, this little chair makes me feel like a hulking mammoth.”
“You do seem to be having trouble containing everything.” Caleb studied Hawk carefully, noting every detail of that hard body encased in a soft, silvery gray pullover that looked like it might be cashmere.
It made Hawk’s eyes really pop, and it outlined those fucking amazing pecs in a way that was damn near indecent.
“You don’t have to be clever, Hawk.” Caleb wanted the guy to be comfortable, to be himself. “No small talk, remember? Hell, we can play twenty questions or never have I ever if we get bored or awkward.”
Hawk blinked at him, and Caleb would swear his cheeks went pink. “I suck at those games. I’ve mostly done hockey since I was like, twelve.”
“Yeah, but I’m inventive.” Caleb thought that trace of a blush was freaking adorable, especially on such a big, tough-looking guy. “I have been, uh, free-range for a long time.”
“I like that. ‘Free range’…” Hawk studied him in return, that gray gaze bright and searching. “So give me the capsule history of Caleb Lancaster.”
“Oh, okay.” That was kind of cool. He pondered what the pertinent points would be that were not in like, his X Games profile. “I was born and raised in Colorado. Mom and Dad weren’t athletic, but her brother was a downhiller, so I was literally on the slopes when I started walking.”
“That’s so cool. I bet you wiped out a lot.”
“Oh, my God. So much.” He waved a hand. “I sucked at taking tests so bad that by the time I was in third grade, I was homeschooled. But that gave me a lot of time to travel with them and to board. My uncle was so cool, but my mom is like a dance mom, kinda.”
“That’s wild. Seriously.” Hawk was just smiling, nodding, really seeming invested. That was rad too, because so much of his life was sound bites and video clips that were two minutes or shorter.
“Yeah. So I was competing by then, too, and I was really good at it. But it made me socially awkward, I guess.”
“I get that. I never had to work to make friends because I was on teams, you know?”
“Yeah. But I love traveling, and I’ve gotten to do so much of that…” He chewed his lower lip. “I love weird world music, Mexican food, fresh powder, surfing in the summer, and audiobooks about natural disasters.”
That had Hawk tilting his head. “Like hurricanes or—”
“No, like freak storms on Mount Everest that strand climbers, or that weird blizzard in Russia that killed all those hikers.”
“That’s not morbid.” Hawk had leaned back while he talked, his whole body relaxing, his muscles unclenching.
“Nope,” Caleb agreed cheerfully. “It’s just a thing. Your turn.”
“Oh.” Hawk didn’t look freaked-out so much as blank. “Uh, my mom is from Maine. My dad is from Montreal. I grew up bouncing back and forth between the two places. I was in skates by three, on a team by five.”
“You were like, a world junior champ, right?”
“Yeah. As soon as it was obvious that I was really good at it, hockey was my life. I was homeschooled too.”
“See? Things in common.”
“Yeah.” Hawk paused, eyes moving as if he were scanning his memory. “So, yeah. I travel a lot. I like pretty much any music but opera, though I work out to EDM so I don’t have to worry about words distracting me. I love Thai food, poutine, and I have a sweet tooth as long as it’s not chocolate.”
Caleb put a hand over his heart. “No chocolate!”
“It coats my mouth. It’s just eh.”
“Oh, man.” He shook his head. “That’s unnatural.”
“I have been reliably informed before.” Hawk’s grin was so damn hot. Unguarded and happy. “I watch a lot of movies on planes, but I can’t do horror, and I read a lot. Mostly non-fiction. Biographies and history. When I do fiction, I like epics, you know? Big series I can sink my teeth into.”
“That shreds.” Caleb really liked this guy, which was interesting from an academic sort of standpoint, because a lot of people left him cold. Or at least neutral.
Their food came, and they laughed through chopsticks clumsiness and grilling at the table. The side dishes were super simple, just some greens and some shaved something he thought might be pickled daikon, along with a wee bowl of rice.
“This is amazing.” Hawk picked up another piece of grilled beef and added a tiny bit of salt before popping it into his mouth.
“It really is.” Caleb took a deep breath and glanced around. “So, uh, I should also include in the capsule description that I’m gay.”
A huge breath escaped Hawk as he laughed. “Thank God.”
“I don’t advertise it, you know, but I’m out to my family and friends and all.”
“Good. It sucks to keep that in.” Hawk’s shoulders and chest rose and fell with a deep breath. “I’m out to my team and home. Some of the guys here. My family.”
“So.” Caleb raised an eyebrow as he sat back, patting his belly, which was full of beef. Not to the meat sweat point, but close.
“So?” Hawk raised one right back.
“In the interest of no small talk, I have a friend who’s in a single room until after opening. He said he’d bunk with Jonesy tonight so I could have his room. If the date went well.”
Hawk’s eyes darkened, and his lips parted. “I’d say it’s going well.”
“See, this is my thinking too.” Caleb’s heart started to thud in his chest. “So, want to go back to my temporary place and get busy?”
“Yes.”
They stared at each other for long moments. Then they stood as one person and waved down someone to bring the bill.
Caleb wasn’t about to waste any time he could be using to explore this man’s immense, amazing body.
No matter how good the food was.